The Lurk Lounge®

I cannot believe this is the last episode of Season 2.  What a journey it has been.  I have made pivots in my business and I could not be more pleased with the outcomes.  There will also be changes coming to Season 3 of The Lurk Lounge® that I share with you.  So grab your tea and let's talk about this biz.

Join me as I share about:

• VIP Days
• Creating Legacies
• Visionary and Changes
• Commit to Cultivate Retreat
• Trademark Timelines
• Knock Out Search
• Comprehensive Search
• Likelihood of Confusion
• Trademark Infringement
• Filing Trademarks
• Office Actions
• Watch Reports
• Trademark Maintenance

Honorable Mentions

Lurkers, where is the year going? January was gone in a blink and even though the love holiday is also my parent's anniversary (Black Love) and Black History Month (I am black 365), it feels like I sneezed and it was already March!

Even though the time is moving in warp speed, I still am appreciative that I have the opportunity to reflect on some awe-inspiring and numerous LIFE SAVING people that I am fortunate to have their same blood line! In between saving lives and rearing children, they also created their own career paths!

Join me as I speak about them as well as:

It is winter, and you could use a warm drink! That's why I am bringing you today's biz tea of the day! On your website, do you have website terms of use? It functions as a contract between you and who uses the website! Listen for a more thorough breakdown of what this should include.

Have you thought about combining the practical with the energetic? Well, if so, this episode is for you! Amanda Freeman loves helping others reclaim their clarity, confidence, and energy in life and work. Amanda supports you to step powerfully into your next level of personal and professional growth and expansion with a potent fusion of energy healing, mentoring, and coaching that meets you EXACTLY where you are.

Lurk on our conversation as we discuss:

1. The importance of honoring the magic within yourself
2. Channeling energy to work with what you need
3. Being our own healer
4. Making room for positive energy
5. Moving into alignment with your business
6. Running a business as a mother

Where can you find Amanda:

Get your cup ready because we are starting off with the biz tea of the day! Have you considered creating an employee handbook or standard operating procedures when you onboard a team member? If you have or haven't, listen now!

Now that you have your go-to source for your company, let's talk about Manisha Holiday's go-to source:  The Lord!!! Manisha is a multi-passionate entrepreneur and international author. Although her journey to 40 wasn't paved in gold, it was filled with golden nuggets that took her from victimhood to living a victorious life. This conversation was filmed in March of 2021.

Lurk on our conversation as we discuss:

1. Connecting to the spiritual realm
2. Sharing a story that is inside each of us
3. Receiving personal development from different sources before Manisha could share her story
4. Trusting God in challenging situations
5. The importance of giving back to the community

Where can you find Manisha:

I am so excited to bring you my guest, Laura Rees, but you know what I have to do before that:  Give you the biz tea of the day!  Have you classified those on your team as an employee or a contractor? Do you know the difference? Lurk now to see if you are misclassifying a worker!

What do a brand strategist, a copywriter, and a creative director all have in common?  Laure Rees embodies them all!  Laura helps you build your brand and start attracting the kind of clients you love working with the most.

Lurk on our conversation as we discuss:

1. Getting comfortable with marketing yourself
2. Teaching small businesses how to create business strategies
3. Using social media videos to increase your business
4. Learning from failures in business
5. Executing your core business strategy with video
6. FOXES method of video marketing

Where can you find Laura:

GO BLAZERS!!! Before I tell you what that means, we have to sip that biz legal tea of the day!  Do you have a website privacy policy? If you are collecting any data on your website (yes, that includes emails!), listen to find out why privacy policies are not only important but are legally required.

Now that you got your thirst quenched, let's talk to Brittni Tucker! Like myself, Brittni is a University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) alumni! She is also the only one who doesn't describe herself as a wordsmith.  Written Write LLC began from a love for writing.  Written Write, LLC aims to improve the habits and studies of professional writing and reading comprehension for both professionals and students. Their goal is to facilitate intentional writing methods, research, or workshops that provide clients with devices towards producing writing that is effectively written right.

Lurk on our conversation as we discuss:

1. Brittni assisting with resumes, cover letters, CVs and so much more
2. Business Plan Templates
3. Why Brittni asks her clients: "What are you trying to do?"
4. The importance of showing people what you're business is doing
5. Marketing to Everyone

Where can you find Brittni Tucker:

Do you partner or co-own a business? If so, this tea tip of the day is for YOU!

Make sure you have a buy/sale agreement.  If you don't know what that is, jump on and listen.

You are running a business.  You are running a successful business.  You are running a successful business with employees.  And you feel trapped!!  One of the reasons could be that you don't have a financial plan.  Why hello, Jala Eaton! Jala is a generational wealth expert and founder of On My Own Financial AND the Law Office of J. Eaton.  Her mission is to close the racial wealth gap.

Lurk on our conversation as we discuss:

1. How financial planning can get your business going
2. The importance of everyone including millennials and younger needing estate planning
3. Using estate planning when you are alive
4. Life Lessons from Kobe Bryant and Nipsey Hussle
5. Your wall of Jordans and Louis Vuittons are assets
6. Exit plans for your business
7. Learning new money habits

Where can you find Jala?

If you have any questions about the terms copyright, trademark, and patent, this tip of the day is for you!  I start by explaining the difference and in what situation you need any or all of these types of intellectual property.

Now, let's talk about Kate Bagoy! After finding her "dream job," it slowly became her personal nightmare.  After rage quitting and leaving $60k behind, she found herself unable to pay her rent.  This led her to get a master's degree in business and marketing, and then she truly found her calling: working with entrepreneurs.

Lurk on our conversation as we discuss:

• How Kate grows her current business working from the beach
• Kate working as an introvert
• How her spiritual awakening guided her to the nomadic way of life
• Fast-tracking your business to generate revenue quickly
• Changing your business as you grow

Where can you find Kate?

Do you ever wish someone would pop up and help you heal and transform your life so you can show up powerfully in your business? Well, your wish has been answered in Tracy Neely! Tracy is an intuitive healer and certified life coach. Tracy comes out of the gate giving us information on how to go about living our best lives!

Lurk on our conversation as we discuss:

• Why Tracy was called an "Old Soul" when she was younger
• What happened when she felt she was doing something that wasn't aligned with her soul
• How a medical condition helped her learn to heal her body AND her mind
• Energetically showing up for your business
• The importance of working with people who bring you joy
• Spirituality and business coexisting

Where can you find Tracy?

Today's guest is Darlene Hawley!  Darlene a speaker, personal branding and online business coach who shows ambitious, heart centered service-based entrepreneurs how to create a profitable online business while making space for themselves and their families.

In this episode we will be talking about:

• Darlene purchasing a franchise
• How being a single mom influenced her work and wanting flexibility in her schedule
• Building SOPs into her own business
• The importance of picking a niche
• Finding your people
• Being in alignment with your clients and in your business

Where you can find Darlene:

With us today, we have a creative, author, writer, and educator, Brooke Clay! Brooke’s expertise is educating deaf and hard hearing children and bridging the gap between parents and children who have nonexistent or unhealthy communication. She recently created a parent-child communication journal with coloring pages, conversation starters, and many fun activities.

In this episode, you will learn:

• How Brooke got started in her entrepreneurial journey
• Why her children influence her so much in doing these sorts of activities and material
• What difficult communication for a 3-year-old looks like
• How to do better as parents
• Her zone of excellence vs. her zone of genius
• The importance of communicating with your children

Where you can find Brooke:

Who was the woman that:

1. Created a space for women to discuss their journey?
2. Gave them a platform to confidently express that authority?
3. Put it out into the world?

Oh right!!! That woman was ME!!

Then, I decided to take a break and have a whole child!

But, I missed you, Lurker! So I AM BACK AT IT AGAIN with Season 2.

Join me on October 14th as I drop my first episode of Season 2!

For the end of Season 1 episode, I could not think of anyone better to speak with than Stephanie Barbee! Stephanie is a mental health therapist and, by title, a clinical social worker. She is licensed with the LCSW. Stephanie is a therapist that provides a safe space; a place where you can bring all of your messy, unprocessed, what it means to be Black in American in 2020 to the couch. She helps you work it out with whatever it looks like and whatever it means to you. She is dedicated to bringing a Black mental health therapist professional into the lives of Black Americans who need help.

In this episode, you will learn:

• How Stephanie is a multi-generational suicide survivor and how her experience helps with conducting the best practice she can;
  
• How empowering it is for clinicians to look the same as their patients; and
  
• Why people can benefit from mental health services and why it’s important to seek help earlier rather than later.
  

Where you can find Stephanie:

Our guest today, Rachel Kelly, took over the co-working industry in Canada and is switching up the co-working game.  Rachel is the chief woman behind the co-working community, “Make Lemonade.” Rachel believes that everyone deserves to feel like a boss, whether you're the CEO or starting your first internship. She encourages everyone to go after their dreams no matter how big or small or what lemon life has handed them.

In this episode, you will learn:

1. Rachel’s journey of turning a lemon into “Making Lemonade”
   
2. Why Rachel turned down a ONE MILLION dollar offer
   
3. How Rachel continued Making Lemonade in the middle of the Covid-19 Pandemic by turning it into an online space
   

Where you can find Rachel:

Samantha Bird is an interior designer in Northern California, and she recently launched a line of home decor products.

She's married to her high school sweetheart, and they have three adorable little boys together. Her big dreams are to grow her brands and to eventually get into international real estate.

In this episode you will learn:

1. How Samantha held onto her dreams and became an amazing interior designer
   
2. Samantha’s journey from starting over in a new city
   
3. Why Samantha loves experimenting with design
   

Where you can find Samantha

It's tax season y'all! So who better to have as a guest than Chika Obih, the self-proclaimed "tax nerd"! Chika is the owner of Obih Collective, Inc., a tax and accounting firm that services small businesses. She enjoys helping her clients save hundreds of thousands of dollars on taxes by educating them on dense tax topics and giving them practical ways to stay organized, proactive, and engaged with understanding the money side of their business. She enjoys motivating entrepreneurs in the online space and providing business and tax tips to those following her on social media and through her email newsletter. Working smart, not hard, is how Chika has been able to sustain her company for over a decade.  Her mission is to teach women entrepreneurs these same skills so they can know their numbers!

In this episode, you will learn:

1. Chika’s journey from the corporate world to owning her own business at 25 years old.
   
2. Transitioning from nutrition to numbers.
   
3. Chika’s passion for teaching small businesses how to save more money while doing their taxes.
   

Where you can find Chika:

Today, we lurk with Sheila Masterson, a woman who holds the monikers of business owner, Tarot reader, teacher that energizes, healing facilitator, psychic medium, and host of “The Living Tarot Podcast”. She has been reading people her whole life and hearing energy since she was a young child. She believes that everyone can connect deeply to their intuition and that tarot is an excellent tool for learning to trust yourself and learn to hear your own inner voice. She's on a mission to break the old fortune-telling readings' paradigm and instead strive to empower clients through collaborative sessions that help them connect with their own inner wisdom and help them move forward with confidence on aligned action steps.

In this episode, you will learn:

1. Going from the corporate world to owning a thriving Tarot business.
   
2. How intuition works vs. how people think it works.
   
3. Reading’s aren’t scary: How Sheila brings comfort, acceptance, and a no judgment zone into her space.
   

Where you can find Sheila:

The Way Forward is Through Money with Stephanie Vaught

In 2018, Stephanie Vaught founded Social Money Finance LLC, a personal finance company that specializes in helping Gen X Women make empowered financial decisions through the principles of effective money management. She has made it her mission to help Gen X Women and gain a greater confidence in their financial decisions, own their power, and build a life they love.

In this episode you will learn:

1. Stephanie’s journey through the financial industry.
   
2. How money management connects to self-worth.
   
3. The process of changing your career as a Gen X Woman.
   

Where to find Stephanie:

Today we lurk with Rachel Obenchain. Rachel is a high school English teacher, and after some time in retail management and a chance nanny gig in Florence, Italy, she realized that teaching and traveling were her two favorite callings. The only thing she could do is create a business to meld them into the perfect marriage.

In this episode, you will learn:

1. How Rachel got into the travel industry
   
2. Rachel’s mission to get more people of color to travel more
   
3. Why you need boundaries in your business
   

Where you can find Rachel:

Today we lurk with Tracey Syphax! After being an addicted drug dealer for 17 years and experiencing incarceration, Tracey Syphax was released and became an entrepreneur, community activist, and motivational speaker. He is now President and CEO of two firms, Capitol City Contracting, Inc., a construction company specializing in roofing, siding, windows, and doors and, The Phax Group, LLC. is a real estate development company. Syphax also serves as Co-Chair for Trenton New Jersey's Mayor's Office of Employment and Training (MOET), and Co-Chair of Union Baptist Church Trustee Ministry.  Join me in our conversation.

In this episode, you will learn:

• What tragedy occurred in his life to make him see a community come together
• Why 23 hours on lockdown changed him as a man.
• How he made history

Where can you find Tracey:

Ep. 4: “I’m Right Where I Should Be” with Athenee Mastrangelo

Athenee Mastrangelo is all about empowering female entrepreneurs by streamlining their workflow so that they can have a successful & profitable business while still having time to live the life they love.  Having a two-year-old and going through the process of a divorce, Athenee had a question to answer: Does she get a corporate job and put her son in daycare (which she didn’t want to do) or could she work from home.  While walking through Barnes and Noble, the universe answered her question in the form of a book: 101 Businesses to Start from Home. Seventeen years later, ya, she made the right choice.

In this episode you will learn:

• How she learned to become her really real self in the online world
• What she did when she lost all her clients because of Covid
• Why her life’s mission is to empower women

Where can you Lurk on Athenee?

Cydelle Stewart came from a woman, Barbara Stewart, who believed in language and the power of helping other people.  With her mom as her mentor, Cydelle was bound to help people as well. Cydelle helps Coaches & Consultants simplify operations, refocus on what lights them up, stop doing #AllOfTheThings, make bank and grow. Inevitably, she helps you fall back in love with your business!

In this episode, you will learn:

1. Why you must shift your mindset to change your business
   
2. The Power of Recommendation
   
3. What word black people don’t like to use
   

Where can you find Cydelle?

When Brandy Mabra began her first business, she had more questions than answers! After her family started complaining she was consumed with her business, she knew she needed balance.  That was when she decided to elevate her business and step up as a TRUE CEO and hire a dedicated business team!

Get ready to learn:

1. What Brandy did when she began to suffer from comparison syndrome
   
2. How she dealt with being the token and youngest black woman at the table
   
3. What is the best investment she has made in her business
   

Where can you find Brandy?

Instagram - @savvyclovercoaching

Summer Burnley is an attorney and business strategist who makes her home in Florida!  Her law firm, Burnley Law PLLC is a virtual boutique law firm that helps ambitious entrepreneurs curate their business vision, launch their dream business and secure their brand. Summer believes that if you create it, you should own it!!  Listen in as she tells us how she came up with the brainchild of "The Lurk Lounge."

Get ready to learn:

• Why fronting lead to "The Lurk Lounge"
  
• What kind of discussions she will have with her business Sisters
  
• Her goal for this podcast
  

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