by Lamar and Ronnie Tyler have accomplished the work so Black entrepreneurs can pull as much as the winner’s desk forward of the sport.
As founders of Tyler New Media and Traffic Sales and Profit (TSP), the two-time Inc. 5000 energy couple are change brokers who are breaking chains by educating Black entrepreneurs on methods to create well-engineered programs and methods to extend their income and construct their burgeoning manufacturers.
A ardour fuels the Tylers to alter the financial panorama of the Black group by aiding entrepreneurs who need to safe the bag with a blueprint to Black wealth. Together, they are basically creating “New Black History” by closing the wealth hole by way of entrepreneurship.
“I inform my staff on a regular basis, we are actually within the enterprise of constructing and producing wealth for individuals by way of companies,” Lamar instructed BLACK ENTERPRISE.
Through their work, the Atlanta energy duo is disrupting and dismantling systemic limitations Black communities face by serving to entrepreneurs improve their odds of economic wellness.
Traffic Sales and Profit has helped greater than 20,000 Black-owned companies earn collectively $100 million in income yearly, 12 months over 12 months.
Additionally, this identical group has had 10 organizations on the Inc. 5000 record during the last 3 years; Tyler New Media, SheDavi, EFS Group, Client Attraction University, Sassy Jones, Travel Divas, Izzy & Liv, CurlMix, Curl Kit and Miller Media Group.
TSP is a supportive ecosystem for purpose-driven African American enterprise house owners locked out of alternatives to begin or develop their companies due to financial disadvantages, lack of entry, capital, know-how, or for principally being Black. And sure, that’s nonetheless a factor.
“According to a McKinsey report, “individuals in focus teams mentioned that they really feel that their race—and typically age and gender—makes mortgage officers hesitant to lend to them.”
Biases nonetheless exist, particularly within the banking business, and racial funding gaps are elementary.
According to NerdWallet, “whereas 82.1% of white enterprise house owners are authorised by on-line lenders, each Black and Hispanic enterprise house owners nonetheless path in approval charges, coming in at 67.2% and 71.5%, respectively.”
“Research reveals that white-owned startups have a median of $18,500 in outdoors fairness on the founding, in comparison with simply $500 for Black-owned startups.” the report continues.
And on the subject of funding African American-led small companies, the McKinsey report contends that Black entrepreneurs are denied small business loans yearly or credit score refused at an alarming price. In comparability, their white counterparts are extra more likely to obtain full funding for his or her enterprises.
Meanwhile, Black girls are the fastest-growing entrepreneurs in the United States. Yet, by some means in 2023 are nonetheless “probably the most disrespected… unprotected and most uncared for particular person in America,” as Malcolm X acknowledged again in 1962.
And information reveals that 8 out of 10 Black-owned companies fail within the first 18 months of opening attributable to lack of knowledge, which additional lends credence to the truth that Black enterprise house owners want help to scale and develop.
The McKinsey report additionally makes clear: “Business networks can help Black entrepreneurs, however Black entrepreneurs are much less more likely to know and listen to about related networks that may assist help and promote their companies.”
Where one door closes, the Tylers step into the room and open up a floodgate of alternatives for Black entrepreneurs.
In Lamar’s phrases, “We Are those we’ve been ready for!”
So with a network of over 42,000 members, the TSP group boasts house owners of every little thing from brick-and-mortar shops to e-commerce manufacturers to service and product-based companies.
Through their in depth community, the TSP group led by the Tylers have banded collectively to disband racist enterprise tradition by making a group. Got a enterprise query? Community members are inspired to ask away and, in return, will most positively obtain an avalanche of responses from different members very happy to have their brains picked.
“To construct an actual sustainable enterprise, you want a staff, you want different individuals, you want programs, you want processes,” Lamar mentioned.
And the outcome? In 2020 through the pandemic, the TSP Mastermind, which teaches Black entrepreneurs the blueprint for including zeros and commas to their backside line, collectively generated over $49 million in income, with their most high-performing numbers being earned throughout COVID months, Lamar mentioned.
“We’re not ready for a change in coverage, a change in authorities, nor a change in society to avoid wasting us,” Lamar quipped.
Especially when 1,100 personal U.S. companies that pledged an estimated whole of $200 billion to Black fairness efforts after George Floyd’s homicide in 2020 are nonetheless largely unfulfilled, in response to a 2020 McKinsey & Company report.
Lamar and Ronnie have constructed a desk the place Black entrepreneurs are invited to have a seat, break bread and construct wealth.
And the sense of group and uniqueness of the TSP group extends to the TSP convention.
A Conference Like No Other
If you’ve by no means been to 1, get able to Milly-rock on this explicit block as a result of that is the group “barbecue” you’d need to be invited to.
Imagine this: the TSP convention is alive with dozens of entrepreneurs jamming to Frankie Beverly & Maze or swag browsing within the lodge convention corridors whereas networking and constructing enterprise relationships.
Yes, entrepreneurs are studying about funding assets, social media methods, passive revenue, and investments, and sure, it’s a enterprise convention — sans the stuffy fits.
It’s a brand new enterprise surroundings, bustling with vitality and the place the likes of Janice Bryant Howroyd, the primary African American lady to function an organization that generated greater than $1 billion in annual income, graced the stage at one convention in Atlanta, sharing her secrets and techniques to financial success.
On one other event, legendary 5x NBA champion and ground-breaking entrepreneur Earvin “Magic” Johnson, who’s estimated to be worth $600 million, dropped jewels because the keynote speaker of the TSP LIVE 2022 June convention.
Yet, even with all these heavy hitters within the room, the Tylers nonetheless must battle the concept that Black people should present up a sure means to be acknowledged or revered.
Case in level: throughout one explicit TSP convention, a gaggle of Black entrepreneurs within the Mastermind group with a collective value of $100 million determined to hit Beyonce’s “Cuff It” problem and rocked the viral dance that finally made their video go viral.
In return, they have been met with a slew of on-line hate, from individuals calling it a “pyramid scheme” to 1 commenter saying, “It could be good in the event that they have been all sitting nonetheless so they might truly be taken significantly.”
It’s the character of the beast that Lamar and Ronnie take care of when making an attempt to persuade the lots that they are not doing something nefarious. And traditionally, it’s been what Black people have needed to battle after being introduced kicking and screaming to this land in 1619 and instructed methods to look, stroll, discuss, and assimilate to be “accepted” into European tradition.
But Lamar and Ronnie are not making an attempt to slot in. Their platform and their worthwhile paper path show they stand out.
The Tylers leverage probably the most influential entrepreneurs within the nation – if not the world – to grace their stage and communicate at their TSP conferences, thus giving Black entrepreneurs not solely a seat on the desk but in addition a ticket on the midnight prepare to financial progress in Atlanta — the unofficial Black mecca, and the late Martin Luther King Jr.’s house base.
Why Atlanta? Black-owned companies accounted for about 28% of all companies in Washington, DC, the very best ratio within the nation. But pulling up second is the state of Georgia, the place 20% of companies are Black-owned, BlackBusiness.com reports.
It’s simple. Lamar and Ronnie are the pied pipers of serving to Black individuals get their paper.
Gabby Goodwin, CEO of Confidence and Inventor of GaBBY Bows, joined Traffic, Sales and Profit in 2015 and earned six figures by sixth grade due to Lamar and Ronnie.
“People could know me because the #sixfiguresbysixthgrade kidpreneur, however there isn’t a six figures with out Mr. Lamar and Mrs. Ronnie,” 16-year-old Goodwin solely instructed BLACK ENTERPRISE.
“Mr. Lamar took me and my mother on as one in all his first and few one-on-one enterprise teaching shoppers once I was simply eight years outdated. My firm’s development and my private development as an entrepreneur are outcomes of their steering and mentoring over the previous eight years,” she mentioned.
The Tylers are the actual deal, however naysayers—particularly these within the non-Black group—can’t digest that two Black entrepreneurs have had monumental success, producing measurable wealth for individuals whereas circulating the Black greenback.
“We affect individuals, to affect individuals,” Lamar Said.
And Lamar and Ronnie are doing it by offering parallels between the outdated and new methods of doing enterprise.
Change of Guard
In the final 50 years, Black enterprise icons like Reginald Lewis, who launched the primary Black-owned enterprise to surpass $1 billion in income, and Earl G. Graves Sr., who showcased the most effective of Black enterprise excellence by way of the creation of BLACK ENTERPRISE, set the usual for African American entrepreneurs holding quick to goals of constructing Black historical past by way of constructing progressive companies whereas producing Black wealth.
What’s been confirmed by Lewis and Graves Sr. and different Black enterprise visionaries like Robert L. Johnson, who created the most Black millionaires in U.S. historical past because the founding father of BET Holdings when he offered to Viacom, is that there’s a viable Black shopper market and a coalition of Black entrepreneurs tapping into it.
But again within the day when Johnson obtained the thought to begin BET, he actually took one idea from a person who was making a channel for aged individuals and changed every little thing with the phrase Black. That was the gist of it and the way BET got here to be. No market analysis and no related community. Just Black entrepreneurs crossing their fingers and hoping for the most effective.
Today, the Black shopper market is worth trillions. Black entrepreneurs are seizing the second, constructing help programs and enterprise cohorts, and coordinating efforts leading to equitable outcomes.
The gatekeepers are gone. But the steering from this dynamic couple proves they are their brothers and sisters’ keepers.
Just ask Angela Hawkins, founder and proprietor of Bamblu, a luxurious bedding firm and a devoted member of TSP.
“Lamar and Ronnie created an surroundings the place I might go from idea to launch with a brand new enterprise thought in simply 4 months feeling absolutely supported,” Hawkins instructed BLACK ENTERPRISE.
She continued, “And only one and a half years later, undergo an entire rebrand that allowed me to efficiently trademark the brand new model, Bamblu, that resonated so nicely available in the market, we have been picked up by a serious retailer and skilled a 458% income raise in that subsequent 12 months.
“That’s not potential inside two years of launching a enterprise with out help, programs, and entry to the proper information,” she admits. “That is what Lamar & Ronnie have constructed with site visitors, gross sales and revenue.”
Traffic, Sales and Profit — Helping Black Entrepreneurs Build Brands
The Tylers are unstoppable as a result of Black generational wealth is at stake.
As architects of a brand new rising Black historical past, their enterprise staff drips in what Lamar would say, “anxious vitality.”
Their enterprise is instrumental in supporting, coaching, investing, and advancing 48 seven-figure corporations and 5 eight-figure corporations which have come by way of their game-changing academic applications.
In one other profitable case, Dacia Woods, co-owner of Ladies & Luggage Travel Group, has been singing the praises of Traffic, Sales, and Profit, saying that after formally becoming a member of TSP Mastermind in June 2021, her firm ended the 12 months at about $300K in gross sales and has since crossed the million-dollar mark.
“The lives we modified simply because any person’s working for a Black particular person after which saying, ‘You know what? They did it; I can do it. Or in the event that they did it, my youngsters can do it.’ And their youngsters are seeing their mother and pop work for wonderful Black entrepreneurs. I simply get excited simply occupied with them,” Lamar admits.
Kim Lewis, CEO of Chicago-based magnificence model CurlMix, says, “Lamar and Ronnie made us millionaires.”
“Before them, we spent 5 years spinning our wheels, making no cash. In reality, we misplaced $100,000 of our personal cash earlier than becoming a member of the TSP group. Their steering helped us develop our enterprise to $10M in 4 years. They’ve been unbelievable mentors, lecturers, and buddies, and we are perpetually grateful to them,” Lewis defined.
By the tip of 2023, the Tylers are on a mission to develop, nurture and serve 500 seven-figure Black companies, 50 eight-figure Black companies, and 5 nine-figure Black companies.
“Now that’s Black historical past,” Lamar mentioned.
Changemakers on the transfer
As an IT skilled, Lamar at all times had it in his thoughts that he wished to be an entrepreneur. The roadmap wasn’t at all times clear, however he was a visionary who went from kid-level aspect hustles and slicing individuals’s grass for cash to creating new Black historical past.
“But whereas I had these IT careers, I used to be at all times at the back of my thoughts making an attempt completely different entrepreneurial ventures, making an attempt to determine it out or making an attempt to come up with one thing that may propel that piece of me.”
In his early years, Lamar memorialized in his thoughts the legendary presence of BLACK ENTERPRISE journal, which sharpened his lens to the world of Black entrepreneurship and wealth.
“I do know there are hundreds of thousands of individuals in all probability identical to me that by no means imagined that they might personal an organization that was a sure measurement.”
“And taking a look at these covers and studying the articles within it’s what actually gave me a lens into what was potential for me by way of entrepreneurship and never simply hustle as a result of I at all times simply discover… It’s a distinction between hustle and entrepreneurship, and a whole lot of occasions, individuals get the strains blurred. But actually constructing a sustainable, lasting enterprise enterprise.”
A graduate of Spelman College, Ronnie remembers situations of Black wealth within the pupil car parking zone. As Mercedes-Benz vehicles got here rolling out and in, she was conscious her friends—daughters of attorneys and superstar mother and father—have been rich.
Before transitioning right into a fully-fledged entrepreneur, Ronnie solely labored for one firm popping out of school, and that was IBM. She served as a undertaking supervisor for over 17 years and managed massive software program growth initiatives with budgets of over $30 million or extra. After leaving to decide to her enterprise full-time, it was a no brainer that she would turn into the chief operations officer who serves as the key sauce in planning and casting visions.
Marriage and enterprise can prosper
Before promoting their first flagship model, Black and Married with Kids, to the Dunamis Woman Enterprise L.L.C., the Tylers have been armed with a ardour for empowering hundreds of thousands of married {couples}.
“Anytime that we’ve up-leveled in our enterprise, proper straight earlier than us going to the following degree, there was some kind of threat; there was some kind of main funding, one thing that simply nearly stopped my coronary heart that we did with a view to get to that subsequent degree every time. And every time, it will get larger to get to the following degree,” Ronnie mentioned.
The secrets and techniques to constructing a profitable romantic relationship echo the basics of an important partnership in enterprise—belief, communication, and accountability. Marriage takes work, and the enterprise falls brief if one companion drops the ball at house. It has been instrumental for the couple to leverage one another’s strengths and weaknesses to develop stronger in matrimony and enterprise constructing. And being mother and father of 4 kids definitely provides taste and a degree of challenges into the combination.
“I’m all the best way on the fringe of threat, whereas Ronnie is fairly near the sting of being conservative. And so a whole lot of occasions she mentioned, Hey, I’ve stretched her out previous the place she would’ve gone. I say, nicely, she’s pulled me right into a secure house additional than what I might’ve risked if that threat was an excessive amount of,” Lamar mentioned.
“And so our years at Black and Married with Kids positively laid the muse for us to have a great marriage and to be intentional about our marriage, and that helps us be good enterprise companions,” Ronnie added.
“If your partner isn’t on board and so they don’t perceive, the most effective factor you are able to do is keep dedicated, keep constant, and present them some outcomes,” Ronnie added.
Building sweat fairness
Tyler New Media began as an internet weblog, leveraging the facility of social media, but it surely was no simple feat for the Tylers.
Adopting the C.R.U.S.H. mentality, can’t relaxation till one thing occurs, the couple operated on little or no time whereas elevating 4 little kids and serving demanding jobs. The couple nonetheless managed to jot down and edit all the unique articles, construct web sites, and do every other duties throughout hours that may sometimes require relaxation.
“Plenty of occasions, it’s a whole lot of conversations about self-care, which is legitimate and about you want your sleep, you want this, however typically every little thing can’t match. And simply being clear, every little thing can’t match,” Lamar mentioned.
“So at that time in life for us, it was both I’m going to construct a enterprise, or I’m going to fall asleep.”
He continued, “But for that season, we needed to do what we needed to do to get to the following degree. So we didn’t have some huge cash to construct, we didn’t have startup funds, we used our paychecks, and cash we might squeeze off our paychecks is what initially constructed it. We constructed a whole lot of sweat fairness.”
Changing the narrative of Black entrepreneurship
The core of the Tylers’ ardour is constructing group by way of schooling and serving to to use the alternatives that presently exist.
“When we began our enterprise, our mission was to uplift and help and equip African American {couples} and their relationships and households,” Ronnie mentioned.
“From there, we moved into entrepreneurship. And so, our focus with Traffic Sales and Profit is to construct companies. And that’s one in all our missions, Black companies, and entrepreneurs. Because why when these companies develop, they rent those that look identical to us, and that’s supporting the group, bringing a reimbursement into the group,” Ronnie continued.
With the fast-growing enlargement of Tyler New Media, the founders launched into a journey of reinvention. They constructed an inspirational group in Traffic Sales and Profit (TSP), which has helped 1000’s of Black entrepreneurs construct six, seven, and eight-figure companies.
“It’s crucial so that you can plan and to solid that imaginative and prescient,” Ronnie mentioned. “Part of that’s your yearly planning, your quarterly planning, and placing plans in place to your launches.”
“I at all times inform any entrepreneur, if you wish to set your self aside, particularly the service-based companies, you learn to plan. You learn to get your programs and processes collectively, and I assure you’ll set your online business other than anyone else within the market.”
In executing their imaginative and prescient, the Tylers understood the worth of connecting with consultants, coaches, and mentors whereas they walked on a path of unlearning and information. They realized that producing, preserving, and wealth-building was simply as vital as studying methods to construct a enterprise. But it wasn’t with out trial and error.
“One of the issues I spotted the onerous means myself was that earning money was completely different from constructing wealth,” Lamar mentioned.
“Because I used to assume, ‘Hey, we make some huge cash. We’ll be rich.’ And I came upon that’s not the case.
“As we are doing it, once more, we’re capable of mannequin it for different individuals in our group, share the tales with them,” he added.
“I had the philosophy I feel most individuals have, which is I’m ready for any person to select me. I’m ready for any person to see how onerous of a employee I’m, how a lot effort I put in, all these various things,” Lamar mentioned.
“I spotted that you just exit and purchase a mentor, and you’ll pay for that entry, the knowledge, the information, and never await something. When we obtained that, and we shifted, we began getting in these rooms and paying to be a mastermind, paying to have coaches. And we haven’t stopped since,” Lamar continued.
Ronnie added, “We are going to take no matter motion we have to take to place ourselves into these areas, whether or not it’s paying ahead, paying for entry by way of their applications, or simply making an attempt to be within the room, the conferences, or what have you ever. But we are intentional about that.”
An HBCU Homecoming for Black companies
In a real homecoming vogue, Tyler New Media’s Traffic Sales and Profit (TSP) hosts two signature public conferences a 12 months the place they reunite the best minds in enterprise and wealth to show, prepare, encourage, and have fun. In January 2023, the Tylers once more invited entrepreneurs to get three full days of teaching on the TSP LIVE convention in 4 key areas: People (team-building and staffing), Projects (undertaking administration and group), Products (product and repair creation and gross sales) and Profit (money circulate and income).
“It is sort of a HBCU household reunion,” Ronnie mentioned.
According to the Tylers, the particular sauce isn’t nearly methods to promote a product however methods to overcome the systemic points Black individuals face as a group.
“We actually need to make individuals really feel like that is for them,” Ronnie mentioned.
“So not solely are we giving them the most effective enterprise enter and information, we’re specializing in methods to do gross sales and advertising and marketing, however we’re additionally specializing in methods to construct a sustainable, robust enterprise.”
“We’re specializing in the challenges we face particularly as a individuals. And then we’re including that cultural taste to it, the music, issues of that nature,” she continued.
Lamar’s favourite half at every occasion is the awards present, the place they honor their shoppers for hitting six or seven figures.
“The level of doing that’s that after individuals see it, they’ll’t unsee it,” Lamar defined. “For lots of people, we constantly hear time and again is that they by no means even thought of the truth that they might construct a seven-figure enterprise till they noticed any person on that stage.”
“It is taking that blueprint and simply transitioning to a special mannequin and a special format and giving these individuals the imaginative and prescient that they’ll see it, and they are often it,” Lamar mentioned.
Freddie Taylor, founding father of Urban Intellectuals, and his spouse, Krystal, founding father of Fitness Is Not a Game, are two individuals who benefitted from TSP and may now see the imaginative and prescient that Lamar speaks of.
“Being within the Mastermind with Lamar and Ronnie has been particular as a result of they’ve proven us methods to go from hustling on the web to constructing an actual enterprise with construction, programs, and processes, together with contractors; we make use of over 20 individuals, and I do know that is simply the muse,” Freddie instructed BLACK ENTERPRISE.
“The explosion is about to occur. The group they’ve constructed is a mirrored image of their union in enterprise and marriage. It is a spot my spouse and I are capable of combine and mingle with different married, targeted entrepreneurs that are reliable and sensible. It is an incredible house extra individuals ought to find out about,” he shared.
Tyler New Media’s headquarters, a Nod to Black historical past
Last 12 months, the facility couple opened their new two-level headquarters within the Duluth space of Atlanta, the place they run day-to-day firm operations. They have made a state-of-the-art studying and academic heart accessible for entrepreneurs and small enterprise house owners to hire for their very own high-level occasions.
The Rosewood Training Center, a nod to the historic and thriving Black group that was burned down in 1923 by a white mob, affords intensive coaching that’s each Black-owned and makes use of the very best degree of know-how and repair, and extra.
For the Tylers, their shoppers raised the potential for possession: a husband and spouse who purchased a constructing proper down the road from the Tylers’ outdated workplace.
“They instructed us to come back by, and we got here by, and so they mentioned, ‘We personal this.’” And I used to be like, ‘What do you imply you personal it? I don’t get it.’ And they have been like, ‘We personal it. We personal it. We pay the mortgage. We personal it like our home.’”
The shoppers knowledgeable the Tylers that heaps have been accessible in the identical growth. Lamar mentioned he realized it was cheaper to pay a mortgage within the growth than for the lease he was paying. It simply clicked that he and his spouse would personal the constructing.
“Since we’ve owned the constructing, we started telling all of our shoppers what the method was, the pitfalls we bumped into, and the issues we bumped into,” Lamar mentioned.
The Tylers have been rejected from banks that they had used for years and compelled to borrow cash from smaller regional group banks.
“So simply from having that dialog with our group, then guess what, 5 or 6 extra of our shoppers now personal their very own buildings that they function out of. But it’s actually so many issues that we will obtain, however we simply must see it first,” Lamar mentioned.
Circulating the Black greenback
Transformed by Black-owned Nikki Klugh Design Group, Tyler New Media’s headquarters has fostered a group and surroundings “the place every little thing we want is in a room.”
“As quickly as you stroll within the door, you’re seeing artwork that conjures up you. Art that makes you’re feeling proud to be an African American. And additionally simply photographs of those that have paved the best way for us. And so it’s an enormous deal for individuals after they come to our enterprise, our constructing, as a result of it conjures up them. And that’s precisely what we wished to do once we designed the house,” Ronnie mentioned.
From hiring a Black-owned AV and automation firm to a Black-owned safety firm, the Tylers deliberately champion Black expertise, Black excellence, and the circulation of the Black greenback.
“I at all times say Black unemployment is so excessive as a result of Black companies don’t make use of individuals. And most individuals rent those that appear like them. They rent individuals from their very own backgrounds, from their very own communities,” Lamar mentioned.
“But the issue is, 9 out of 10 Black companies are solo entrepreneurs. So we want our corporations to develop and scale in order that we will present extra alternative for our personal individuals.”
So far, the rising pains are superb for the Black entrepreneurs within the Tylers’ orbit.
For extra data, go to TrafficSalesandProfit.com.
