Ask Michelle Petties who comes to mind when she thinks about Black business, and the answer is immediate: Carla Nelson Chambers. 

Carla and I have known each other for nearly 30 years, since the days of literal Rolodexes and handwritten business cards. That history made Nelson Chambers the natural choice for this Black Business Month conversation.

As Managing Principal of The Nelson Ideation Group, LLC (TNIG), Nelson Chambers has spent more than three decades helping small, minority, and women-owned firms find their footing — and helping the larger companies and government agencies that hire them understand why that matters. Her Owings Mills-based consultancy provides management consulting to public- and private-sector clients, specializing in appraising and supporting diverse certified firms across construction, economic development, and public-private partnership projects. TNIG's businesses are certified as DBE, ACDBE, MBE, WBE, and SBE firms in more than a dozen states, including Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

A Lifetime Rooted in Connection

Nelson Chambers' path started long before she had a company name. “I talk for a living, and I love people,” she said, describing how she was networking people together long before networking had a name. In the early 1990s, a vivid dream convinced her she was meant to help build economic security in her community — she watched other cultures reinvest and circulate their dollars. At the same time, she noticed her own 10,000-member church wasn't doing business with itself. With that realization, she launched her first company, Visionary Network Consultants, to connect Black-owned businesses to resources and to each other.

A decade later, she moved into government work with Baltimore City, teaching minority-owned businesses how to navigate procurement and avoid the technical errors that sometimes disqualify bids — while also teaching majority firms why partnering with small, diverse businesses benefits everyone. That blend of corporate, entrepreneurial, and government experience became the foundation of Nelson Ideation Group, which today helps municipalities and prime contractors bring diverse firms into major contracts, and helps those same communities feel like development is happening for them rather than to them.

Conference Room Conversations: A Space to Be Real

Beyond contracts and certifications, Nelson Chambers has built something more personal: Conference Room Conversations, a gathering space for women business owners — and, increasingly, women navigating corporate and government careers — to talk honestly about what they're facing. “Sometimes you need another Black female business owner to say, ‘This is my experience — is it me or is this real?’” she explained. The sessions, which began weekly on YouTube during the pandemic and now happen quarterly in person, cover everything from procurement strategy to family, faith, and simply holding space for one another without judgment.

Conference Room Conversations – the discussion continues

Conference Room Conversations – June 2026, sponsored by Fulton Bank. (From Left) Dionne Waldron McNeal – VP, Community Relations, Fulton Bank, Sandra Mizell Chaney, Carla Nelson Chambers, Hennither B. Gant, Ebony Gaynor Barbour, Fulton Bank representative, Fulton Bank representative.

Advice for Uncertain Times

This year's Black Business Month arrives at a difficult moment. Federal cuts to disadvantaged business programs and contracts have hit Black-owned firms and contractors hard, and Nelson Chambers has watched colleagues lose revenue overnight. Her advice is direct: diversify your revenue streams so no single client or sector can sink you and resist the shame that creeps in when circumstances — not performance — cause a downturn. She also urges business owners to understand their own value, even on platforms like LinkedIn, rather than accepting every connection request without question.

Above all, she returns to a philosophy of shared resources: pooling relationships, referrals, and expertise the way neighbors once pooled sugar, butter, and eggs to bake a loaf of bread everyone could share.

“If we don't support each other, who will?”

For Nelson Chambers, that question isn't rhetorical — it's the mission that has carried her for more than 30 years, and the one she hopes more of the community will embrace this August and beyond.

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Michelle Petties is a TEDx speaker, Food Story coach, and the award-winning author of the memoir Leaving Large: The Stories of a Food Addict. After gaining and losing 700 pounds, Michelle discovered the secret to overcoming stress and emotional overeating. Her free workbook, Mind Over Meals, reveals her core principles for losing weight and keeping it off.