startedfromthebottom1's podcast

Rachel Kelly is the founder and chief lemon of Make Lemonade, a co-working space for women, located in the heart of Toronto. With an inspiring work environment and a welcoming community, Make Lemonade is on a mission to make everyone feel like a boss no matter their position.

Rachel was a freelancer who worked remotely for a long time which made her lonely. She sat on the idea and finally decided to act on it in 2016.

She tells a story of when life handed her a lemon and she had to officially take control of herself without letting a job title or a plane ticket define her. Her passion for helping people led her to start Make Lemonade and working with women seemed like the best way to go about it. She had to make the working space unique to be an inviting place for women.

As a way to plan, she wrote every single detail, regardless of how small it may have seemed.

She had volunteered at a working space a year prior to starting hers which gave her an idea of how things should look, but she also confesses to using Google a lot. She reached out to people who could help her set things in motion. The hardest part of the process was finding the "perfect" place for the community she wanted to create.

The journey was not easy but she persevered and did not give up. She now wishes she went slower than how she did initially when her responsibilities were minimum. She talks about where the funding for the business came from, how it took her a year to get everything up and running.

She fell on her first team of eight members that were family, friends, and people who wanted to support her. She later worked with a publicist a couple of months after starting which helped get the word out and more people. She had also started touring even before opening to get people to see renovations. The renovations gave her stress and she describes some of the hard moments where she had to use her dad to talk to male contractors who would undermine her authority. The experience made her even more empowered to give women a working space where they can empower themselves.

She describes some of her lowest darkest times being an entrepreneur:

• She wasn’t ready for the pressure of answering questions that were thrown to her as a brand-new entrepreneur.
• She experienced a lot of loss when she began and had to look for help to run the business to find time to attend to the losses.

She started to outsource for temporary help when things got difficult to handle and have hired permanent help since.She describes some of the best moments she’s had in her entrepreneurial journey.

She talks about her Front Desk Gang Program, what it means and the benefits it offers to the members.

Things have now gotten better that she doesn’t have to learn lessons the hard way. It was also beneficial that her parents offered their entrepreneurial experience to her which came in handy.

Some of the things that being an entrepreneur has taught her:

• Take time for yourself- it doesn’t make you less committed.
• You can do anything but you cannot do everything.
• There’s a difference between being strong and using your strength.

Vivian Kay, she is the founder and CEO of KinkyCurlyYaki. A premium textured hair extension for black women. She is also an eCommerce and Mindset coach and an all-around good person whose struggles have made her stronger. When she understood that society has always wanted us to be unhappy, especially as black women, it was the more, Vivian wanted to be happier. Going through some difficult moments in her life led to her increased confidence and optimism.

Her first business was a wedding décor business because she saw a gap in the market which was inspired by her sister’s wedding poor décor. She describes the inspiration behind her second business KinkyCurlyYaki, which also came from personal experience. Her marketing strategy was using an influencer which made the hair blow up although it was something, she was afraid to  to let people know she was the owner.

Since she had generated half a million dollars in revenue with KinkyCurlyYaki by operating on a part-time basis, she decided to cease the operation Vivian’s Décor to focus more on being a mother and running KinkyCurlyYaki.

She moved to be closer to her family and poured her energy into KinkyCurlyYaki where it certainly paid off. In it's first full year, KinkyCurlyYaki, made ONE MILLION DOLLARS in sales.

In this interview, we discussed:

• The difficulties black women go through with getting funding for their businesses.
• The difference between running a 7-figure business and being a millionaire?
• Consistent small steps that will get you to the top
• The importance of niching down 

We also discussed how she has learned to juggle being a mother, a business woman and a coach. The art of gratitude and knowing the power of it something she believes and practices DAILY!

Three things Vivian wishes she knew when she started her businesses:

• There’s nothing wrong with starting where you are. Just Start!
• Be more of who you are- your story might be your strength!
• Look at everything as a lesson!

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Alexis Dean is the founder of the Dovetail Community-women entrepreneurs. This is a community of women entrepreneurs or those that are aspiring and are looking for support. It brings women in person and online where they learn together. They started with an event called a Summit and now have a main summer camp event where they bring women from all over North America together. She started this because as a businesswoman, she wanted to connect with other women who were also doing the same thing she was.

The events consist of running a workshop where people take material from experts from all fields so that they can implement skills in their businesses. They also embrace a community for building connections with other women at camp or online. These events are not for everybody, but for women who own real businesses and can provide real advice and share their journey.

She built her both businesses through reaching out to other people and creating relationships. It was through those relationships that she got her first batch of the Dovetail community. She looked for certain skills from five women whom she knew would bring value, they later connected her to other women and so the community grew. She found the pain points of these women before offering what she could do to help.

Why we need to be comfortable talking about finances especially among women entrepreneurs. Do not allow money to hold you back from doing what you want to do. She built the Dovetail business by starting small but also admits that some factors contributed to her success.

She explains how and why she started her first business and the privilege she had when starting her two businesses. Her community ensures that there are as many women of color involved as possible to as to create fairness and inclusion.

She was looking for corporations who were looking for team building training with her first business. She knew she had to talk to people who could introduce her to people in the HR department whom she could talk to about her services. She marketed her business every chance she got by asking questions on how she could offer help to them.

Her business is lucky today that its no longer going through slow periods but when she started, she had to side hustle to keep the business going. She bartended and did catering where she received both support and criticism. You have to be okay with how things turned out even if it’s not how you predicted them to be.

She explains how she keeps herself in check while still taking care of her wellbeing.

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Today’s focus is on Jam Gamble, the person behind the Slayer of the Mic brand. She says her brand is not a typical Brand but everything people would associate with her when they see her due to her energy.

She views herself as an educator who went back to study Disability and Inclusion Studies and is now the educator she needed. The huge component of her role focuses on the social and emotional development of all children. She wants to make an impact of love and nurturing in the lives of children by making their childhood enjoyable. She became what she wished she had as a kid.

She fell into the media industry accidentally and ended up having six seasons of a show which she produced herself. She discovered she was a natural with speaking and her voice was unmatched which later led her to become a speaker after showing unafraid stage presence.

Slay the Mic is a program that was born to help people turn their voices into their superpower. She works to turn people into confident speakers. The idea was to tap into the emotions of her clients which didn’t have a huge budget starting. She told her story through social media as part of her marketing strategy and later through testimonials after she started admitting clients. She talks about ‘I’m Not the One’ initiative.

She had to deal with insecurities that stemmed from her childhood and adulthood about her voice and higher energy than everyone else. She had to do a lot of self-reflection to not stop her voice because she knew what she had to say was to impact.

The culture of content vultures that is a disrespect to the original creator. The lack of ethics in the content entrepreneurship world is something that Jam feels should be taken seriously. She is angry that there are people who disregard the work of creators by copycatting and acting like they did not. The disrespect is discouraging her a female entrepreneur and as a black woman.

Every business has its challenges, especially in its starting days. Jam gives two that she found and learned to navigate around:

• The favoritism that happens in the inner circles of entrepreneurs is what motivated her to cheer for herself without an army behind her. She later created her own community that she had craved in the beginning.
• She learned to wait for her season- building the business behind the public eye and come out stronger.

She explains why she no longer cares about the fear of missing out and is more concerned about working and making money. She explains the views and opinions she has on pricing her services.

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My Boss Is Me: Helping Women Become Successful Entrepreneurs

Today’s focus is on Kike Lola Odusanya, founder of My Boss is Me, a professional and business development company for women of color.

Kike is a serial entrepreneur and defines herself as a ‘hustler’ who has known the power of entrepreneurship by being multi-passionate and trying many things until she built a business she loves and enjoys running.

You’ll hear in this episode how she implemented the ‘Secret’ exercises and shed her own self to become an entrepreneur. She found success in network marketing but it involved a lot of travel and she wanted to work from home which led her to B-school and starting her own coaching business. That is when My Boss is Me was born where she helps women become their own bosses by starting and growing businesses while becoming holistically successful.

She concentrates on helping black women since black-owned businesses are the highest growing ones in North America but is not opposed to helping women from other races. She also advises female entrepreneurs to take on side hustling jobs without shame as long as they get to pay their bills.

Entrepreneurship is hard, far from what is portrayed on social media, and is not for everybody. You should be self-aware as a female entrepreneur so as not to crumble. Finding friends who can support you both professionally and personally is what Kike advises.  

Her advice to you as a woman who wants to start a business is to make it a side hustle while still retaining your job so you’ll have something before leaving that job.

She believes more in the importance of personal growth and being a mom and or a wife is just part of the process. In this episode of Started From The Bottom, How to Beat the Odds, and Become a Successful Entrepreneur, you get to hear Kike’s entrepreneurship journey and how she did it.

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 3 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting My Business

Welcome to the premiere episode of Started From The Bottom, How to Beat the Odds & Become a Successful Entrepreneur with Trudie German.

She is a certified personal trainer, a wellness coach, and workshop facilitator from Toronto who services clients internationally through her company Body Envy.

She shares her entrepreneurship journey and what she has learned along the way and why she started this podcast.

Listen to hear the three things that Trudie wishes she knew before she started her business.

In this episode Trudie discusses:

• How she has battled with fear and procrastination of starting this podcast to share her entrepreneurship story.
• The goal of sharing hers and other people’s business journeys without all the decorations.
• Three things she wishes she knew before starting a business.
• The importance of getting a mentor.
• Having a community to back and support you for a less lonely journey.
• Learning to heal from trauma to discover an amazing life.
• The types of guests’ entrepreneurs she’ll have on the show.

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