Media Moguls Cathy Hughes and Natasha Eubanks Empower with Verizon Wireless | Business

Thursday, January 26, 2012—Washington, DC. Downtown Chinatown in DC was full of buzz on Thursday night, but not with the typical buzz of tourists from the Verizon center but instead it was from over 300 hundred women business owners flooding Hotel Monaco for the Verizon Wireless Empowerment event.  Small business owners joined Verizon Wireless for an intimate evening of dialog featuring Founder/ Chairperson of Radio One, Inc., Cathy Hughes, Natasha Eubanks Founder/ CEO of Young, Black and Fabulous LLC., facilitated by Executive Editor of Black Enterprise, Caroline Clarke. The room was filled with everything from an eleven year old girl entrepreneur who made jewelry to a women who offers yoga east of the River in Anacostia; all looking to gain some jewels of knowledge from the larger than life media moguls that embraced the crowd.

The evening started with a fabulous reception with great food and exclusive interaction with the latest products offered by Verizon Wireless that would assist in enhancing the efficiency of the business owners. While the latest phone and tablet would catch any eye, what seemed to impress guests the most was the Verizon portable credit card reader which allows you to take credit and debit cards on the spot and have funds deposited directly into your bank account!

Before the main event I had the pleasure of speaking to both Radio One's Cathy Hughes and YBF's Natasha Eubanks. When asked why she started YBF, Natasha gushed and said, "There wasn't anything like it at the time and I was obsessed with celeb magazines, gossip and news but I didn't see anything for our people [black celebrities] so I decided to take what other staple magazines and sites did and flip it and make one to celebrate us and it just kinda took off. I've always wanted to put us on a pedestal so I made sure I didn't get into this just to bash people for a web hit because at that time I didn't know what a "hit" was [laughing] but also because I wanted to show our fabulousness." Her advice to anyone wanting to break into the media industry world, "I could say you know to make sure your resume looks good and make sure you have experience and really know what your talking about but most of all don't do this business just to get perks and to be close to our celebrity. This job looks glamorous and looks fun but I work 24/7. I don't party I send other people to party! I don't have time for that [laughing]."

Ms. Hughes equally shared the view of Natasha that the minority and urban community were not getting its share of the spotlight when it came to them being major consumers of media whether it be radio or television and decided to give this audience a voice to share their perspectives and more importantly to tell their own story, "For cable television, African-Americans only had one choice at that was BET and we believed black folks deserved another option. We are very heavy cable users and yet cable industry has not been responsive to us as consumers. Then we branched out [online] to a more interactive medium, seeing that there was a big shift of African-Americans receiving and seeking information on the web. Technology now allows everything to be so interactive, so it’s just not you young people its grandmothers taking photos of their grandchildren and sending them to family members...it’s amazing we were told for so long that there was this digital divide. Black people are ahead! You have little black children who are just five years old that can work an iPhone!". With their success of their addition of TV One what can we now expect from Radio One? "We are re-launching Black Planet which believe it or now was originally owned by Asians. We are re-launching and recreating it so that it is more a global social network and we are calling it 'Black Planet Now'."

The evening concluded with Verizon's Director of Sales Victoria Boston opening the question and answer session with the featured guests and facilitator Caroline Clarke of Black Enterprise. All in all this was a night to remember in Washington, where women truly came together to empower! Here's a glance at what you missed!

Natasha Eubanks of YBF--

On getting help with her venture:

"Well I knew I needed a lawyer when I got my first law suit! I knew I needed an accountant when I hit the million dollar mark! When I first started this business, I had no technical background and knew nothing about web source code or websites. I would stay up for 24 hours at a time learning code and teaching myself. I definitely had to learn as I went along. Now I have a team of technical persons that maintain my site 24/7 so it’s always up and running!"

On advertising:

"I have yet to spend a time on advertising. When you have a good product people will want to stay and keep coming back."

On making hard decisions:

"I go with my gut. At the end of the day it's about knowing your worth."

Cathy Hughes of Radio One--

On rejection:

"If you ask enough people, the law of averages says the answer won't be no forever."

On being tough in business:

"You can't be the B word but you have to be firm."

On her legacy:

"It's still a work in progress but I want to be known as the person who opened the door for women to own in the telecommunication business."