📍 Bliss Terasu | May 2, 2026
Visibility isn't just about being seen. It's about where you're seen, who's in the room, and what you're building while you're there.
Talent might get you in the door, but consistency is what builds a career. And consistency doesn't always look like 100%. Some nights you're fully switched on. Some nights you're at 60, and that's still what you bring. The goal isn't intensity — it's capacity. Knowing what you have available and using it well is the real game.
Last Saturday, I went to The Business Network Mixer as a plus one to support my friend Lilla Foreign, who was selected for a Business Spotlight slot — five minutes to present what you're building to a room full of people who are also building. What happened in that room wasn't just networking. It was a live demonstration of how modern business ecosystems actually operate.
The Room
Hosted by ES$O and CEO L, the mixer brought together founders, creatives, executives, and builders across industries. Special guests included Dowud Singleton, VP at American Express, and Loren LoRosa of The Breakfast Club. But the most noticeable thing wasn't status.
It was intent.
Everyone in that space had something they were actively building. Not ideas. Not aspirations. Executions. The unspoken agreement was simple: you come with value, or you're not really participating.
Loren spoke on the importance of consistently putting yourself forward and building your own table through leverage over time. She also spoke on something that hit closer to home — the reality of building from the ground up, putting money into something you don't fully have yet because you believe in it anyway.
✦ She Deserves Her Flowers
Before anything else, Lilla Foreign deserves her flowers.
This is my Capricorn friend okay — the biggest 🐐. She's always in the right rooms because she's ABOUT her business. Lilla is the CEO and host of Valid With An Accent, a podcast created to give others the mic to share their journeys in a non-judgmental environment. Bold, culture-forward, and grounded in real conversation rather than performance.
She opened the spotlight presentations and set the tone immediately. There's something distinct about watching someone operate in alignment with their work. I was so büszke (proud in Hungarian, something I picked up at her live podcast taping last summer).
Beyond the Business
Something I want to make sure doesn't get lost in the highlights and the handshakes — ES$O and CEO L addressed something real in that room. A 15 year old was shot at a park in Queens — the same park where they had sponsored a basketball tournament just a week before. The kid went to school with CEO L's son.
Suddenly, community wasn't just branding language — it was proximity. It was responsibility. It was the reality that these ecosystems exist inside real environments with real consequences. The room full of builders, the conversations happening in every corner was intended to create long lasting impact.
That for me is what separates an event from a money grab.
On the wellness side — ES$O is also building in the health space. He has a vegan American cookbook out — Cooking with Doc & Esso — and trains in Queens, leading by example for where he started from. The whole picture of what he's building isn't just about business. It's about longevity.
Who Left a Lasting Impression
What stood out most were the side conversations — the things not on a stage. If you know me then you knowwww it's hard for me to keep a compliment to myself. A few that stayed with me:
A full VR music ecosystem built for creativity, performance, discovery, and artist independence. Original AI-generated samples built to keep human creativity at the center, inspired by the spirit of hip-hop sampling — reimagined for the future. Follow them at @itsthesampler.
We got to talking and I found out she used to manage one of my favorite artists — you know the type, the one who never drops but you keep waiting anyway — and has since moved into sports PR.
- UFOrolls — Gifted us their grind & roll kit which literally opens up so you can grind and roll wherever you are. Test and approved, by the way.
- Najee Rayne aka Rayne Reports — Queens bred, rising superstar. Real and sweet. Ladies we gots to stick together! Shameless plug — watch her interview with Lilla here.
- DJ Kyndall Marie — Knew her music, knew her audience, and kept the room exactly where it needed to be all night.
- ES$O + CEO L — I only shook their hands but after Saturday I can firmly say they are two men who clearly understand that community IS the strategy.
- Get Em Studio — The media I connected with the most that night. Good pics, good video, good energy. Go check them out.
Takeaways
In rooms like this, collaboration isn't a mindset — it's a default condition. Everyone is already building, which shifts interaction away from extraction and toward exchange. When you're in a room where winners are genuinely rooting for each other, you feel it. And it changes how you move.
Loren LoRosa said it best — building your own table, aka leverage, is always worth it. But none of that happens if you stay home. Visibility is a practice. The rooms don't come to you. You have to show up, even when it's not the most convenient thing on your calendar.
Showing up opens the door but you still have to walk through it. I left with connections, insights, and things I can implement directly because I actually engaged — had the conversations, stayed curious, and let the room work. Presence without participation is just attendance.
Where you stand. Who you stand beside. And whether your presence is aligned with what you're building.
Visibility matters. Undrgrnd Paparazzi is where YOU get seen. We don't just create — we position.
Whether you need help putting yourself out there, getting in the right rooms, or building the infrastructure around what you're creating — that's what we do.
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