Mariah Madison builds connections through Buy Black Chambana, Nannyville and HeadStart Marketing

Mariah Madison is known as a serial entrepreneur. 

At least on the internet.

“The internet just makes me look so good,” she said. “It’s like I have to meet that girl because she’s awesome.”

The Chicago native, who played basketball for Eastern Illinois University, and now resides in Champaign is taking her entrepreneurial mindset to foster meaningful and diverse relationships.

It’s something she started in high school.

“I’ve always had a business mentality,” she said. “When I was in high school I had a candy store, even though I wasn’t supposed to. I would sell candy and it got so big, to the point where I had friends who would sell the candy for me. So they would make some money off of it and I would also make some money off of it.”

The 2016 EIU graduate who studied Business Administration is now taking Champaign-Urbana by storm. 

As founder of Buy Black Chambana, Madison now has a platform where more than 150 black-owned businesses are easy to find in a directory. ,

“Through there we disperse a lot of resources and information and advocate on behalf of black owned businesses,” Madison said. 

“I’m also proud of our Business of the Year awards where we were able to spotlight black-owned businesses and get us all in the room for the very first time.”

Buy Black Chambana has also been able to bring a black Santa back to Champaign for the first time since 1984. In its inaugural year, the group has also held community events.

Madison is looking forward to participating in the upcoming Juneteenth March on June 19. This event is organized by HV Neighborhood Transformation.

“People think the Emancipation Proclamation was when the slaves were freed, but really there were slaves being held in Texas who weren’t free until June 19 of 1865. 

“That is our independence day,” Madison said.

The March will begin at Arrowhead Bowl and head to Beardsley Park beginning at 6 p.m.

“I believe that will be drummers and performers,” she said. “There will be black-owned businesses there and vendor booths, there’ll be food trucks, different desserts and really just showcasing all that the black community has to offer.”

In recent weeks, the Buy Black Chambana website has exploded with new visitors, looking to support the black community. 

“I have seen a huge increase on visitors to my website and the directory,” she said. “I’ve actually had black owned business owners reach out to me directly to say, ‘I’ve gotten so many new clients; I’m loving what’s going on.”

But there is still room to dispel stereotypes.

Madison started a monthly magazine publication, Luminous, which highlights black-owned businesses in a market where they usually are overlooked.

“We get to share our narrative because there is a monopoly on media,” she said. 

“Usually you hear stories but you don’t hear it from the black perspective. We try to inspire hope and change, positive messages to black people while also shifting the perspective of how people look at us. We’re not thugs.”

Through Buy Black Chambana, Madison also provides quarterly boxes, featuring discounted products from black-owned businesses. 

“It makes it easier for people who want to support black businesses but not necessarily find them,” she said. 

“We also started selling Black Lives Matter yard signs just to create solidarity among the community and hopefully keep the conversation rolling.

Madison also manages two other companies, HeadStart Marketing, LLC. and Nannyville.

“I’m always advocating on behalf of black-owned businesses because I am a black business owner, and I’m a first generation business owner,” she said. “I know how hard it is to even figure it out. And I have a degree in business administration, and I still struggle.”

Through HeadStart Marketing, Madison helps businesses navigate website design and social media.

Nannyville, though, will always hold an extra special place in her heart.

The in-home babysitting and nanny placement agency was derived from Madison’s love of being a nanny to 8 children.

“I love being a nanny because I honestly love my children,” she said. “I think that they care for me as much as I care for them. They empowered me because children, they do anything and everything to their heart’s desire and they do it 100-percent. They don’t care who’s watching. They don’t get embarrassed.

“Knowing that I was impacting the world one child at a time was really important to me.”

Nannyville helps to pair up families with babysitters or nannies who have gone through Madison’s background checks. Caregivers can be disperse in a 20-mile radius to Champaign-Urbana.

“It’s hard to find someone that’s reliable and it’s just as hard to keep that longevity relationship,” she said. 

The children that grew up with Madison as their caregiver continue to receive birthday cards and back-to-school messages from her. 

“I think that relationship building is the key to life,” she said. “I think it is the key to the Black Lives Matter movement. I think that when you have a relationship with someone you share a connection with them and you care about them, you care about their problems and their struggles. Your struggles become theirs, and their concerns become your, and so you’re able to verbalize, connect and really advocate on behalf of them.”

Madison experienced this transformation of thought when she told two 8-year old twins she nannied that she was a princess.

“At that time, I was in the kitchen and I was dancing and singing and spinning around, and then I said, ‘I’m a princess,” she remembers.

The boy told her that she could not be a princess because she had black skin. His sister told the boy that she could be a princess.

“And he said, ‘Well, what about her hair,’” he said. 

“And then the sister said, ‘Yes, she can be a princess.’

“And he was like, ‘Well I just never saw a black princess before.’

“In that instance, we got to address representation within media or black people in general,” Madison said. “Then I also got to share that with their family, their parents so they can have that discussion when they feel comfortable.”

“Connecting those dots, making those connections, opens up for various conversations. Italso exposes children to versatile people who they may have never come into contact with Because when we see black people online, we see them in different lights, but to actually care for someone and love someone in your life that’s black, you’re things she was an awesome black woman.”

Madison also believes that this is the way that systemic racism can end.

“It’s always bridging the gap and connecting with your community,” she said. 

“If you have a friend who has been affected by police brutality or anything of that nature and they verbalize that to you and that’s truly your friend and you love them, you will advocate on behalf of them, and you will you will vote on behalf of them you put your financial dollars on behalf of them.”

While it means the world to black business owners to get additional clients and dollars, Madison said that there also has to be a movement to create sustainable black communities.

“Right now we have black neighborhoods, but we need to create black communities,” she said.

Madison the shift will be when black neighborhoods can have a black-owned grocery store, a black-owned bank, and black-owned activity and recreational center in order to generate wealth within the community. 

“Oftentimes we’ll see black-owned businesses, but we’re not able to create community or wealth to keep fluctuating in a circular system. And so, when you have those three things we can continue to generate wealth: we can start to tackle the larger problems like food deserts, mentorship programs and really give back into the community.”

Right now, Madison said, the focus is on allyship, asking people to help give money.

“While that is nice right now in the moment, the long term goal is for black owned businesses to be able to self sustain without the help,” she said.

She understands, though, that systemic racism has been ingrained into society, so changing the mentality will take a long time.

The pandemic isn’t helping much, either. 

A May 8 report from the Small Business Administration’s inspector general found that businesses owned by people of color may not have received loans as intended under the Paycheck Protection Program. 

“Most black-owned businesses are living paycheck to paycheck,” Madison said. 

She believes that students, especially minority students, need to have more access to financial literacy courses so that they can learn more about using money and credit so that they can manage their finances and make an educated decision on buying a car or loan .

“I just felt like maybe having more black owned businesses and mentors teach them what they didn’t know growing up,” she said.

Madison’s family is full of people who know how to sell, so that has come naturally to her. 

But she had to teach herself the system of taking out a loan, starting an LLC. or getting a EIN number.

“I have learned that I have a really creative mind, and that I love to drop opportunities,” She said. “But I have to follow my passions. “I want to have full pockets but I also want to have a full heart.”