Lori Harvey and Romeo Miller are only two of the numerous young people who find themselves successfully leveraging their influential public platforms to construct businesses and show the following generation that the probabilities for achievement are truly countless.

The 2 young entrepreneurs joined AT&T Executive Vice President of Talent & Leadership Development Michelle Jordan, and Money Coach Christian Lovell for an enlightening conversation on the 2022 ESSENCE Festival of Culture in regards to the long-lasting, invaluable impact of Black representation across industries. Opening up the discussion, Jordan spoke about a few of the ways in which AT&T is currently working to assist economically empower underserved communities.

“AT&T has a long-standing history of investing within the communities that we serve. Considered one of the things that we’re focused on over the following 3 years is, we’ve got put a stake in the bottom to say that we’re investing in closing the digital divide,” she said. “We’ve put a stake in the bottom to commit to creating a $2 billion investment over the following 3 years. For starters, we’re doing things like, investing in connected community learning centers in partnership with nonprofit organizations. We consider that education and economic empowerment helps enable and open up an entire slew of opportunities for a community. So, the intent of those connected learning centers is to begin with youth.”

Responding to an issue about how she plans to create opportunities as CEO of Lori Harvey Enterprises, Harvey spoke about an upcoming program she’s developing through her Skin by LH skincare line, which launched in October 2021.

“It’s really necessary for me to create a program for young women, especially women of color, to teach them on the importance of skincare and learning about their skin types and just, overall self-care and self-love,” she said. “So, that’s something that I’m currently working on at once.”

In a while, she also spoke candidly about her own experiences as a model that ultimately influenced her hiring practices as a business owner.

“I’ve been on so many sets where I’ve been the one Black girl, not only within the shoot, but within the room,” she said. “And so, it was necessary for me once I created my line that I hired all Black models of all shades in order that we could possibly be represented and be seen on a bigger platform. I’ve even been on sets where they’ve told me that my team can’t come because there’s too many Black people within the room.”

Weighing in, Romeo emphasized the importance of not only owning businesses, but using those businesses to create job opportunities in our communities. This, he says, is the actual way we will close the wealth gap and impact economic change.

“I feel the way in which that we close that racial wealth gap is that we’ve got to proceed to turn out to be business owners because, the numbers show that we hire one another,” he said. “That’s why it’s so necessary for me to ensure that we’re diversifying; we don’t should just be entertainers and athletes. Why not own grocery stores? Why not create your individual products, your individual brands? That’s what me and my pops [Master P] have been doing with the Rap Snacks and the grocery distribution deals. We’ve shoe corporations, we’ve got coconut water. So, I just think if we wish to show this next generation of youngsters about generational wealth, we’ve got to expand.”

The panel also discussed staying the course, allowing yourself to learn through challenges in business, and more. Take a look at the video above to listen to the conversation in full. For more of the whole lot you missed on the 2022 ESSENCE Festival of Culture, visit our official video content hub HERE.