We recently connected with Antwanise Jackson and have shared our conversation below.

Antwanise, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

I hope to build a legacy that transcends generations like my grandparents before me and what my mom will leave. Something that has always been motivation for me and what I always have in the back of my mind when I make decisions about things is my grandparents funerals. I remember seeing the impact both of my grandparents had made in our community when they passed and thinking to myself, “this is how you’re supposed to go out. This is the impact and legacy you’re supposed to leave. The both of them had funerals so large we had to move them to another church to accommodate guests. At my grandfather’s specifically people were having to stand because we still ran out of room for seating and that image has lasted with me since. People came to pay their respects to him because of the type of businessman he was and the type of human being he was. That’s what they wanted to say goodbye to, the person behind everything. I strive to make a long lasting effect like that.

Antwanise, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Well by day I am a Financial Consultant. I got into banking because I wanted to do something to help Black and Brown people like myself. When it comes to finance our community often misses opportunities and gets taken advantage of but it’s simply due to lack of knowledge. The financial literacy isn’t there so we get into these financial situations we can’t get out of. We get taken advantage of by banks, lenders and creditors. I broke into the industry to help change that. I thought there needed to be more folks that looked like us in the finance world. When you go into a bank who do you typically see? Middle-aged white women. There’s not a ton of diversity unless you’re at a larger bank like the big boys (Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citi, etc.,) I transitioned into finance from multimedia and marketing because representation matters. It was not easy at all though. It took me at least 3 years to break into banking because my degree wasn’t business or finance related. I was a mass communication major with a penchant for other languages and a background in multimedia and public relations. No one would give me a chance until a small retail bank inside of Walmart noticed my potential, loved my personality and gave me a shot. Retail banks like those are sales-driven so they tend to gravitate to those with huge personalities that can sell ice to an Eskimo like me. They weren’t wrong though. I happen to be one of those people that can talk to a brick wall and make a brick wall talk back, I’m glad that bank took a chance on me because it allowed me to develop into a leader, gain skills and knowledge of the industry and get my foot in the door of the financial world. Working there taught me one of my greatest lessons which was to ALWAYS be authentically me and never compete with anyone but myself. I killed it at that bank and was incredibly successful. It was because I was always me. People loved Antwanise and they loved coming to the bank to deal with me. I could sell accounts because I was never too shy to walk up to strangers and just start rambling about the benefits of a money market account. My vibrant personality along with my likability is what separated me from the rest. Not only was I going to be great but I was going to make everyone around me do the same. I loved the experience I gained there. I took what I learned from that bank and what I picked up in 13 years with Chili’s (I used to be a corporate trainer for them,) and used those skills to start my own business, My grandparents were self-made entrepreneurs in the cattle and livestock business and because I came from a huge family, my mother was 1 of 9, holidays and family gatherings always ran like a business. There was someone in charge of the overall execution, someone who did all the planning, a finance person, someone who delegated, a communications person who was in charge of contacting everyone. My aunts and cousins would do catering, my mom had a baked goods side hustle I mean it was a first class lesson in management and entrepreneurship.

I began as an entrepreneur by starting a mobile bartending business but something was missing, I wanted to help other entrepreneurs and business owners like I was growing up. I love creating opportunities for others and since I had to network anyway for my day job, it made sense to intertwine the two. So EmpowerNet was born. I created a networking organization designed to create opportunities and offer resources to small business owners through connection, collaboration and community engagement, I wanted a safe space where all types of business owners could congregate, get to know each other, connect, learn from one another and have fun while doing it.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Well the hardest part of starting any new business is coming up with capital for it. That’s something every new business owner struggles with. For me, having a financial background came in handy because I had the tools and resources to get jumpstarted but I still needed capital so that’s where I had to revert back to my old graphic design skills and started freelancing again. I took odd photography jobs and a part time job at the local junior college in the creative services department, made a deal with my mom that any baked good orders I got for her where I lived she’d give me a percentage and I just started stashing money away. I picked up extra shifts at chili’s, when people would ask me for marketing advice I’d charge them a consulting fee. I realized I was incredibly gifted at connecting people and networking so I used that to my advantage as well. People would come to me and ask me to help find them clients because I was so good at connecting with people so I said sure, pay me a fee for it. I used every opportunity that came my way as a means to make money that could be used as working capital.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

For me, two big ones come to mind: you can’t do everything alone and shut the hell up sometime. Both were very important lessons that took me years to unlearn, especially the former. I am a perfectionist and I do not like to do anything that’s what I refer to as “crunchy.” Crunchy is that level of mediocrity and imperfection you want to avoid. I want everything to be just right down to the type of paper used for the sign-in sheet at an event. Everything has to be perfectly organized and properly executed or I will have a conniption. It’s just the level of professionalism and the high standards I like to uphold. It took one of my mama’s famous ‘Come to Jesus, tough love conversations that made me ease up on myself and learn that some things will be out of your control and you should never be afraid to ask for help. Let me tell you, asking for help produces a much better result than going at it alone. I had to learn that the hard way by falling flat on my ass a couple of times trying to do everything myself before my mom was like “are you ready to quit being hardheaded now and let us help you?” Man I’m telling you, moms be knowing. They are always right. The other hard lesson I had to learn was to just shut up and listen. Sometimes as a business owner you just have to shut up, sit back and listen. There are people far more experienced and knowledgeable than you. Shut up, listen to them and just take it all in. That is probably the best thing I could have taught myself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554934800551
• Instagram: empowernettx or antwanise08
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/antwanisej
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antwanisejackson
• Twitter: @antwanisejack

Image Credits
Mandy Ray, Mandy Ray Photography