57 | The Act of Community Building with Nachand Trabue, Owner of MELANnaire Marketplace

What happens when two marketplace founders decide to collaborate rather than compete? Magic, community, and economic empowerment.

Amanda Dare welcomes Nachand Trabue from MELANnaire Marketplace for a heartwarming conversation about building economic opportunities for marginalized communities. Their friendship began when they met at an award ceremony and instantly recognized each other as "salt and pepper on the same table" - complementary forces working toward similar goals with different focuses.

While Woman-Owned Wallet empowers women entrepreneurs and MELANnaire Marketplace champions Black and Brown-owned businesses with their "Spend Your Green on Black" initiative, their missions align perfectly around economic justice. Both women launched their platforms during 2020's pandemic and civil unrest, responding to urgent community needs they witnessed firsthand. The conversation reveals how their approach isn't about charity but about recognizing the inherent value and potential of underrepresented business owners.

Nachand shares exciting developments about the MELANnaire Achievement Center Academy, a retail academy helping Black entrepreneurs scale from market tables to major retail shelves. Their graduates are already appearing in stores like Publix and Kroger, demonstrating the tangible impact of combining marketplace opportunities with targeted business education. The women discuss how using your "wallet power" intentionally becomes a powerful form of everyday activism and allyship that creates ripple effects throughout communities.

Ready to make your spending more intentional? Follow both Woman-Owned Wallet and MELANnaire Marketplace on social media to discover amazing businesses owned by women and people of color. Your dollars aren't just transactions – they're votes for the kind of world you want to live in. Listen now to be inspired to shop with purpose!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Woman-Owned Wallet Podcast
• 3:38 Meeting Nachand and Marketplace Missions
• 5:41 Collaboration Over Competition Philosophy
• 8:51 The MELANnaire Achievement Center Academy
• 13:31 Economic Power and Community Impact
• 17:25 Upcoming Events and Five-Year Celebrations
• 20:12 The Spice Rack Conversation
• 22:17 Closing Thoughts on Allyship

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey friends, welcome to Woman-Owned Wallet the podcast. I'm your host, amanda Dare, a serial entrepreneur who has already made all of the money mistakes, so you don't have to Now. I'm working on my money mindset, expanding my companies and having open conversations with women around a subject that shouldn't be so taboo money. My company, woman-owned Wallet, and I are determined to help you foster a more positive relationship with your wallet and help you create a life that makes you say wow, hey moneymakers, welcome back to another episode of Woman Owned Wallet the podcast. Okay, more cheers, more. I can't even hear you in my headphones. I can see you clapping One more time for Naishan Tribu from Melanair Marketplace.

Speaker 1: 0:56

Now, naishan, I really like to start off my little podcast with like telling people how we met, because I think our story is like one of the cutest ones I've ever heard in my entire life. So just tell us a little bit. Like the first time we met, do you remember we were at new and you were receiving an award Cause, of course you were and then we actually got to talking. Afterwards I was like I have to meet this woman. I've been like dreaming about her and being her best friend for such a long time and you literally were like who's your daddy long time. And you literally were like who's your daddy, because you're my sister, I mean, she's laughing. Do you remember the day that we fell in love? Yes, I do, amanda. We decided that day that you know I was salt and you were pepper, but we were on the same table. That's correct. I think you labeled us that and I actually gave her a pepper shaker and she gave me a salt shaker. So like, if we come out with a line of those in the future, like buy them all, they're going to be adorable.

Speaker 1: 1:55

So today, naishan, we're going to talk a little bit about collaboration over competition and I think it's really important for us to get into just a little bit of what we do first. So, obviously, woman-owned wallet we love to put money in the wallets of women and that's really important. Especially, listen, today when we're recording. It's the last day of Black History Month and yes, ma'am, show off that outfit. She's wearing her Black History Month outfit. And tomorrow is the first day of Women's History Month, which, as we know, you cannot erase either. So we are very excited to, no matter what's happening in our political landscape, to be celebrating this together. But tell us a little bit more just about Melanair Marketplace, just so everybody gets the vibies about.

Speaker 2: 2:44

Melanair Marketplace, just so everybody gets the vibies. Okay, melanair Marketplace, so we are the icon for Spin your Green on Black, and the point behind that is that we are encouraging people to think about how they're spending their dollars. Well, we want people to spend more with local and black and brown-owned business owners. And guess what? Melanair Marketplace was birthed from the whole concept of how can we help the community.

Speaker 1: 3:05

Yes, ma'am, I want to hear some cheers for that. They can't hear it, but I just made a ka-ching sound. She heard it. I should have brought my bedazzled one for everyone to hear next time. Yes, you should Go to the store. You can hit the ka-ching button when you check out. So, for me being focused on celebrating woman-owned businesses, for you being focused on celebrating black and brown-owned businesses, you know, we're both a marketplace. We're a marketplace because we can be that kind of positioning ourselves for that economic growth which is really important. But I do think we potentially could have seen each other as competition we potentially could have. We don't, nope, we don't. But do you think that there's an opportunity for us to have that conversation about why we don't and how we've been working together so that other people can learn from us?

Speaker 2: 4:01

Yeah, and it's just pretty simple can learn from us. Yeah, and it's just pretty simple. We both knew that we had to help people, period. And your focus is on women and of course, mine was on Black women and brown women all together and we said you know what? What better way? We are not competing amongst each other because our visions align and our mission align. When you have great partnerships where your vision and your mission align, then I mean you can't do nothing else but win together, and that's exactly the platform that we have created. I feel, in Melan Marketplace. I don't see us in a level of no competition with no one. No one. I never have. It's just my whole life. I always feel like I am a trendsetter, I am Nayshan Whatever God burst out of me is for me, and I never have felt like nobody's a competition. I feel more of what can I do to help the community, and that's our mindset and that was your mindset too.

Speaker 1: 4:59

Yeah, I almost feel like even not collaboration over competition, but community over everything. I think that that's really what we've always driven our businesses off of and what we've always been really proud to stand up for, and I think because we're such cuties that it's been really easy for us to do that. I mean, look at her, I'm obsessed with her. I almost texted you to be like, hey, what if I were my Melanier Marketplace hoodie? And you did. You almost Listen. We could have even collaborated even further.

Speaker 1: 5:32

Well, I do think it's really important to talk about staying true to our mission. So I want to kind of go through our why a little bit. I think it's. It's always comes back to that why.

Speaker 1: 5:44

I think there's been a lot of conversation around, you know, even seeing donating, buying, supporting in some financial way, an act of charity to give to women or to give to people of color, and what. We don't see it that way. We know that the impact is so much stronger than that because, I mean, here's a statistic that I understand is that women put 90% of their income back into their local community. So one of the fastest ways to support your local community is to actually put your money into the wallet of a woman, and I feel like there's probably some really great statistics about that for the black and brown-owned businesses that you support. But I know that you're also kind of utilizing the idea that they've come to you with this conversation of like we wanna grow, we wanna learn, and that you've even opened up a new section of your business that I would love to hear more about as well, with the Melanair Academy Center. Can you tell us more about that too?

Speaker 2: 6:49

Yes. So the Melanair Achievement Center Academy is a retail academy for black and brown-owned business owners who say you know what I am trying to figure out? I know how to sell at a table, I know how to sell from my trunk, but give me the proper retail education so that I can learn how to sell on big chain shelves. And we have testimonies of a lot of our business owners who are now on big chain shelves. I mean, they're in Publix and they're in Kroger's and they're in Rainbow Blossom and different ones, which is amazing, because that's what we want to do when we talk about scale up, because they know how to sell everywhere else. So what do you do? You try to prepare them by giving them the education that they need.

Speaker 2: 7:30

We have a lot of people who just don't understand all the behind the scenes that it takes for running a retail business and it's a beast. It really is a beast. It really is a beast. So what we said was we don't want it to be a beast for them. So we created a nonprofit arm so that we could help them to overcome the beast. And now, right now, we have 23 participants in our cohort right now. We have collaborated with Bates Community Development Corporation and we host our classes there as well. And so now in Smoketown, we are providing educational platform and programming along with Bates CDC, and it's a beautiful thing that this is happening in Smoketown, which is your African-American the first neighborhood was, african-american neighborhood was in Smoketown and now we're providing them how to create their wealth, black wealth, in this same demographic. It's like so amazing to me I know I'm going to give you a ka-ching for that while they applaud Black wealth in this same demographic.

Speaker 1: 8:25

It's like so amazing to me it feels good. I know I'm going to give you a ka-ching for that while they applaud. Isn't that fun? Hey, moneymaker, you know how Angie had her list. Angie's list was filled with amazing businesses that you could trust. Well, we've got ours, and it's all woman-owned. Introducing the WOW Directory on woman owned walletcom a national listing of woman owned businesses from coast to coast. Whether you're a service provider, a product queen, a creative entrepreneur or coach, this is where you get found. And if you're a shopper, this is where you go to find your next new favorite business. So the more we use it, the more we keep our money circling in the hands of women. So if you believe in voting with your dollars and building a future where women thrive, get listed, get shopping and let's grow this thing together. Head to womanownedwalletcom and click the directory to join or explore, because it's a great day to shop and be woman-owned Women forever. Love us Bye, bye.

Speaker 2: 9:47

Hi, it's Lainey.

Speaker 1: 9:56

Hi, it's very, very exciting to see that when you start with a social impact. We have retail spaces, you and I sell product, I mean, every day we'll go back to okay. Well, I'm going to introduce you and I'm going to connect you with a new woman-owned business or a new black-owned business. I'm going to be that connector, that little cutie that we are. We're going to be the voice of these underrepresented and marginalized communities in all the different ways, and we're going to do that intersectionally as well. I mean, we definitely support all different types of women and non-binary folks too. I feel like there's so much around that community aspect that when women come together, we know that the issue isn't just selling one product to one customer. We know that the issue is so just selling one product to one customer. We know that the issue is so much further back than that is the education portion of it is the understanding of when you use your voice, when you use your power, when you use your wallet and its power, what it can really do. And then again, this political climate. It's so interesting because that's typically what's understood is the wallet power, and today is an economic blackout, so they're suggesting that you actually only shop with small businesses today and that you don't shop with large chains or on Amazon or any of those other places. She's shaking her finger. You better not, and I think it's a beautiful day to do that being this. You know, intersection of Black History Month and Women's History Month right around the same time as well, so I really love that that was today.

Speaker 1: 11:36

So after today, after this event, I hope that y'all will definitely shop with another small business, but y'all will definitely shop with another small business. If you need to learn about one. You got us no problem. We know so many. It's crazy, but at the end of the day, we're selling product. But more than anything, tiffany, over here, she's being cutie gifts by Tiffany, cutie cutie. She's part of the millionaire. Yes, she is. Yes, she is, but at the end of the day, it's really important that we understood that it goes beyond that consumerism, that customer. It goes back to the community. So if we can educate the customer about what their money does, then they feel that they have that economic power that they might be feeling like they're missing in their lives, and if they have a small understanding of that, it's really beautiful what it can come back to, and I feel that we both have built really beautiful communities and that they have been able to collaborate together as well.

Speaker 1: 12:35

Most definitely we do. Didn't you start in 2020?

Speaker 2: 12:38

as well. In the middle of the pandemic, civil unrest, in the middle of PP loans and business owners saying, hey, I got denied. I'm in the middle of them saying I got an email, my landlord's put me out because I haven't paid rent for three weeks. Because I haven't, I can't afford it, the pandemic, I lost my job. And I'm like woo, wow, all of the different things they were going through, all the trials and the errors, and I'm like what I cannot tell these business owners? Oh well, it's on you, you got to figure it out. I'm like, no, I got to help them. You felt the calling, I felt it and I acted upon it. And I'm true to it to this day Self-funded, self-taught, all of that. Even now, I'm still trying to figure out how to keep moving. But guess what One thing I'm going to do is? I'm going to keep moving for our people. I'm going to do that, yes, you are.

Speaker 1: 13:31

I don't think there's another option. Is there for us no option?

Speaker 2: 13:35

We got to continue to put the work in. We got to continue to be that voice. We got to continue to be that encourager. We got to continue to be that woman that empowers another woman. We got to continue to be that person and say you can do it. A lot of times, people just need to hear within the Melanite platform that they can do it. You can do this because it's already been done. It's been done. Go all the way back to our ancestors. It's been done. They already wrote it. Now we just got to stand on their shoulders and go forth and just cast a vision because it can be done and it will be done.

Speaker 1: 14:12

Yeah, and I think that being a part of that cycle and that understanding of learning from our past and then moving forward into our future with that new understanding, feels so good, it feels so good, so good. It gives like the hope to us every day to keep going in those situations too. What do you have kind of coming up next for Millinery Marketplace? What's the vibe this year for 2025?

Speaker 2: 14:38

The 2025, we are all the way alive. We have from networking programs, we have from us doing all type of exclusive events and we might be coming to an event near you and, if not, come to wherever we are. We got everything on our website as to as well. We getting ready now for the KDF Big Block Party in Juneteenth down on 4th Street Live. We need everybody to come out and support. You're going to be off work, so don't say you can't come. Everybody's off work already. We already know that. But we need everybody to come out as well. And then we celebrate five years this year, 2025. Go ahead, save the date, save the date. What's the date? September the 27th, we're going to be having our gala celebrating five years for Melanar Marketplace, but we're also going to graduate our first class from Melanar Achievement Center, a retail company. So we are so excited to have both of those great things happen at one time.

Speaker 1: 15:34

Yes, I love it, babe. How funny, because our IBR anniversary is August 8th, so we're going to be these fall anniversary babies over here A week away. I know, right in between we'll have another party, another party, another party. We do love a theme too. We'll have a five theme of some way let's come together and do it, we always do. We always do so because you're the Beyonce of Louisville. Does that make me the Taylor Swift of Louisville? You the Taylor Swift? She called me at first, y'all Okay.

Speaker 2: 16:04

I didn't call myself. I'm going to go ahead and take Beyonce and I'm going to let you go ahead and take Taylor Swift, because I'm pepper. And you what Salt? I'm pepper.

Speaker 1: 16:13

I wish I was a little more salty. I'm a little too sweet.

Speaker 2: 16:21

I'm a little peppery Everybody likes pepper.

Speaker 1: 16:22

Last year we came together and we were working on like the spice rack.

Speaker 1: 16:37

It was like a really fun adventure of getting.

Speaker 1: 16:38

We actually had a really beautiful night of conversation where we brought women of all different colors together and backgrounds, sexual orientations, like we wanted to have real conversation in the spice face and we wanted we kind of like originally started to think like maybe this would be a continuing thing and it didn't end up being that, because we went back and looked at it and to recreate the magic that happened that night.

Speaker 1: 16:58

I don't I don't really know if it was possible, to be honest, like because every one of these situations we had each invited, I want to say like five to seven people, something like that, that were ready to have a conversation about women and sisterhood and race and feel like there was that understanding that we're all in this situation, we're all learning in this situation. But there's a lot within, you know, white women where we actually were struggling with sisterhood and we were struggling with that idea of collaboration and being able to do it together, because so many situations for white women and I know all women but for me, coming from that was we were just pitted against each other in these situations and it was always a struggle for me. Growing up Like I grew up with really positive relationships with men and my dad, my brothers, my uncles like my husband's one of the best Our husbands, our husbands.

Speaker 2: 17:51

Oh my God, they're so cute. Give it up for our husbands Give it up. They're amazing.

Speaker 1: 17:55

Carlos is the cutest Stop it I love him.

Speaker 1: 18:01

I love him so much. But we were like really coming together. Now I'm just thinking about like your guys' Valentine's Day and how cute it must have been and just everything being adorable between y'all, but we were like talking. I actually forgot what we were talking about.

Speaker 1: 18:18

So, listen, we had been pitted against each other in so many situations and when we came together with women in the black community specifically, we had learned about how much community there was. There was a mutual understanding of each other's trials and tribulations and there was a mutual understanding there. And it's been interesting to come together and have those conversations and know that the space that we're coming from for those conversations was not to be judgmental but to be curious and to understand one another a little bit more so that we could develop a better relationship for everything. So, on that note, I just wanted to thank you for being my sister and the salt and pepper on the same table. And again, salt and pepper is just the start, like the spice rack that can be available. Yes, right, it's coming. There's so many options. I'm like a kitchen line. It would be so cute, and then we can get with all those girlies who, like, know how to make food Right.

Speaker 2: 19:18

Right, well, I can't, but I don't feel like it.

Speaker 1: 19:24

We got. We got all their stuff too. We all have our place and, I think, even within allyship and in all ways like remembering that everyone has their path towards allyship. But one of the ways that we can really support one another every single day is with our wallet, is with our wallet power and the power that comes from understanding, where you know, when you put your dollar towards a Black-owned business or a Brown-owned business, a woman-owned business, marginalized or underrepresented business, a queer-owned business, that there's so much opportunity that that person may not have seen, may not have understood in the past. And by coming together, having open conversations and being willing to be curious and not judgmental, we're going to be able to do that together.

Speaker 1: 20:08

So thank you all so much for being a part of the first live podcast. For you know, Woman Unlawed, the podcast, Thank you. Have you ever been to a live podcast? For you know, Woman on Wallet, the podcast. Have you ever been to a live podcast before? Raise your hand if you've been to a live podcast. Oh my God. Like five more of you, I've never been to a live podcast.

Speaker 1: 20:27

Well, now we have we shared this beautiful experience together and I couldn't be happier. So, moneymakers, I just want you to know how you can follow and put money and spend your green on black. Can you tell them how to give you a follow?

Speaker 2: 20:42

Sure, yes, go to social media. We're on Instagram, ig as well as T-Style. Underneath Melaner Marketplace it's spelled okay, m-e-l-a-n, another N, a-i-r-e, then Marketplace Melaner Marketplace, which is Black Millionaire in the Making. I'm sure y'all caught that piece, and if you want to book us out, if you have a company or know a company or whatever, please book us out and we can bring a marketplace to you all, to your company or to your church or to your organization too, as well.

Speaker 1: 21:16

Absolutely. Thank you so much, Neishan, for being on the podcast. I would love to get like a deeper dive another time, when I can really dive into your entire money story, which is usually what we speak about on Women Owned Wallet the podcast. So I think, especially with women and storytelling, that's how we learn so many times, so many ways. So definitely check out Woman Owned Wallet the podcast. We're actually in the top 100 of money podcast. Surprise, I know. Amazing. We've been podcasting for four years four of our five, because we're celebrating five years with Woman.

Speaker 1: 21:48

Owned Wallet and Melanair Marketplace. We love alliterations, don't we? Yeah, we have a lot in common, we do.

Speaker 1: 22:03

That's why I asked you first time who's your daddy? Is your daddy? My daddy? See, I told you she said it y'all. I was just like that was like the third question you asked. I was like I wish That'd be awesome, but we can make it happen. So, anyways, moneymakers, thank you so much for coming to a live episode of Woman-Owned Wallet the podcast, and until next time, moneymakers, go out there and make that money, money. If you want to put more money into the wallets of women, like we do, then check out our website, thewomanownedwalletcom, and we can't wait to continue the conversation on our social media. So definitely follow us on our Instagram at womanownedwallet, and on TikTok at womanownedwallet. You can support us by following our podcast on Apple, google and Spotify, and don't forget to leave us a review. Thank you for listening to Woman Owned Wallet the podcast.