- 4 weeks ago
Legacy isn’t something you leave behind. It’s something you live every day. This session explores how founders build at the intersection of purpose and profitability—where identity informs vision, and vision demands disciplined execution. Through guided conversation, panelists will share defining moments that shaped their paths and the decisions that continue to shape their businesses.
Framed through four dimensions of legacy—Inherited, Collective, Personal, and Chosen—this conversation helps translate lived experience into practical application. Attendees will walk away with a grounded understanding of how to align who they are with what they build—and how to sustain both over time.
Speakers:
Tonya Rutherford, Nia Ford Consulting
Marcus Johnson, FloLifestyle
Lyndsae' Peele, Kiva US
Framed through four dimensions of legacy—Inherited, Collective, Personal, and Chosen—this conversation helps translate lived experience into practical application. Attendees will walk away with a grounded understanding of how to align who they are with what they build—and how to sustain both over time.
Speakers:
Tonya Rutherford, Nia Ford Consulting
Marcus Johnson, FloLifestyle
Lyndsae' Peele, Kiva US
Category
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello, hello, hello. I'm back, everyone.
00:03Again, I'm Melissa Mitchell with ABL Creations.
00:06And this topic is something I hold very near and dear to myself also.
00:10We're talking about building a legacy.
00:13How do you protect your purpose and make it profitable?
00:16I have some amazing panelists and a moderator coming up.
00:19Lindsay is going to moderate some amazing human beings, Marcus and Tanya.
00:24So let's bring them up and see what they have to talk about today.
00:28Okay. All righty.
00:37Y'all hear me? Can y'all hear me?
00:40How many legacy builders are in the room today?
00:43I need to see everybody's hand, a toe, a leg, if you can raise that too.
00:48We are so excited for today's conversation.
00:50We have two amazing panelists who will be joining us.
00:53We're going to bring to the stage Ms. Tanya Rutherford.
00:56She is a legacy and relationship strategist, advisor, coach, and speaker.
01:02She is trusted by entrepreneurs and career professionals to help them build meaningful strategic relationships
01:09and create purpose-driven legacies.
01:12Welcome, Ms. Tanya, to the stage.
01:15Next up, we have Mr. Marcus Johnson.
01:18He is a billboard charting jazz pianist, entertainment attorney, entrepreneur, and lifestyle brand creator.
01:26He is a JD, MBA graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and the McDonough School of Business.
01:33Marcus is also a two-time funded founder and an NAACP Image Award nominee.
01:39Please give both of our panelists a round of applause.
01:45So today we are talking about legacy, purpose, and profit in practice.
01:51Oftentimes when we hear the word legacy, we're thinking that thing that we're leaving behind when we close our eyes.
01:57But today we are challenging that concept.
02:00We're thinking about building the legacy as we do the work today.
02:04Now, my first question is for you, Ms. Tanya.
02:07Hello, hello, and welcome.
02:09I love this dress, first of all.
02:11Ms. Tanya, your living legacy framework challenges the traditional idea that legacy is something reserved for the end of our
02:20lives.
02:20Tell us, what are people getting wrong about legacy, and why does recognizing that what we're creating in every day
02:27challenge the way that we build and lead?
02:29Thank you so much for that question.
02:31So in my living legacy framework, I acknowledge that there are four types of legacy.
02:37There is the inherited legacy that we get from our families, from our culture.
02:43There is a collective legacy, what we are building with other people.
02:47And then there's your personal legacy.
02:49How are you showing up in the world?
02:51And then finally, there's your chosen legacy.
02:54What do you want to impart to the world?
02:57And the reason that I created this framework was because I thought that people were really, really getting it wrong.
03:03Just as you said, they were thinking about death.
03:06They were thinking about funerals.
03:07They were thinking about, you know, something at the end of life.
03:11However, we are also indoctrinated to think about legacy from a very Eurocentric perspective.
03:18And that is that legacy is just wealth and whatever you're passing on materially.
03:26The problem with that is that that leaves too many of us out of the conversation.
03:30And so it's real.
03:31That's what people were getting wrong.
03:33That they were thinking just about wealth, just about status, and all of those things.
03:37That's important.
03:38But legacy is also in your grandmother's recipes.
03:41Legacy is in that 60 years of family reunions that y'all go to that carry on our stories.
03:46That is what legacy is as well.
03:49And what I want people to do to your second question is you are creating a legacy whether you are
03:55being intentional about it or not.
03:57And so I challenge everyone to actually sit down, to think about it, and be very intentional about the legacy
04:04that you are leaving and creating.
04:06I love that because it really helps us to shift the idea from legacy being a destination to actually a
04:13daily practice.
04:14You all hear that?
04:15So, Marcus, I want to shift to you just a bit.
04:18Now, your career has crossed multiple avenues from music to business, the law, entertainment, entrepreneurship, and technology.
04:27So tell us a little bit, when you look back, what's one expectation or definition of success that you intentionally
04:35chose not to carry forward?
04:37And how did that decision create space for the life and business you have today?
04:42My parents were entrepreneurs, so I was born into an entrepreneurial family.
04:47However, it still dealt with the societal norms of go to school, get an education, get a job, and go
04:55work for someone.
04:56And that is what I left behind a long time ago.
04:59I had my own business when I was 13, washing cars.
05:03I had Marcus's lawn care service.
05:06I mean, whatever I was doing, it had MJ on it.
05:08And so from there, it was just going on and the next step and the next step.
05:12And then understanding that your success in your life is the thing that you wake up with every day, the
05:19thing that allows you to smile at yourself when you get up and wink at yourself and be the first
05:24person to wink at yourself every day.
05:25Because if you're not, nobody can do that for you.
05:28Nobody can love you more than you love yourself.
05:30Nobody can get out there and work harder than you for yourself.
05:34And then the last part of it was I learned early, spending a lot of time just daydreaming, understanding that,
05:40look, you have to do whatever makes you smile between the time when you close your eyes and when you
05:45go to sleep because that is when you are dealing with you.
05:48And if you let go of all that other stuff, you can still get the education.
05:51You can still learn how to play music.
05:54You can still understand how to put together a pro forma and a business plan, and you can still go
05:59out there and do it for your daggone self.
06:02That's what I let go of.
06:04I don't need it.
06:05No offense to somebody that has a job, right?
06:09But I figured that I don't want to be like Mike.
06:12I want to be like the person that pays Mike, right?
06:14I want to be that person on that side of the desk.
06:17I love that.
06:18And I think what you shared was that the idea of choosing what to carry, what to release, really helps
06:25us to give permission to be able to reshape our mindset.
06:28Because a lot of times we feel like we just have to walk in the path that we saw, that
06:33we've been exposed to.
06:34But as we are all legacy builders out here, we can pick and choose what we want to create.
06:39And if we haven't seen the path being created, guess what?
06:42We start a new path for ourselves.
06:44Now, this question is for the both of you.
06:46So both of your journeys have been shaped by people, communities, and experiences that ultimately came before you.
06:52What and how have those legacies that you've inherited from family, mentors, or even community members, how have they influenced
07:00the way that you lead today?
07:03So my family, my grandparents, and my parents, and my mother's siblings, and my father's siblings as well, really have
07:15created a legacy of support for one another.
07:18And my grandparents, they raised five kids, and they were still allowing their nieces and nephews to stay with them.
07:28And so it's very much a legacy of community and a legacy of support.
07:34And I found myself just naturally doing that because that's what I saw.
07:38You know, I created, in the fourth grade, I was creating community with people saying, hey, we need to learn
07:43our black history.
07:44You know, and then I created a black student union.
07:46And so it was just constantly, you know, being connected to community.
07:51And so that's what I got from my folks.
07:54I think that you also suggested that there are, and you and Marcus both suggested it, that there are legacies
08:01that we want to carry forward, but there are also legacies that we want to leave behind, right?
08:07We want to lay those down.
08:08And for me, that was really not being able to show that I was sad about something or scared about
08:16something, because my grandmother, she didn't get permission to be able to show that she was sad or scared.
08:24She only was given permission to show that she was mad or that she had power.
08:29And so that's how I started showing up.
08:32That's what I saw.
08:33And what I realized was that was something that I need to lay down.
08:37It got us to where we needed to be, and I know that it served a purpose.
08:41However, I don't need to carry that anymore.
08:45And I'll tell you this.
08:46Both of my parents are also mental health professionals.
08:49So going through the therapy journey that I had to go through in different points in my life, there was
08:55the Marcus that got me through being an FSOW, which is former slave of Willa.
09:01And by the way, my mother's name is Willa, which is why I left that water back there on the
09:05table and didn't bring it out here, right?
09:07So there's these things where I come from a family where my mom did not spare the ride.
09:12I definitely didn't.
09:13But I have five brothers and sisters.
09:15We're all doctors and lawyers and successful in what we do.
09:20But what I needed as a child to get through that at 14 when I didn't understand a mom that
09:27was unable to give me the emotional support that I needed and the hugs that I needed, those are the
09:32things that helped.
09:33I was blessed with a father who was like, son, you need to give your mom a break.
09:37She's just trying to make it in the world.
09:40And he gave me the compassion to say, like, OK, and the idea that I can do this completely on
09:47my own and my own way.
09:49And coming from East St. Louis, Illinois, and if you don't know where that is, it's the hook.
09:54My dad came from the—I see the smiles out there.
09:56My dad's from East St. Louis.
09:58And to be able to have a Ph.D. at 26, you know, and I was born at Ohio State
10:04in the 70s when he was a professor there.
10:07Think about that.
10:08At the age of 30, I knew everything was possible.
10:11And that set me up to be able to say, like, look, I'll leave this behind, but I'm going to
10:15lead by example.
10:16And not what you all say to me, right?
10:19Marcus, you shouldn't be in music and getting in arguments with them.
10:22But at the end of the day, when I got the law degree in the NBA and had two CDs
10:26out, when he said, son, I'm so glad you didn't listen to me.
10:30I said, but, Dad, I didn't listen to those words you said.
10:33I watched what you did.
10:35That was amazing.
10:36Because guess what?
10:38People do watch what we say even when they don't listen.
10:41People watch what we do even if they don't listen to what we say.
10:44That's why we have to be so mindful in how we move and how we operate in everyday life because
10:49people are watching.
10:50And not just in our families, our community members, our ecosystem partners, the people that we engage with every single
10:56day.
10:56So, Marcus, I just want to stay with you for a moment.
10:59So, we know that technology is ultimately changing the way that we do everything in life, how we do business,
11:05how we carry our professional careers.
11:07Rather than just simply making us more productive, you've spoken about technology in a very different capacity and how we
11:14create more presence.
11:15My question for you is, how can entrepreneurs and everyone else who's in this audience, how can they use technology
11:22very intentionally to make sure that they're creating space for the people, relationships, and experiences that are ultimately becoming their
11:30legacy?
11:31Absolutely.
11:32So, with artificial intelligence, whether it's a cloud or a perplexity or a Gemini or a chat GPT, if you
11:39look at your destination, as we're talking about, and what you want, and you look at your most important receipt
11:44that you have in your life, which is your calendar, you can say, here's the places where I need to
11:49be.
11:49You can use AI to set up the times where, hey, look, I need you to send this email versus
11:56me, right?
11:57I need you to go through my LinkedIn or I need you to go through my bank statements and find
12:01out where I can save money so you can buy some of your things back.
12:05And then the whole idea of actually buying your time back, AI allows you to do that when you're talking
12:11into even a Google Assistant.
12:13Hey, can you schedule this meeting for me?
12:15Hey, can you remind me about this email?
12:17Hey, can you remind me to go to bed?
12:19And this is one of my best friends, and we always laugh at 10 o'clock p.m. every night
12:23when my alarm goes off because it says, take your behind to bed.
12:29That is me getting my time back, getting my energy back so that I can wake up ready to go
12:34the next morning.
12:35Don't let this stuff think that all you're using this for is the material productivity.
12:40This allows you to get things off your plate, and I see it.
12:44My daughter's 14, and I see it when I close my books and things are still going out and emails
12:50are still being sent, and we get to watch her favorite show on the couch.
12:53She's like, Dad, I'm so glad that we watched this before I came here, you know, a couple of days
12:58ago.
12:58That is what we're seeding into the future, and that is also going to the point of legacy because my
13:05daughter gets to see, my dad is sitting here holding my hand as we're watching this movie, and I know
13:12how busy he is.
13:13How did he do that?
13:14And I tell her, these are the things that you can do to use this to leverage your time and
13:18buy your time back.
13:19But see, one thing that I also don't want anybody to miss is that you've built a discipline, right?
13:24You are very disciplined in how you move the work that you do and how you allow technology to help
13:30shape the disciplines that you have.
13:32And we all have a lot of technology literally at our fingertips to be able to do the same thing,
13:37but it's about what do we value?
13:39It's about what are we seeing as our purpose, what is the legacy that we're ultimately trying to create, and
13:45now being able to implement the tools that we didn't really have 20 and 30 years ago to be able
13:50to do that.
13:51And, Lindsay, like, I'll go back to what I say whenever I teach.
13:54The first thing I do, I teach at Howard University, and I teach business development and entertainment law.
13:58The first thing I ask my students to do is tell me what you value, and they write it down.
14:03I value my family.
14:04I value my time.
14:05I value this.
14:06And then the next thing I ask them to do is look at your calendar, and I want you to
14:11tell me, in your calendar, I need you to prove to me that everything you just said is the truth.
14:17And invariably, the whole class is like, ooh, ooh.
14:20And that's where you can go in, look at your calendar, which is just another spreadsheet, and say, how can
14:26I get more time for these things that I value?
14:28And use it as a tool, not a crutch.
14:31Listen, it sounds like we all have growth work to do after we leave here, okay?
14:35So I need to make sure that you take your notes, and we all need to have a come-to
14:40-Jesus moment with ourselves to reset and to recenter and to really think about where are we putting our time
14:46and our energy and our resources, and does it align with the vision and the values that we're ultimately trying
14:51to create for ourselves?
14:53Thank you for that, Marcus.
14:54And I joke with him because Marcus likes to golf, and I'm like, you know, that's one of your office
14:59spaces.
14:59But he's built the disciplines to be able to be successful and intentional and to be able to do the
15:05things that he enjoyed with that.
15:07Tanya, I saw you about to come in.
15:08What I wanted to say is that Lindsay talked about writing something down.
15:13You all have a piece of paper right there that you guys can write down the questions that we asked
15:19you.
15:19Like, what are you building from a collective perspective?
15:23What organizations exist that you are contributing to?
15:27What's your personal legacy?
15:28So we not only invite you, we strongly encourage you to fill that out and to connect with us as
15:34well if you have any things that you want to talk about.
15:36So this last question is for the both of you.
15:40I want you to think about and to really share with the audience, how have you stayed aligned in those
15:46values that you've created to also help make very necessary decisions to build something sustainable?
15:54Wow.
15:55So I think it's for me recognizing that the most important thing that I can bring to any community, to
16:06any conversation, is my authentic self.
16:10And the way that I do that is that I invest in me.
16:16I have to invest in me.
16:18I have to invest in my mindset.
16:20I have to invest in how I present myself.
16:24I have to invest in, like, what I learn.
16:26And I'm not necessarily talking about degrees here.
16:29But I'm saying that I invest in myself by having a therapist.
16:33I invest in myself by making sure that I have a trainer.
16:38I invest in myself by having my coach, my coach Nick back there who's taking videos right now.
16:44All of these things are important.
16:45And I also invest in myself by having a personal board of directors.
16:50On my personal board of directors.
16:52We have to have all of those things.
16:53So that's how I stay aligned.
16:56I stay aligned because I am constantly being intentional.
17:01And I spend the time that is necessary just with myself, right?
17:06You know, I am definitely an extrovert.
17:08You can't imagine that.
17:09I'm an extrovert.
17:11But I have to also take that time to just sit with me and invest in me and give back
17:15to myself.
17:18I need to be a little more linear than that.
17:20Sometimes I'm not as creative.
17:22So I have lists that I use, right?
17:25And I have models.
17:26I believe anybody with a passion and a model can work.
17:29So in my book, I talk about the idea of deeper.
17:32Dream, engage, environment, plan, execute, reflect.
17:35And when you do that, you have a dream that's yours.
17:37You're engaged in it.
17:38We'll sign an engagement letter with an attorney, right?
17:41But we won't sign a letter with ourself.
17:43We don't have fertile environments around us where we plant our seeds that, you know,
17:48continue to grow, eradicate people that are negative, promote people that are positive.
17:52We don't have written plans, you know, so that when it gets cloudy and you get lost,
17:57you can get back focused.
17:58We go out and do things.
18:00We'll get deep, D-E-E-P-E.
18:02But the real wisdom comes in the reflection and spending time in it.
18:06And literally, I find out where I am in a particular day.
18:09I have my Monday things that I do.
18:11I have my Thursday things that I do.
18:13And again, I'll even use my AI to be like, here's what I'm feeling today.
18:18In my mindset, can you help me with my life model and going deeper?
18:22Where am I right now?
18:24Because I'm a little lost.
18:25And then you have your personal board of directors and friends, those fertile environment folk that help get you back
18:30together.
18:30And they tell you the truth.
18:31This is where you're messing up and here's why.
18:34Or here's where you're doing great and that's why.
18:36And then it's cyclical.
18:37It goes in a circle.
18:38Well, life is not from here to here.
18:40Life is from here to here.
18:42And you go and you just keep right on flying.
18:44But when you have that model with your passion, everything is possible.
18:49Yeah, you know what?
18:50Marcus just reminded me of some things that we were talking about yesterday in the circle, which is that, and
18:55I have to say this as a relationship coach, because we have people who are in our circle.
19:01And we have to make sure that we have the right people in our circle, in our network for the
19:07season that we are in.
19:08And so it's really important that we advised someone yesterday, one of the founders.
19:14And what we realized was that she was getting great opportunities.
19:19But what wasn't happening for her was that she didn't necessarily have the advisors that could help her get to
19:27the next level.
19:27So I just want to remind everyone that we've got to be really intentional about who we have in our
19:32lives.
19:33And we have to be really intentional about making sure that we have the right people for the right season.
19:39So that's just really important.
19:41And I want to leave you with that.
19:42Right people, right season, right?
19:45Make sure that you understand that you are worth the investment.
19:49You are worth the investment.
19:51Know that your legacy is now.
19:53Those are three things that I hope that you all can walk away with in 15 seconds.
19:59Please tell the audience, how can they keep up with you all and follow all of the greatness and the
20:03balance you all are putting in the world?
20:05All right.
20:06So you all have a piece of paper.
20:08And at the bottom, you have a QR code.
20:11You can learn about my living legacy networking circles.
20:15You can book time with me.
20:16There's also posters in the back.
20:18I would love to work with you, help you to build the relationships that create your living legacy.
20:24Same thing.
20:25My QR code is there.
20:26You can find out about our flow products, doing things for the love of, my music, the wine brand that
20:31I own.
20:32And just also what this amazing Lindsay is doing with her company as well, an organization, funding our ideas.
20:41This together, power packed.
20:42I look forward to talking to you.
20:43And thanks for flowing with us.
20:45Thank you all so much for being here.
20:47You can also follow me on Instagram at the Kingdom Wealth Connector.
20:51Have an amazing rest of your Essence Fest and be intentional in investing in yourself.
20:56Thank you, Lindsay.
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