The small business lending platform Kabbage shot a video with me a year ago. They put a lot of effort into sending a talented crew to Detroit for the filming. Thus I was surprised the video did not get made. Or at least I thought so.

They were saving it up to release for now: National Women in Small Business month.  You can see the video in the context of some really cool stories on the Kabbage site. There are plenty to be told: 39% of small businesses are owned by women and 46% of those women are minorities.  If the existing power structures freeze us out (and they often do), we just go build our own castles.  They are rarely fancy, but they are ours and they create jobs for a heck of a lot of people.

It’s a sweet video and it wraps in my childhood and parents. My dad passed in 1999– before I started the Grommet, and not long after the photo of him sitting on the couch with my youngest son, as seen in the video. My mom followed in 2012 and her passing is inexorably associated with a dramatic moment I share in the piece. She wasn’t that plugged into The Grommet because she was battling colon cancer during our early years.

I just wish they could be here now, at our tenth birthday, and beyond.  I won the jackpot with being born to those two.

Thank you Kabbage for taking such care with this video and my story.