Black Business Month was established to recognize and celebrate Black-owned businesses and to highlight the critical role they play in the U.S. economy and in their communities. It was said to be founded by historian John William Templeton and entrepreneur Frederick E. Jordan Sr. They recognized that support for Black businesses can drive economic empowerment in Black communities.
Hera Hub is thrilled to celebrate a few of the black-owned businesses in our community. We hope you’ll consider reaching out to support them as well!
Carlsbad
Krystalynn Williams, CEO/Founder of Krystal Clear Mind
Licensed therapist, Krystalynn Williams specializes in supporting mothers who strive to live life from barely surviving to thriving through speaking, coaching and therapy. Krystalynn’s experience in providing mental health services to low-income families with children exhibiting at-risk behaviors helped shift her focus to the center of the family: the wellness of mother (and parents). She believes the best way to offer quality love and care to others is to serve from a full cup.
Who inspires you as a business owner?
Dr. Christine Coleman, LMFT
Connect with Krystalynn on Instagram: @krystalynnlmft
Stephanie Singleton, Motivator in Chief of Prana Wellness
After spending 7 years as a CNN producer, Stephanie traveled to Rishikesh, India to study traditional practices of yoga, and now educates all of her clients from that unique, traditional perspective. Her business, Prana Wellness, was born in India in 2018, from Stephanie’s own need for wellness tools in a stressful world. Stephanie is an RYT 500hr yoga instructor and Clinical Yoga Therapist Rx, specializing in anxiety, chronic pain, and gut health. She studied Yoga Therapy under the renowned Dr. Larry Payne, at Loyola Marymount University, and is certified in trauma-conscious and perinatal yoga. She teaches specialized yoga to Active Duty military and Veterans. As a speaker, Stephanie has been called upon as an expert in wellness to speak at IDEA World Fitness Convention, and to organizations like Zip Recruiter, UCSD, USC, and US Marine Corps. She has been featured in Essence, and on BNC News!
Who inspires you as a business owner?
I am inspired by my clients’ learning how to understand and heal their own bodies, through the tools of yoga.
Connect with Stephanie on Instagram: @pranawellnessworks
Kellie O. Davis, CEO/Founder of MEconceptions
As Founder and CEO of MeConceptions, Ms. Davis manages a creative project management company and a multi-media platform that includes mostly original work. She is committed to community building, engagement, and social equity, positioning herself on several boards and committees.
Among her top Values:
- Firm Faith and Trust in the Divine
- Family
- Trust and Integrity
- Honor and Majesty
- Grace
Ms. Davis’ play, Transitions: A Trilogy of One-Act Plays, garnered critical acclaim and was produced by the Robey Theatre Company in conjunction with The Los Angeles Theatre Center. It received five NAACP Theatre nominations and won the 2011 NAACP Theatre Award for Best Playwright Local and Best Ensemble. In 2012, this play was featured in the National Black Theatre Festival held in Winston-Salem, NC. Ms. Davis began her career as a community advocate and teaching artist for Hospital Audiences, Inc. in New York. Through leading workshops in jails, detention centers, schools, behavioral health facilities, and shelters, she gained experience handling sensitive topics and appreciating different perspectives. Ms. Davis’ work focused on raising social awareness on issues like housing readiness/security, parenting, violence prevention, and HIV/AIDS awareness.
Kellie O. Davis is a seasoned professional with over 30 years of experience in the entertainment and journalism industries. She holds a B.S. degree in Telecommunications from Eastern Michigan University, with a minor in Journalism.
Who inspires you as a business owner?
Mary Ellen Pleasant (1814-1904), known as the Mother of California’s Civil Rights Movement, was a renaissance woman with many accomplishments. In the 1850s, she moved to San Francisco and used her business savvy to invest earnings from housekeeping and cooking in stock and money markets. Ms. Pleasant launched diverse businesses such as property investments, boarding houses, laundries, matchmaking, and mining enterprises, building a fortune during a challenging time in American history for a Black woman. She had a business mind for social justice and using wealth for a greater mission, this is what is inspiring about her. Ms. Pleasant’s passing from this life was rather sad and tragic, I am choosing a happier transition of life with loved ones and with comfort.
Connect with Kellie on Instagram: @meconceptions; @therhythmkeepers and Facebook: Kellie O. Davis; The Rhythm Keepers
Chicago
Pat Day-McCray, CEO and Founder of PDM Journey Coaching
Pat Day-McCray is a grief coach, inventor, and speaker who turned her loss into a journey of empowerment. After losing her only child to complications related to Short Bowel Syndrome, she delved into research on a mother’s fear of communicating with physicians, grief after losing a child, and the emotional development of children with medical issues. This led her to establish businesses and services that support these causes.
As the CEO and Founder of PDM Journey Coaching, Pat supports and empowers mothers to advocate for their children in intensive care units (ICU) and guides those facing grief to a place of acceptance, peace, and gratitude.
She is also the CEO and Founder of A Pathway From Grief, a not-for-profit organization providing support and parenting skills to African American mothers in underserved communities, aiming to eliminate emotional and physical abuse and premature deaths among black children.
Her B2B organization, Medically Inspired Reading About Challenging Life Experiences (MIRACLE) Online Bookstore, introduces real-life medical illnesses to children, promoting acceptance, building self-esteem, and reducing bullying and suicide.
In addition, Pat is the inventor of Therapeutic Dolls, which help children understand surgical procedures and participate in their healthcare. She holds a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Overcoming her stuttering, Pat now delivers impactful presentations that have positively impacted countless women and their families. As a divorcee and mother of three successful adult children, she attributes her strength and innovation to her faith in Jesus Christ.
Who inspires you as a business owner?
Ashley Massengill
Connect with Pat on Facebook: PDM Journey Coaching
Cheryl Vargas, Creative in Chief of Art Studio 928 LLC
Cheryl Vargas is a portrait artist with a BFA in Graphic Arts from Concordia University Chicago. She is the President of NAWBO Chicago, a Goldman Sachs 10KSB Alumni Ambassador and founder of Art Studio 928, LLC, a WBE|MBE certified business. Her company melds art, technology and teaching into a business that serves corporate teams. Studio 928 brings art to the workplace in the form of traditional acrylic painting, art team building activities and creating cultural ARTifacts.
What inspires you as a business owner?
Through art, I find peace, beauty and meditative flow. Art is my passion and it compels me to persevere, keep moving forward and to never give up.
Connect with Cheryl on Instagram: @studio.928
DC
Alexandra Herndon, CEO of MMI Consulting Group, LLC
As the CEO and founder of MMI Consulting Group, Alexandra J. Herndon is passionate about creating collaborative spaces for purposeful work and providing her clients with the tools they need for organizational transformation. She builds relationships with her clients based on trust, integrity, and transparency, setting the standard for every interaction the MMI Consulting Group team has with its clients and colleagues.
Alexandra holds a Bachelor of Arts from Howard University in Economics; and is a certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Instructional System Designer, Master Trainer, and Virtual Facilitator. She began her career as a Program and Training Manager over 15 years ago within the U.S. Department of Defense. Mrs. Herndon has been recognized by her industry colleagues for having a gift for unearthing wisdom, casting vision, and executing in excellence. Alexandra realized her approach to enriching client outcomes was unique to the consulting world, leading her to found MMI Consulting Group LLC (MMI) in 2016.
Determined to grow the economy and community, Mrs. Herndon and the MMI team felt the call to magnify their support of the professional and organizational growth, capacity, competencies, and capabilities of small businesses. Through education and application, and by building stronger infrastructure and growth strategies – these businesses develop the scalability and sustainability to do business bigger and to ‘Do Business Better.’
Sowing the seeds of success into these businesses gives them the opportunity to exceed their goals, accomplish their mission sets, and deliver as promised, blossoming them into new beginnings and possibilities. This provides the local community and supplier diversity inclusion offices with fruitful businesses to partner and excel with.
Alexandra J. Herndon is a wife, a mother, an author, and a manifestation enthusiast. Her way of doing business and life special every day is by leaving the people she serves, the places she goes, and the planet she loves, better than she found it.
Who inspires you as a business owner?
There is not just one person that inspires me, but all people who are seeking wisdom, knowledge, and understanding truly inspire me; they are our why. We have built a Corporate Promise around them: We create the atmosphere for answers and transformation. And they are our Vision: To inspire humans to be their best selves and build extraordinary legacies. As they inspire us, we inspire them.
Connect with Alexandra on Twitter: @ConsultwithMMI
Janice R McRae, Founder & CEO of Nexus 8 International, LLC
As the founder and CEO of Nexus 8 International, I have years of experience in developing and delivering services that harness the power of critical problem solving and collective intelligence. Having been a Speech & Language Pathologist, Mental Health Specialist and Facilitator, I’ve experienced first-hand the substantial power of a cohesive team. My mission is to take collaboration to new heights with Hippra, our web-based and mobile platform that enables healthcare professionals to engage in clinical knowledge-sharing within or outside their work environments, particularly when facing complex or challenging medical problems.
With a Ph.D. in International Conflict Analysis and Resolution and Master’s degrees in Comparative Politics and Counseling Psychology, I am passionate about helping people solve resistant or challenging situations. I have facilitated workshops, published research, and served on advisory boards for various organizations and institutions related to social justice, equity, and critical decision-making. Also certified in Digital Health and Strategy, I plan to use emerging technologies, such as AI and machine learning, to elicit the infinite power of collective intelligence to improve the success rate of treatment-resistant cases for healthcare providers. The ultimate goal is to enhance the critical decision-making capabilities of healthcare professionals in order to increase the likelihood of positive outcomes for their patients.
Who inspires you as a business owner?
I have had several family members who were successful entrepreneurs – starting with my father who had two businesses, real estate development and landscaping, an uncle who owned several cleaners, an uncle who had his own insurance agency and an aunt who was an early seller of Avon products. These family members instilled in me the understanding of what could be done with perseverance, vision and insight. I still look to them for inspiration.
Connect with Janice on Facebook: Hippra
Kim Alfonso, CEO of Results One LLC
Kim Greenfield Alfonso, MBA, is a co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Results One LLC, a certified minority and women-owned small business located in Washington, DC. Results One works with organizations to assist them in creating an environment that embodies Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility. Results One provides DEI Training, Disability Inclusion consulting and training, Mediation Services, and Digital Accessibility testing and training tailored to the specific workplace and industry. Our strength lies in our trainers, who are certified in their respective industries but also have lived and personal experiences.
Her foray into the DEIA field began 22 years ago when my daughter was born. She was born with Peters Anomaly, which resulted in her having limited vision and being a braille reader and cane traveler. So, this topic of diversity, inclusion and accessibility is personal to her as she has watched her daughter through the years struggle with online accessibility issues (during school and college), applying for scholarships and internships, accessing school materials, and most recently, trying to access a list of COVID testing sites online that was inaccessible to her. No one is surprised that her mission is to create an accessible and inclusive world where everyone is All In!
Who inspires you as a business owner?
My daughter who reminds me everyday that my work in accessibility and inclusion is critically important!
Kimberly Hall, Founder of Sip+Tipple
Kimberly Hall’s appreciation of spirits and a great cocktail escalated during the pandemic. The free time to explore new brands and ingredients kicked off a whole new journey that even she didn’t see coming.
After more than 20 years in communications on campaigns and advocacy, a spirits business was not top of her list possible career paths. But after experiencing the challenges in being able to access and purchase Black-owned spirit brands with confidence she started Sip+Tipple, the membership club for Black-owned spirit enthusiasts.
Sip+Tipple is a community of members interested in exploring flavor profiles – understanding what they like and why – and want an easy and convenient to find and purchase Black-owned brands.
Who inspires you as a business owner?
Sip+Tipple members inspire me everyday. I love having the opportunity to play a role in helping to build a community through our love for Black-owned spirits, education and the discovery of new Black-owned brands in the spirits and bar space.
Connect with Kimberly on Instagram: @SipandTippleClub and Facebook: Sip + Tipple
Kyra Frisby, Owner of Kyra’s Kreations, LLC
Kyra Frisby makes one-of-a-kind crocheted, knitted, and beaded accessories. Art therapy is used to teach academics, basics life skills and business concepts.
Who inspires you as a business owner?
Julia Westfall inspires me as a dedicated leader that has empathy in helping others to reach their goals.
Connect with Kyra on Facebook: Kyra Lisa Crawford-Frisby
Leah Todd, Owner of Feast in a Basket
Leah Todd, raised in Pennsylvania, is a caterer, teacher, and foodie based in Washington DC, where she attended college. The company Feast in a Basket was initiated with the aim of creating intimate moments for busy professionals. The belief was that this could be remedied by providing a gourmet alternative, delivered in a keepsake basket. The company has expanded its services to include catering for small groups to large corporate events. Classes are also offered to teach the importance of balanced, healthy eating and nutrition. In her spare time, Leah Todd loves taking day trips around the DMV area and indulging in others’ culinary creations. Ancestry.com and discovering places to play ski-ball are her obsessions.
Who inspires you as a business owner?
I am often inspired by my clients. They ask me to be great and I try my best to accomplish that goal. I usually know immediately if I’ve been successful by the empty plates and smiles. My son is a constant inspiration as he offers ideas and keeps me up on current trends and innovations. Lastly, my husband who knows me best and always knows the right thing to say when I’m having doubts.
Connect with Leah on Instagram: @feastinabasket
Lukisha King, President of Hearts CPR LLC
Hearts CPR LLC is an Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and First Aid education and training center. We offer American Red Cross and American Heart Association CPR training classes to the Washington, DC, Maryland, Virginia and Florida areas.
Who inspires you as a business owner?
My daughter inspired me to be a business owner. Growing up as a black female in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, I didn’t see many Black Female entrepreneurs. My inspiration is to continue to be example to my daughter and other young women that opportunities are endless and entrepreneurship isn’t scary but can be rewarding and allows oneself the ability to not only control their upward mobility but to give back to their community.
Connect with Lukisha on Facebook: Heartscpr
La Jolla
Eyga Mojus, Founder and CEO of San Diego Swim Week
San Diego Swim Week (SDSW) is a luxury swimsuit & resort wear fashion show happening in San Diego, California. We are a platform for designers and models to exhibit their talent, creating a network of entrepreneurs and creatives that strengthen the fashion community through runway shows, networking events and behind-the-scenes opportunities.
What inspires you as a business owner?
My goals and my clients.
Connect with Eyga on Instagram: @sdswimweek
Mission Valley
Nicole Reynolds, Owner of Cake and Sip San Diego
Born and raised in San Diego, Nicole owned her first business at the age of 22. After successfully operating it for 13 years, she made the decision to shift her career trajectory and follow her passion for cake decorating. In 2019, she graduated from a Culinary Arts Academy, aiming to pursue teaching entry-level cake decorating. Unfortunately, the plans had to be put on hold temporarily due to the impact of COVID.
By 2022, Nicole completed her studies in Digital Marketing at UCSD Extension and began crafting her business plan for teaching entry-level cake decorating. With over 25 years of professional cake decorating experience under her belt, she made a significant choice in 2023. She established “Cake and Sip” in San Diego, aiming to offer an all-inclusive experience unlike any other. Her vision was to provide a space where guests could relish the edible side of art, learning the techniques to create and adorn their very own pieces of edible artwork.
Who inspires you as a business owner?
I would have to say the women entrepreneurs in my family because they are examples of what hard work and dedication are. And seeing successful women so close to me makes me work even harder to make my dreams a reality.
Connect with Nicole on Instagram: @cakeandsipsd and Facebook: Cake and Sip San Diego
Temecula
Theresa Wells, Integrative Health & Performance Coach of Tone At Home Fitness
Theresa Wells is an Integrative Health & Performance Coach and an advocate in the health and fitness industry. Providing services in the areas of personal training, nutrition coaching and athletic conditioning and private and online marathon training programs. She also provides online courses centered around self-care (mental and physical health). She firmly believes in an alternative healing, holistic health and whole person approach. She merged her over 20 years experience in school based counseling and mental and physical health with her vast knowledge in the fitness industry; in order to create a realistic, results based, appropriate approach in which to help the Tone At Home Fitness family flourish in living successfully fit lives.
Who inspires you as a business owner?
My grandfather
Connect with Theresa on Instagram: @coachtheresawells, and Facebook: Theresa Wells and Build A Better You Fitness & Nutrition Program
Felicia Harris, Advisory Board Member/ So. Ca. representative/ General Administrator of Greater Works Today, Inc.
Felicia recently received an honorary doctorate in humanitarian works. She firmly believes that we can transform our cities, one community at a time. The greatest reward she has ever received is giving hope to elderly people, homeless people, and cancer patients. Being able to give back brings her the most happiness. She has been blessed in order to bless others. She seeks partnerships for monetary donations in order to help others find hope.
What inspires you as a business owner?
Being of service to our community and those in need.
Laytricia Towery, Principal Interior Design & Space Planner of 918 Design Co.
918 Design Company is a Commercial and Residential interior design firm located in the beautiful Murrieta Valley in California. Laytricia Towery, Principal Designer/Owner, has a passion for both design and helping others realize their vision of a beautiful and functional space, and by combining the two, 918 Design Co. was born. Laytricia has over 20 years in the home and design industry and earned her Bachelors of Science in Interior Design. 918 Design Co. has combined design and relationship building to successfully meet the needs of the customer in a growing business. 918 Design Co specializes in Commercial, Hospitality, and Residential interiors and space planning.
Who inspires you as a business owner?
I am most inspired by the organic collective of designers and creatives that I have surrounded myself with. We share, nurture and lift each other up. As a entrepreneur, it can often feel very lonely and isolated in the day to day course of business. Having a group of designers living the same experience as I am, that are accessible and visible, makes building this business so much more inclusive.
Connect with Laytricia on Instagram: @918designco
