Chad Sanders, a writer, tech entrepreneur, and Hollywood creative, often speaks about the profound impact his upbringing had on his career and perspective. Growing up in Silver Spring, Maryland, Sanders experienced both the advantages and challenges of being a Black child in predominantly white classrooms.
“I grew up a Black kid in white classrooms in Silver Spring, Maryland,” Sanders recalls. He acknowledges that while these schools offered cutting-edge technology and resources due to the influence of white parents, he also faced racial isolation and uncomfortable experiences.
However, it was at the dinner table where Sanders truly learned invaluable lessons that shaped his future.
Family dinners played a crucial role in Chad Sanders' upbringing.
The Dinner Table Boardroom
The four of them-mom, dad, sister, brother-sat down for dinner as a family nearly every weeknight in that three-story house on the cul-de-sac. My parents took turns cooking while my sister and I set the table and listened to Stevie Wonder playing in the background. My late maternal grandfather’s paintings adorned the yellow walls of the kitchen.
Read also: The Life of Chad Everett Harris
Sanders' parents created a unique environment during dinnertime, protecting it from external distractions. The television was always off. My Xbox was unplugged for the night so I wouldn’t try to rush through a meal to get back to it. A ringing house phone went unanswered. Door-to-door salespeople stopped coming at dinnertime, because my father warded them off.
My parents protected dinnertime because it was their chance to listen to us, and to teach us who we were and where we came from, before the outside world could force its Eurocentric perspective into our developing minds. And that sort of enrichment required a high level of insulation and focus from all four of us.
Dinnertime was regimented. Each time we sat down at our rectangular wooden table, we’d first say grace together. We took turns speaking to God on the family’s behalf at each sitting. Then my mom would recount the activities of the day at her Fortune 500 employer.
By 12 I was familiar with rebrands, layoffs, mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, stock options, office politics, and the unstated rules of corporate culture.
His mother, an executive at Verizon, ran their kitchen like her boardroom. She engaged them in conversations about her work, treating them as thought partners rather than children. We were invested spectators as she ascended the ranks from entry-level MBA to senior director over the course of my childhood.
Read also: "Married to Evil": Chad Graves
She’d ask what my sister and I thought she should tell her white male boss about her white female subordinate who’d been undermining her for weeks. She considered our thoughts and feedback carefully. We’d brainstorm together with my father until we found a solution we could all live with. We were a mini war room.
My mom often reminded us that business was a game, with rules, and additional nuance and risk for Black people. But like any game, it could be solved, and won.
This approach instilled in Sanders and his sister a deep understanding of corporate dynamics and financial strategy.
Lessons Learned
In high school, Sanders began to jot down the rules in business that he learned at their dinner table boardroom. Here are some of the key principles he absorbed:
- Money controls all important decisions.
- The closer you sit to the money, the more valuable and safe you will be as an employee.
- Someone, somewhere is accounting for you as a human with a dollar amount attached to your name. That is your capitalist value. Your leverage (or lack thereof ) can be reduced to that dollar amount. Be aware of it.
- In hard times, company culture craters. The leverage created by the money you make the company and the strength of your relationships is your safety net.
- In good times for a company, opportunities for promotions and growth emerge, and the money you make the company and the strength of your relationships are your leverage to access them.
- Always make your boss look good to her boss and make sure your boss knows you’ve done so.
- Value is measured by outcomes and not process. No points awarded for trying hard.
- You will never be rewarded in a way that feels adequate for helping other people do their jobs, especially if that aid comes at the expense of your job. Do your job.
- If you report an issue about a colleague to human resources, know that two people will thereafter be examined closely and considered potential threats to the business: the person you reported and you.
- Don’t cry at work.
The Influence of Each Parent
While my father seemed to focus on rules that maintained my family’s physical safety, my mother pushed my sister and me to strategize and achieve. This was her way of giving us financial safety. She taught us the importance of education, corporate advancement, and earning as ways for us as Black people to protect ourselves down the line from misinformation, financial predators, and unexpected disasters.
Read also: Vallow-Daybell Trial: Key Evidence
These lessons provided Sanders with a foundation for navigating the complexities of the business world and advocating for himself.
Chad Sanders' Career Path
Growing up, Chad Sanders, 34, showed an innate ability to thrive in the arts. As a child, he gravitated towards writing, following in his older sister's footsteps, and had avid reading parents who surrounded the house with books. He used the arts as an outlet for his angst and thoroughly detailed the number of artistic undertakings he enjoyed during his childhood. He acted in plays and participated in the band; he is well-versed in the piano and the trumpet. Sanders, at the age of 12, went on to land a role on television called Adventure Camp on Discovery Kids.
However, as he entered the corridors of higher education and early adulthood, the fire that once burned for burgeoning creativity was quickly extinguished upon entering Morehouse College. He found employment at Google working in Human Resources. He also held positions at YouTube working in its sports and music division and moved from the Palo Alto Mountain View office in California to New York over to London.
Becoming immersed in technology, commerce, and all the factors that drive the American economy and create jobs, Sanders felt unfilled. He eventually pivoted and reconnected with his first love. In the actual mythology of the starving artist, Sanders turned to a minimalist lifestyle to "shoot his shot at his dreams."
Sanders went on to write for Grown-ish, a spin-off sitcom from the ABC hit show Black-ish, and gives credit to Lee for first believing in his capability. As his star continued to rise, in February of last year, his then-agent, Ashley Holland, received offers for Sanders to work on projects for BET, Netflix, and Issa Rae's new show Rap Sh!t.
Chad Sanders wrote for Issa Rae's "Rap Sh!t," showcasing his creative pivot.
Financial Literacy and "Direct Deposit"
Sanders' journey also involved grappling with financial literacy. He launched a podcast aptly titled "Direct Deposit" and drew inspiration for the name from a book he read about branding and marketing. Each episode, he has a conversations with people who have achieved success like Issa Rae, Soledad O'Brien, Gabrielle Union, Pinky Cole, Charles D. King, and NFL quarterback guru Quincy Avery.
“They tell me about those moments where [they] were, honestly depressed, scared, couldn't get out of bed, because you didn't know if this was gonna work out for you. So we take you through the whole experience, trying to get money working with White people, mental health, therapy, and having fun with your money. I tell the whole story in a way that is almost a three-dimensional audio experience,” he adds.
Sanders wants his podcast listeners to become enthralled, elevated, and connected to him as a storyteller. Yet, while he is relaying practical financial advice, he wants his audience to consume it as art the way they would analyze their favorite album or movie.
He is invested in securities, his dad is a securities lawyer, so I have somebody who I can talk to you about the stock market. He has started to interview financial managers, and he's very slow to trust in that regard especially coming from this industry and all this shark circling, but I have some good referrals from people he trust, who I've seen build their wealth. So he's working with experts, but the biggest thing for him in this journey [is] keeping my fixed costs low.
Sanders says, conveying brutal truths. He also advises that members of the Black community must also become emotionally literate about money.
Black Magic
Chad Sanders delivers an honest exploration of Black experiences when moving towards success in white environments. After changing everything that connected him with his identity as a Black man, he was accepted in the business world, but did not feel like himself. When that weight became too heavy to bear, he changed back his clothes, behavior, speech, and more. Once he did, everything began to turn around for him.
In moving essays and in his speeches, CHAD SANDERS dives into his formative experiences to see if they might offer the possibility of discovering or honing what he identifies as Black Magic, namely resilience, creativity, and confidence forged in his experience navigating America as a Black man. He tests his theory by interviewing Black leaders across industries to get their take on Black Magic.
Black Magic explores Black experiences in predominantly white environments and demonstrates the risks of self-betrayal and the value of being yourself.
Sanders credits this shift to what he calls Black Magic - the resiliency, creativity, and confidence forged in his experience navigating America as a Black man - and he tested his theory by interviewing Black leaders, scientists, artists, activists, and champions. The result is his critically acclaimed book of essays Black Magic: What Black Leaders Learned from Trauma and Triumph.
An in-demand speaker, Sanders offers insights from his personal experience as well as the wealth of knowledge cultivated through interviews for Black Magic, practical takeaways for corporations looking to shift their culture, and shares how and why his career took off when he embraced, instead of trying to hide, his identity as a Black man and a creative.
Shedeur Sanders
It's important to distinguish Chad Sanders, the author and entrepreneur, from Shedeur Sanders, the football player. Shedeur Deion Sanders (born February 7, 2002) is an American professional football quarterback for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Jackson State Tigers and Colorado Buffaloes, winning the Jerry Rice Award, Deacon Jones Trophy, and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award before being selected by the Browns in the fifth round of the 2025 NFL draft.
Shedeur Sanders, quarterback for the Cleveland Browns.
Sanders was born on February 7, 2002, in Tyler, Texas, to Deion a former NFL player and Pilar Sanders. His parents are divorced. He has four siblings: Deiondra, Deion, Shilo, and Shelomi.
On April 26, 2025, on the third and final day of the 2025 NFL draft, Sanders was selected in the fifth round by the Cleveland Browns with the 144th overall pick.
His football career has garnered attention, and he is a distinct personality from Chad Sanders, the writer and speaker. Shilo Sanders also plays football and transferred to Colorado to reunite with his father Deion and brother Shedeur.
The Importance of Financial Literacy In The Black Community
Popular articles:
tags: #Chad
