Entrepreneurial Appetite 2025 Year in Review

Entrepreneurial Appetite: 2025 Year in Review - Your Top 5 Episodes

As we close out an incredible Season 6, I'm reflecting on the conversations that moved you most. From franchise ownership to electric vehicles, fatherhood to family wealth, and global Black history—this season has been a journey of transformation and possibility.

In this special episode, I'm counting down the five most downloaded conversations of the year, each one a blueprint for building community, promoting intellectualism, and supporting Black businesses.

#5: Dr. Tamara J. Walker - Scholar and author of Beyond the Shores: A History of African Americans Abroad challenges us to see travel as a tool for reimagining Black identity and building global consciousness.

#4: LaVaisha Davis - Wealth advisor and founder of L Wess Advisors reframes wealth building around family as your economic unit, revealing that it's not about what you make—it's about what you plan.

#3: Shawn Rhoder - Entrepreneur and father shares how being present for his son became his greatest success story, redefining what it means to build generational wealth.

#2: Mike Colias - Automotive journalist and author of Inevitable breaks down the electric vehicle revolution and what it means for American innovation, featuring special guest host Shawn Wilson.

#1: Darren Vanderhall - Former corporate executive turned franchise owner explains why leaving 25 years at Coca-Cola to own a Signarama franchise was the best decision for his family's future.

Each conversation offers insights, inspiration, and actionable wisdom for Black entrepreneurs, intellectuals, and dreamers ready to write their own success stories.

My challenge to you: Pick your favorite episode and share it with six people. Let's grow this community together as we head into Season 7.

Transcript

Speaker What's up everybody? Once again, this is Langston Clark, the founder and organizer of Entrepreneurial Appetite, a series of events dedicated to building community, promoting intellectualism and supporting black businesses. As we close out season six, I want to take a moment to reflect on the incredible conversations we've had this year. You, our listeners, have spoken loud and clear about which episodes resonated the most, and today I'm counting down our five most downloaded episodes of the season, from franchise ownership to electric vehicles, from fatherhood to family wealth to global black history, this season has been a journey. Coming in at number five is our conversation with Doctor Tamara J. Walker about her book, Beyond the Shores A History of African Americans Abroad. Doctor Walker, the Claire Tow Associate Professor of Africana studies at Barnard College, took us on an intellectual journey exploring how travel has shaped Black American identity. What struck me most was her personal story from a young girl in Colorado who couldn't afford a school trip to Russia, to a scholar who turned that disappointment into her origin story. She reminded us that travel isn't just about seeing new places. It's about reimagining who we are and who we can become. Through her nonprofit, The Wandering Scholar, she is now opening doors for low income high school students to to have the transformative travel experiences she wished she had. It's scholarship turned into service As doctor Walker's work as a scholar transcends writing books, but also extends into social entrepreneurship. At number four, we have one of my personal favorites, our conversation with LaVaisha Davis, founder of L Wess Advisors, who completely reframed how we think about wealth building This conversation went beyond individual success. To talk about family as your economic unit. LaVaisha dropped a truth bomb when she said, wealth is not measured by the things you see, the toys that someone has, the clothes that they wear. It's more measured by how much money you give away. She challenged us to think bigger, not just about accumulating wealth, but about centralizing, maximizing, and optimizing our family resources. The statistics she shared were sobering. The average black household has a net worth of one hundred and eighty three thousand dollars, compared to one point one million dollars for white households. But here's the key it's not about income, it's about planning. She reminded us that over forty years, about two million dollars will touch our hands. The question is, what are we going to do with it? Number three. Another one of my personal favorites is our Father's Day conversation with Shawn Rhoder . Shawn is an entrepreneur who took the same creative energy he used to build his fashion brand SQ. With his mobile barbering innovation Nomad and poured it  into fatherhood. The most powerful moment came when Shawn shared what his son told him. Dad, I'm glad you weren't as successful as you wanted to be. That stopped him in his tracks. His son went on to explain that if Sean had achieved all his business dreams, He wouldn't have learned how to play basketball, how to be cool, how to dress, how to do his hair in his son's eyes. Shawn not getting what he wanted gave his son everything that he needed. That's a redefinition of success that our community needs to hear. Shawn reminded us that being a present black father is entrepreneurship, too. It's building a generational wealth of a different kind. Taking the number two spot is our deep dive into the electric vehicle revolution with Mike Colias, author of Inevitable Inside the Messy, Unstoppable Transition to Electric Vehicles, with guest host Shawn Wilson, an expert and entrepreneur in the EV infrastructure industry. This conversation was fascinating because it wasn't just about cars, it was about American innovation, global competition, and economic transformation. Mike laid out how Detroit had the electric vehicle advantage multiple times throughout history, from EV1 in the nineties to the Chevy Volt. but kept frittering it away, as he put it. Meanwhile, China made a strategic bet that is paying off. Sixty percent of all EVs sold in the planet are in China. They're not just making cars. They're building a culture around electric vehicles. And Mike's point hit home as he stated, the executives that he talks to know that they're going to have to compete against the Chinese eventually. They can't hold off. and that they can't count on tariffs to protect them forever. for entrepreneurs. The opportunities are everywhere. Mike shares stories of innovators solving EV charging problems in unlikely places from Oklahoma to apartment buildings. as Shawn Wilson, our special guest, noted in that conversation, at this seven percent adoption rate, there's no bad place to put a charger. And your number one most downloaded episode of season six is our conversation with Darren Vanderhall about his transition from twenty five years in corporate America to franchise ownership with Signarama Darren's story resonated because it's a story that so many of us are living or contemplating. He had a successful career at Coca-Cola, but felt constrained. He wanted something he could hand down to his family, and as he told us, regardless of how successful one may be in corporate America, this is something you just can't hand down to your kids. What I loved about Darren's approach was his intentionality. He didn't just quit his job, he built a plan. He chose franchising because he didn't have time to build his own brand. He leveraged his fraternity brothers and community for support. And now his son works with him, experiencing a mindset change about entrepreneurship. Darren said something that should challenge all of us. I don't think that we can positively impact the economic gap that we as African Americans experience, unless we get out here and become business owners. These five conversations represent the heart of what entrepreneurial appetite is about building community, promoting intellectualism and supporting black businesses. Whether it's leaving corporate to build a legacy, understanding the future of automotive innovation, redefining success through fatherhood, creating generational wealth through family planning, or expanding our worldview through global exploration. Each episode is a blueprint. As we transition into our next season, I have one ask. pick your favorite episode from the season and share it with six people. That's it. Just six people. Share it with family, friends, colleagues, your group chat, your book club, your Sunday school class, whomever. Help us grow this community of black entrepreneurs, intellectuals and dreamers. Thank you for walking with us through season six and we'll see you soon in season seven. This is Langston Clark, and this has been entrepreneurial appetite.