4 Successful Men Share How They Are Influenced By Black Women

Richelieu Dennis – CEO of beauty manufacturer Sundial Brands. He is also the new owner of Essence Magazine after he acquired the outlet from Time Inc.

My grandmother was a single mother. My mother’s a single mother, and I have four daughters. I’ve experienced firsthand the challenges of what it is to be a single mother. And many of those challenges are challenges that, if we all just got together and worked together and thought about it together, we could help solve.

There’s no need for women and moms to go through this world alone without the help and the support from the businesses that do business in our communities and that generate success from the women in our community. That should not be happening. That’s why it’s been our mission to keep doing something about it for the past 27 years.

Also, we’ve grown and have continued to invest in our community with our $100 million New Voices Fund that we just announced. The New Voices Fund is for women of color and focused on investing in women of color who own businesses and providing them the capital, resources, and access that we didn’t have so that we’re able to create more economic sustainability in our community for women.

For me, that’s a tremendous accomplishment, to have built a business that can deliver that type of a return back into my community.

Vid Lamonte’ Buggs Jr. – author, speaker, founder and owner of both VLB/VBJ Enterprises, LLC and 4-U-Nique, LLC.

Throughout my early years of school I had a reading disability and I had no interest in reading. Mrs. Stokes, my fourth grade teacher, worked with me to improve my reading. She led me to become interested in reading by using my love for turtles and suggesting I try reading “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing” by Judy Blume. I gave it a try and I fell in love with reading. Thus bringing us to my eighth grade teacher Mrs. Williams. Mrs. Williams helped me understand that I didn’t have to downplay my intelligence to be part of any crowd. She stressed if I ever felt that I didn’t fit in I should express my feelings through writing.

My mom influenced me to prove those who doubted me wrong. It started with a meeting she had with the guidance counselor who I had at the time, who didn’t think I belonged in the advanced classes. My mom came home and told me she fought for me to be in those classes because she knew I belonged in them. She told me to prove anyone whoever doubt my ability to succeed wrong. I have been doing this every since.

My sister Tanesha was the person who first told me I had a future in writing when I was a senior in high school. I wouldn’t have had the confidence to share my writings with the world if it wasn’t for her. My younger sister Victoria has always supported anything I have been involved in. She is actually the person who sparked the idea of starting my own publishing company.

You see without any of these great women, I wouldn’t have found one of my God giving purposes for my life. I wouldn’t have the courage to speak in front of others, I wouldn’t be an author, or an entrepreneur. They gave me courage when others doubted me and in truth I doubted myself.

For any additional information, please visit vidbuggs.com.

Claude Brooks – Former Black Hollywood actor turned entrepreneur.

Hip Hop Harry creator Claude Brooks was raised by a single mother that instilled a strong sense of moral character in him, which he carries over into the character of Hip Hop Harry.

Brooks, who has had a very successful acting career that started with The Wiz and concluded with Bowfinger, attributes his success in both the worlds of acting and producing to the values his mother placed in him. His aim is to spread these same ideals of respect, civility, and virtue to the youth via the vehicle of Hip Hop Harry, so that they can have the same success in all aspects of their lives.

Hip Hop Harry is an Emmy nominated music & dance based live action program designed to entertain, educate and inform children in the 4 to 10 year old age group. The major entertainment and educational areas that form from the curriculum by Dr. Gordon Berry include experiences and activities related to: (a) social / emotional skills, (b) cognitive / educational skills, (c) physical / health skills and (d) artistic / creative skills.

Hip Hop Harry has received multiple awards, such as, a Daytime Emmy Nomination for “Outstanding Preschool Series”, Two Parents’ Choice Award seals of Approval and The Telly Award.

Learn more at HipHopHarry.com.

Tom Ingrassia – Founder & President, The MotivAct Group / Tom Ingrassia Productions. Author of the award winning One Door Closes: Overcoming Adversity By Following Your Dreams (soon to be a feature documentary film), and the award winning Reflections Of A Love Supreme: Motown Through The Eyes Of Fans.

Hard as it may seem to believe, the Black woman who has influenced me, mentored me, and helped me to believe in myself and my dreams is Mary Wilson of The Supremes.

In 1964, at age 11, I fell in love with The Supremes when I saw them of the Ed Sullivan Show. I said to my mother that night, “I’m gonna meet them someday!” Yeah, right…8 years later, as a 19-year old college student, I met Mary Wilson when I interviewed her for a project. Over the years, we formed a warm friendship. She started to mentor me, asked for my help on some projects and, in 2001, asked me to become the creative director of her budding merchandising business. I was assistant dean at a university business school at he time. I left my job the next day–this was my dream come true. I worked for Mary Wilson for 5 years–and during that time, she taught me to believe in myself and my dreams. She told me, “I know there are even bigger things in your future. Follow your heart, dreams DO come true.”

Today, I run a successful motivational speaking business using the experiences I had with Mary Wilson as the foundation. I have a successful radio show, The Motown Jukebox, on WCUW 91.3FM in Worcester, MA, and have been named Best Radio Personality twice in regional media polls. I have authored 2 award-winning books, one of which is currently being made into a documentary film. And it all started with the images I saw on my TV screen and the Black woman who recognized my true potential. You never know where you will find your inspiration.

Learn more motivactgroup.com / ingrassiaproductions.com.