We were lucky to catch up with H. Bello recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Bello. thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.

As a Nigerian and African American in the United States, I’ve really been blessed to have lived in two countries thus far in my lifetime. Outside of just being exposed nationally, I believe it enabled me to gain varying perspectives across cultures, religions, governments, businesses, standards of living, family, love and so much more. I attribute all of this as part of why I’m able to empathize and relate more with underserved groups.

Growing up and maturing as an adult through my collegiate studies and in the professional world in the United States, there was a phase I really struggled with as I was attempting to define myself and align on my purpose. With a growing professional career, it really dawned on me that I was struggling in attempting to share my knowledge and skills I had acquired with those that I felt I related with the most. It was during this time my itch to be able to impact my community became one of my priorities.

As an IT professional, I’m proud that I’ve been able to put my skills to use toward impacting and helping move the culture forward for underserved groups. There are a lot of projects that I’ve been involved in but one that comes to the forefront right now is my current role as the Chief Technology Officer for Eventnoire, an online event discovery and ticketing solution focused on cultured events and empowering its event curators. Through this I’m able to connect with a lot of event organizers and curators every day that are working to push their culture forward.

Another special shoutout goes to Discover Gidi. They are an amazing group and I’ve been able to help build their online platform. They are a travel company focused on providing an authentic cultural experience through travel experiences to West Africa in December to places such as Nigeria, Ghana and so many more destinations across the African Diaspora throughout the year.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Most definitely, as I shared earlier I’m a proud Nigerian-American. I was actually born in Chicago, Illinois and moved to Lagos, Nigeria as a child before returning back to finish my schooling.

My first exposure to the tech industry that I recall was through my father who was in the middle of a career switch and eventually having a computer in our residence turned me into an active user especially for gaming purposes. Special shout-out to my family for their love & support over the years.

However, tech didn’t really become a study of mine until I attended college. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I had volunteered to help maintain a website for a student organization, African Cultural Association, without any prior knowledge of what it would entail. I attended a free workshop on the basics of web programming that covered topics like HTML, CSS,  and the rest was history. It led me to get a campus job as an IT specialist then eventually getting a minor degree in IT and then a master’s degree in Technology Management.

IT is a pretty broad industry and I started my professional career as an analyst focusing on CRM applications major companies used to service their customers and I eventually became a CRM expert working for Fortune 500 companies.

However, Web Design & Development was just a hobby of mine that I picked up as a student but as a professional it gave me a creative outlet for the technical skills I had acquired. Slowly but surely through word of mouth I had individuals seek my assistance and that’s when I realized I had a business on my hand. It dawned on me that a lot of African-Americans in my network that reached out to me had business goals and aspirations but needed assistance in leveraging technology to help achieve them. That became my purpose.

Outside of continuing to build a startup company, Eventnoire. I’m very proud to say that I have also served over 75 African-American businesses within the past two years helping improve their businesses with technology. This work is captured under my WEBKUBE entity where I build, design and manage websites for various businesses and groups.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Hands down, the most rewarding experience for me is helping a client manifest their goals. It takes effective communication, being able to relate and align with their goals then executing it to fruition. Especially working with underserved groups, there is a sense of joy and pride that I’m able to grow as an extended part of their team while building a lasting relationship. No doubt, that’s the love for me.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Interesting question because for years I struggled with even calling myself a creative so I’m not certain everyone will look at me as a creative based on my technical background.

What does a creative look like? Is the person limited to art? What industries does it fall in? Is it solely handy work?

I believe the beauty is that it doesn’t really have boundaries and it’s continuously evolving.

Creating really consists of using our thoughts and imagination to generate concepts to serve a purpose whether it is to fix something, entertain others or simply how to communicate a message. It really varies and I share that to say everyone possesses some type of creativity, I encourage you to share your ideas, solutions and thoughts with the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: Webkube.com, Eventnoire.com
• Instagram: webkube, eventnoirehq
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hameed-bello

Image Credits
FashFotos https://www.fashfotos.com/