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OhHello 100 Roses From Concrete Founder Keni Thacker
34 Plays11 months ago
“Oh, Hello! This concept is really cool. The business model connected to my emotions; we’re obviously brothers from another mother….or cousins…or neighbors. Either way, I need to be a part of this mission.”
Yes'sir, Keni Thacker! We agree and welcome to Episode 86 of the OhHello pod!
Big thanks to fellow “Hello” (Rachel Petzold) for introducing me to Keni Thacker, founder and Chief Creative Officer of 100 Roses From Concrete!
Our discussion topics-
💬 The Power of Mentorship: Keni emphasizes the importance of mentorship in breaking barriers and creating opportunities, especially for people of color in #advertising, #marketing, and #media. His nonprofit, 100 Roses from Concrete, is a testament to this mission.
☕ Authentic Connections: Genuine mentor-mentee relationships are crucial. Keni’s journey from having a mentor in high school to finding his “big sister” and mentor Felicia Geiger (she/her/hers) highlights the importance of these bonds.
🌍 Building Inclusive Communities: Keni’s work is all about inclusivity. Initially focused on men of color, 100 Roses from Concrete expanded to include women, creating a more diverse and supportive community.
Keni’s mantra, “I’m a leader and a loner because followers never leave their mark,” resonates deeply. Let’s all strive to leave our mark by supporting and uplifting each other through platforms and communities like OhHello.io 🌞☕️.io + 100 Roses From Concrete!
We're stoked to have you, Keni, and welcome the 100 Roses From Concrete community into our growing OhHello.io 🌞☕️ tribe!
Keni and his crew will have the opportunity to donate their proceeds to...you guessed it...100 Roses From Concrete (a 501c3 org that'll be live on OhHello.io this week)
Go book time w/ Keni Thacker and catch the interview here or wherever you prefer to listen to our pod!
https://ohhello.io/mentors/KeniThac
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Kenny Thacker and 100 Roses from Concrete
00:00:13
Speaker
Oh, hello, Kenny. How are you? Hey, Jeremy, how are you? I'm great. I'm great. Loved our chat a week or two ago. So glad that we were connected and introduced. Kenny, we're gonna jump straight into this. Let's do it. First and foremost, tell us who you are. Who do I have the pleasure of speaking with right now?
00:00:32
Speaker
Well, I mean, the pleasure is all mine. And thank you once again for having me. But as most people call me Kenny Thacker to my face, maybe people call me other stuff behind my back, but it's all good. But I'm the founder and chief creative officer of 100 Roses from Concrete, a nonprofit here in the US, if anyone overseas is listening, but based out of New York City. And we're basically a network for people of color in advertising marketing media and PR.
00:00:59
Speaker
I love that. There's a lot of synergy between what you're doing and what I'm building. Let's see that hoodie. Why don't you just pop it up a little bit. There we go. 100 roses from concrete. Indeed.
Excitement about 'Oh, hello' platform
00:01:11
Speaker
Kenny, what excites you about what we're building at ohhello.io?
00:01:15
Speaker
Well, what excites me about Oh, hello is it's almost in the title Oh, hello, because when it was presented to me, by one of my advisory board members, I was like, Oh, hello, this is cool. Because one thing that we do within the Rose Garden, as we call it is definitely provide mentorship to diverse talent across the country and
00:01:37
Speaker
in other parts of the world as well. So just seeing the whole model of, oh, hello, just really connected my emotions better yet to what, oh, hello, was doing because I felt like, oh, we're just like brothers from another mother or literally cousins or maybe just neighbors that kind of missed each other and kind of grew apart or whatever, but now kind of coming back. So really understanding the, oh, hello, story and what it's doing for professionals
00:02:03
Speaker
in a variety of different industries really just caught my eye. And I was like, yeah, you know, hook it up, hook up the call. And, you know, shout out to Rachel out in Dallas. She hooked us up. And then, you know, here we are today. Amazing, amazing. Tell us about and thank you, Rachel.
Origin and Expansion of the Nonprofit
00:02:19
Speaker
Tell us about how you're paying it forward, helping others connecting good folks.
00:02:23
Speaker
Yeah, so how am I paying it forward? That's a really great question. So a little over four years ago, I started 100 Roses from Concrete, which is my 501c3 nonprofit organization. And to be totally honest with you, Jeremy, I created it out of a lack of community that I couldn't find.
00:02:42
Speaker
within the advertising industry. For many, many years, doing advertising work, especially I'm on the DEI side, also, you know, doing a little bit of commercial work for nonprofits. I just didn't feel like I had a community anywhere. And it's not like I didn't try. I did try for
00:03:00
Speaker
Many years, actually. My wife was like, oh, just go play nice in the sandbox. Maybe you can build some connections. And it just wasn't working. So in 2019, I was like, you know what? It's my time to create this organization. And when I originally created the organization, it was actually only for men. It was only for men of color in advertising marketing media and PR. And after the first year, after the founding of the organization, I was like, yeah, if I want to see year two, I got to bring the ladies in.
00:03:32
Speaker
Yeah, but I mean, you know, because a lot of the success over that first year, and granted that first year was actually during COVID. So like, I had started in 2019. But then around March, we were having meetings in person. And I kind of told the guys, I was like, hey, this is the last time we're probably going to see each other for I don't know how long.
00:03:52
Speaker
I don't know what this is we don't know what this is and we shifted to a virtual model but the virtual model just really helped us like bring more people together put on a lot of. Virtual like events and then even started creating programming and things that nature so.
Virtual Shift During COVID-19
00:04:09
Speaker
By doing that, our programming actually turned into actually paying it forward and creating mentorship and virtual agency experience programs for college students and then eventually for professionals over 40. And even now we have a community for people that are actually just looking for new opportunities that may have gotten laid off due to the industries, needless to say.
00:04:32
Speaker
Yeah, industry is plural. And I love the fact that you're that you've been building communities for the past call it half a decade because there's a lack of human connection in this day and age. This is probably the reason I wanted to build Oh, hello in a
00:04:46
Speaker
post-pandemic era, there's such a lack of that human eye-to-eye connection. There's a lack of vulnerability. There's a lack of humility. There's a lack of professionals our age and the generation younger. There's this misstep that is we need to do our best to help those and ascend them by creating access, being accessible, being empathetic, just not being in
00:05:14
Speaker
You know, an antiquated ivory tower, so to speak, of what our industry was composed of. And so, yeah, I was really drawn to what you're building as well. Help us understand a little bit about who you are and just what defines you as a dad, as a husband, as a professional.
Motivations and Community Support
00:05:30
Speaker
Yeah. So what defines me is pretty easy. I just want to have a hall on my tombstone. Kindred spirits.
00:05:40
Speaker
Every day, that's my goal. I just don't want to have that on my tombstone. So everything that I try to do is always for the people, always for the culture, and be a support system. Because as you were talking about earlier, this sense of community and providing access, well, providing access is a form of support.
00:06:00
Speaker
Right. But not just access, but opportunity and experiences. And then at the end of the day, you know, people like finding ways to make a living. So like, that's, that's who I am. And that's who I've been for quite a while now. And, but when I, when I did make this pivot into this journey or into this life, this passion turned purpose, I must say that I started seeing my reflection in the mirror.
00:06:25
Speaker
How's that? Before I didn't, because and you know, you and I talk about our ages all the time. But when you're a kid growing up in the 90s, whether you're high school and college in the 90s, it's kind of like that, you know, dame dash school of get money or die trying. That's it. So so pretty much like that was my life post college, all the way I would say for the first
00:06:49
Speaker
close to 12 years after college, it was just like, make money, make money, make money, make money. No sleep, make money, make money, make money, make money. Like I don't have a, I should have three mansions by now. I should, but maybe, you know, too, too many trips to Miami as we were talking about earlier.
00:07:05
Speaker
But that's all I was really about until I really found this passion for helping diverse talent and just talent all across the board. Doesn't even matter what your background is, just being that kind of nucleus or hub for people to kind of, whether it's asking advice or connect them or even put them through some of the programs that I create. It wasn't until I found that niche that I was like, oh my God, I'm not a vampire anymore.
00:07:33
Speaker
And I just
Purpose-Driven Mission
00:07:35
Speaker
started feeling better about myself and I'm not having that bloodlust or anything like that. And it's just been a really, really great opportunity for me to make people feel valued and feel appreciated and feel heard.
00:07:51
Speaker
Right. And giving them that space to kind of do that. And even if I have to hold their hand a little bit along the way to kind of build up their confidence, then it's like I was I was given these creative skills for a reason by whatever higher power whomever believes in. But if we are given these skills, we should use them to pay it forward, as you would say. How can people get involved with 100 Roses from concrete?
Connecting with 100 Roses from Concrete
00:08:15
Speaker
I mean, you know, 100rozemconcrete.com. I mean, it's a long, it's a long word, but, you know, like go to 100rozemconcrete.com. You can see all the stuff that we were doing. Obviously follow us on all the socials. We're not on TikTok, but we're everywhere else. And just, you know, kind of see the good stuff that we do. We always normally post different like volunteering opportunities, mentorship opportunities and things of that nature throughout the year. So that's the best way to find us.
00:08:45
Speaker
And I mean, I can't say that I've run the social media anymore because someone actually offered to run the social media where every hat social media is normally run by me. So that's how a lot of people see it. But then a lot of people also see me like speaking on different panels and different stages.
00:09:00
Speaker
across the country. So that's a great way to kind of just hear why I even created this at the end of the day. Because one thing that some people ask like, well, why does this even matter, especially even in a time and in our history of our country, where people are saying that DEI doesn't matter. And I'm like, no, it still does. It matters. Let's just say so. Regardless of how much it's attacked, I will not give up until like there's just no more breath. Sure. Until there's what? Until there's no more breath in my body.
00:09:30
Speaker
Well, we want you to have a breath for sure. You had mentioned mentorship. You had mentioned expert advice. Yeah.
The Importance of Mentorship
00:09:38
Speaker
Toss out a couple names of people that have made a profound impact on your professional career. Really great question. A person that's made a great impact on my career is actually her birthday today. So shout out to my mentor, Felicia Geiger. She's gone from mentor to pretty much like my big sister, needless to say, but it's also
00:10:00
Speaker
It's one thing that I try to dismiss the fact that sometimes people feel like, oh, well, if I have a mentor, they need to be my same race or my same gender. Far from. I disagree. Some people have that. Yeah. Not me. People have that. I don't. My mentor is a woman. She is Jewish and Brooklyn as hell. And like she she's literally my everything when it comes to just the support that I need.
00:10:23
Speaker
And like I said before, we've gone to like mentor mentee to almost like big sister, little brother, and she's on my team for a hundred rows from concrete. She's actually an executive board member and she runs one of the programs that I have. So it, if you can find the right mentor and let me, let me be honest with you, Jeremy. I Felicia has only been my mentor for the last like 13 years. I kind of was like anti-mentor for a long time.
00:10:49
Speaker
I think between Felicia, the other mentor I had was in high school and he wasn't even that great. I hope he's still alive, but he wasn't even that great. But I will say that he bought me concert tickets to all the best hip hop concerts in the 90s. So you name it from Will Smith to the ghetto boys to Naughty by Nature, I saw them all in concert. But he would buy me tickets, but he would just drop me off at the concert and then pick me up. So he wouldn't like rock out.
00:11:15
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was kind of like, I don't really need a mentor. But it wasn't until I got into the advertising business, and especially the DEI field, that's when I was like, yeah, there's got to be somebody I can bounce these ideas off of. And as I said before, you know, Felicia's Brooklyn to the heart, but I didn't even when I first saw her, it wasn't even in Brooklyn, it was in LA.
00:11:39
Speaker
She was on stage, like accepting an award. And I was like, there's something cool about this Jewish lady. I don't know what it is. She's just cool. But we had like, you know, three degrees of separation. I tapped one of my friends that knew her. I was like, hey, set it up. She set it up. We had one lunch and it's the rest has been history. I love that. I love that. Yeah. I mean, you can ever judge a book by its cover. I mean, I love that.
00:12:04
Speaker
Any other parting words? Before I even ask this, I mean, something that's really relevant is just the fact that, like you mentioned, one mentor in high school, a mentor now, something that's really important to what we're building is like, you don't need just one mentor. It's being able to tap on anyone and ask them for quick guidance, advice. Everyone has their own way of learning and ascending and appreciating how they're just being heard and listened to and learning. So I think that's relevant.
00:12:32
Speaker
Well, I always tell people that they need like an executive board, right?
Executive Board of Mentors
00:12:36
Speaker
And on your executive board, you have someone that helps you maybe with finance, maybe someone that helps you with life stuff, someone that helps you with, there's a variety of topics. So you don't necessarily need to have all those topics in one mentor. You're right, Kenny.
00:12:52
Speaker
an executive board. So like, you know what, you need to figure out your money, you need to figure out how to ask for a raise. Maybe the other mentor gives you advice on how to quit that job. Like, like you need like different departments and different mentors have different strengths. And that's how you build up an executive board. So I love it.
00:13:11
Speaker
If you get all that in one person, you're very lucky. But I will say that it's very hard to get all of that. All those especially all those people to be experts totally in those in those specific topics. Yep. You don't really get that person. Totally. Kenny, any other parting words of wisdom in a couple sentences of just parting words of wisdom.
Parting Words of Wisdom
00:13:34
Speaker
Parting words of wisdom. I'm a leader and a loner because followers never leave their mark. Hmm. I like that.
00:13:41
Speaker
I really like that. All right, there we have it. Kenny, we're so excited to have you be part of the Oh, hello tribe. Awesome conversation. Really like to get have enjoyed getting to know you. And, and thank you. Thanks for joining us. Thanks, everybody for listening. Thanks for being on the pod divide. Catch you soon. Everyone go book time with Kenny. Thank you, my friend.