Today, we’d like to introduce you to Omar Finley. Omar was introduced to us by the brilliant and talented Alicia Hemphill.
Omar, can you walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in Pontiac MI and went to school in VA at Hampton University. I learned the Kan-Ban process when I was working for Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America in Georgetown Kentucky. I was a Senior at the time and working as a co-op. I also did an intern at General Motors where I got a solid education on the technical management of tools and equipment. After these experiences, I knew that I liked being an engineer but didn’t ever want to be dependent on a job for my main income. My best friend at the time had just been hired as an account manager at Pepsi. This gave him some perks that would allow us to begin our first partnership in entrepreneurship. He was able to buy Pepsi products by the case for personal use. On campus the engineering building didn’t have a vending machine. We saw this as an opportunity to fill that gap! So I bought a cooler and started carrying it to class. We bought the drinks at roughly $0.30 per bottle and sold them for $2.00 each. This was a margin of $1.70! This was very lucrative for me as a college student but still interesting that it was possible to see a need in the world and fill it with a product solution! After graduation I worked in engineering for 13 years but I always had a second stream of income that I was more excited about. After being fired from my position as an Electrical Engineer, I decided that I would commit my whole self to my own business’s and being an entrepreneur. I had a conversation with my wife the day that I was let go and we both agreed that this was a logical next step for us. Our book, A World of Our Own: The Beginning had already sold 1000 copies! By the end of that day I had secured a location and the renovation materials necessary to begin building The Listening Tree! The Listening Tree is a children’s bookstore committed to black authorship and perpetuating a love of literacy, learning and entrepreneurship in our global community. Our program and product selection reflects our mission. Ebony-Opoly is one of those products! Ebony-Opoly is currently our best selling product. I think it ties our black history in with finances in an incredible way. It addresses the systematic racism that the black community in America has dealt with, while empowering us to think forward and invest in property and real-estate! This is a recipe for success and feeds right into our YEP! program! Our best selling program at The Listening Tree is our Young Entrepreneurs Program (YEP!) The YEP! program teaches children ages 8-12 and 13-18 how to properly organize their businesses and understand the importance of building as well as buying assets! Our best selling book series is How to become a Successful Young Man & How to Become A Successful Young Woman. These books address the unique differences between male and female entrepreneurs while encouraging our youth to make behavioral decisions that will produce their desired outcomes. Again these books feed into our mission at The Listening Tree. We’ve been in business since 2014 and we are always in search of product solutions that can impact our world!
Please tell us more about your brand, The ListeningTree Bookstore
The Listening Tree is a children’s bookstore committed to black authorship and perpetuating a love of literacy, learning and entrepreneurship in our global community. Our book intake process insures that parents can trust that books from The Listening Tree will uplift, encourage and inform their children in every aspect of life and development. Our quality control of our products and programs is what sets us apart. What also sets us apart is that The Listening Tree is the Only children’s bookstore in the world committed to black authorship! Our main event happens on most Saturday’s from 2-4pm. Meet is packed with learning activities and open access to authors who have written books that our children love! We broadcast live on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. The Listening Tree’s B-Boys & B-Girls Book Club provides its members an age appropriate book hand picked from our collection and newsletter every month that addresses current events, finances, fitness, history and the future! The Listening Tree’s YEP! Young Entrepreneurs Program is available all year to students ages 8-12 and 13-18. YEP! is an 8 week online program that can be accessed from every state! Every child finishes with an LLC, Business Bank Account and Functioning Website! Upon completion, Young Entrepreneurs are inducted into The Society of Young Entrepreneurs, an online social community designed to help them continue improving there businesses. Classes are offered all year in Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter sessions. You can enroll at listeningtreebooks.com or yepentrepreneurs.com. The Listening Tree’s newest program is The Parent Entrepreneurs Program! PEP! After 100’s of request from parents we’ve developed a program that will help you develop second, third and forth streams of income in an organized way! Parents will develop Investment budgets and trust themselves to calculate their ROI’s. And of course Parents will finish with a knowledge base and their properly organized LLC, Bank Account and Integrated Websites. We are most proud of our customer service and understanding the needs of our customers!
So, as we mentioned to our audience earlier, you were introduced to us by Alicia Hemphill and Ebony-Opoly LLC and we really admire them and what they’ve built. For folks who might not be as familiar, can you tell them a bit about your experience with Ebony-Opoly LLC.
I became acquainted with Ebony-opoly when Dewayne Washington walked in and showed me the game! I was instantly taken back by the idea of real-estate investment by black people into the black community with the intent to build generational wealth. I was introduced to Alicia Hemphill and Dr. Ruth Plummer shortly after. I love ebony-opoly for several reasons. The first being what it suggests to the Black Community. The suggestion is to Own the land, buildings and municipalities that drive community. The second is the fact that it is fun! The third is the fact that it has been one our best sellers at The Listening Tree since we were first introduced to this phenomenal boardgame!
Website: https://listeningtreebooks.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelisteningtree/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thelisteningtreebookstore/?viewAsMember=true
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tree_listening
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelisteningtreebooktique
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thelisteningtree5736
Image Credits
The Listening Tree Jaxon Photo Group
