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

Today’s guest is Jewel Burks. As co-founder and CEO of Partpic, an Atlanta based startup designed to streamline the purchase of maintenance and repair parts using computer vision technology, Jewel and her team built groundbreaking technology poised to change the way people everywhere locate products. Partpic raised over $2 million in seed funding to integrate its proprietary technology into mobile apps and websites of parts distributors and retailers. And then, something incredible happened, Partpic was acquired by Amazon. Currently Jewel serves as Team Lead for Visual Search at A9.com, an Amazon Company. In addition to this role, Jewel is a proud board member at Amplify 4 Good, and spends much of her free time working with startups. On today’s show, Jewel shares: How she came up with the idea for Partpic How she recruited a smart and talented team and Co-Founder What it was like to juggle working for Google while building Partpic And what it’s like to have your company be acquired. Listen on Apple Podcasts

Today on the show, we have a real boss. Her name is Dawn Dickson and she is a serial entrepreneur with over 16 years of experience in marketing and business development. She has launched four successful cash flow positive companies since 2002. Her most recent ventures are Flat Out of Heels (which provides rollable flats for women) and Solutions Vending International, recently renamed Pop Com, which provides a software solution to make vending machines more intelligent. Dawn has received numerous awards and accolades for her Business savvy and pitching skills, including being awarded First place in the PowerMoves NOLA Big Break pitch Competition and second place in the 2016 SBA InnovateHer Challenge.   Additionally, Dawn was selected to participate in some of the nation’s top accelerator programs for entrepreneurs including the NewME(San Francisco),Canopy Boulder (Boulder,Colorado) and Techstars(Los Angeles). On today’s episode, Dawn gets into:   How she went from living her best life with her first business

Today on the show, is the one and only Claire Sulmers, the founder of FashionBombDaily.com, and the industry’s leading fashion blogger chronicling fashionistas of color. Her pioneering work ushered in a new wave of digital journalism that fed and fueled an underserved community of African-American and Latino style lovers. Claire’s body of work and online following- has allowed her to partner with major corporate brands who want to reach her audience including Toyota, Verizon and others. In 11 years, Claire has accumulated over 1.2 million followers, written a book “The Bomb Life”, and is now hosting on Revolt. I first learned about Claire when I started reading the Fashion Bomb blog 11 years ago. Like other readers, I have followed Claire’s evolution from blogger to brand ambassador to business woman.   One of the reasons I am always so intrigued by Claire, is that at first glance, just looking at her instagram feed, you would have no idea of her story. But she has made some humbling moves  and missteps on he

I’m answering your questions on all things side hustle. On this episode I get into: What tips and tricks do you have for managing your spare time after the day job is over and hubby is fed? How and when did you decide to convert your personal social media pages into public brand/company profiles? Do you have a finsta for your friends and family? I’d love to know how you deal with family and friends who want your service for free! What tips do you have for those who feel they have plateaued in growing their IG with engaged shoppers? What are your tips for finding networking events? What’s your favorite piece of advice you’ve ever gotten about being a black female entrepreneur? How much money did you invest into your side hustle before it was profitable? What do you look for when searching for people to interview? I swear you have the most interesting people on! What is your long term goal as it relates to turning the wonderful work you’ve done with the podcast? What will that look like for you? What do you wa

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