Terri Batch .mp3 - email linkedin schedule

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Are you fed up with the corporate bullshit holding you back? Welcome to Invest in Yourself, the Digital Entrepreneur Podcast. The ultimate launchpad for entrepreneurs ready to seize control and unleash their creative genius. Hosted by Phil Better, the podcast mogul, each week he's breaking the chains of conventional work with bold strategies, raw insights, and inspiring success stories from the entrepreneurs who took the risk and invested in themselves. This is your call to arms. Invest in yourself. Break free from someone else's rules and build the empire you deserve. Now let's dive headfirst into today's explosive episode.

Welcome back to another amazing and milestone episode here at Investing Yourself, the Digital Entrepreneur Podcast. I'm your host, Phil Benner, the podcast mogul. And I'm here with a powerhouse guest whose work is transforming opportunities for diverse business communities on a global stage. Today, we're thrilled to introduce a leader who has dedicated her career to expanding export opportunities for. Expanding. Sorry, expanding export opportunities for historically underserved businesses. With an impressive two decade tenured at the US Department of Commerce, she was the inaugural director of the Global Diversity Export Initiative where she opened doors for minority women, LGBTQ veterans and disabled owned businesses, helping them go global. Her impact doesn't stop there.

She's led groundbreaking teams like the Global Design and Construction Team and the Global China Team and founded Be Bold, an employee resource group driving diversity at the International Trade Administration. As a champion for diversity, equity and inclusion, she received numerous accolades including the William E. Morton Memorial Award recognizing her trailblazing contribution to the field. With a background in computer science from Spelman College, a Master's of Public administration from usc, and a global credentials in logistics and international business, she is a true expert at bridging cultural and economic boundaries. She's also celebrated a one year anniversary in her current role. And it's an honor to welcome the remarkable Terry Bash. Terry, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you for having me. And I'm like, wow, who is that? I want to. It's you.

It's you. I swear it's you. It's your bio that I always send. I swear. I hope it was your bio because if not. Oh my God.

Now, now. That was me. That was me for sure.

Terry, welcome to the show. I'm very happy to have you here.

You.

You are the CEO of Global Ala. You just told me that you're celebrating one year in this role, which. Congratulations. You've accomplished so much in your life so far. But I want to know, why did you start down this road? What made you decide? You know, you Wanted to be this figurehead, this powerhouse in creating change and bringing people who are underrepresented to the forefront.

You know, it's interesting, you know, I think I've always been doing this work my entire life, but I just didn't have a title that says that's what I'm doing. I think from whether it was attending an hbcu, going to Spelman, or doing public administration. I decided to do public administration while I was an undergrad after I had a stint at a summer program at Berkeley, because I never heard of public administration before, but I knew I didn't want to do business administration because I think business administration is business, right? And public administration's public is solving the problems that, you know, that are public problems, right? And bringing about, you know, solutions and order in that regard, where as businesses, if you can't make a profit, then why bother, right? And that's what a business is. So I started on this journey with Global LA last year, and I saw it as an opportunity to take all the skills and all the background that I have been building while I was at the Department of Commerce and use it here locally in Los Angeles. And there's a lot of things that are happening here in la, and this is like a once in a generation time in Los Angeles that I don't think many people realize because we're going to be hosting the World cup in 2026, which is less than two years away. And then we have the Olympics in 2028 in less than four years. This is a. There's.

This will not happen again. Not probably not in my lifetime. So I wanted to be involved in something that brought my skill set to the table and also leverage those events that are coming to la. And the thing that really attracted me to doing the work in Global la, and we were talking before we started and I said, well, I'm not an entrepreneur. I'm a nonprofit leader, but I'm a nonprofit leader in an entrepreneurial role. But the thing that really attracted me to this was the city wanted to attract foreign direct investment to our region ahead of these mega events. But they also were very intentional when they set Global LA up about attracting that foreign direct investment into areas that are underserved and underinvested. So there are a lot of areas throughout Los Angeles, whether it's south la, whether it's parts of the Valley, parts of east la, that really does not have the investment and it historically has not been invested in and the jobs are not there.

And what foreign direct investment does is it brings jobs, it brings opportunity. When these companies decide to come here and set up a location in our city that they bring, you know, whether it's, you know, it could be jobs working directly with them or they plug into the local ecosystem, the business ecosystem, and there are small businesses that can support the work that they do. So it's. It's a positive thing all around. So I saw this as an opportunity to take all that knowledge that I have been building the past two decades and really kind of focus it in on Los Angeles and focus it in a way where the communities that need the jobs and that need, that spark to continue on can benefit from what's coming to the city. And these things are coming anyway, and there's going to be people that benefit, but we want to. It's equitable, right, that across the board, everybody benefits from the fact that we're hosting these mega events. So that was the thing that drew me to this.

And, you know, it's been. It's been quite a journey. And I will just say the journey continues.

I. You are still at the very beginning of your journey. I'm going to say in the entrepreneurial journey, you're very much at the beginning, but you've had two decades of, you know, experience dealing with what you're dealing with now. What was it like for you going from, know, working for the government? Pretty much, you know, very safe job, great pensions, great, you know, resources, all that great stuff, and then deciding, you know, what, I'm going to go be a CEO of this new comp. Of this new venture or this new thing with huge stress, because it has to come with huge stress because you have two huge events coming up. You have to make sure the money's going in the right places. And all this. What made you decide, hey, this seems like a good idea for me right now.

Give up the security for the uncertainty.

You know, that is a good question. And sometimes I ask myself, girl, what was you thinking? Because I had a pretty good. I really did. I mean, I was pretty much at the top of my career in commerce. I will just say I think I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit and. And commerce is great. I did some great things. I worked with a lot of companies, and anybody who knows me from commerce, they know.

Yeah, they know. Terry Batch. I saw this as a new challenge. I love challenges. I love being in the thick of something that I have to put my head down and figure out how to get it done. And I will tell you, this is the hardest role I've ever taken on. But even within commerce I felt like I was a bit of an entrepreneur because I was doing things that hadn't been done before. Like when we set up the China team team, I started the China team, you know, and, and you know, trying to sell that idea, it was more selling it internally and this was, you know, pre trade war with China.

But you know, just trying to bring a lot of different entities together across the US and then connecting that back to China so that we could increase the, the trade for US Companies helping US companies do business in China, you know, so I, I'm used to grasping hard things and trying to figure out how to, how to break it down and how to make it make sense and how to make it successful. So this is a hard thing. You know, trying to promote Los Angeles to bring in foreign direct investment and to, to, to channel it to communities that need it the most is definitely a hard thing. It's, it's trying to establish that credibility locally so that the local business community trusts me and also understands the work that I'm doing that and that the local community doesn't see this as something that's like gentrification coming in and oh, you want to bring in investors and you know, then it's going to be, it's already expensive to live in la, then it's going to be really expensive because you're bringing all these outsiders in, right? So trying to explain that to them that no, this is a benefit, you want these jobs in your communities because if, whether they're bringing manufacturing or they're bringing service jobs or, or you know, cutting edge technologies or what have you, these are good paying jobs that you want to have in your community, it all bolts rise with this type of, these types of opportunities. So establishing that locally but then also going out and finding the companies that want to come. And I will tell you there's no shortage of companies globally that want to be in Los Angeles. There's many of them that are trying to figure it out, like where do they come? LA is so big, it's so massive, you know, you know, do you come to LA City or do you go to Long beach or do you go to the Valley to, you know there's, there's so many different areas and parts of LA and Southern California. I always remind people there's 88 cities that make up Los Angeles County.

So whether you're in Beverly Hills or Compton, you know, you got a different city, a different mayor, a different governing structure, it becomes very complex. So supporting these Companies that want to come showing them places where they might not have ever heard of and providing them with the support that they need so that they can land here and know that, yes, LA is a place where we want to be and global LA has made it much more simpler for us to land in this place and also, you know, benefit. They're coming because they want to benefit from all the world events that are happening in the city as well.

I love that. I love how you're getting to the community first because obviously we, with the gentrification, it's both a positive and a negative how you look at it. And then convince, not just convincing, showing how beneficial it is to have these foreign investors or these other companies come into LA to help raise the standard of living, raise the communities. Because there's some communities, like you said, that don't get the spotlight that they deserve, especially if they have such a rich culture. They should be getting that spotlight.

Right?

What was one of the first challenges you faced when you stepped into the role of CEO? Because you went from, you know, you weren't, you didn't have that title of commerce, right? That, that's a complete, that's the president. The president got the CEO title. You, you're just a vp, if anything, of, of commerce. What was some of the first struggles that you had, some of the first issues that you may have faced?

Well, I'll tell you, the biggest thing I faced is getting, getting time or getting in front of the right people in LA that really care about this or that should care about this. I found, I thought that surely everybody would care about this, right? We're a global city, you know, I mean, isn't everybody thinking about how they're going to leverage the business community and how we're going to create business opportunities, you know, ahead of these games? And, you know, I was, I think I was surprised that there was not more, I don't want to say enthusiasm, because people are very enthusiastic and excited about the games coming up, but they're not thinking from a FDI perspective, a foreign direct investment perspective. There's, there's a few people that are. But as I began to make my rounds around the city and even, you know, talking to elected officials and talking to community leaders, you know, that's why I brought up gentrification, because when I say, oh, I'm going to bring an investment, I think the first thing that kind of light bulb that goes off in their head is, oh, you're going to gentrify our neighborhood. So I was surprised that There was a. Not a deeper understanding to a foreign direct investment. I think LA, CA in general has benefited. The world comes here.

This is not like, we're not a place where you're like, oh, please come in, please come to LA and visit. Everybody wants to come to la. They want to go to Disneyland, which is in Orange county and not la. They want to go to. They want to go to Hollywood, they want to go to the Santa Monica, to the beaches. They want to experience LA or what they think LA is, right. So LA has never had to go out there and compel people to come and especially businesses. Businesses come because we have a vibrant economy.

So I think I was surprised that people didn't understand what I was doing and why I was doing it. And I think too, getting out there and letting people know that we need to highlight not just, you know, Hollywood, which is. Hollywood is great and Hollywood needs to be highlighted because there's been some challenges there. But we have a strong aerospace and defense and space industry and we have a strong biotech sector and life sciences and growing. We have a strong, you know, obviously the largest port in North America, one of the busiest airports with so, with distribution and logistics, we have clean tech and sustainability. We lead the country in these areas. So there's all of these, like, very vibrant industry sectors that we need to promote and uplift and show, and show the world that, hey, yes, Southern California is great, we got great weather and we have Hollywood, but we have all these other sectors too. And advanced manufacturing, for instance.

There's all these things that are happening here, right in our backyard. And if we're not out there, you know, blowing the horn and saying, hey, these are opportunities that are here and we want to grow these ecosystems, we want to grow these jobs, then we're missing opportunity. And so the challenge is making sure people locally understand that this is something that we need to get the word out about, but then also obviously getting the word out globally. So targeting specific countries, targeting areas that they might be strong in in those particular industries. And we want to attract those businesses here because that just makes every, makes every everybody stronger when you, when you build those strong ecosystems.

It's true. The stronger the ecosystem, the better it is. We see what happens in, in nature when the ecosystem starts being taken apart and it just does not do good for the local wildlife or the local anything. With everything you did, I'm going to be jumping around a lot because I'm very interested in, in everything you've done. You've led trade missions, trade initiatives, to different international locations. What was one of the most rewarding ones that you led and how did it impact the business or the communities involved?

Well, you know what I'll point to, I've done several and several that I'm really proud of. Like I've done trade missions to China. I've done China all my entire career. I did a trade mission to Brazil, which was amazing. And this was ahead of the World cup and the Olympics being played in Brazil, where we took building related companies, California building companies down to Brazil. But the one that I would highlight the most is the one I did last year before I left commerce and that was taking a trade mission to South Africa, Ghana and Nigeria. And this was when I was running the GDEI program. And we specifically reached out to companies that fit the criteria for gdei.

Even though we couldn't say, oh, this is a black owned business trade mission. I would have loved to have said this is for black owned businesses. But you know, as a government you can't exclude. So but of the 27 or so companies and organizations that we took, I want to say like 25 of them were black businesses or black led organizations. And that was probably the first time in U.S. history that the U.S. government took a trade mission like that to the continent for business purposes. And that was super rewarding.

I'm continuing to hear from the companies that went on that mission where we connected them with opportunities on the continent in each of those countries and it's paid dividends. I've had folks, they'll send me a message and say, hey, Terri, I just signed a contract with the Nigerian government or hey, I just got this and we're going back. A lot of those folks have, since this has been a year now, they've gone back several times to the continent. And really the goal of that mission was to increase our economic ties with countries on the continent and also to invigorate the diaspora. So I mean, we have, you know, a huge diaspora, diaspora communities here in the US and so to be able to take companies, a lot of them are folks that might have, maybe their parents were from Nigeria and they grew up in the US or, you know, or whatnot. And now they have businesses connecting them back, not just from a cultural standpoint, but from an economic standpoint. And I chuckle a little bit because they haven't recreated that trade mission since I left because it was a lot of work. It really was.

It was a lot of work. And it wasn't just myself, it was a team of us who put that together. But I think that was really. I think I'll always look back at that trade mission and be like, yeah, we did that. And I was involved in making that happen. So very proud of that type of work.

That is very rewarding because you're, you're giving back, like you said, to the Diaspora, which unfortunately has had some issues with some sort of certain companies and certain governments that have not allowed them to grow. And I love how you're bringing that in. And with that said, you led or you, you created the. Or you founded the Be Bold. What were some of the challenges you face in creating this inclusive community within a large federal agency? Because it's. When you're, you're faced with a lot of people who don't understand where you're coming from. Given that you are part of the Diaspora, how did you overcome those. Those barriers or those issues that people may have not really wanted to change because they don't like change so much.

Yeah. Or even don't even want to talk about or acknowled.

Very true. Very true.

Right. You know, B. Bold came about because of George Floyd. And, And I will tell you, I was not the type of person in my career where I was like, yeah, I'm gonna champion, I'm gonna champion the black causes. Like, I mean, I always known I'm, I'm black. I've always known I'm one of few in the room. Wherever I go. It's always been, even in Los Angeles.

Um, it's not like the, the, the work that I do, I haven't dealt a lot with, with people that look like me, you know, whether the businesses, A lot of the businesses that I work with, you know, I work with white men, you know, just to be frank. So when we were all at home in 2020 and all the George Floyd protests and things broke out, you know, I kind of looked around in my organization and there was no erg, there was no employee resource group for black employees. And what happened was we just began to call each other and check on each other to make sure we were doing okay. Because we're, again, we're stuck at home. I'm in LA. LA's, like, about to, you know, they're about to burn LA down. My mom's in Atlanta. Atlanta's about to burn down.

You know, there's like, all this, this built up, you know, things that are happening. And so there was no mechanism within our organization to even talk about it. Our leadership wasn't acknowledging it. We were on, like, calls and Stuff. And they were like, oh, da, da, da, da. Nothing, nothing big is happening in the world. And so all the black employees got together and we're like, oh, wait, hold up. Aren't you going to acknowledge what's going on? We can't just make act like business as usual.

There are a lot of people that are really angry. There are a lot of people that are frustrated. There are people that feel all kinds of ways. So we got together and we organized ourselves and then we requested a meeting with the top leadership within Commerce and said, hey, we need to have, we need to have a call. And I think that when we requested that and we set that call up and we. And the way Commerce works is you have a secretary of Commerce, then there's all these different bureaus within Commerce and you have under secretaries. So we requested the meeting with the undersecretary, not with the secretary himself because, I mean, he. They're so high up, they, they can't really affect your day to day, but the undersecretary can.

So we requested that meeting. And I think when we requested that meeting, they probably thought we were going to come to them with a bunch of complaints, which, you know, we wanted to air, like how we were feeling. But it wasn't like a gripe session. It was a, hey, we have a moment here in our In Time where we can seize this moment and make some impactful change that affects society, or we can just stick our head in the ground and act like it's not happening. And we challenge them to say, hey, if you want to make this something, if you feel horrible about what's happened and you see the protest, we can't just sit back and feel horrible. Let's make something, let's create something from this. So we requested an erg, an employee resource group, which that was what Bebold became and I was an inaugural leader for that. We requested that we make.

Create more pathways and opportunities for people of color to be able to get access and jobs within our department, which there's still a diversity issue within the agency, but it's gotten better. It continues. It's one of those things. I feel like it ebbs and flows. We also requested that we change the way we outreach to businesses because the majority of our businesses, like I said, I wasn't really intentional about reaching out to minority owned or women owned or lgbtq. We weren't even tracking it in our stats. They had to go in and change the way we track the companies that we work with. We couldn't even say, oh, Give me all the black owned businesses that you're working with across the country.

Like, how could we do that? We weren't even asking that information. So it really caused like this behemoth of a change within the agency. And when, you know, when people say, you know, I wasn't out on the streets protesting like, because I was like, I don't want to get Covid. But we kind of did our own protest internally and said, hey, we can change this system. And now there's the challenges remain. It's like, you know, it wasn't like those, those changes just happened overnight. But I can, we can point back to that time in 2020 and now, you know, fast forward 2024. I mean I've been gone since last year, but I know that when the new admin.

This was during a different administration as well. So when the new administration came in in 2021, you know, they took all the ideas and things that we had presented to the previous leadership and ran with it. So that's where you got the Global Diversity Export Initiative. That's where you got, you know, the ability to do a trade mission to, to Africa with majority black owned businesses. And they've done other stuff, not just for African Americans, they've done exportado a casa, which I don't speak Spanish, but exporting back home for Latino owned businesses. They've done women owned initiatives and women owned trade missions. As a matter of fact, I think I saw somewhere it's going to be in November or December of this year, they're taking a women owned trade mission to Saudi Arabia, which I'm like, talk about life changing type opportunities for women, not only here but also in Saudi. So you know, that one movement or that one bit of rising up and saying, hey, we need to change the way we're doing things has caused like all these other things to happen.

And so I'm really proud of that work. I think that's my legacy that I left at Commerce. And you ask anybody, they know, they're like, oh yeah Terri, be bold and gdei, you know, but it's, but it's the legacy of all the black employees as well. Because it didn't take, it wasn't just me and then it wasn't just the black employees because once we put it out there, you know, we couldn't have like this. We couldn't create an exclusive group, group that excluded other people the way we've been excluded. So we were like, hey, anybody that wants to get behind this movement and wants to help us we're game, come on in, join us. And, and it just created this community within the community and I know that it's still going today and I'm super proud of that. And so that's the vein in which I, when I started working with Global LA and started doing this work, I bring that kind of a background to the work.

So it's not like, oh yeah, I just want to attract investment and you know, let's make it rain on L A but let's be intentional about how we're attracting investment and let's make sure is connecting with the communities that truly need it, that truly need the jobs, that truly have talented people. But I joke and I say, you know, I live in South LA but I got to drive all the way to West L A to my good paying job. Why don't I have a good paying job in my community? So you know, you, we have good people all throughout this city and we need to make it easier and also bring the jobs to them so that, that solves the traffic issue as well. Right? Everybody's getting in their car, driving, trying to get to that job. So there's just with that kind of a background. And when I think about Los Angeles and I think about the time that we're in, this time is not going to come back again. It's been 40 years since we hosted the Olympics so probably not in my lifetime will the Olympics come back. And even with the World cup that being here, playing several of those games in Los Angeles, it really is a, I call it a once in a generation opportunity.

And, and how are we going to leverage this moment to create lasting economic impact in our communities?

Knowing that's a lot, but from my perspective, having someone who spearheaded a change in a government organization just shows that you can get it done. In my book, if you could have done it in the government, which is probably the hardest thing to change, putting you at the head of a company like Global LA to bring in investments and redistribute the wealth. So everyone's being lifted up. You know, a rising tide lifts all ships. I think they picked someone who is perfectly suited to help out in this once in a generation situation. When you have the, you said the World cup plus then you got the Olympics coming back, there's going to be a lot more focus on and if you can bring that eyesight and those dollar bills to everybody that needs it, specifically those minority owned, those locations that don't get the good spotlight all the time, I think is very important. With that said Obviously, with your career in commerce and now doing this, you had to invest in yourself to become this leader, to be the forefront, to be a founder of, be bold and lead those trade missions. What do you do, maybe on a daily that helps you invest in yourself to become the best version of Terry?

Well, I will tell you a couple of things. One, on a daily basis, I try to make sure I, I have some time. I try to work out. I try to, you know, have some me time, Terry time. Because, you know, in addition to work, I mean, I have a husband, I have kids, I have, you know, I have a life. It's not just work. So it's a lot. And especially, you know, now my kids are at the point where I have one in college and one in high school.

So life is like, so much easier, even though the challenges just kind of shift or change. But I always try to find some time for myself. And someone told me that when my kids were really young, she was like, you need to make sure you make time for you. And so I do that. Whether that's taking a walk, whether it's going to the water, whether it's, you know, getting me a cup of Starbucks and just sitting back and like sitting in my car, I do that before. And even before I start my day, I also, you know, I'm a praying person. I'm a person that, you know, believes that in, in purpose and that we have a higher. There's a higher power.

So I always try to connect back to my source because I feel like that is what gives me the motivation and the strength to do what I do. But I will tell you this, you know, leading up before, Be bold, before all this other stuff, you know, I had a coach, I had a. I had a life coach. I also had a therapist to work out my stuff. And I believe strongly in all of that. And I kind of, I tell people all the time I wouldn't have been able to get through 2020 and do all that work that we were able to do if the years leading up to that. I didn't have a coach, a life coach that was kind of guiding me and helping me work through my stuff. And also, like I said, a therapist.

And I strongly believe that we just have to. We have to invest in those things and work out whatever emot issues that we might have and, and, and really recognize our feelings and how we feel about stuff and develop tools to be able to overcome because everybody's faced with something. So. And you know, we, we use different coping mechanisms. My coping mechanism was to go get some help. And, and that's, that's, that's pretty much what I did. And, you know, and I, I continue. I have people in my life that can speak into my life.

And I think that's really important that you have a good, you have good advisors, you know, so whether that's a therapist, whether it's an elder, whether it's your parents or whomever it might be, that you have people that can speak apart from whatever, because we can get so caught up in what we do that we don't really, you know, we don't realize that, you know, there's a. We're just a small part to a bigger picture. And sometimes you need to have somebody with a different perspective that can help you see, hey, well, you're over here, but what you're doing over here affects all of this. So you need to get your stuff together so that you can, you know, be effective in the, in the bigger scheme of things. So that, that is what has really kind of carried me. It helps me and just helps me to stay grounded and, you know, and having two girls, two teenage daughters, they will ground you in a matter of course because they will tell you how cool you are. Not so that, that. And, and my husband, of course, he, he definitely, he keeps it real.

It's. It's good. I have people in my life that just keeps it real for me and helps me understand and know that I'm not just doing this. This is not just a job, but it. There is a greater purpose to it. And, and that's what, that's what helps me off.

I love it. It's great. I'm a huge proponent of therapy. If I didn't have therapy, I wouldn't be where I am today. I wouldn't be this happy podcasting mogul as I am today. With that said, I want to look to the future because you're a year into this role. You had two decades at Commerce where you went to the highest highs of the department that you could, and you're now sitting at the top of the company at Global LA. Where are you going in 10 years from now? If I snap my fingers, we're 10 years in the future.

Is Terry still the CEO of Global LA? Is she now the CEO of Global USA? What is Terry doing 10 years from now?

O. I don't. I wish you wouldn't have Fast forwarded it 10 years. I mean, I wish you would have just said, what do you think you're going to be doing next year? Tier garden. Come on.

No, I want to get over the Olympics. Girl, you got to get past the Olympics.

Well, I would say in 10 years, this is what I want. And you know, sometimes we get what we want, sometimes we don't. What I want to have had, have happened in 10 years, I want us to have this lasting organization called Global la. Whereas it is, you know, a, a legacy of what the city did. Because the Global LA was set up by the city of Los Angeles is a legacy of what the city did in preparation for the Olympics. And then also to have a lasting economic impact on the city even beyond the Olympics and to keep that global engagement at the forefront for la. You know, there's a lot of things that exist. I spent my entire career in Los Angeles working for Commerce.

I never worked in dc, I actually worked here in la. And I remember there was a time that there was no international department or international affairs department at the city for the mayor's office. Now there is, I remember when there wasn't a lot of focus on fdi. You have the World Trade center in Los Angeles and ladc. I remember, you know, there, there kind of have been the, the, the, the, the carrier, the flag carrier for that. But you know, there was, there was like always this, this gap in Los Angeles. Even though we're a global city and the world comes here, we have the, we have, we speak over 200 languages in LA. You've got the largest diaspora communities for like seven or eight countries outside of their country or in Los Angeles, I mean there's, we're global just by default.

Even the founders of Los Angeles were, were people of color, but there were not these institutions that existed that really carried forth the economic, or created those economic ties that created growth and two way trade, benefiting both us and whatever the home country is. So when I think about 10 years from now, and I'm thinking about global LA, global LA will be this entity, this lasting entity in Los Angeles that continues to promote global engagement. And you know, whether, you know, like I said, there probably won't be another Olympics, you know, for, you know, decades to come, but we can point back to it and say, yes, as a result of this, this helped bring international companies to Los Angeles, but also help the companies that are already here, especially the small and medium sized companies, help them think more global about what they could do with whatever their company is. And then, and people can point to that to be like, yeah, it was Global LA that helped us, helped us get here. You know, whether it's from the Foreign side or the local companies to make those connections. Will I still be at global la in 10 years? Who knows? Who knows? I think I'm perfect for this role, for this moment. But, you know, when I think about myself personally, in 10 years, I'm not going to give my age, but I still have another good 10, 15 more years to work before I can take retire. I'm still young, so I always see myself in Los Angeles.

When I came here for grad school, I was. If you would have told me, oh, you're. It's been 25 years. If you would have told me, oh, well, you're going to be 25 years. You're going to still be here. I would have been like, nah, no way. But now, as I've traveled around the world, I've traveled around the US and I'm like, yeah, there's no city, there's no place like Los Angeles. Even with all its challenges, there's no place where you can get the, you can, you know, have the lifestyle, you can have the type of food you want, the people.

All of that is all here in LA. So whatever I'm doing in 10 years, I will most likely be doing it here in Los Angeles.

So I want to comment on the food because I know with eight different countries having a diver diaspora, you think a podcaster would be able to speak, but apparently not. I'm a diaspora from eight different countries. You guys must have some fabulous food.

Oh, yeah.

Hidden gems.

Bar none. Bar none.

So jealous. So jealous, Terry, that you get to have all those wonderful meals. I get to have nice rich meals of French here in Montreal, but I don't get those nice diasporas foods. It's harder to find, but they're there.

Yeah, well, yeah, come down, come down.

Oh, I am definitely have a plan 2020, when I. 2025 is the year that I plan on going on a world trip around North America and LA is one of the places I want to see.

Well, you pick me up when you come. I'll take the spots.

You're the first person I'm emailing when, when I know I'm in la, Perry, but we are coming to the end of the episode, which I hate, Terry, because we're having such a great time. I'm, I'm loving what you're doing in LA and what you've done at Commerce, but I want to go back to when you were old. You know, you, you said if you told you 25 years ago, you wouldn't believe that you would still be in LA. Well I want to go to the 10 year old girl before she had all this amazing opportunities of travel and that. What's one piece of advice you would love to be able to hand back to your 10 year old self?

I will just say what my life is today. It was if you would have saw me when I was 10 years old growing up in Georgia and I believe at that point I was in South Georgia, small town in South Georgia where my mom, my mom and dad are both from South Georgia. And at 10 years old, yeah, I think I was in Albany at the time. I would tell myself at 10 years old to don't stop dreaming big and whatever your circumstances now will not be your circumstances, you know, in the future. And you know what? Dream big and walk through every door that is, that opens for you. Just don't be afraid to walk through those doors, you know, because I think a lot of times we, you know, we, we, we have opportunity that's presented to us. But for me if, if I hadn't walked through the doors that I walked through, whether it was in high school, whether it was in college, grad school, even now, walking through the Global LA door, I would be stuck, you know, I'd be stuck at that, that point. So I would just tell my 10 year old, 10 year old self, hey, keep, keep dreaming big and keep walking through those doors because they will open, the doors will open.

So just, you gotta, but it's, it's on you to walk through them.

I love that. I think that's some great advice for anybody to now or 10 years old or even 30 years from now. Always dream big and walk through those doors when they, they appear because you never know what's going to happen on the other side. Terry, I'm going to jump off stage here. I want you to talk to the audience. If they're interested in connecting with you to help Global LA either in funding or whatever, investing or whatever it is, please let them know how they can get in contact with you to be a part of this amazing opportunity. The floor is yours.

Oh, thank you. Well, I will just say thank you for this opportunity to, to be here today and thank you for listening to this podcast. If you want to get in touch with Global la, you can do one of three things. You can go to Global, which is our website, which is just global LA, or you can email me at infolobal LA or you can follow us on LinkedIn. We have a global LA LinkedIn page and that's where we post all of the, the happenings that's going on and you can follow us on the work that we're doing. So I look forward to hearing from you. We do have members. We have members that are at the local level here in Los Angeles, but we also have international.

So if you want to join this movement and be a part of this effort to bring bridge cultures here from Los Angeles to around the world, please join us. Please become a member. That is how we keep this, this movement going and we continue to do the work that we're doing. So thank you, thank you, thank you for this opportunity and I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you.

Terry, I want to thank you so much for coming on the podcast, sharing your amazing story with us from, you know, so creating Be Bold at the Commerce, doing the trade mission to South Africa, Ghana and the areas over on that continent. And now what you're doing with Global la. It is supremely encouraging and very inspiring. I want to thank you so much for sharing your story with us.

Thank you.

And to my audience, make sure you check out those show notes down below because they will be the best place to connect with Global LA and Terry, so that you can be part of this amazing change that's going on in la. I thank you so much for listening. And as always, remember to invest in yourself.

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