Life Style Business

Joining us today on Life Style Business was Stephanie Copeland; a Partner at Four Points Funding LLC, which is actively raising and deploying diversified Opportunity Zone funds across Colorado's emerging communities. She is also the CEO of The Governance Project, which seeks to accelerate public policy solutions at the state and local level.

Stephanie believes in using Opportunity Zones to spur growth in underserved communities, but financial investment isn’t enough. During this episode, she laid out the “three pillars” necessary to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Vibrant and attractive communities need basic infrastructure, such as access to water and the internet, essential amenities, such as education and healthcare, and social capital, such as art museums and restaurants. These pillars provide the foundation for a successful, self-perpetuating entrepreneurial ecosystem.

However, convincing ultra-rich PE and VC investors to commit capital toward this model is a challenge as they are used to safer, more conventional investments that still yield significant returns. Why would they change strategies when the current system works so effectively for them? Well, in Stephanie Copeland’s own words, “It has to be an us system, not a me system.”

In her vision, the ultra-wealthy will trust intermediaries to perform due diligence in underserved communities and invest on their behalf because the intermediaries will be familiar with the region where they operate. This process would fundamentally change how creators fund their projects and provide opportunities for entrepreneurs to create transformative products and services that create value.

As a result, these communities will see rises in income that translate into generational wealth, which will help our country address socioeconomic inequalities The initial VC and PE investors will share in this growth, which should outpace the market because this new system will tap into even more potential and ingenuity. Therefore, Stephanie stresses how this approach is not only ideal for budding creators, but also desirable for investors craving competitive returns.

Marc Morial, the President and CEO of the National Urban League joined us on Life Style Business on #LPTV the day after he testified before congress on the Justice in Policing Act of 2020.

Marc was in a reflective mood after walking through Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington DC the previous evening. The NUL's mission is "to help African-Americans and others in underserved communities achieve their highest true social parity, economic self-reliance, power and civil rights." We were grateful to have him join us with as the media spotlight is shining on the importance of the mission of the organization he leads.

This needs to be the "beginning of a movement, not just a moment," he remarked, and this stuck with me throughout the interview. The civil rights movement is as old as America herself, but perhaps we are opening a new chapter that will lead to real change, not just a media moment.

We focused the conversation on the need for economic transformation for the African-American community, in Marc's words, helping people access "the system."

"During a crisis we can go big."

We talked about the turning the crisis into opportunity, not simply settle back into an economy running "on the fumes of 20th century ideas." There is a willingness to create new programs to drive economic equity for African-Americans, and Marc emphasized the need to go big and imagine new programs. We have the capacity to move quickly we are in crisis, we've proved that with the SBA PPP loan program. Could we create a 1% loan program to provide access to capital to business owners of color?

We also discussed privilege. It doesn't have to mean being born with a silver spoon in your mouth to have opportunity that many African Americans have not. Two critical moments in life where privilege helps a person create generational wealth happen more frequently for white families.

Parents who are able to help you pay for college

Parents who are able to help you with a downpayment on a first house.

These two moments are ways that generational wealth is passed down to give children a head start on building economic security for their families. Wouldn't it be great if all Americans could afford this.

As Marc reflected, there is an "appetite for new ideas" right now. We've always believed that entrepreneurship is the way to create agency and wealth in your life. We're eager to work with the Urban League to bring this model to new cities.

We very much enjoyed the conversation and look forward to working together to make sure this is a movement, not just a moment.

Marc Morial is a former Mayor of New Orleans, President of the United States Conference of Mayors and Louisiana State Senator. He is known as a giant in American political and civic leadership circles.

As president and CEO of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Urban_League (National Urban League), Marc has led the nation’s largest historic civil rights and urban advocacy organization since 2003. He’s here today to talk with us about the work he’s doing to empower black and brown communities in the face of today’s pressing issues around justice, reform, equity and protection of rights.

We hosted a conversation on this episode of Life Style Business with Mitch Landrieu, the former Mayor of New Orleans and the president of the https://www.unumfund.org/ (E Pluribus Unum), an initiative he founded to fulfill America’s promise of justice and opportunity for all by breaking down the barriers that divide us by race and class. He published a NYTimes editorial the day before our interview called https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/opinion/george-floyd-protest-racism.html (“The Price We Have Paid for Not Confronting Racism.”)

The interview was an excellent primer, in particular for white Americans, to the national conversation that we are currently having around race in the wake of the protests against police brutality catalyzed by the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

We know well with our work at Launch Pad that, in Mayor Landrieu’s words “talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not.” What is worth digging deeper to understand are the institutional constructs that have held back the progress of black Americans and people of color since the time of slavery. From redlining to gerrymandering to the militarization of police, structural racism is a reality in our country’s political, economic, health, and criminal justice systems.

Mayor Landrieu helped Anne and I prepare for the conversation that several of our black Launch Pad members encouraged us to have earlier in the day as we explored how we could use our voice productively and where we can start.

First a conversation with self

Then a conversation with family

Then a conversation with other white people

Every conversation we have had over the past weeks has helped us be a bit better and become more aware of these structural prejudices in our society. I’m encouraged by how open the members of the Launch Pad community have been about their desire for these convenings and hope that we can help white Americans have an honest and open conversation about whether we are willing to continue to tacitly accept these injustices.

This isn’t simply about diversity on a panel at a tech conference, we need to have a heart-to-heart on where our values truly lie.

These conversations are difficult, and its easy when you are in a position of privilege to start from a defensive stance, but as Mayor Landrieu reminded us “Nobody is blaming you for slavery.”

We may feel like we are seeking a return to normalcy, but “normal” is not the same for everyone. He reminds us that many black Americans experience isn’t what they seek a return to… “my normal was not good.”

Reflecting on his conversation with Kareem Abdul Jabbar the day before, Mayor Landrieu shared the sentiment that “racism is like dust in the air” when you turn on the lights you see it’s everywhere.

Consider this, as a Launch Pad member challenged us to reflect upon:

What if there had been no video of the killing of George Floyd?

The Black Lives Matter protests have turned on the lights in this country, and we are seeing the structural inequities that have existed for hundreds of years.

“This is our reality.”

It’s time for that to change.

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Mitch Landrieu was the 61st Mayor of New Orleans taking office as the city was still recovering from Hurricane Katrina and in the midst of the BP Oil Spill. Under his leadership, New Orleans is widely recognized as one of the nations greatest comeback stories.

He’s spent his life dedicated to public service winning recognition for his governing abilities and gaining national prominence for his powerful decision to take down four Confederate monuments in New Orleans, which also earned him the prestigious John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.

He is the founder and president of the https://www.unumfund.org/ (E Pluribus Unum) fund with focus on the issues of race, equity, economic opportunity and violence and the author of https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Statues-Southerner-Confronts-History/dp/0525559442 (In the Shadow of Statues,

It’s clear that COVID-19 will forever alter the way we view cities. On Tuesday’s episode of Life Style Business,https://www.linkedin.com/in/brucekatz1/ ( Bruce Katz) and an all-star team from Louisville joined us to discuss urban development and the opportunity we have now to rethink how we develop Main Streets in a more inclusive way.

Bruce Katz, Director of the Nowak Metro Finance Lab at Drexel University and co-founder of https://www.thenewlocalism.com/ (New Localism Advisors), promotes inclusive and sustainable growth of cities in all his work. Bruce shared his thoughts on how now is the time to rebuild cities with a greater focus on inclusive solutions. He shared that the “smartest people in the room are local” - and we should listen to those who know their cities best, while also fostering “a new interplay” between bottom-up and government initiatives.

Bruce also reflected on the potential of https://www.thenewlocalism.com/newsletter/needed-main-street-regenerators/ (Main Street Regenerators) that can help rebuild the economy of any downtown, whether urban or rural. He conveyed that the combination of local and government collaboration will create both “product innovation and institutional transformation” with the hopes of this crisis resulting in a more equitable, civic-minded society.

We were then joined by community builder https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillholland/ (Gill Holland), in addition to https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariah-gratz-067b223/ (Mariah Gratz) and https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashlyn-ackerman-134a8612/ (Ashlyn Ackerman) from http://weylandventures.com/ (Weyland Ventures), who are all leaders working on redeveloping the Portland neighborhood of Louisville. They shared the importance of historic preservation, green space, and “work-live-play” developments, especially in a COVID-19 world. Portland is the midst of a $35M project that will develop 22 acres in the neighborhood, and projects including a sculpture garden have continued through this shutdown period.

Key Takeaways from Tuesday’s Episode:

We are at an important moment where we can create “replicable, actionable, scalable” strategies that will reinvigorate Main Streets across the country, which will be essential to the rebuilding efforts.

Making sure there is room for bottom-up solutions will help us rebuild cities that are stronger than before.

We will need to be intentional about community-building as evidenced by the success of places like Louisville, as community gatherings will remain an important part of neighborhood life, even in a new way.

https://www.youtube.com/c/LaunchPadlptv (Life Style Business) is every Tuesday and Thursday at 12pm PT/ 2pm CT / 3pm ET via https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ZidpquY3Ra-IBZ4_ie8WTg (Launch Pad TV). Join us twice weekly for virtual community building and knowledge sharing with the Launch Pad team and special guests! Subscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/LaunchPadlptv (HERE).

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If you have comments or suggestions for topics you’d like to see covered or if you’d like to be a guest on the show, send us at email at [email protected].