#ToyotaEnTOURage
If somebody would have told me--let’s say, three months ago--that a Fortune-500 company would send me a top-of-the-line vehicle, for an entire week, to highlight Black-owned businesses in my City, FOR FREE, I would’ve said, “el oh el, that’s an example of shooting for the stars while aiming for the moon.” #RIPPopSmoke
But guess what: they did :)
My experience as a member of the #ToyotaEnTOURage was nothing short of tremendous. From September 11-18, 2020, I drove the 2020 Toyota Avalon TRD (pictures by Raval Lavar Photography) as part of Toyota’s “Entrepreneurial Entourage”: a series of activations (hosted in partnership with Black Chambers of Commerce across the country) to highlight Black-owned businesses! From the moment I got the car keys, I was locked-in and clocked-in to creating incredible content that promoted countless Black-owned businesses in Indianapolis.
Over the course of the week, I creatively marketed the following Black-owned businesses:
In addition to driving an incredible vehicle and promoting Black businesses, I created a special series of #MomentsWithMurdock entitled: Talkin’ That Talk With Toyota. For five days, I spoke on the ways that people could leverage Process Towards Progress and Powerpreneurship to push through the pandemonium of our present! Topics included:
In addition to the series, I developed a relationship with, and learn more about, the mogul who is Que Alexander. Que is a Black woman, an entrepreneur and a community leader. She has two businesses: Que Alexander Brows and The Missing Brick. For this activation, I chose to highlight The Missing Brick, which recently was named a Top 100 Pizza Restaurant! Over the course of this week-long activation, I learned about the spirit of a true hustler that lives inside Que, Que’s dedication to creating generational wealth for her sons and her incredible business acumen.
On September 18th, as a way of wrapping up the week-long activation, Toyota, the Indy Black Chamber of Commerce, and all the influencers/entrepreneurs in the EnTOURage came together for a virtual roundtable to discuss being a Black-owned business in 2020. We were able to present content (video by Dex Visuals) and engage in a vulnerable discussion about how the pandemics of our present impact our ability to push forward towards profit and impact.
To conclude, I must say it’s provocative that less than a week after I am part of a life-changing experience, with a national platform, to highlight a Black-woman owned business, the nation is told that the life of another Black woman named Breonna Taylor does not matter. It’s when global companies like Toyota, come together with Black content creators like Dex Visuals and Raval Lavar Photography, to highlight the great work of incredible Black women like Que Alexander, that the life and legacy of Breonna Taylor can live long after The System ends her life. The Entrepreneurial Entourage will not end racism and social entrepreneurship won’t assassinate white supremacy; however, powerful partnerships like this one make a real impact and I am thankful to have been a part of this experience.
