CEO Today USA Awards

- M I S S I S S I P P I - 10 Tell us about the beginnings of your career. What brought you to the insurance sector? For me, it was never about any particular sector. It was about building an organization which will be able to bless those who need it the most. Before starting my company, I was a supervisor at the local juvenile detention center. One day, I stood in for the bailiff, and I watched two hearings that day. For the first hearing, a young black teen appeared before the court for tussling on the football field with an opposing team member. The judge confined the young black teen to the juvenile detention center because he was a foster child and he had no other place to go. The same day, another teen – a young white male – appeared before the judge for a hit-and-run and possession of drugs. The young white male happened to be the grandson of a wealthy white business owner. The young white male was released without any recourse. It was at that moment that I realized the difference between position and power. Time and time again, the black teens who came through those courtrooms were at a disadvantage because they had no resources. Thus, I set out to build wealth for myself and my family so I can be a resource for people in need. What have been some of the main challenges you’ve faced throughout your career? One of the first things I learned as a new entrepreneur, was that my social network – or lack thereof – was the biggest hurdle. In business, your social network can not only prevent you from getting into many doors but not having those deep business connections can prevent you from even knowing what doors exist. For months on end, I would attend functions and brazenly introduce myself to people with whom I wanted to work – even though I had no ties to anyone in the industries I ventured into. The next biggest challenge was not having enough access to capital at the beginning. Often, even if I purchased tickets to business functions, I wouldn’t even have the resources to either attend the full conference or stay overnight in any hotels. These alone are challenges many new business owners face – but as a black business owner, these issues were exacerbated. Thanks to the Black Lives Matter movement, the byproducts of systemic racism have finally been brought to the forefront, but black Americans have been dealing with this for centuries. So, the final hurdle I had to overcome and am still trying to overcome was my race and debunking the negative stereotypes about black men in business. What do you think are your biggest achievements? My biggest achievement is surviving the “perfect storm” in 2017. This particular year, in my family companies, I employed over 300 staff members. Everything that could go wrong in my company did. I spent most of the year struggling to keep all of my staff on payroll while also fighting for new contracts, and it seemed we were about to close the doors every single day. That’s when I found inspiration in Mohammad Ali’s fight with George Forman. He was the underdog and he held on until his round came. And that’s what J5 did. We stood strong, we kept our stance even when our backs were against the ropes, and we came out on top. I’ll never forget what surviving that year meant to me, my team, and all the families we serve. How has the current COVID-19 crisis affected your operations? At the height of the pandemic, many of our projects were brought to a screeching halt and we lost revenue. Perhaps most crippling was our ability to continue business development efforts by meeting business partners and potential clients. Even so, we were fortunate to be in a position where we kept all of our staff on payroll. Before knowing about government bailouts or paycheck protection programs, I even sent a video message to all of our staff letting them know that I would not fire a single staff member and promised that we would weather the storm together. We navigated these challenges by spending the time reconnecting with business leaders and training our team to meet the challenges COVID-19 brought. What are your goals for the future? My goal for the future is to grow J5 Solutions into a multi- national conglomerate with the focus of building black wealth and breaking cycles of poverty by investing in black businesses and communities. Tell us a bit about this award and what it means to you. Receiving this award means that some young black man or a blackwomanwho is attempting to break a generation of poverty can read about me and understand this: no matter how high the mountain might seem, they can get to the top if they’re willing to work hard and pay the price. If I can make it, anyone can.