Trell Thomas can't cook. He'll tell you that himself. And yet he built one of the most coveted invitations in the country off a tradition he learned at his mother's Sunday dinner table in a small South Carolina town most people have never heard of.
Before there was a White House South Lawn, there was that kitchen table. In this episode of Closet Therapy, Shaniece Jones sits down with Trell Thomas, the strategist, media expert, and cultural curator behind The Black Excellence Brunch, to talk about what nobody tells you about building a business with no money, no sponsors, and no platform.
Trell didn't start with backing or permission. He started with a tradition and a conviction that Black excellence deserved its own room. Seven years, zero handouts, and one relentless vision later, that room became Disney, Nike, Barclays, AT&T, and an invitation from the President of the United States.
This conversation isn't a highlight reel. It's a real look at what gets sacrificed in the years nobody's watching, the brands and rooms that said no before Disney and Nike said yes, how to keep building when the doors keep closing, and why the room you create can outgrow the one you were originally trying to get into.
They also get into identity, the cost of building something this visible, what changes (and what doesn't) when the President of the United States is thanking you by name, and why he still measures success the same way he did when it was just twenty people in his living room: did everyone feel seen.
This one isn't about the resume. It's for anyone building a business right now and wondering if it's worth it before anyone else can see what you see.
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