It’s all about the Benjamins and Black entrepreneurs are earning them at a high rate and paving the road for other entrepreneurs to join the money movement. From rags to riches narratives to breaking with tradition and forging a new path, millennials are finding new ways to generate wealth and using social media platforms to build their audiences.
With almost 700,000 followers on Instagram, 5,000 YouTube subscribers and 1,000 Twitter followers, the brand Black Millionaires is helping other African Americans find, earn and build wealth. The brand’s founder, James Hill, is a native Detroiter who was the rose that grew from the concrete. Spending time in foster homes, the first college graduate in his family decided he wanted to break the cycle of financial dependency.
“At heart, I’m just a marketing and branding expert. I love marketing and branding ever since I was six years old. I studied commercials. I used to love to watch the Super Bowl just to study the commercials and I used to research how much companies spent to get those commercials and why it actually makes financial sense,” said Hill.
To help other African Americans amass wealth, Black Millionaires was created to share financial savvy and explore ways African Americans can generate wealth. After losing upwards of $30,000 in another business venture, Hill soon found Black millennials were using social media content to brand themselves and other companies.
“I used all the skills that I had in the content creation that I learned from the first brand and turned that into a viral sensation online,” said Hill.
Some may not believe an Instagram career can garner a salary worthy to live off, however, social media influencers are some of the top paid creators, but African Americans are not paid their worth.
Social media influencers can bring home thousands of dollars for brand partnerships, personal merchandise and several other avenues. However, in the social media game, slow and steady wins the race.
“If you want to build a million-dollar brand, if you want to grow your brand, start where you’re at,” said Hill. “You need to start and you need to get one percent better every day.”
In January, Forbes released its list of top paid TikTokers. As millennials continue to grab ahold of social media platforms to build wealth, Black creators are being left out of the conversation. To combat this form of systemic racism that furthers the racial wealth gap, African Americans are reclaiming their time and taking a stand while creating a safe haven for Black creators.
The racial wealth gap continues to expand as opportunities for wealth and financial wellness for African American communities are overlooked. In 2019, while white millennial families earned close to $61,000 yearly, Black millennial households earned just over $37,000. To diversity earning potential, Hill encourages African Americans to create several lanes that may be financially beneficial.
“When it comes to financial freedom, it’s not necessarily about quitting your job or entrepreneurship versus having a job. It’s about having options and options are the name of the game,” said Hill. “That’s a different conversation when you’re negotiating salaries because you have other streams of revenue that can cover your bills and you don’t necessarily have to be there.”
For those deterred by the fear of failure, Hill notes no business is easy to get off the ground, especially the art of social media. Through tenacity and resilience, the building blocks of entrepreneurship are laid to create a sound foundation.
“I struggled with my first company and I lost a bunch of money and I learned so much about social media marketing and digital marketing,” said Hill.
Teaching and spreading financial literacy remains a top goal for the Black Millionaires brand. The organization hosts Finance Fridays on its YouTube channel, which features other Black entrepreneurs and their stories of how they have built wealth.
“Financial freedom helps you buy your freedom when it comes to the decisions you make financially. When I say ‘buy my freedom’ a lot about our history comes from escaping slavery and things like that and actually getting our freedom that way,” said Hill. “A lot of Black people don’t understand if you are not financially free, if you can’t make decisions that feed your family, that puts your family in the best position, then you are not really free.”
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