00:00As a way to celebrate entrepreneurial prowess, Essence and Pinesol have partnered up to create the Build Your Legacy Contest,
00:07a $100,000 grant awarded to one Black female entrepreneur to support her business.
00:14This contest was created as a response to Black women being the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs, but also the most underfunded.
00:22We want to change that.
00:24And now, it's time to introduce you to the Build Your Legacy Contest semifinalist, Tasha Danielle of Financial Garden.
00:34I'm a certified public accountant who decided to make a change in my community by financially educating students in kindergarten through 12,
00:42their parents and educators throughout Detroit and Metro Detroit areas.
00:46I started Financial Garden because I realized that there was a gap between my peers and myself when I was on my debt payoff journey.
00:59My peers just didn't think it was possible.
01:01They were like, you're not going to be able to pay off $80,000 of debt.
01:05Like, we're always just going to have a student loan debt.
01:07It's just something to deal with.
01:09And my mindset was different.
01:11I was a tutor in Detroit, and when I would talk to students about money, they just didn't really have any basic understanding of it besides that you buy things with it.
01:22So, I started to teach kids how to win with money.
01:26I teach them about entrepreneurship.
01:28I wrote a kid's book, Amina's Bracelet, A Kidpreneur Story, just so students can be inspired to start their own business.
01:35They also are taught about budgeting, investing, banking, and debt fundamentals so they can avoid student loan traps.
01:43I decided to start this company during my journey of paying off $80,000 of debt so students wouldn't make the same mistakes that I did.
01:55I understood that my money mindset began when I was a young child with my grandmother.
02:00She taught to me about everything from saving to investing to what a mortgage was.
02:06And so, I just felt that a lot of students don't have the opportunity that I had with my grandmother or someone in their life to really instill financial wisdom.
02:14When I think of helping others and teaching them how to win with money, I think of my grandmother because she instilled those lessons into me.
02:22That always stayed with me, and I was always able to save my money.
02:25I bought my first car when I was 15 just because of all those lessons I had with her.
02:30She constantly taught me about setting goals, financial goals for myself, which is why I was able to pay off all my debt before the age of 30, and why I am doing what I'm doing right now in the community.
02:43The $100,000 would be a lot for my business.
02:52I would be able to scale up and be in more schools.
02:56I would be able to hire staff to educate them on how to execute financial gardens curriculum throughout Detroit and Metro Detroit.
03:03And I can also launch the curriculum licensing of my curriculum.
03:07Educators love financial garden curriculum, and they're always asking how can they teach a curriculum because a financial garden can't reach schools across the U.S.
03:16So, when I'm at conferences and presenting financial garden, that's always a question.
03:21So, I would build out an online curriculum for educators to use and start licensing the financial garden curriculum.
03:27You've heard from Tasha Danielle, and now it is time that we hear from you.
03:32Please vote for the entrepreneur that you think should win $100,000 at Essence.com slash your legacy.
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