How Messaging Drives Brand Success

Our culture is being packaged, praised, and profited from without ever being protected. Until now.

In this Season 3 premiere of So Ambitious, host Felecia Hatcher sits down with two visionary founders reshaping the way we think about ownership, culture, and commerce.

🏗️ Lanny Smith, founder of Actively Black, built a purpose-driven athleisure brand with its own Black-owned supply chain, sourcing cotton from Black farmers and reinvesting over 10% of profits back into the community. His mission: to prove that Black excellence is not a niche, it’s global.

💡 Tommy Johnson, founder of Made with Black Culture, is pioneering a new standard for cultural equity. Using blockchain to certify ethical trade and authentic representation of Black culture, he’s ensuring that creators—and the communities they come from—finally get credit and compensation for what they’ve built.

Together, they unpack what it means to move beyond “representation” toward reclamation: of value, of narrative, and of power. This episode is the heartbeat of Season 3 - a masterclass in building legacy with integrity and turning ambition into infrastructure.

Because ambition doesn’t need permission. It needs protection.

KEY POINTS  

- Why both founders chose social impact over traditional career paths

- Lanny’s NBA dream, career-ending injury, and pivot to entrepreneurship

- Tommy’s “moment of obligation” after Philando Castile’s death and vision for cultural equity

- Actively Black: building the “Black Nike” through purpose, storytelling, and community reinvestment

- Made with Black Culture: certifying Black cultural influence for ethical trade and economic power

- The role of messaging vs. data in shifting consumer behavior and values

- Why we must stop saying “support Black business” and start saying “value Black business”

- Lessons learned in scaling fast, raising capital, and navigating bias in venture funding

- The $15 trillion opportunity in commerce to transform communities by 2050

- Legacy: protecting Black culture, creating infrastructure, and proving global brand potential

QUOTABLES 

“Actively Black isn’t just apparel. The clothes are a uniform for the movement.” – Lanny Smith

“This is a conversation we needed years ago and still desperately need today, because building Black brands isn’t just about representation - it’s about reclaiming the narrative, the revenue, and the right to own what we create.” – Felecia Hatcher

“A person’s loyalty is directly proportionate to their level of feeling appreciated.” – Tommy Johnson

“Brands have profited billions off Black culture while giving little back. It’s time we build our own table.” – Lanny Smith

RESOURCES

Lanny Smith 

IG | @l.smith23

Actively Black 

IG | @activelyblack

Tommy Johnson 

IG | @tommyljohnson

Made with Black Culture

IG | @tommyljohnson

Felecia Hatcher

IG | @feleciahatcher

Black Ambition

IG | @blackambitionprize

So Ambitious is produced by EPYC Media