A visionary husband-and-wife team from Baltimore, Raven Paris and Tony Parker, are passionate about bringing financial literacy and generational wealth building information to Baltimore.
Paris, a Morgan State University alumna, is an entrepreneur and founder of a marketing agency called CEO’s Evolve.
“I grew up in a middle-class family, but I feel like I have been the first to do a lot of firsts in my family such as being an entrepreneur, not having a nine to five, not doing anything that has to do with my college degree. I’m literally acting off of faith versus fear,” Paris said, reflecting on her journey.
She possesses entertainment industry expertise that has led her to work with companies such as TMZ and REVOLT.
Photo credit: courtesy photo
Paris’ entrepreneurial vision aligns with her husband’s. Parker is a real estate agent who gained entertainment and event curation experience during his college years at Florida A&M University. His entrepreneurial leanings link to observing a father who is a serial entrepreneur.
“I even worked for him when I was in middle school. I had a job on my father’s truck,” Parker said, recalling times when they drove across states together.
But Parker also mentioned that his hardworking father did not have access to knowledge to manage his trucking business more efficiently. Today, Parker is inspired to piece a puzzle together to fill in common gaps that can make or break an entrepreneur.
“I started cultivating my relationship with “Earn Your Leisure” about 18 months ago,” Parker said, referring to one of the top 20 business podcasts in the United States.
Paris and Parker want to give entrepreneurs a chance to broaden their network and expand their knowledge through an inaugural Wealth Summit LIVE. It will be held on July 8, 2023 from 1-4 p.m. at Baltimore’s Morgan State University, in partnership with “Earn Your Leisure.” Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings are the founders.
Parker remarked that he felt that “Earn Your Leisure” was the best platform to fill a void of knowledge among minorities and entrepreneurs in Baltimore.
“There’s a lot of entrepreneurial-minded people here and they just don’t have the resources that most other people might be exposed to and “Earn Your Leisure” bridges that gap. They make the knowledge easily digestible for people who don’t have formal backgrounds in business,” Parker said.
Chris Simon and his wife, Janeen Simon, who are founders of the popular Baltimore restaurant, BLK Swan will be among “Earn Your Leisure’s” interviewees. Parker added that prospective wealth summit attendees can range from people who want to get their feet wet in entrepreneurship to individuals who are already deeply invested in their business. Successful Black entrepreneurs will be honored.
“Some of the takeaways that we want them to leave the Wealth Summit LIVE with are the importance of building your credit, the importance of building your own real estate portfolio, so you can actually begin building your assets versus liabilities, and even knowing what the difference between assets and liability is, or how you can actually pull up a seat at the table in a medical marijuana business that is soon going to be legal as of July 1 [2023],” Paris said.
Successful realtors, stock traders, investors, politicians and various entrepreneurial experts are among the people who will be present at the summit.
“We want you to be able to leave with new business partners and leave with new mentors,” Paris said.
Parker added that he and Paris want 1,000 youth to attend the wealth summit free of charge through sponsored tickets. Although they are aiming for high schoolers and college students ages 14-22 to have the opportunity to participate, they are open to including younger attendees who are interested in wealth summit topics. Tickets will be available on a first come, first served basis, until they are gone. The ambitious couple is seeking more ticket sponsors to help youth.
“We want everybody to leave inspired and just know that their dreams are attainable and are possible,” Parker said.
General admission tickets will be sold until Thursday, July 6, 2023. VIP tickets will be available until Sunday, July 2, 2023. VIP guests will enjoy an exclusive VIP happy hour, all you can eat experience, fireside chat and meet and greet. “DJ No ID” will provide music. Visit https://www.theravenparis.com/wealthsummitlive for more information or to purchase tickets. Email Paris and Parker about youth tickets via Ceosevolve@theravenparis.com.
