This wasnât just a commercial shoot.
It was homage to our ancestors. As we stood here recording the 2026 Black Women Sell Live commercial, all I could think was: We are making them proud. I couldnât help but wonder⌠What would Madam C.J. Walker say about the 2 million+ Black womenâowned businesses operating today? What would Maggie Lena Walker say about the $98.3 billion our companies generate? What would she say about the fact that weâve more than doubled our average annual revenue since the pandemicâ even while traditional banks still hesitate to believe in our visions? What would she say about our ability to love each other, collaborate, and support one anotherâ even in a world designed to fracture us? I donât care what anyone says. Dedicating my lifeâs work to helping Black women experts rise and dominate their lanes was the best pivot Iâve ever made. Our history is RICH. Our creativity is RICH. Our love is RICH. We are all that and a bag of chips. When I wrote the script for the Black Women Sell Live commercial, I knew I couldnât do it alone. I needed actresses to portray Madam C.J. Walker, Maggie Lena Walker, Ida B. Wells, and Mary Ellen Pleasant. I needed a full production team to bring the vision to life. I needed a director who could steward the assignment with excellence. And although Iâve written small commercial scripts before, this one was different. The first draft was 25+ pages⌠for a 5â10 minute commercial. Too long. But every word mattered. I had to research the figures. I had to build a narrative where the past and present collided. Some of it is fiction. Much of it is historically accurate. So who carried the vision mattered. So who did I call? A Black womanâowned production company. Of course. Itâs fitting that a commercial about Black womenâs economic power was built by sistersâand supported by strong men who honor that power. Itâs fitting that I had to release control and trust other Black women to steward the vision. Itâs fitting that this required collaboration, discernment, and trust