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

Today in the guest chair we welcome Tammeca Rochester, the owner and founder of Harlem Cycle, Harlem's 1st and only indoor cycling studio.  Tammeca's journey to opening an indoor cycling studio in Harlem started when she was looking to find a workout that would both get her back in shape while putting her in a positive frame of mind. After exploring the various workout options, she found herself drawn to indoor cycling. Her entrepreneurial spirit and her passion for all things Harlem inspired her to start researching how to open a cycling studio. Her entrepreneurial spirit and her passion for all things Harlem inspired her to open the doors to Harlem Cycle in 2016.  In episode 189 of Side Hustle Pro, Tammeca talks about:  How her academic background and career helped her secure the space for Harlem Cycle  What it took for Harlem Cycle to become profitable  How she brings in new clients and strengthens brand loyalty   Listen on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Stitcher, and Spotify!  This episode is brought to yo

As a busy working mom and wife, Chantel Powell found herself shuttling her son Kameron between summer basketball camp and football practice. She quickly noticed that he was starting to smell like a grown man because he was sweating buckets under his armpits, and that’s when her innovative mindset kicked in. Chantel decided to develop an all-natural deodorant for her son. And so Play Pits the brand was born.  Play Pits is a 100% all-natural deodorant for active kids. It’s free of aluminum, parabens, synthetic fragrances and other harsh chemicals. While it can be used on the most gentle skin types, it also packs a strong punch against odors.  In today’s episode, Chantel breaks down: How she tested out Play Pits on family to get feedback How customer demand led her to evolve from children’s deodorant to an adult deodorant component as well How she did it all while side hustling Listen on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify This episode is brought to you by: Skillshare Get 2 free months of Premiu

Today in the guest chair we welcome Imani Ellis, Imani Ellis, the Founder of CultureCon and& The Creative Collective NYC (TheCCnyc), a community and creative agency dedicated to facilitating brave spaces for multicultural creatives.  Born in Imani’s one-bedroom apartment as a means to foster meaningful connections, TheCCnyc has since become the fastest growing community devoted to creatives of color in NYC who are looking to cultivate relationships that go beyond the business card.    TheCCnyc’s marquee event is CultureCon, an incredible conference that celebrates the influence creatives of color make on society and the culture that fuels it. Previous speakers have included Tracee Ellis Ross, Will Smith, Regina King, Spike Lee, and John Legend! Through all of this, would you believe that Imani is still a side hustler? Yes, she still has a full-time job as a publicist! Let’s get right into the episode to find out how she’s juggling an impressive career and a game-changing side hustle. Listen on Apple Podca

Today in the guest chair we have Tracey Pickett, Founder of Hairbrellal. Hairbrella is an innovative rain hat combining fashion and function to protect women's hair from the rain. Hairbrella was launched on Kickstarter and was successfully funded in December 2016. Since then, this passionate entrepreneur, attorney, inventor, and speaker has invested her money, time, blood sweat and tears into bringing Hairbella from an idea and prototype to fully developed product on the market. In today’s episode, you will hear how Tracey began her legal career at a Fortune 5 technology company working in the areas of corporate and intellectual property law. She was an attorney by day and spent nights and weekends developing her passion for entrepreneurship. In 2014, Tracey launched her first entrepreneurial venture, Eboticon – a media design company with a mission to create dynamic and culturally relevant emojis for niche social groups.  In November 2016, Tracey left her job to lead Eboticon full time and to launch her seco

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