Hi. This is Paul Zelizer, and welcome to the Awarepreneurs podcast. On this show, we dive deep wisdom from some of the world's leading social entrepreneurs. Our goal is to help increase your positive impact, your profitability, and your quality of life.

Before we get into today's topic, I have 1 request. If you could hit subscribe and do a review on your favorite podcast app, it helps more people learn had to have positive impact through values based business. Thank you so much. Today, I'm thrilled to introduce you to Gary McBarryhill, And our topic is capital plus support, helping native entrepreneurs thrive. Gary is a citizen of the Muskogee Creek Nation, and an investment associate with Raven Indigenous Capital Partners. He joined Raven in 20 21, to help lead Raven's investment in Native American led startups in the US. Gary has worked in Native American Finance since 20 14 and has experience in private equity, tribal economic development, and real estate. Gary, you've done a lot of things. Welcome to our show.

I'm glad to be here. You know, 1 of the great things about working in Indian country is that, you know, if if you're willing to raise your hand and take responsibility, you you get a lot of opportunities to, you know, to to work on things and and help on you know, in in ways that you know, you can't even imagine when when you first when when you first step up. So it's it's been it it it has been it's been a privilege to to help it's helping my community over the last decade in my career. And, you know, it's it's never it it it's never dull. I I love it.

I I so relate with that. You're bringing me back. We talked before we have record part of my previous career, 15 years in community mental health. 1 of my last gigs was as a social worker with a contract with the BIA. And before I knew it, I was at a BIA conference talking about some work. I was presenting at a BIA conference talking about some work that we were doing to bring restorative practices back to some of the tribes here in New Mexico. And I was like, I'm not sure I'm the best person, and they were like, you're going. I'm like, okay. Right? So I I yeah. Incredible opportunities that I didn't expect. I I have a little bit of personal experience with that, and I think you have a lot more. So this work that you do with Raven, we're gonna talk about what it is, Gary, but talk to us a little bit. Like, your journey, how did you get a excited about economic development in Indian country? How did you get excited about supportive native entrepreneurs? And what would a listener who doesn't know who you are what would they what would be helpful for them to know a little bit about your backstory so that we give them some context about the work you're doing now?