Leah Frazier went from practicing law to becoming an entrepreneur, founder of Think Three Media, media personality, and Emmy and ADDY Award winner, but building a business came at a cost.

In this candid conversation with Liz and Porter, Leah opens up about losing her car, investing her life savings, starting over, career reinvention, and learning when it's time to pivot. She shares the question that changed how she approached entrepreneurship and her future: “What else can I build?”

Follow Making Black History Today for new conversations every other Thursday at 5:00 a.m.

There is more than $1 trillion in contracting opportunity. Getting access to it is another story.

For small, Black-owned, minority-owned and women-owned businesses, government contracts can mean growth, jobs, capacity and generational wealth.

But getting a seat at the table has never been simple.

And now, some of the rules are changing.

Angela L. Alexander, Executive Director of the North Central Texas Regional Certification Agency (NCTRCA), joins Making Black History Today to break down what business owners need to know about government contracting, certification, procurement and access to opportunity.

Changes affecting the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) and Airport Concession Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (ACDBE) programs are reshaping how some businesses demonstrate eligibility.

But Angela makes something else clear:

Getting certified doesn't mean you're getting the contract.

Businesses still need capacity. Relationships. Information. Strategy. And, increasingly, partnerships and joint ventures that can help them compete for larger opportunities.

Angela also explains The Bridge by NCTRCA, an AI-powered directory designed to increase the visibility of certified businesses and help connect them with buyers and prime contractors.

This isn't simply a conversation about certification.

It's about who gets to compete.

Who gets the information.
Who builds the relationships.
Who has the capacity.
And who is ready when opportunity shows up.

Because with $1.2 trillion in contracting opportunities, the question isn't simply whether the money exists.

The question is: Who is positioned to get their share?

• What NCTRCA does and why certification matters
• What's changing for DBE and ACDBE businesses
• Why certification doesn't guarantee a government contract
• What business owners should do after getting certified
• Why capacity and relationships matter
• How partnerships and joint ventures can create larger opportunities
• How The Bridge by NCTRCA connects certified businesses with buyers and prime contractors
• What Angela Alexander believes small businesses need to do to compete in a changing environment

🎙️ Making Black History Today documents the leaders, entrepreneurs, educators, creatives and change-makers writing Black history right now.

Hosted by Liz & Porter.

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Shirley Ison-Newsome integrated a school as a fourth grader before spending nearly 40 years transforming education in Dallas ISD. She shares what school integration taught her, why poverty should never determine a child's ability to learn, and why she refused to lower expectations for Black students.

From educational equity and Black school leadership to the vision behind Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy, Ison-Newsome reveals what it takes to demand excellence inside a public school system and the resistance that can come with it.

Today, a Dallas ISD school bears her name: Shirley Ison-Newsome Montessori Academy.

But the story behind that legacy started decades earlier.