He Hello everybody I’m welcome back to another episode of the male perspective I am your host Lana Reid and today is an amazing day I get to sit down with some of the distinguished gentlemen of five Beta Sigma fraternity Incorporated today I have some gentlemen Finly known as the
Wisconsin sigmas I have brother ell Elliot Anderson and brother stevenh Brown and I am so looking forward to spending some time with them them today and hear more about the work that they are doing in Milwaukee cold Milwaukee but first and foremost as I always do I
Take a quick moment to pause and say thank you to you for making time for me today time is a gift once we give it we cannot get it back so I appreciate you for making time to sit down with me and with that Wisconsin sigmas welcome
Welcome to the show thank you thank you thank you now as we get started as I always do I like to go around and ask how long have you been a sigma man and where did you pledge well um I was initiated at the University of akran outo beta chapter um
In 2001 don’t make me count the years what that 23 23 23 okay um so uh yeah I’ve been I guess I’ve been doing it for a while minute Y and I joined the fraternity um at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater um in Spring um 1988 so I just celebrated um 35 years
Going on 36 years um in the couple weeks awesome awesome so when you uh gentlemen were this was all undergrad right all undergrad yes okay so were all the other were the other divine nine on the yard at the time what was it about 58 of
Sigma that you said this is where I belong yeah when I um when I came through um Whitewater I think at the time we had the um Alphas particularly for fraternities we had the alphas and we had the um omegas um and um Whitewater would always um recognize um
Incoming freshmen in regards to some of the work that they were um doing and where they saw them being potential leaders in in the organization uh and that just resonated with me uh one I was recognized as an outstanding I’m freshman by the by the fraternity but I
Just saw the work they were doing I saw um that they were about Men about about business they were graduating they were Le having leadership um roles I grew up with no biological brothers and so when I saw these men who were around my age but seem have a whole different level of
Maturity uh at the same time um could Stu their butt off um and could party uh like there was no tomorrow I just felt like that was a an organization that um I wanted to seek uh membership into yeah I I remember back at the Freshman you said like many step shows
You sigas can uh do a thing or two do a thing yes ma’am we still can still can Brother Anderson yeah well um it started for me at Ohio State I spent my first three years of college at Ohio State um in my freshman year um we were involved in a non- Greek
Step show and so a bunch of us were just practicing some guys came along and you know were just showing us some steps I didn’t know who they were um you know they introduce themselves they didn’t even say what fraternity they belong to um but they helped us out I come find
Out later that they were signess um and anytime that we’re trying to do something around campus and again I wasn’t aspiring to be GRE at that time but anytime we’re trying to accomplish something on campus um members of Sigma would always step up and help us out and
Engage us um they did not make us feel like um they were AP part from us um you know they really build those relationships transferred to the University of akan um and I experienced the very same thing um where I saw Brothers active uh both in the chapter
And across campus and that really appealed to me um and I came to realize that at least on AC campus that it was very difficult to really accomplish a lot of things in the black community without great support and again that in um so I began to look into um bigma and
The rest of history there you go all righty all righty now as far as your particular chapter your alumni chapter in Milwaukee some folks like me might not think that there’s a very large black population in Wisconsin in the first place but you guys have been around
There for quite some time what year did your chapter come into to be Yeah we actually just this past um um summer celebrated um 60 years of our Charter um within within Milwaukee so you know again if you if you date that back um it tells you that we have been around here
Since the the mid 60s um and our chapter um the alumni chapter actually is the oldest um part of the even before the UN the Collegian chapters we were first established through our alumni chapter and then subsequently the Collegian chapters came to um follow okay so your chapter um is responsible for being
Advisers to some of the undergrad chapters in the area then and now AB absolutely okay so so who do you guys have the responsibility of babysitting babysit very distinguish about this particular the chapter that Steve Brown came from um data beta chapter of the University of Whitewater um and we also have a
Citywide chapter here in the city of Milwaukee positive Chapters at um WM University of Milwaukee Wisconsin University of Wisconsin Milwaukee um University Parks side um and my another school that Steve has a degree but L we also have so that’s that’s our chapter um our visor for but
We also have um both another alumni and a Collegian chapter um at University Wisconsin Madison as well oh okay so there’s two alumni chapters in this in this state oh in the state okay okay I got you I’m learning so there’s actually a third one that well that’s true that’s true
New Sigma that is trying to establish itself I just did not think that that was there many just my ignor let’s be real quick it’s a whole lot of us there a whole bunch I’m just G come and visit like oh there you no sometime they little bit too many of us but
No Okay We’re not gonna speak on that okay let me let me get to an important point about Milwaukee in particular I mean a lot of people country you think Milwaukee they think ah there’s no black folks up there well I think for anybody who lives
Here notion um you know black folks are all FK all over the place particularly on the North side here in the city and there’s a very rich culture here okay every every black city has a North Side okay that’s right whenever you find a Martin Luther kinge dry you know there’s
Probably a u urban urban community too far away from there you go I hear a call of my people all right well let me get into um some of the amazing work that I saw you gentlemen do uh one of the foundational principles that F beta s sits on is
Service and I see you gentlemen are doing a phenomenal job so I wrote down just a few of of the projects that you’re working on and the first one I want to touch on because I see that uh the deadline is coming up soon so could somebody discuss the foundation that you
Have and the academic scholarship that you gentlemen give out okay I’m going to speak briefly and then I’m going to turn it over to Steve I’m give him some more accolades here um several years back we established a foundation for a number of philic purposes um primarily around uh
Pushing uh education and that sort of thing um as part of that uh we had some brothers uh establish a scholarship fund um and a program to continue to raise dollars to fund that scholarship um and brother Steve has been a key to you know making that uh making that work
For the first three four five years of that program um Steve served as the chair of the committee that executes um the fundraising as well as the awarding of the scholarship um and uh we’re very appreciative for the work that he’s done so every year um we’re giving away um uh
$11,000 scholarships to multiple students and typically we will have other students who shine um you know shine and they aren’t necessarily our our top awardees but we try to also provide grants for them as well okay yeah brother Anderson I I will also add this that when we first decide that
We’ll be very intentional in regards to um the the scholarship we we also um identifi that um we want to go beyond just a scholarship so we we officially named it father mentors and Scholars so we thought it was really important um that individuals knew that it um it
Really takes a village in order to um raise a scholar um and we wanted to also um let people know that fatherhood played an important role into that and the importance of identifying as a mentor so it really was more than just the multiple scholarship that that Brother Anderson um talked about it
Really was we trying to create a movement um and I will say I think that um co uh interfered with some of the the the work of the Gathering um we’re really proud that even through the the couple years of co co we actually still gave out um scholarships and that’s
Really important and we also try to really um keep track of those students that receive scholarships we’re not necessarily interested in recruiting them into the organization that’d be fantastic it’s more important that they can see um black men like themselves um who have um and the most part has
Finished uh undergrad degree finished graduate school um they see us having a Brotherhood a bond so when they go on to school because some of these um um youth are still first generation so just having a connection that um you know that they can aspire to kind of think
About and pay for it um as as they trate um through college okay so are there um academical um academic AC academic requirements for them to receive the scholarship go ahead brother yeah so currently students uh they have to be high school graduated middle senior
They have to have at least a 2.5 GPA uh and they have to be attending uh High School in Milwaukee County okay now probably the one change that we made from that was when we first started to give these um scholarships out we actually just had it open to um it
Wasn’t um gender specific uh it so we really opened that one and then we made the intentional decision that we were going to identify um young men who met the criteria that brother Anson um talked about so that was um that was a you know that was something that we
Discussed because I was very fortunate that even my daughter the first year was a scholarship recipient and so I saw the benefits associate with it but as an organization we just wanted to um um in some cases encourage uh young black men who are pursuing uh post postsecondary
Education to five for this one so we made the decision that we would move to a gender specific um scholarship great great yeah they changed right before my daughter grad oh I was gonna add that part I could have used their money that could have paid a
Light so is it just for um fouryear institutions or could could the uh student go to a trade school is it just for four years yeah that’s a that’s a great question um initially it was a for University and then we started to think much more broadly that we recognized
That in some cases is um you might start at a community college or two-year program um to to um to pick up a drade or to get your um associate degree and you move move on so we open it up um in regards to if you’re looking for a trade
You go to um a u a junior college or you direct to a four-year University so we we made it broad so we weren’t we weren’t limiting opportunities to support them um financially okay and students not only really to help as many young men get to uh reach their dreams
Um and to do positive things in the community uh I mean I think initially we started applying um you know some rules relative to what we apply to people who joining our organization who we’re targeting um we’re trying to make sure that young men who may not have all the opportunities
Get opportunities based off of things that we can help them great and the deadline is coming up soon I I saw right uh yes April 6 I think okay okay all right so we got to get them okay well let me let me move on before I take up
All your time uh this evening um one of the other projects that I saw you gentlemen excuse me working on is uh you have a partnership with Hope House ministries and you are bringing smiles to some young folks during the holidays what are you gentlemen doing there so uh that’s another um activity
That we been doing for a while another service project that we’ve been doing for a long time I think like a lot of people making sure they during the holidays young kids have uh the joy of Christmas so we hold a toy drive annually um to gather some toys and to
Divide those to the whole house I believe we’ve used other we’ve had other Partnerships before in the past the Hope was the partner of this year oh okay so you partner with different organizations every Christmas um not necessar it’s not necessarily to be different but it has
Been different okay of time um and so this year has been the host Hope House I think we’ve been with the Hope House for the last couple of years yeah one of the reasons that we moved to the Hope House is that we found that Hope House actually tends to
Um really kind of identify families um and so it was a really um important piece that we recognized that if a family find themselves in that situation the opportunity for us to then give gifts um to the kids who are in in a situation um that’s really powerful to
Us and we can we really can then um be really intentional in regards to who’s receiving it and why they’re receiving it so if I’m not mistaken this is probably year number four or five u in regards to the Hope House we’ve been doing the um toys for TAS for for quite
Some time okay making the baby smile wow all right so y’all come in there with your blue Santa Claus hats on and everything um definitely not since covid uh in the past uh made visits drop off the toys um I think in the past few years we’ve only had a couple of
Brothers drop off the toys to the part organization they’ll take pictures with some other recipients um but we do intend to uh we were actually having conversations along those very lines so your question well let me move on because y’all got a lot of stuff
Going on and I ain’t got enough time to cover it all but um now everybody know well at least I know because I’ve been around y’all for a minute uh sigmas can get suited and booted and I see y’all recently uh gave your suits out to some
Folks what was that all about yeah that’s called um suit the cause um and so again that’s another um event that we have done for quite some time interesting enough though we had uh Interruption we we decided that we weren’t going to continue with that particular um idea and one of the
Chapter Brothers um brought it to us saying you know when I um before I joined the organization I saw the Sig who doing Su the cause and we should really bring that back um we’re like all you have to say is a word so we um one
Of our um fraternity Brothers um owns a sports bar here and so we we made that kind of the ground zero we had individuals um bring in um um suits and jackets and clothes and just various pieces there but part of again really one of the initiative there
And we gave um we’ve given those items to several um organizations as well but it was really much more making sure that we can remove some barriers that individuals might have in regards to when they may go out in interview or when they are going to different functions and and so was this
Intentionality in regards to how can we um really assist those who might need some assistance and we’ve actually broaden it up well majority of the clo um are for um men um our sister organization that also kind of helped us in regard maybe expand that more um but
We really want to be very intentional how we able to um support men as they looking to transition um either from job to job or into the workforce and that’s really was the initial cause um and it it remains something important to us okay so you ass system in having the
Proper attire for interviews and stuff do you also uh because you guys are professional men give them the interview training or help them with the kind of prep for that or we have please go ahead we haven’t this C part of our current program um but that is actually
Something that our s action committee has looked at to expand super calls in particular um to uh go beyond just the the okay all right all right well let me touch on one last initiative before I I pry into y’all business some other way here but um one of the things that F
Beta Sigma fraternity has uh the initia initiatives that it has Nationwide is you guys are very supportive of black business and I see your chapter has been holding that down over the years so could you explain this Nationwide initiative that F Beta Sigma has and how um businesses in the Wisconsin area
Might get in touch with you if they wanted to be a so um every program that we call Black Spin and basically it’s a focus to get people to think about where they spend their dollars lot of lots of other communities spend their money in their
Communities and we want to make sure um that black folks in particular do the shame um it became you know very clear especially during covid um that a lot of our businesses and small businesses were struggling through that time and so we we had a brother who was leading up our
Bigger and better business uh program here at the time um who kind of pushed Us in that direction and we’ve kind of grown that over time um so there are actually two components uh historically one is to actually um uh drive people to businesses and track the dollars that
Are being spent um at these black businesses and then the other thing is to promote those black businesses so right around question is while we’re doing our toy drive and all of that kind of thing we’re making sure that the last 12 days that we are recognizing
Businesses that are out in the community doing things and encourage people to shop uh and and um use those businesses during the holiday season so you you both of you have mentioned Co a couple of times has did Co impact the chapter um much at all did
You guys have to kind of cease operations all around or no uh during Co we continue to work um doing a lot of virtual things like we’re doing right now okay I’m an introvert so I worked well in Co no I no how can you be the fearless leader and does that work
Well it it does you you you are you would be surprised that many great leaders identify themselves as being introverts okay yeah yeah and that’s the great thing about Sigma is that I always found that I could be who I wanted to be um we have a lot of very diverse
Brothers so there are a lot of extroverted brothers who what like to get out and socialize and engage uh and then there are other brothers who um while I I enjoy leading and I’m focused on the work um I am not necessarily you know a super social guy um and so
There’s room for all of those different personalities in F beta city um and I’m fortunate to have a lot of brothers who do like to socialize to pull me out of my shell a little bit um and I’d like to think that I bring something to the
Table and I can show Brothers how to conduct business and how we want to execute our plans within the chapter so it’s a collaboration between us all it works pretty well well since you’re talking about leadership let me ask you this as I mentioned you are the fearless
Leader is it easy or challenging to get all these brothers to on the same page or does everybody Coop oh does everybody cooperate well I will say um so every chapter is different um I I’ve been in a few Delta simma Sigma is one of the best
Chapters that I’ve been in um me it’s in Wisconsin so you know I get on these Wisconsin Brothers but I have to give them their credit um when I showed up here um the brothers kind of rolled out the carpet they made me feel at home um I always
Had the opportunity to uh you know take some initiative take the lead on something um no one came to the table with egos to try to prevent ideas like that from Fling everybody’s very supportive so I I love brother I sing and I have to give Brothers their props
Here um as far as uh leadership the the biggest thing about leadership is continuing to keep Brothers uh focused on what’s important um and making sure that Brothers have room and opportunity um to display their talents uh within the chapter and so that’s what I’m focused on uh as
President now you mentioned that we were talking uh pre interview here that you’re considered the Elder of the chapter uh who else would outrank you in the chapter are you the oldest uh member in well oldest in Sigma Brotherhood in the chapter or is it no no we probably
Have I will say that um well two things to that one um one I’m not the oldest we have a couple that came through um a couple years um before me um but we also very attention of you girl even how we grow our chapter um that we we bring
Brothers com from Collegiate to the alumni chapter but we’ve also um have some um experienced um men that come through our love Night chapter as as members of the organization um and so but I I’m I’m I think I’m old enough to recognize that um leadership doesn’t
Necess always has come with um years in the organization is also what you bring to the the table um based on your your professional life or some other things that you have done with that one so that really is what we’re looking for I also
Uh I’m I try to be also very intentional that because I have been in this organization for over 35 years um that uh when you’re confident to step back so others can step up um and so ultimately we want to make sure that if you’ve been
A brother for one day or you know 35 36 years your opportunity for you to lead can happen immediately so we just um um this this past fall um brought six new members into our alumni chapter and you have individuals who just graduated from undergrad um in 2023 to individuals
Who are uh in their uh late 40s and so you know we we bring those in we and they start working right away within within the organization you know it’s important for us that you be more than a member um but you are ready to step up
With our support um to become leaders U not only within our fraternity but more importantly are you leaders within the community are you leaders um within even as you want to grow your career like you know I’m going to um boast for a moment like we are very fortunate in the city
Of Milwaukee um that our chief of police is a fraternity U member of ours um the superintendent of Milwaukee Public School is a man of Sigma the most recent um superintendent of reine which is about 40 minutes from Milwaukee is a man of six so we recognize that while the
Organization we want leadership we also want that leadership we don’t want to be best kept secret we want that leadership to uh go beyond um the fraternity and what are you doing to impact change within our community or within the organizations that you you may be part
Of you guys are really in the community doing stuff all right go blue and white all right about how how large is the chapter we have uh 45 uh members right now It’s still early in the year so we we expect to be up around 50 or 60 oh the way you’re talking I thought there was like 200 guys in the chapter okay well we definitely have a lot of brothers in the area um and again one of the
Challenges that we have uh as leadership is to bring Brothers back into the F yeah yeah like life be life and so you know time just hard yeah okay well um five Beta Sigma is very unque unique when it comes to the divine nine because constitutionally you are the only frat
That is linked to some beautiful ladies can you explain the history behind that when you say beautiful you mean finer Womanhood right yeah finer Womanhood so could you please explain the history behind that so we were founded in 194 um and one of our Founders and his brother work
With the founders 5 establish uh that that gr we love our Sol and here in the city of Milwaukee we have two chapters chapters Zeta and how does it work out if you’re at an undergrad and there’s no no zeta’s on campus y’all don’t have no sisters to hang out with right
What you travel you travel you know you you know La is kind of joking but that is true I mean one of the things that um you see a lot within Wisconsin because for the most part um blacks are in southeast Wisconsin so it just isn’t
Unusual for us to um hit U Madison or for us to go to um to ashkash or for the Zetas to do the the same and so we also will say that um it only takes a few of us and so if you have one Zeta on the
Chapter you have one Sigma on the chapter you recognize that your so and your fret and will be there um to support you um because it really U you know we see this as something that we want you to grow and that we have to be
Part of that so we do travel a whole lot we just supportive of it it’s just you know we we’re we’re stronger uh when z5b Sigma um are together there are a lot of occasions where uh one is a seat for the other where the Zetas will show up on a
Campus they’ll begin to grow and that’ll pull um uh sigas into that particular campus and so it works both ways I love it I love it okay well let me ask you gentlemen I think I have two more questions here before I ask you my random question
Um changes is is constant part of life right and you gentlemen have been around uh five Beta Sigma for some years now and I’m pretty sure You’ the fraternity grow and evolve over the years do you have any hopes desires some things you would like to see the fraternity do
Moving forward any changes you would like to see take place I think the the biggest thing and it’s not just Sigma um but as any organization is to recognize and focus on something that you are very good at uh at executing more um and so we have a very broad
Program in in Sigma um and at times we can kind of lose focus or lose momentum on some of the programs so I’d like to see us really focus on things that you know we’re having a really strong impact um and to grow those programs rather than be you know very
Broad you gentlemen have uh credit unions and all kinds of things right and I would keep the credit union I think that that is a very important tool in our tool built um and it’s one of those things that has been around for a very long time but there are other
Programs that we have whereas administrations change um people have different ideas and it’s important to bring those to the table but we have to figure out what our focus is going to be during any given time and really drive that any hopes for the future for 58
Sigma yeah I would add to that that um you know we have the balance um making sure that the organization continues to be um um here for another 110 years um and we have to make sure that we continue have a voice out in the community um when you think about this
Social justice and so and certainly this being um a major um election um year what’s the role of um Sigma that U will cause U maybe firsttime voters to to come out and to um um really make sure that they express their voice so I just
Want to make sure that Sigma isn’t just within five of the sigma but it becomes how do you continue impact that um the great of mankind what rol do we play there and not in a passive way so in my humble opinion kind of to La’s Point sometime each Administration comes
Through and they have um their their own agenda which we we understand but there should always be the role of Sigma on Beyond five Sigma and that really is my hope is that we never lose our voice in fact our voice becomes stronger um and
That we we earn the right to demand more because we have demonstrated why more is in demand great awesome you just mentioned voting uh will you gentlemen be out in the community rallying up the troops for voting yeah this is a very important election so uh election work is is very
Important to our chapter and and so we work with we working this uh election season with our 85 beta work election po to the people to V great yeah because a lot of lot is riding on this this election here my very last question before I ask you my random
Question and it’s a reflection question um when it comes to the uh foundational principles of fat Sigma the pillars that it sits on the Brotherhood uh this 203 years that you gentlemen have been in the inner fold um how would you say that it has impacted
Acted you as as a man as a person I mean I really believe in five signal and what it represents and that’s that’s where it starts and this is what I try to impin upon all my brothers that we have the opportunity to work together to share our talents um
And to achieve something that we could not do in our own right and so we are always continuing to figure out what is important to have an impact on people outside of white right we are um a part of the community not a part from so what
Is it that we can do um to to to to best help those um listen when I joined the organization um in the late 80s I had no idea what I I was I I didn’t understand what lifetime meant um and I also didn’t understand what role I I would be
Playing as being in that Lifetime right and so u i I think what I am um I’m humbled by is I’m as um eager to um display Brotherhood scholarship and service um even now more so than I was when I joined U Back 35 years ago uh
Listen this I you have options always opt out um and that has not been something I wanted to do uh I I’m proud of the work that I think for me I have learned how um to um be a leader be a brother um really um grow in a safe
Space so then when I’m in a space that is not familiar to me um the level of confidence I also appreciate that you know I’m my my my professional background is human resources so I recognize even as I I’m in spaces and you may be a man of Sigma but if you
Have Greek affiliation this uh to me that is even a broad community that that you have here I didn’t know that Back in 88 but I’ve just seen the power of networking and growing and you know we might battle each other and regard to who’s the best we know who the best is
But you know we may battle who’s who’s the best but we also just really appreciate um that we are doing work um that is beyond us great I like that I like that oh one last I I said I had that was G to be it but I lied um let’s
Say you gentlemen the were standing in front of a little young Tye maybe an elementary school guy and he was looking at you too with big eyes and saying one day I want to be like one of these blue and white men what advice would you tell
Him to properly direct his path and to becoming a sigma man in his future my my first and most important thing is to get him to understand to be a man first right um in order to be a sigma to be a productive Sigma is that you have to
Know who you are know what you’re about and the strongest segas know that um the brothers who tend to struggle are those who um who they are is not in is in conflict with five Beta Sigma and his principles and they tend to fall to the
Ways side or or not make it through that’s first and foremost I’m going to look in and say hey here’s how you got to be a man you know be truthful um to yourself love other folks uh have a strong character develop those attributes and strong men will rate
Toward Sigma it it just is what it is yeah listen I I can’t add more to that I mean um ell and I didn’t practice this answer but I promise you I was going to say something identical I um signal would be here we need for you to
Focus on what do you want what do you want to be known as um what is your character what will people say about you um and as you develop that um then we will be here if this is organization for you I’m probably more impressed of your character um and the
Things that you worked on that the um the um the challenges you’ve gone through and how you figure those those piece out even if you never become a man of Sigma but to become a man that can get back to the community the man have decided to take care of um the family
Take care of the broad community and so I rather see you to be a quality man man than to be a um a man who does not know who he is and then bring and then want to seek membership into our our organization I like that I like that
Awesome guys awesome and this is real talk this is real talk we just is this is what we this is who we listen when we think about um Sigma for me one of the things that also attract me to his organization is I didn’t have to become
Anything other than um who I was and the best version of me I didn’t have to you know decide that I had to transform into something to fit in what I love about this organization is that uh it’s not about fitting in we add and so the
Components of who you are increases us as as an or organization and so that’s something that I just hold true and I think it’s really important that many my brothers um react and feel the same way and I would assume that um that makes a great organization when every body their
Best self to the T that’s right let me ask you my random question so hopefully you gentlemen will like it and if not I’ll pull another one for the next one so let’s see what we got here how many days past the expiration date before you throw out the
Milk I don’t mess around with milk like it gets pretty bad pretty quickly um maybe I give it a day we but milk doesn’t last very long around here I I don’t know if you can see but I’m I’m a heavier guy so I you got you got young folks in the house
Still too you mentioned your daughter in college so I’m assuming I do like right now my youngest daughter is here and she doesn’t really drink a lot of milk but my oldest daughter comes home there are Sam Sam’s Club siiz boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch the milk and the Big Bowl okay I
Got put on the weight like me but smash those bows you want another question or you want to answer this one give me another one because my I I pretty much have the same answer as him so I GNA give you I give me another one okay let’s see what
Got when you were a kid what did you want to be when you grew up um besides a sigma probably right actually did not know I want to be a SI until I got to college I had no I had no I had no idea of fraternity life at all
Did you know what fraternity was before you went to college did you know absolutely not absolutely not no no not at all um I wanted to be a businessman and when and literally um I tell people the story that my undergrad degree is in
In finance and I didn’t own a car um my first two years after I graduate from college and so I will walk to the um to the the um the the bus stop and I would have a briefcase and was nothing in that briefcase but but in my head it was
Successful black man owns a briefcase and so I had my had my my my suit that was probably ill fitted but I always had a nice little briefcase uh I just I just thought I just love that piece in regards to and I want to work downtown I
Want to work downtown I want to wear a briefcase I want be I I because my um I I come from humble beginnings and I just didn’t know listen my goal was to finish high school and go to college um and it was not because I had I saw people around me
Do that but I just knew that that was um something that I had the capacity um to do and so I had like you know kind of one small goal after the other but ultimate it was to be a business person and carry I thought my suit I thought my
Briefcase would be full but I had nothing put in it but I was walk around with it right you got to believe in yourself if nobody else believes in you you got to believe in your and look at look at me now right right no it’s been
My U it’s been it’s been a good path Finance to HR who does that um so my um I worked at a bank after college um and part of the bank had a rotation program um so I got into rotation program and then I would help the bank recruit for
Other folks to come into um the rotation program and I just found that opportunity for me to um help people put their careers together um just became Pretty Natural to me and so I made the transition from Finance to um HR I got my masters in Human Resources um and I
Just found like this is my uh this is my sweet spot all righty gentlemen well I’m G to let you go um is there anything coming up in the Milwaukee area that you gentlemen will be involved in that you know if we happen to be out that way we
Can hang out with you guys uh well when it warms up for me because I’m not going out there when it cold but you know maybe somebody any any events coming up that uh folks can partake in well right now we’re focused on uh raising money for the scholarship so we have reception
That we hold um to recognize the students up in in in may we be planning some other social activities between now and then okay and how do we connect with you your website social media could you give us the links please so you can find all of our uh
Access by going to dsx1 1914. org uh and at the bottom of the page you’ll have access to our Facebook link uh we are also on Instagram so Please all righty so you’re gonna work to get your introverted president you know out there more right okay I’m I’m I’m working on it I’m he very intentional about where he shows up how he shows up um and so we appreciate that listen before we um
Before we re wrap I just want to thank you um for reaching out and having these discussions and bringing um awareness to um not only what men are doing within the community um but what fraternities are doing in in the community I think sometime you get a um a a bat Rap in
Regards to the absence of a um black man um and we just have a lot of powerful black men that are tied to um the D um and so just for you to decide this you’re going to be um really bold and celebrate this space uh I just want to
Make sure I give you your flowers and say thank you for um recognizing and reaching out to us thank you you guys are amazing I don’t know why everybody else doesn’t know how amazing you are but I appreciate and I’m pretty sure you’re your Zas they they understand and
The wives and all of that stuff so I think you’re I’m just doing my part and you guys keep on being amazing when it warms up you might see little L Lana out there you know hey and I appreciate you gentlemen so so very much and with that
Thank you thank you thank thank you thanks L that that is all for this week’s episode of the male perspective I’m your host Lana Reed and I will see everybody next time oh
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