Friday's Too Good Not To Share: August 14, 2020
Women Bossing Up Edition
Every Friday, I share other great content (with some added context) to dive into over the weekend.
This weekend, I want to highlight women bossing up. These are stories of women who pioneered fields and are disrupting industries.
Escape Through Death
The underground railroad was had a lot of unsung heroes. One of them was Henrietta Duterete where her funeral home was one of the stops on the Underground Railroad. She grew up in Philly (just like Jilly and Big Willy) where she helped pioneer what is known today as Black Excellence. She married a successful business-man Francis A. Duterte who owned an undertaking business. Unfortunately, six years after they married Francis died and all of their children died in infancy. She was left alone but didn’t get down on herself. She still had the business and made it a success in more ways than one.
Read more of her story here.
Cindy Gallop: The Most Provocative Woman in the World
Let’s talk about sex.
Cindy Gallop, advertising executive turned multi-hyphenate entrepreneur, has built her whole career out of memorable statements. An outspoken advocate for more open attitudes about sex, she founded her first tech startup, Make Love Not Porn, in 2009; this year, she created her own fund, All The Sky Holdings, to help other “Sextech” companies get off the ground. Here, she talks disruption, workplace harassment, and why trust makes businesses successful.
She’s full of quoteables, but one that stands out is:
At the top of every industry today, you have a closed loop of white guys talking to white guys about other white guys, and the product you get from that closed loop is Batman versus Superman. When you invite women and people of color into “The Room Where It Happens,” what you get is “Hamilton,” which has not only exploded every creative convention of the Broadway musical, but—and this is not coincidental—is also currently making billions of dollars. There is a huge amount of money to be made out of taking women and people of color more seriously.
Read more here (at a minimum read the section on “Trust and Success” about halfway down).
Found in the James Clear 3-2-1 Newsletter.
Acquired Podcast: Oprah (Harpo Studios)
I admit, I never really knew how Oprah rose to fame. I just knew she gave away cars on TV, had to fight her whole life, and become the first Black, female billionaire.
But how did she do it?
As you might imagine, her come up has been amazing and we have to continue to celebrate how she prioritized ownership over a check.
Episode Overview
Oprah Winfrey, and her juggernaut conglomerate Harpo Studios. Born to a poor single mother in the segregated 1950's deep south, Oprah's rise from terrible adversity to the wealthiest Black woman in the world ranks among the very greatest American success stories. And oh yeah — along the way she single-handedly created the entire influencer economy, rewrote the blueprint of a modern power broker, and set the world record for most cars given away at one time (276). Sit back, listen and get ready to live your best life.
The full episode is a 2 hour listen so get your popcorn ready.
Listen here.
Found in the David Perell Newsletter.
Other reads: Mary Ellen Pleasant, one of the first black self-made millionaires | Agnes B. Marshall: The 19th-century entrepreneur who pioneered modern ice cream
Leave today better than yesterday ✌️.
What I’m listening to this weekend: