Today we’d like to introduce you to Sandra Bone Wilson.
Hi Sandra, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My story is one of a single mother of four children, who have witnessed our community being gun downed in the streets by the police. I watched Kap sit on the bench. I said ok so you are going to throw away your whole NFL career for what you believe in. Ok, so we are doing this then and I jumped into supporting Kap and what he was trying to do. I knew I wanted to do something for our community, so I started protesting on social media through my pro-black Instagram page. A gentleman by the name of Mr. Dale Dowdie, the CEO of Black Facts, reached out to me and said he loved my passion for our community and wanted me to work on his social media pages. I started working for him in February 2018 managing his posts of black facts. He saw how passionate I was about the black community, so he suggested I start my own business influencing our community to support each other. Because of this, I decided to setup an Instagram page called Black Connections, which would support black businesses & organizations only. I wanted our community to have a platform just for us. The reason why I wanted us to have our own platform is because I felt that we needed a place just for black people, black business owners, black organizations and black events so that we could come together and support one another. This platform was designed solely for the black dollar so that we can unite the black community and support black owned businesses to keep our money within our community. By us building more black owned businesses and investing in each other we can turn our small businesses into major corporations, thus creating more employment opportunities for the people in our community.
When we support each other’s businesses we are unstoppable; we can cut down on gun violence and poverty and we can buy lower-income housing, renovate and create affordable housing for our community. We are the change our community needs and it starts with the recycling of the black dollar with black-owned businesses. The time is now for us to support each other and level the playing field.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Since I started this journey in 2016 it has been a rough road. While I was on my pro-black pages on Instagram calling out racists and promoting black-owned businesses, Instagram shut down two of my Instagram pages and has me locked out of one. When I set up my Black Connections page, I had a block put on my FB and Instagram pages in September 2019. I have gotten several messages saying that I’m discriminating and inciting a riot. FB told me the block would be lifted, but it has not been. This block on my account is affecting me getting the word out about all of our amazing businesses in our community. FB and Instagram made me jump through all of these hoops to get verified, to have the blue check, only for them to not approve it on IG. It has been rough on FB and Instagram with the blocking and shadow banning. I have had my share of people in our community wanting me to stop what I’m doing because they said I’m further dividing us. I’m not dividing us at all, I’m bringing our community together and we are recycling our money in our community. As far as I’m concerned, it’s awesome. Our Black Connections Family is growing daily. Black Owned Businesses are getting the word out about their businesses globally through Black Connections.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Black Connections, LLC?
Black Connections promotes, supports, and encourages all Black-Owned Businesses. We go live on Instagram so CEOs can tell their stories and talk to people about their businesses. We promote on all of our social media sites. We do virtual and in-person expo’s to promote businesses. We have a global black business directory that is free for businesses to add their information to. For our expo’s we have businesses send in one of their products for our raffle and 100 business cards for our networking bags. This gets them even more exposure. I make videos for the businesses when I receive their products in order to show the world what they have to offer. Our virtual expos are done live on Instagram from 9 am to 3 pm. I also go out into our community and support events and I work to give back to our homeless by putting together necessities and goodie bags for them. What sets me apart from others is that I focus on Black Connections and how I’m helping our community. I’m different because everything I do is from my soul. I’m not driven by money. I also only work with our community I will never sell out. I am most proud of how people want to support each other in our Black Connections Family. I love helping our community. I love to see our community coming together to support each other. The services we offer are promos, lives, product reviews, black business directory, virtual expos, face-to-face expos, live interviews at your place of business, motivational speaker, social media manager, and mentoring. We also work closely with returning citizens who have been formally incarcerated that own businesses or are looking to start a business. We are all about uniting our community by any means necessary.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
What are you passionate about? Once you find your passion then you will find your perfect business. When you love what you do it makes all the difference in the world. It doesn’t feel like a job. Do research on your niche before you get started so you have all your ducks in a row. Don’t just go off everything someone tells you. There are a lot of people out there who claim to be down for the movement or the black community and they are not. They are simply just trying to get rich off the movement please do your research. I wish I would have done more research when starting my business. I wasted several hundred dollars going through a company to file all my paperwork to start my LLC when I found out later I could have done it myself for under $150.00.
Pricing:
- Promotions on our social media pages Tier 1 – Tier 4 $29.99 – $129.99
- 1hr Live CEO Interview on IG $49.99
- Vendors for Virtual Expo $50.00 – $300.00
- Live Interview at your business within 60miles $149.99
- Website Ad Space $125 – $400.00
Contact Info:
- Email: info@blackconnectionsllc.com
- Website: blackconnectionsllc.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackconnections/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blackconnections/
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/blackconnectio2/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIKpou0-Wk03bIV_jPN9JiQ
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/blackconnections/
Image Credits
360 Photography Eric Taylor Photography Cordero Captured Photography
