- There is no question it's more important
than ever to stand with the black community
and amplify black voices.
That's why this season
we launched our Be the Difference campaign.
It's our pledge to support
black businesses and change-makers.
Our friends at Comcast have committed to do the same
with their program RISE,
which stands for representation,
investment, strength, and empowerment.
It's all about lifting communities up and providing,
or by providing, rather, tens of thousands
of small black-owned businesses with technology make-overs,
creative production, TV advertising,
and marketing consultations for years to come,
which is actually really beneficial and helpful.
So we've partnered up, Comcast RISE
and the Kelly Clarkson Show, to help four business owners.
They're all joining us today and they know
that they're being considered for the Comcast RISE program,
but they have no idea
they're actually the first ever Comcast RISE winners.
This is gonna be fun, I'm excited, I like surprises.
Let's meet the Comcast RISE applicants right now.
Please welcome from Fit Academy in Philadelphia, Osayi.
Give it up!
And then from the jewelry store Lingua Nigra in Chicago,
meet Alicia, and from COOL Creative in Miami,
we have Joanne and Terrance, give it up!
Plus we have Le'Day from MyKing's Ice Cream in Denver,
give it up for Le'Day!
It is so lovely to meet all of you,
and Le'Day, I have to thank you most of all,
because you are pregnant and literally
you might give birth on camera.
And I'm just saying, you win for most dedicated today.
(laughing) All right.
Well, Osayi, I'm gonna start with you.
So tell us a little about Fit Academy
and how you started it.
- Yeah, well, Fit Academy's here in Philadelphia,
and honestly it came from my background.
So my background's mostly sports.
I played football and I had a stint
with the Green Bay Packers as well as Team USA.
But after that, I was a corporate warrior here in Philly
and I kinda had fitness always consistent in my life.
So started off doing kinda fitness as a side hustle
and built up a small group of clients
who wanted to train like an athlete, right?
So they came here to feel like the Rocky steps,
you know, the same one in the movies.
And it really was kind of organic.
We put together a kick-ass workout.
It was a ton of fun.
And it blew from eight people to 30 to 50
to 100 to 200, and the story kind of goes from there.
But yeah, man, it's been a wild ride.
We opened up a studio, the studio I'm in right now.
We really focus more on personal training,
group fitness, nutrition and coaching,
connecting with people of like-minded experiences,
as well as large-scale fitness events
like the one you just saw.
- So how have things been going?
Because obviously 2020 has kind of ruined
a lot of plans for people.
So how have things been going lately?
- Yeah, 2020, about that.
(laughing) No, it's been up and down.
It's been kinda tough, honestly, you know, COVID.
We started off the year on fire
and then everyone got smacked by COVID.
But you know, we were shut down for about five months.
Honestly it was pretty tough.
We saw a significant amount of revenue loss.
1/2 to almost down to 1/3 for quite a while.
And honestly, right now, being on this,
the finalist list I think is really gonna help,
hopefully get some more eyes on our business
and after this next shutdown is done,
I hope we can bounce back stronger than ever.
- Yeah, no, I know a lot of small businesses
are worried right now.
All right well, Alicia, I wanna talk to you.
Can you tell us about Lingua Nigra and how it got started?
- Hi Kelly.
- [Kelly] Hi!
- I have been making jewelry since I was a kid,
I always had, I love organic work,
so I just made really textural things on the side
while also working for really amazing jewelers
big and small,
and maybe about four, almost four years ago,
the Smithsonian's National Museum of African-American
History and Culture was about to open
and they asked me for some of my work.
So I don't think anybody anticipated how busy and insane
that would be, but it worked out and ever since then,
I've just been doing it full-time,
doing really great craft shows
and then selling to really amazing retailers.
- How has business been going since COVID?
- Well--
(laughing)
It's been going.
I travel about 20 times a year.
I'm always on a plane in the airport doing shows
and all those shows were gone.
So it was kind of a replanning
'cause I definitely thought I was gonna make a lot of income
just because the shows have been so good.
But it's been a struggle.
I mean, June was really good
because of the Black Lives Matter movement.
But since then, things have kind of settled back down.
- Yeah, that's the fear, that people will forget.
That's the fear that the hype goes away and then it's like,
it needs to not be a fad.
It needs to be a new way of thinking and buying
and searching out different companies.
So I agree, that's the big fear I think for a lot of people
is that it will die back down and it shouldn't.
So let's move on to fashion designers Joanne and Terrence.
They own COOL Creative in Miami, Florida.
So Joanne tell us about COOL Creative.
- Hey Kelly.
- [Kelly] Hey!
- So first of all, COOL stands for create out of love.
And we're a clothing line where art meets fashion
and by trade I'm a graphic designer
and Terrence is an illustrator
and we actually met and fell in love in art school.
And when our daughter was six,
Terrance was trying to teach her about all the icons,
like black icons, like Nelson Mandela, MLK.
And so he decided to draw them out for her.
And I had the idea to put the drawings on some clothing
and some shirts and we put them online.
And could you believe that people actually bought them?
And so we were like, wow, okay, this may be a thing.
And so fast forward to years later,
we're about to open our first store here in Little Haiti,
in the Little Haiti area of Miami.
And in this space, our idea is not just to sell the clothes,
but we also want to have community meetings,
engage with the community, and come up with ways
for them to improve their lives and even to make meaningful
impact and change in the neighborhood.
- That's amazing.
Terrence, so how's business?
- 2020 Has been a challenge in general, but through it all,
we remain thankful.
We're still here, everybody can't say that.
So we're definitely thankful that we're still operating,
but once again, with COVID,
it has drastically slowed down the opening of this store.
We wanted to open earlier, in the spring of this year,
but obviously because of COVID we could not open.
So right now it's really imperative that we get some help
with some creative ways to figure out how to get exposure
now to this space that, one, should have already been opened
and really gain momentum as we launch this new endeavor
of this store.
But at the end of the day, we got a business built on love.
So as long as I got her, I know we'll figure it out.
- Aw! - But I'm just thankful we had
the opportunity to be here. - Okay, y'all are adorable.
Okay.
Last but certainly not least, Le'Day,
tell us about MyKing's Ice Cream.
- I always wanted to be a business owner
and I seen a for rent time in a window
and I thought this was my chance.
I took about 10 months to get the business up and running.
It took me so long because I was working a full-time job,
a part-time job, a parent to a two-year-old,
and also I got pregnant.
(laughs)
So I decided to grand open March 1st,
which was about 15 days before the world pandemic.
And it was pretty hard to get staffing
because no one really wanted to work
due to the circumstances.
So I decided to quit my part-time job
so I could be more available at the shop three days a week.
I was really running the shop by myself.
- Wow.
That's a lot, you've just said a lot on your plate,
on your one plate.
So what kind of help do you need
to keep things going and grow?
- I just want more support for the shop.
I know we need help with marketing our--
We need an actual payroll system
so I'll actually be able to hire real employees,
as well as our website.
I would like it to function better
so we can attract more customers.
- Oh my gosh, everybody, as you know,
you're all finalists for the Comcast RISE program
and here's the thing.
We have some and it's some really great news
'cause you're all in.
You actually all win it. (cheering)
- Aw!
- Yeah!
That means courtesy of Comcast,
you're all getting tailored assistance
to meet your business's needs.
Osayi, they're hooking you up with a 30-second TV commercial
and help with a full-blown media strategy.
And Alicia-- - That's awesome.
- They're gonna help you grow your business with advertising
and marketing consultations.
Joanne and Terrence,
since you've already made your own commercial,
you're getting a 90-day TV advertising campaign.
And Le'Day, they're giving you a top to bottom
technology make-over, and I just wanted to say too,
personally, I'm gonna to give you each $5,000
just to help out in your businesses.
Because I love y'all
and I know that it is a hard time right now,
especially coming to the end of this year.
Congratulations, all of you, and Osayi, a personal thanks
'cause I'm going to get on a treadmill today, I guess.
(laughing)
But in all, Comcast RISE is awarding
more than 700 black-owned small businesses
with marketing and technology resources and make-overs.
And they're just getting started, everybody.
So I'm excited to announce phase two of Comcast RISE.
Today the program is opening eligibility
to more small businesses,
including those owned by black, indigenous,
and people of color.
And there's more to come in 2021.
The program will expand to award financial grants
to deserving small businesses hardest hit by the pandemic,
which is amazing.
Check out ComcastRISE.com for more information, everybody.