Side Hustle Pro: Women Entrepreneurs | Black Women Business Owners | Solopreneurs

Today in the guest chair I have online coach and personal trainer Tameika G. Tameika’s story is far from ordinary. Over the course of ten years, she completely flipped her lifestyle and her long term career path as a result. Years ago, she was overweight, living in her home country of Canada and just generally unhappy. But she decided she didn’t want her food addiction and obesity to be what defined her story and her end game. So she made drastic life changes to rewrite her own story. She lost 90 lbs and has kept it off for 10 years. Since losing 90 pounds, she has devoted her time to helping others achieve the same happiness she's found on this journey.  As a Certified Personal Trainer, she has helped over 400 clients, both in person and online, lose a cumulative total of 3000+ pounds. And she did this all while side hustling. After several years side hustling, working in corporate and being a fitness professional on the side, she was finally able to build a life she no longer needs a vacation from.  On toda

Today in the guest chair is Brooklyn-bred and Baltimore-based entrepreneur, Kalilah Wright. Kalilah is the Owner and Creative Director of t-shirt company, Mess in a Bottle. Through Mess in a Bottle, a cutting-edge brand with timely and to-the-point messaging, she hopes to give voice to the voiceless. Kalilah has always had a business spirit and, in 2016, quit her job and hit the ground running with a fierce work ethic and grind mentality. As an accomplished designer and trained architect, she used her Master's degree from Morgan State University and Bachelors of Arts from Penn State University to establish her brand in Baltimore City, Maryland. I met Kalilah at the Rise Empowerment conference in DC in 2016. All I remember is her dressed in her Mess in a Bottle Gear and handing out free product to the conference speakers. Almost immediately, when I checked the conference hashtag one of the conference speakers had already shared Kalilah's gift on Instagram. I was impressed by her guerilla marketing and hustle m

Today’s guest is Nailah Ellis Brown. I first heard about Nailah from my roommates, Nydia and Stefanie at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. They supported her business as part of the MBAs Across America program that the participated in (and you’ll hear more about this in the episode). I’ve been fascinated by Nailah every since. A Black Woman from Detroit with Jamaican roots, Ellis-Brown has made a name for herself as part of the Detroit manufacturing renaissance. Her distinctive hibiscus Ellis Island Tea, based on a family recipe and bottled in an urban 4,000 square foot plant, has expanded sales into six airports and locations across 12 Midwestern states along with shelf space in regional retailer Meijer, Whole Foods and most recently Sam Club stores. She’s been named one of the Forbes 30 Under 30, has been featured on MSNBC for a small business makeover, and she’s only getting started. Her plan was to go to school, work on wall street then quit and be an entrepreneur But when she realized t

Today in the Side Hustle Pro guest chair is leading celebrity stylist, Felicia Leatherwood. Felicia’s hair styles have been featured on such high profile stars as Issa Rae of HBO's Insecure, Oscar Award nominee Ava Duvernay, Grammy winner Jill Scott, as well as a host of other celebrities, entertainment executives, rising stars and beauty entrepreneurs. With over 26 years of experience, Felicia also conducts hair care workshops for audiences around the globe under the brand "Loving Your Hair with Natural Care". Felicia's solutions and work have garnered her the "Hair Whisperer" title, as she is known for miraculously restoring health, beauty and vitality to her clientele's hair. She went so far as to conceive and manufacture her own Detangler Brush that allows easy detangling of all natural hair types. On today’s show, Felicia gets into: How she got her start doing hair How she started working with celebrity clientele And the biggest and most expensive mistake she made in her business Today’s Episod

Today, I’m happy to welcome into the guest chair, a woman who is changing lives in her community. Her name is Jerri Evans, and she is the Owner of Turning Natural Juice Bars.Growing up in SE Washington, D.C. she watched her mom and others struggle to find healthy options, while carry-outs and corner stores were readily available. Today on the show, we get into how she transformed a tragic life event into an impactful business that’s ensuring better health for underserved communities.She makes it a point to transform areas that historically do not have access to fresh produce and tries to eradicate food deserts (areas that do not have access to such healthy options). Now with catchy names like Swizz Beets, Green Latifah, and Mi’Kale Jackson, Jerri has initiated creative ways to invite customers to try out to cold-pressed juices they’ve never had. You can find her spreading the good health vibes and mission everywhere she can.   This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. With ZipRecruiter, you can post yo

Today, I’m happy to welcome into the guest chair, a woman who is putting #BlackLove on display for people to see on television screens across the country. Her name is Codie Elaine Oliver, and she is the filmmaker and creator of the #BlackLove documentary series on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network. If you’ve ever wondered how producers, screenwriters and filmmakers of color get their work in front of a mass audience and on major networks or movie studios, this is the episode for you. Codie is a graduate of Howard University and the Peter Stark Producing Program at USC. Before becoming an independent filmmaker, she worked in feature film development at Fox Searchlight Pictures, then produced events and supported filmmaking programs at Film Independent, The Los Angeles Film Festival, and the Independent Spirit Awards. She also co-produced the feature film, DESTINED, starring Cory Hardrict and Jesse Metcalfe which will be released in fall 2017. On this episode, we get into: Her journey from Howard to independent fil

Nicole Alexis is the owner of the the beauty haven, PRMP Beauty Studio in Washington, D.C.   Nicole realized that her passion in beauty was more than a side hustle while working as a financial analyst with the federal government.  As her side hustle, providing brow shaping and body waxing, started to grow, she came to a cross road.  Staying comfortable with her comfy 6-figure salary and earn extra money on the side or taking her side hustle full -time. She chose to be a true hustler and went for her beauty passion and opened Primp Beauty Studios. The rest is, as I like to say, HERstory. On today’s show, Nicole shares how she built an organic brand, an in-demand business with clients that followed her from location to location and how she dealt with the surprise costs that come with being a novice business owner.   Links mentioned on this episode StyleSeat Canva PRMP Beauty Studios Click here to subscribe via RSS feed (non-iTunes feed): http://sidehustlepro.libsyn.com/rss Announcements Side Hustle Pro is now

Latham Thomas is a celebrity wellness/ lifestyle maven and birth doula- transforming not only how women give birth to their babies, but how they give rise to the best version of themselves. She’s here to teach us all how to own our power in mind, body and spirit as we hustle to launch our businesses. To Latham, self-care is a priority part of life, not just a trendy habit. As the founder of Mama Glow, a lifestyle brand and highly regarded website offering inspiration, education, and holistic services for expectant and new mamas, Latham has been named one of Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul 100. Latham is also the best-selling author of “Mama Glow: A Hip Guide to Your Fabulous Abundant Pregnancy.” And her highly anticipated second book, "Own Your Glow: A Soulful Guide to Luminous Living And Crowning The Queen Within” just debuted in September 2017.   Links mentioned on this episode Own Your Glow book Mama Glow Drop the Ball by Tiffany Dufu The Read podcast Click here to subscribe via RSS feed (non-iTunes feed): h

Up until this year, the last quarter of every year always felt like the most stressful for me. This year is the first year that that's not the case for me. This year, I got better at getting things done, even under pressure. In this episode I’m sharing some of the biggest mistakes I made when I first started out side hustling and what I've learned from them. It’s important that you understand where I and most successful side hustlers went wrong and what I did to turn it around. These mistakes could have easily been avoided if I had only known how to create a realistic goals setting system. Now, I've mastered the "less talk, more hustle" approach, and it’s what has gotten me results. I spend less time thinking and talking about what I'm going to do and more time actually doing it. I learned to cut out all the fluff that makes you FEEL like you're doing something (to-do lists, buying fancy planners, well organized trello boards) and get down to business. By making these mistakes, I also learned some key lessons

Today on the show, we have a woman who started a travel movement. Her name is Evita Robinson and she is the Founder of Nomadness Travel Tribe. Evita has always been a creator in visual media. Yet, it was a trip to Paris, six weeks after graduating from undergrad, that changed the scope of her personal and professional life. So in September 2011, she created the Nomadness Travel Tribe, an online social community primarily for travelers of color. Nomadness was the first of its kind targeting diverse millennials, in the newly coined 'black travel movement'. The group currently surpasses 16,000 international members, with over 100,000 passport stamps, and nearly 100 meetups a year, all across the globe. Evita has shattered the myth that people of color don’t travel. She is also a keynote speaker, TED Resident, consultant for Destination Marketing Organizations, and continues her love of seeing the world while writing her first book. On today’s episode, Evita gets into: How Nomadness started organically and she

This week on the show I have KJ Miller & Amanda Johnson. KJ and Amanda are graduates of Harvard Business School and the co-founders of Mented Cosmetics (short for pigmented). These two women are making their mark on the beauty industry, redefining what a natural, clean beauty look is for women of color. It all started when they both realized they were struggling to find the perfect nude lip. So these ladies took matters into their own hands and created Mented. Mented is an upscale beauty brand for all women of color who are looking for great nude and neutral looks. These two figured out the one thing the industry had forgotten to do and now have a thriving beauty company.   On this episode, KJ & Amanda share: How they learned to make beauty products Their early mistakes when starting the brand What it really takes to launch and keep a brand afloat   This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. With ZipRecruiter, you can post your job to 100 plus job sites with just one click. Right now, My

Cassandra Nuamah, better known as Coach Cass, is a certified personal trainer, group, exercise instructor and health and wellness coach. She is master trainer with KUKUWA® African Dance Workout and a source of inspiration for many. After dropping more than 50 pounds, this one time advertising professional pursued her certification as a wellness and fitness coach and began devoting her life to helping others. Originally from Ghana, Coach Cass and her Mother Kukuwa (the founder of founder of kukuwa fitness.com) also organize yearly Fitness and cultural excursions to different countries in Africa and teach Fitness and dance classes locally and internationally. When she’s not teaching us to get in fitness formation, she’s proudly infusing her Ghanaian culture into everything she touches. For years, Cassandra tried to juggle her advertising career with her rapidly growing fitness side hustle. Find out what caused her to finally say goodbye to a 9 to 5 and hello to her purpose.   Listen on Apple Podcasts, Soundclou

Today’s guest and the platform she created provided me the most assistance and resources with planning my wedding. Her name is Jacqueline Nwobu, and she is the Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of MunaLuchi Bride Magazine, the leading nationally distributed wedding magazine catering to women of color. Women of color are major contributors to the billion dollar wedding industry, yet, our presence within major bridal publications and websites/blogs is rare. Jacqueline had a vision and determination to fill this void. Today, MunaLuchi is a multi-cultural global technology company serving the $200 billion international wedding and events industry. It caters to the growing multi-cultural wedding and events industry throughout the world with a vertical online marketplace connecting engaged couples to event professionals.Today on the show, we’ll hear how Jacqueline and her husband launched MunaLuchi with no prior experience and obtained national distribution within major retailers including Target and Barnes and Noble.

Today in the guest chair, we Gwen Jimmere. Gwen is the CEO and founder of Naturalicious. What really stood out to me about Gwen is that she’s already cemented her place in history as the first African American woman to hold a patent for a natural hair care product. Not only is she a respected authority in the hair care industry, she was named one of the 100 Most Influential African Americans in the U.S. as a 2016 Root 100 Award honoree. She is also the winner of the Black Enterprise Elevator Pitch Competition, and has been featured everywere from Fast Company and Essence to Entrepreneur and The Washington Post. On today’s episode, Gwen gets into:   How she quit her job and created Naturalicious with $32 dollars in the bank, she founded Naturalicious The way she hustled and marketed during the early days What her target customer has to do with Shonda Rhimes How she’s been able to push past self-doubt + much more! I really love what Gwen had to share.   Listen on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Stitcher and Goo

Today on the show, we have a woman who is a millennial CEO shaping Black digital media. Her name is Morgan DeBaun and she is the Founder of Blavity, one of the fastest growing digital media startups and a top destination for black youth culture. In March 2017, she launched a new lifestyle brand called 21Ninety, a website focused on beauty, health and wellness for women of color. She is one of only 12 Black women to raise over 1 million dollars in venture funding and has been featured on Essence, New York Magazine, Teen Vogue, Nylon, and was a finalist for 2016 TechCrunch Founder of the year. I first encountered Morgan at the Blavity EmpowerHer conference back in 2016. I was already impressed enough with Blavity to buy a ticket, but what Morgan created in that room, really sealed the deal for me. I needed to start Side Hustle Pro. As a matter of fact, when the emcee asked, I forget what the question was, but she basically asked who wanted to share a new initiative or something, I raised my hand, got on stage a

Today in the guest chair, we have Lisa Price, Founder of multi-million dollar hair and beauty company Carol’s Daughter.I am really honored to have Lisa in the guest chair, as hers is a product that transformed my personal journey to loving my natural hair and natural beauty. When I learned about Carol’s daughter’s back in the day when I was in college, I used to have it shipped to my dorm room. And this is when I was a broke college student and had no business ordering anything online. But that’s how crucial it was for me to obtain a product that could actually moisturize and nourish my kinky threads. And since then, I have followed Lisa Price’s entrepreneurial journey. If you don’t know, Lisa Price and Carol’s Daughter has been in business for over two decades. In the early 1990s, Lisa began experimenting with making her own fragrances and perfume sprays when she wasn’t busy working at her full-time job in TV production.In 1992, Price dedicated herself full time to creating beauty products. With $100 in cash

One year ago, June 22, 2016 to be exact, I created Side Hustle Pro podcast with a microphone and a dream. The road to Side Hustle Pro really started when I graduated with my MBA, but no job. I was feeling pretty dejected, especially after I kept going on interview after interview and getting rejection after rejection. Then I started to wrestle with the idea of doing my own thing, but for some reason, I just couldn’t pull the trigger, because I  didn’t see myself as an entrepreneur. And the reason I didn’t see myself as an entrepreneur is because...the narrative of entrepreneurship was of white men. I wanted to gain confidence and motivation from women who look like me. And particularly women who started as side hustlers (because, let's face it, these student loans are not going to pay themselves). So I started a series of "Side Hustle Pro" interviews on my old blog while I was unemployed and trying to find my way. The rest, is herSTORY. I didn't know all the blessings and challenges that would unfold as a res

Today in the guest chair, we have a woman who has literally redefined the fashion industry. Her name is Monif Clarke, and she is the Founder of Monif C. Monif C. is a fashion forward, plus-size designer brand specializing in clothing and swimsuits for women sizes 14 - 24.  Monif had no prior design experience, but grew frustrated with the lack of trendy plus size clothing and  n 2005, teamed up with her mother to bring Monif C to life. Monif’s story is the perfect example of not letting one person’s no discourage you from continuing on your journey. In fact, Monif received a lot of No’s on the way to success, often being told that her designs were too sexy and that “plus-size women preferred not show off their bodies." But Monif refused to take No for an answer. Today, Monif C. is sold not only on MonifC.com, but in Asos.com, Forever21.com, as well as specialty boutiques throughout the US, London, Canada, and Australia just to name a few. In September 2017, Monif C. will celebrate 12 years serving plus size w

My final check-in with Entrepreneur-In-Residence, Meiko Drew.   When you first joined me on this journey in June of 2016, I introduced you to Meiko. We checked in with Meiko throughout the year to learn how her journey was going. Meiko is a Corporate America retiree as she has coined herself, who jumped ship from a lucrative career in marketing to venture out on her own.   In the last year, she has founded the blog Meiko and the Dish, she’s launched an online store of food related merchandise, she’s partnered with major brands, learned more about the food blogging industry and today  she shares the latest business that she is getting ready to launch.   Meiko has always been transparent about her bumps along the road, including when she’s been low on funds, gone through a breakup, slept on the couch of her friends, she’s shared it all.   So today, we see what she’s been up to since the last time we spoke.    On this episode, Meiko reveals: How she’s continuing to grow Meiko and the Dish the brand How she’s ke

Today on the show, we have a woman who’s hustle inspires me.Her name is Denequa Williams and she is the maker and owner of luxury soy candle company, LIT Brooklyn. Every candle is candle is hand poured, packaged, and shipped from Brooklyn. Within a year of it's existence, she has been featured in some of your favorite publications, Essence, Ebony, Teen Vogue, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed & more.Now LIT Brooklyn is still a young company, but it seems like for the past year, every event I was at, she was at. Not only that, but she would make sure that her candles were in the hands of guests attending that event. Lo and behold, people would go home, use the product and before you know it were sharing on social media and talking about this amazing product.What better way to round out the theme of How to create, sell and market your physical products, than to talk to an entrepreneur who is learning on the go, making it work and pushing through real, life personal challenges to make it by any means necessary. On t