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

Today in the guest chair we have Chris-Tia Donaldson, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Thank God It’s Natural (tgin), a manufacturer of natural hair and skin care products.  Prior to starting tgin, Chris-Tia, a two-time Harvard graduate, worked at a top law firm in Chicago.  It was there she realized that she wasn’t receiving the support she needed to advance in her career. She wasn’t willing to play the game anymore, so she decided to get out and create her own game.  Like many of us, Chris-Tia struggled with her hair while navigating the corporate world. There weren’t a lot of products for kinky, curly, and wavy hair, so she set out to create a product that made her feel confident about her curls.  Tgin is currently sold at Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, Sally’s Beauty, Walgreens, and now Ulta.  Chris-Tia is so transparent in this episode, especially when it comes to the money required to scale and maintain a business. I’m excited for you to hear!   Listen on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spoti

Today in the Side Hustle Pro guest chair we have Tanya Sam. Tanya is a tech-savvy investor who has made it her mission to empower the next generation of minority entrepreneurs. You also know her from TV. She appears on one of my favorite guilty-pleasure shows, The Real Housewives of Atlanta!  She is currently Director of Partnerships at TechSquare Labs, Co-leads the Ascend 2020 Atlanta program that supports minority and female founders, and Co-founded BuiltxWomen, a business accelerator for female entrepreneurs.  It may come as a surprise that Tanya didn’t always have the desire to pursue entrepreneurship in technology. She actually studied to be a nurse and had a 10-year career in the industry.  She started helping her fiancé with his business on her days off and eventually decided to start her own business. With her background as a side hustler and as an entrepreneur, she has mentored over 60 companies with women and minority founders and helped invest in over 50 companies that have generated a total of ove

I’m back with a solo episode to share how to make money podcasting. Consider this your definitive guide to having a profitable podcast. I’ll be breaking down: How you actually make money from podcasting How and when I started earning revenue from the Side Hustle Pro podcast I am providing a recap, including a sponsorship calculator for this episode. If you would like it, simply visit: sidehustlepro.co/183 And if you would like to attend an even more detailed training where I’m teaching you LIVE and you’ll be able to ask me questions LIVE, sign up for my “How to Build Your Brand Through Podcasting” MASTERCLASS at podcastmoguls.com. Register here: podcastmoguls.com Listen on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Stitcher, and Spotify  This episode is brought to you by: Skillshare Explore your creativity at skillshare.com/sidehustlepro and get 2 free months of Premium Membership. Gusto Gusto offers modern, easy payroll, benefits, and HR to small businesses across the country. Sign up and give it a try at gusto.com/

I’m back with an Entrepreneur Diaries episode to share some updates and kick-off 2020. This episode is divided into three parts: 2019 lessons, 2019 wins, and how I’m preparing for this mompreneur life. 2019 was an excellent year (The TODAY Show, Side Hustle Pro Live, and O, The Oprah Magazine!) because I saw a lot of my hard work pay off. But as you may have noticed, I experienced some burnout after my live show in October. I share some of the most important lessons I learned that will be so helpful to seeing Side Hustle Pro continue to grow.    And as you can see from the episode title, I’m going to be a mompreneur soon! Muoyo and I are very excited to experience parenthood. There are a lot of exciting changes coming in 2020 and I’m really looking forward to learning and growing. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Stitcher, and Spotify  This episode is brought to you by: Skillshare Explore your creativity at skillshare.com/sidehustlepro and get 2 free months of Premium Membership. Gusto Gusto offers m

Today’s episode is a REWIND with Sakita Holley, Founder, and CEO of House of Success PR. Sakita started her own PR company when she was 23, but faced a number of financial struggles as she figured out her business model. She has since grown, scaled, and gone on to be featured Essence Magazine, Black Enterprise, Women’s Biz Journals, xoNecole, and was named as one of PRWeek’s 40 Under 40 honorees.   Sakita breaks it down and gets real about how to start charging for your expertise and stop doing things for free. After listening to this episode, I want you to have the confidence to start making money from your side hustle and get rid of the intimidation and fear that can come with setting rates and charging people.  Let’s get into it!   Listen on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify This episode is brought to you by: Gusto Gusto offers modern, easy payroll, benefits, and HR to small businesses across the country. Sign up and give it a try at gusto.com/shp.  Links mentioned in this episode House of S

Today’s episode is a REWIND with Danielle Leslie, the Creator of  Course From Scratch, an 8-week online intensive that helps people create and launch their profitable online courses. She has been an online marketer in Silicon Valley for almost 10 years and helped personal brands and influencers, including Guy Kawasaki, earn collectively millions of dollars by launching their online courses.  She teaches people like myself to not fall into the trap of creating your course content all before you’re ready to launch and instead, focus on what she calls the 4Cs. Danielle helped me launch my signature podcast accelerator program, Podcast Moguls.  I’m excited for you to hear Danielle’s story and get some inspiration to launch your online course.  Listen on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Stitcher, and Spotify  This episode is brought to you by: Skillshare Skillshare is offering Side Hustle Pro listeners 2 months of unlimited Skillshare classes for FREE. To sign up, go to Skillshare.com/sidehustlepro. Gusto Gusto off

Today’s episode is a REWIND episode with Melissa Butler, Founder, and CEO of The Lip Bar.   Melissa is a former Wall Street analyst turned Founder and CEO. She describes her move from stocks and bonds to beauty as a natural one, not because she loved makeup, but because she was frustrated with the beauty industry and ready to create a solution. You might not know that Melissa first launched this vegan and cruelty-free product line from her very own kitchen. Now her products are available in Target stores and have been seen on Taraji P. Henson and Ashley Blaine Featherson.  On today’s show, Melissa shares why she was passionate about disrupting the narrative on beauty and creating a line of cosmetics that are safe and affordable. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Stitcher  This episode is brought to you by: Gusto Gusto offers modern, easy payroll, benefits, and HR to small businesses across the country. Sign up and give it a try at gusto.com/shp.  Links mentioned in this episode The Lip Bar Flora app T

Today’s episode is a REWIND episode with Angel Anderson, Founder and Owner of The SpiceSuite, an interactive spice bar in Washington, DC. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Stitcher  This episode is brought to you by: FreshBooks Try FreshBooks FREE for 30 days. Go to freshbooks.com/sidehustlepro and enter SIDE HUSTLE PRO in the how did you hear about us section to get started.  Links mentioned in this episode The SpiceSuite  Leverage Leadership: A Practical Guide to Building Exceptional Schools    Click here to subscribe via RSS feed (non-iTunes feed): http://sidehustlepro.libsyn.com/rss Announcements Join our Facebook Community If you’re looking for a community of supportive side hustlers who are all working to take our businesses to the next level, join us here: http://sidehustlepro.co/facebook   Send questions to “Ask Nicaila” You can now send questions for the new “Ask Nicaila” segment that’s coming to Side Hustle Pro. Once I get a critical mass of questions, I can start rolling out this segment. Ju

Today’s episode is a REWIND episode with Lisa Price, the Founder of multi-million dollar hair and beauty company Carol’s Daughter. Why do I love this episode? Lisa came from a space of side hustling because she loved her full-time job. She was filled with creative and positive energy after work, so she used that to fuel her love for developing her own products.   If you don’t know, Lisa Price and Carol’s Daughter has been in business for over two decades. In 1992, Lisa dedicated herself full time to creating beauty products. With $100 in cash, her own kitchen, and the simple notion that people should follow their hearts, Lisa started building the collection that would become a beauty revolution.  In August of 1994, Price officially established Carol’s Daughter (the company lovingly named after her mother), and the rest is history!  Listen on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Stitcher  This episode is brought to you by: Skillshare Skillshare is offering Side Hustle Pro listeners 2 months of unlimited Skillshare cla

Today’s episode is a REWIND episode with Kim Lewis, the Founder of CurlMix. Kim and her husband Tim are two entrepreneurs I really admire. They are teammates in life, love, and business and their hard work has really paid off.  Since this episode originally aired, they’ve grown exponentially, appeared on Shark Tank, turned down a $400,000 offer from the Sharks, and have turned CurlMix into a company with a $12 million dollar valuation. In this episode, you’ll hear them in the early days, before they zeroed in on MAKING products and were still selling do it yourself kits.  Listen on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Stitcher  This episode is brought to you by: Gusto Gusto offers modern, easy payroll, benefits, and HR to small businesses across the country. Sign up and give it a try at gusto.com/shp.  Links mentioned in this episode Side Hustle Pro Newsletter Click here to subscribe via RSS feed (non-iTunes feed): http://sidehustlepro.libsyn.com/rss Announcements Join our Facebook Community If you’re looking for

Today’s episode is a REWIND episode with Janice Bryant Howroyd, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The ACT-1 Group, the largest privately held, woman-owned workforce solutions company founded in the U.S. I love this episode because Janice exudes confidence, energy, and just makes you want to walk into a room and take up space.  As Auntie Janice (as I now refer to her in my head) likes to say, “knowledge married to experience breeds confidence.” When you have the experience and knowledge you must own that confidence. I listened to this episode twice as I was riding to the Today Show for my appearance in August 2018, and it really did give me confidence.  I often re-listen to this episode whenever I’m nervous about rising to a new level in my business.  I’m excited for you to hear Janice share how she became the first African American woman to operate a company that generates more than $1 billion in annual revenue. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Stitcher  This episode is brought to you by: Skill

I’m in the guest chair this week answering your questions!  Listen on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify.  Gusto Gusto offers modern, easy payroll, benefits, and HR to small businesses across the country. Sign up and give it a try at gusto.com/shp.  Links mentioned in this episode  Podcast Moguls   How To Write a Killer Cold Email  Arsha Jones’s Side Hustle Pro episode  Therapy for Black Girls: Why Do We Procrastinate?  Click here to subscribe via RSS feed (non-iTunes feed): http://sidehustlepro.libsyn.com/rss Announcements Join our Facebook Community If you’re looking for a community of supportive side hustlers who are all working to take our businesses to the next level, join us here: http://sidehustlepro.co/facebook Send questions to “Ask Nicaila” You can now send questions for the new “Ask Nicaila” segment that’s coming to Side Hustle Pro. Once I get a critical mass of questions, I can start rolling out this segment. Just email hi@sidehustlepro.co and put hashtag #AskNicaila in the subje

I’m in the guest chair this week talking about how podcasting helped me figure out what I want to be when I grow up.   Growing up, people often told me I was a good writer and I was fascinated by how people got jobs on TV, so when I learned about the profession of broadcast journalism, I thought the combo of writing and TV was the perfect fit. I pursued a Communications degree in undergrad and had a number of internships for major companies, but I graduated not knowing what I wanted to do with my life.  The quest to determine how best to combine my interests and skills would continue for most of my life.  In the summer of 2015 when I first learned about podcasts things started to take shape. I started contemplating launching my own, and in June 2016 I did just that! I could have never imagined I would be here with Side Hustle Pro a little over three years later. In this episode, I explain how podcasting has allowed me to see how I can use my voice and my experiences to impact others for the better. Listen on

Today in the guest chair, we have our Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Lisa Pegram. She is a Data Scientist who launched a cutting-edge home laser for melanated skin. Listen to Episode 155 to hear when she was first introduced to Side Hustle Pro listeners.   She has built a career in analytics and is currently in pursuit of her PhD at Columbia where she studies meta-cognition and data sciences. At the time of our last conversation, she was getting ready to launch her business Belle 51; a company dedicated to the specific woes of black and brown skin.   Belle 51’s first product is Solèy, the first home laser therapy device that can achieve rapid clearing results at home for all skin types, particularly black and brown tones for whom existing laser technology has until now been ineffective or unsafe.   Let’s check in with Lisa to see where she is in her entrepreneur journey.  Listen on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify This episode is brought to you by: FreshBooks Try FreshBooks FREE for 30 days. Go to fr

Today in the guest chair, we have Lisa Brown Alexander, Founder, and CEO of Nonprofit HR, and owner of the Wellspring Manor & Spa. I’ve interviewed a lot of side hustlers, but it’s not often that I interview a side hustler who is not an employee at their full-time job, but the CEO! Lisa was driven to serve the often-overlooked human resources needs for the social impact sector, and that is what first led her to found Nonprofit HR, now a 50-plus employee organization and the leading talent management firm in the country that works exclusively with the nonprofit sector.  It took her about 15 years to build a solid team at Nonprofit HR, that would allow her to take a step back and focus on other initiatives. One initiative was opening the Wellspring Manor & Spa with her husband. It is an oasis of peace, quiet, and renewal created for guests seeking a relaxing, wellness-infused experience. Neither she nor her husband had a background in hospitality, but they purchased a property and launched within a year

Today in the guest chair we are exploring a topic that is near and dear to my heart: legacy wealth building in the African-American community. And there is no better person to break down this topic than today’s guest, Dr. Pamela Jolly. Dr. Jolly is a graduate of Hampton University (B.S.), The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania (MBA), Boston University School of Theology ((Th.M.), and the Graduate Theological Foundation (Ed.D).  She started her career in banking and eventually saw a need to leverage her corporate experiences to assist minority business enterprises to grow.  So, in 2004, she launched Torch Enterprises Inc., a firm committed to developing minority enterprises capable of arriving at legacy wealth both individually and corporately for their communities. For over a decade, she has been committed to developing data-driven strategies that lead to wealth as a legacy in the African American Community.  Dr. Jolly uses her extensive background in financial services, strategy, co

Today in the guest chair, we have Karleen Roy, a woman who is as extraordinary as the events she creates. She is the Founder of The Vanity Group, a boutique creative agency specializing in bespoke events and luxury services.  After graduating from Howard University, she moved to New York to take an unpaid internship at Island Def Jam. Her hard work spoke for itself and she was eventually hired as a senior executive assistant at Bad Boy Entertainment. Her boss, Sean “Diddy” Combs trusted her to coordinate the efforts of his multi-million dollar business entities, external partnerships and talent relationships, and so much more. The confidence, expertise and international connections Karleen developed over the course of her career inspired her to strike out on her own and launch The Vanity Group. Karleen now specializes in producing magical moments and it shows. The Vanity Group quickly became the firm of choice for a variety of corporate clients and A-list celebrities, from Justin Bieber and Kobe Bryant to Car

On Wednesday, October 9, Personal Branding Strategist Maya Elious and I had a live onstage conversation about how to play big and get these coins. Maya went from running a design agency for 6 years to helping women master their message and make an impact in their industry and monetize their gifts. She’s personally helped me to level up in my business and for my very first live podcast, I couldn’t think of a more fitting guest! On today’s episode we dish on: How she evolved from creating MySpace pages to coaching women to monetize their gifts How she went from thinking small to playing big and expecting more How to really use content marketing to serve your community and keep those customers coming back How to get and keep these coins!   OUR LIVE PODCAST CONVERSATION WAS POWERED BY VERIZON Check out how Verizon is supporting small and medium-sized businesses at sidehustlepro.co/verizon  Listen on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Stitcher  This episode is brought to you by: Heat Free Hair  Heat Free Hair is offeri

Today in the guest chair, we have Rochelle Porter, also known as the “Print Queen.” She is a designer who has never met a blank surface she didn’t want to draw on. But, she nearly abandoned the idea of being a designer when she learned of the unethical labors practice in the fast fashion industry. After learning this, she pursued a career in a variety of industries including investment banking and communications.  At her lowest moment, she found an eviction notice on the door. It was at that moment she knew something had to change, so she made the move back to Atlanta.  Slowly but surely, clues that she should look into fashion again started coming into her life and she took them as a sign to get moving.  She did her research and launched her lifestyle brand that specializes in responsibly made fashion and home decor all while holding down steady consulting gigs. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Stitcher  This episode is brought to you by: FreshBooks Try FreshBooks FREE for 30 days. Go to freshbooks.com/

This week we have a bonus episode with Charis Jones, owner of Sassy Jones Boutique in the guest chair! Sassy Jones is an award-winning accessory brand that specializes in exquisite pieces for the ‘sassy sophisticated girl on the go. Sassy Jones has both a brick-and-mortar store located in Richmond, Virginia and an online store and thousands of customers all over the world tune in weekly every Wednesday night to shop during their “Sparkle Parties.” I’ve been fascinated by how Charis grew her boutique into a 7-figure business, so I had to have her in the guest chair. If you have an e-commerce business and are experiencing stagnant growth, this is the episode for you! On today’s episode, we talk about: How Charis was first called to side hustling and entrepreneurship after she kept getting laid off How she uses her background as a top-ranking sales professional in major corporations to inform her sales and customer service strategy How being a Mom of 4-year old twin boys kicked her hustle into overdrive Her app