The best business newsletters for female, BIPOC founders

As someone who has been entrepreneurial-minded for years before finally starting a company, I’ve found that it’s very advantageous to immerse yourself in startup culture well before you’ve even taken your first official step. Listening to and being surrounded by people whose footsteps you eventually hope to follow is always a smart thing to do. The same can be said for subscribing to business newsletters, because they often have gems that you don’t want to miss out on when learning the ropes.

As we all know, content is king. Organizations, founders, and everything in between are constantly looking for ways to appear as an expert in their respective fields, and the best way to do that is by constantly pumping out content. Content could be blog posts, social media posts, guides, e-books, etc. In this case, newsletters are the topic I’m focusing on.

Depending on the creator, newsletters can be distributed on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis (or whatever works for them). Newsletters typically consist of curated content grouped in topics like funding opportunities, webinars, job postings, and accelerators/program applications. Throughout my entrepreneurial journey, they have helped me gain access to countless opportunities that I likely would not have found if I wasn’t subscribed.

If you’re looking to start your own business soon too, here are my suggestions for newsletters you should subscribe to:

1. New Voices

This foundation was co-founded by Richelieu Dennis, the founder of Shea Moisture. The mission of the New Voices Foundation is to provide women of color entrepreneurs unprecedented access, capital, and expertise to build, grow and scale their businesses with purpose. Being subscribed to this newsletter has helped me in countless ways, and their list of grants/funding opportunities is the best and most extensive collection I’ve seen so far. I’ve participated in business bootcamps they’ve hosted, as well as won money from one of their pitch competitions. They definitely uphold their mission of supporting black founders!

2. Beacon

I came across BEACON earlier this year when I was googling a local DC founder and saw she was affiliated with them. It appealed to me because the resources are targeted toward women, and with a special focus on the DC metro area. BEACON was designed as a campaign to support women entrepreneurs and to catalyze change in the community, and was founded by the Office of Mayor Muriel Bowser, Google, and Georgetown Law’s Tech Institute. Their bi-weekly newsletter’s grants list and program/accelerator offerings are also very impressive, and I have personally benefited from applying to those opportunities.

3. SoGal

I discovered SoGal Ventures because one of the co-founders is a USC alum, and so am I. SoGal is a female-founded venture capital firm that invests in female-founded startups. Their bi-weekly newsletter is packed with resources, including job postings in tech, grant opportunities, founder spotlights, and fireside chats. I appreciate the fireside chats the most because I get to hear different female founders share their tips for success!

4. Digital Undivided

This semi-weekly newsletter isn’t packed with as many resources as the other ones I mentioned, but they are good at promoting their own events, products and programs, which makes sense based on the organization’s mission. Digitalundivided was founded to develop innovative programs and initiatives that catalyzes economic growth in Black and Latinx communities. If you’re looking for accelerators and programs specifically for woman of color founders, this is the place to subscribe!

5. HelloAlice

I’ve been hearing about HelloAlice for a while now, but silly enough, the name deterred me from looking into it further because it didn’t sound like something that involved business. Ironically, the last BEACON newsletter I read is what finally brought me to their website and I’m so glad I finally did. This is the only organization on this list that isn’t focused on female or woman of color founders, but their resources are too rich to not include as an honorary mention. HelloAlice was founded by two small business owners whose mission was ensure every entrepreneur has what they need to launch and grow their own small business adventure. Their website is packed with information, and their newsletter (that I just recently subscribed to) is filled with grant and pitch opportunities which is exactly what I need.

In conclusion, why spend your time scouring the internet for all the things you need for your business if you don’t have to? Thoughtfully curated content delivered straight to your inbox is the easiest way to stay informed while forming your business.

Maintaining Long-Term Motivation In Business

Most of us want good things in life; whether that’s a high-paying job, a position of power, a nice house, luxury cars, financial freedom, your own company, etc. Members of the Millennial and GenZ generations especially envision extraordinary lives, in part due to the many examples we see on tv and social media. However, the reality is that most people won’t achieve those great heights and will end up being pretty ordinary, because it requires a certain level of grit, resilience, confidence, and MOTIVATION to make it to the top. As of 2021, only 10.90% of the United States population has a household income of over $200,000 a year. So why is it that most hover around ordinary?

Systemic inequalities, nepotism advantages, and factors out of our control aside, most people don’t reach extraordinary levels in life because either a) they are content living simple lives and they don’t want more, or b) they don’t possess the natural characteristics of people who are most successful. If you do not naturally possess characteristics of successful people (determination, resilience, confidence, vision, patience, creativity, etc.) fret not! In my opinion, the most important characteristic to possess is motivation, and that is something you CAN work on.

Life is EXHAUSTING. Even if you’re simply doing the bare minimum, it is honestly an achievement just to be getting by day-to-day. Paying bills, taking nonsensical orders from your boss, and keeping yourself alive by feeding and nurturing yourself (and a family if you have one) is a task enough. So it’s no wonder that when it comes to extracurricular endeavors, there isn’t much left in the pot of energy to devote. In the little spare time you have left, it’s easy to fill it with naps and binge-watching Netflix. And that right there is why most people end up hanging in the mediocre balance. I also like indulging on those things. YouTube and tv streaming are my favorite pastimes; but every time I find myself feeling too comfortable, I snap back to reality, because in the pursuit of greatness, you have to find balance.

Reality for me is realizing that I’m still uncomfortable with where I am in life. Although I’ve done amazingly well for myself having just turned 27, I know that I’m nowhere close to where I want to be in life. I have so many huge dreams that won’t happen unless I work for them CONSISTENTLY. This year, after largely spending most of my time in isolation due to COVID-19, I decided I wanted to take a chance and celebrate my birthday with my two sisters in Tulum, Mexico. Upon returning from my whirlwind vacation a week ago, the last thing I wanted to do was get back to work…that goes for my day job as well as my side hustles.

The day after I got back, although I refused to take additional PTO (paid time off) from my job, I felt tempted to curl up on the couch after work and binge on tv and snacks rather than continue working on my businesses. But instead, I allowed myself an hour of rest, and then I forced myself up to review the draft of my utility patent my lawyer had sent me while I was vacationing in Mexico. Why? Because I realized that the sooner I did that, the closer I’d be to successfully launching my business and having financial freedom. That realization gave me the push I needed to complete a task that would move me towards my goals. And because of me taking that initiative when I didn’t feel like it, my lawyer was able to officially file my patent with the USPTO yesterday! That was 1.5 years in the making and I couldn’t be more proud of myself.

When it comes to motivation, that’s all you need: the ability to visualize your dreams (with the assumption that you have good mental health). It’s easy to get discouraged when you’re not an overnight success or you see other people excelling and you feel stagnant. But keep your head down and focus. By the time you look up, you’ll be at an entirely new destination. Remember: the culmination of small actions create a huge change, and eventually, the small tasks you check off from your to-do list will bring you to exactly where you want to be. Use that as your motivation to be one of the few who live an extraordinary life!

5 podcasts to help you grow your business

I was first introduced to podcasts about three years ago, and since then, it’s become one of my favorite forms of media. I was an avid reader growing up, and I loved that podcasts had such a narrative and easy-to-follow style. When I first began listening to them, it reminded me of the radio shows I used to listen to growing up, where the on-air personalities would laugh and joke with each other and everyone tuning in felt like we were among good friends.

My first podcast was NPR’s How I Built This with Guy Raz. My good friend had introduced me to the show when I was in the very early ideation phase of my business and was needing inspiration for how to raise money and develop it. She sent me the episode where Guy Raz interviewed Bobbi Brown, luxury makeup pioneer and mogul. I listened to the episode while I was stuck in LA traffic and for once, the bumper-to-bumper crawl didn’t bother me because I was so occupied. Brown’s calm and candid recount of her rise to success in the beauty industry was so motivating to me that it helped catapult me forward in taking actionable steps to develop my business.

After that, I haven’t put down podcasts since! I am going to share some of my favorite podcasts that I recommend you listen to if you’re needing encouragement, inspiration, or just general business guidance when it comes to starting, developing, or scaling your business.

As we should all know by now, entrepreneurship isn’t for the weak, so having an ecosystem–even if it encompasses people you don’t have a personal relationship with–to support you through the endless and countless points of confusion and being overwhelmed, definitely helps!

Here are my top five business podcast recommendations that provide exactly that:

1.As I stated at the beginning of this article, How I Built This with Guy Raz was my first experience with podcasts, and it’s still one of my favorites! The title speaks for itself: Raz interviews countless successful founders of million-dollar, and sometimes billion-dollar companies and breaks down how they did it. They go through everything: their upbringing, their first jobs, how they came up with their business idea, how they began developing it, their lucky breaks, how they scaled, and so much more. You leave feeling wowed at how amazing the entrepreneurs’ journeys have been, and it inspires you to one day be on their level.

Aside from the amazing guests and insight you gain from the interviews, Raz always ends each episode by asking the guests if they believe their success was based on luck or talent. It’s such an important question to ask because the answer is always both. There’s no amount of work or talent that can get you to the top. Luck (or favor/blessings if you’re religious like I am) HAS to be involved.

2. Work Smart with Morgan DeBaun is a new favorite. She recently launched her podcast a few months ago, but she’s been one of my favorite founders to follow for the last couple of years now. She’s black, she’s young, and she is BOOKED AND BUSY! As the co-founder of Blavity, a media company for black millennials, she’s a public figure because of her unique position as a young black founder, and because of the way she’s positioned herself in the industry as a thought leader and an expert.

There are many founders who lead successful businesses, but they don’t leverage that knowledge and create a platform. She’s done an excellent job of building a community of entrepreneurs and constantly spouting gems for those of us who are trying to go big with our businesses.

On her podcast, it’s a mix between episodes where she rides solo talking about her own experiences building and scaling her business, and episodes where she brings on subject matter experts to discuss highly-talked-about topics in entrepreneurship like when to start paying yourself, when to hire a Chief Technology Officer (CTO), and raising money for your startup.

3. Smart Passive Income (SPI) with Pat Flynn is another favorite that I stumbled upon a couple years ago. I think Apple Podcasts suggested it to me because they saw I was interested in business content. Turns out, they did well by sending this one my way! Flynn has this fun, (slightly nerdy) energy that’s easy to follow and keeps you captivated. He created SPI several years ago when he was laid off from his cool architecture job and realized he had a knack for e-commerce and online marketing.

His show has a slightly different scope from How I Built This, in that he interviews successful entrepreneurs who aren’t as well known. Their companies aren’t typically in the hundreds of millions in revenue category, but they’re people who have been able to scale their businesses enough to make a living, and some of them still hit lower seven figures (which is an incredible feat that I’m not undermining at all.) Listening to SPI helps you take actionable steps to grow your own business, and also grow as a person and become more well-rounded overall.

4. Access and Opportunity with Carla Harris by Morgan Stanley. I discovered this podcast in the Fall of 2020, but it’s been in production since Summer 2018. I can’t remember how I first discovered this podcast, but I remember listening to my first episode last November during my regular four-hour drive from Washington D.C. to Raleigh, NC to visit my family.

This one holds a special place in my heart because listening to it directly connected me to my first venture capital (VC) firm. And when I say directly, that’s in the literal sense. If I hadn’t listened to that podcast, I would not have heard the episode interviewing Precursor Ventures‘ managing partner, Charles Hudson, and I would probably have never thought to reach out to them to pitch my own business.

In that episode, Harris interviewed Hudson about his prior experience working for VC’s, and then his experience founding his own VC for underrepresented founders at the pre-seed level without previous startup experience. If you know anything about VC, that’s nearly unheard of, so listening to that episode inspired me enough to reach out to them to consider adding my business to their portfolio.

To my surprise, they liked my business enough to reach out to me for an interview! I would have never reached that level of exposure and connection if it were not for the literal access and opportunity the Morgan Stanley podcast provided. Even if you’re not ready for VC or if you don’t have a viable business yet, listening to this podcast will get you moving in that direction!

5. To round out this list, I’m going to talk about First Pitches with Lolita Taub and Eric Bahn. On this show, they bring on famous founders of multi-million-dollar startups (many poised to become billion-dollar startups) and as the title implies, they talk about their very first pitches. If you’re a founder yourself, you likely already know that your first pitch was HORRIBLE (I know mine definitely was.)

This show does a great job of showcasing “glow up” stories, reminding us that where we started is not so important! I came across this podcast because Eric Bahn, one of the hosts, is a general partner (GP) and co-founder of Hustle Fund–an early-stage tech VC firm that I had discovered several months ago from a tweet one of his other co-founders and GP, Elizabeth Yin, tweeted.

Hustle Fund hosts some of the most helpful webinars I’ve ever attended (and I attend a lot.) Because of their premium content for startups, I’ve become a regular attendee, and was among the first to learn of their podcast they launched at the beginning of this year.

I know this article ended up being quite long, but if you’re trying to actively grow your business, this is a worthwhile read. Check out all five of these podcasts on your next work commute, long drive, or grueling workout!

How to take studio-quality marketing photos from home

When you’re starting a small business, it can feel overwhelming to get everything up and running, especially on a limited budget. The easiest part is coming up with a business plan (which is not actually easy). But on top of that, depending on the industry, there are legal regulations to navigate, product development and manufacturing to make heads or tails of, and a litany of other ends to tie off before you can even launch to market.

Arguably, one of the most important things to prepare for a successful launch is marketing. Corporations shell out an insane amount of money towards this because they understand how critical it is for customer acquisition and retention. What attracts potential customers? Simply put, it’s your branding. Branding is essentially every interaction a customer has with your company. How do they experience your brand? Many things influence a customer’s perception of your brand, but the very first thing that sets the tone is your image.

As human beings, we are aesthetically driven. So in order to reel in customers, having polished, clean branding is key. How I achieved this for my small Ankara fashion clothing line was easy and cost me almost no money at all. I simply used the tools I already had at home and then used a HOLY GRAIL business tool that has saved me a lot of stress over the last year. That tool is FIVERR.

Fiverr is a freelance creative gig platform where thousands of freelancers sell their services for as little as five dollars–hence the name. I can’t remember how I first discovered them, but I haven’t looked back since! For the last year, I’d been using Fiverr for my other startup that’s still in development. So when it came time for me to prepare launching my new Ankara fashion clothing line, I knew I would need quality images to make my brand appear more reputable and attract customers. Instead of spending money on a photographer and having to do a photoshoot during COVID, I thought of doing my own photoshoot at home!

All you need are four things for perfect, studio-quality photos from home:

  1. A white/light-colored wall
  2. Natural light
  3. A tripod with a phone holder (and a smartphone with a decent camera–I used an iPhone XS Max)
  4. A Fiverr account

I set up my tripod in my bedroom, opened my windows so the room was well lit, and used the timer feature on my phone. I modeled my own clothes, took as many pictures as my heart desired, and sent my photos off to a freelancer on Fiverr to Photoshop the background to look like a nice, vibrant studio backdrop. I only paid $5 per picture edit, or $20 for 5 pictures, and honestly, you could save even that small amount of money if you know how to use Photoshop yourself (I just don’t have the patience for it.)

Launching a business is hard and expensive, but don’t let getting quality marketing photos become an unnecessary up-front expense before you even start making a profit. Try out my technique and let me know if it works for you. Best of luck in launching your business!

Lighting The Way: How Akon is Illuminating Africa, One Country At a Time

Akon has quite literally been a beacon of light for the African community. Though he’s been away from the spotlight for some time now, the singer, songwriter, producer, and business mogul is far from forgotten for many.

In 2014, Akon started Akon Lighting Africa, a non-profit that provides solar energy to 14 African countries and over 600 million people. Akon is from Senegal himself, therefore, he knows the struggle that many Africans face in more impoverished areas. For many, once the sun goes down, productivity is non-existent because being able to afford constant electricity is nothing more than a far-fetched dream.

Akon solved that problem for many by implementing solar energy panels on houses in extremely rural, developing countries like Guinea, Mali, Niger, Benin, and Sierra Leone. If there’s one thing that those African nations will never have a shortage of, it’s sunshine. The solar panels will allow those people to receive 24/7 energy in their households at no cost to them.

This changes lives indefinitely. Children who once were inhibited from doing schoolwork or studying late at night now have the option to help their parents around the house after school, knowing now that they can do their assignments after sunset. Women don’t have to rush on their household duties in the afternoon to try and get everything done by nightfall. It introduces an entirely new way of life for these people, and now, they are free to focus on other things, like starting their own businesses.

Although some may consider Akon an icon of the past in America, he is surely a superhero in his own community, and the many others whose lives he’s changed forever.

MAKERS Conference 2018

On Feb 5-7, 2018, powerful men and women gathered together to discuss one thing: empowering women. Some of the participants were entertainers, some lawmakers, and some Fortune 500 CEOs. But what they all had in common, is that they wanted to engage in thoughtful dialogue surrounding the #metoo movement, and encourage both men and women to raise their voices against instances of inequality. Below is a recap of the MAKERS Conference this year. It was truly incredible!

Former Bachelorette star Rachel Lindsay uses Wedspire to plan her big day

If you watched last season, you’d know that the show’s first ever black Bachelorette won all of America’s hearts from the moment she stepped on screen. The attorney at law from Texas was sassy, yet sweet, and definitely was representing for the sistas (though some critics argued the opposite).

Regardless of whether or not every viewer was perfectly content with how she behaved on the show, in the final episode, Lindsay chose to start her future with 37-year-old Bryan Abasolo, a Columbian chiropractor from Miami.

Lindsay admitted at last night’s Wedspiration 2018 event that she was “not a little girl who ever dreamt of planning a wedding”, and didn’t know the slightest about where to begin.

She said, “Now that I’ve found the perfect man, I want to have the perfect wedding for us.” Luckily for her, Wedspire just launched an app that makes planning a wedding almost as easy as ordering your Starbucks. Almost.

Check out Rachel Lindsay on the red carpet at Wedspiration 2018 below!

Also, go to https://wedspire.com to take your style quiz and get started on planning your wedding!

Yara Shahidi was the belle of the ball at the inaugural Freeform Summit

This past Thursday, Hollywood’s newest it girl, Yara Shahidi, was given the utmost praise at Freeform’s very first Freeform Summit. The Grown-ish actor sat on a panel titled, Millennials Are Destroying All The Industries, and wowed the crowd with her take on how millennials (and her generation, gen x) are using social media to make industries stronger than they’ve ever been before.

Shahidi was joined by a slew of other young movers and shakers, the most notable of them being fashion model and entrepreneur, Karlie Kloss, Editor-in-Chief of teenVOGUE, Elaine Welteroth, and journalist and founder of Her Agenda, Rhonesha Byng.

Another panelist, NY Times best-selling author, comedian and digital strategist, Luvvie Ajayi, repeatedly hailed the 17-year-old for her wit and sophistication saying, “when I was her age, you couldn’t tell me nothin’. I was out here being stupid. And look at her (Shahidi) out here changing the world.”

Not only was she heralded as the smart, charming and talented teen that she is, but her show Grown-ish–which recently premiered in Jan. 2018–was also the most talked about on the red carpet beforehand.

Famous in Love actors Pepi Sonuga, Keith Powers and Carter Jenkins all gushed about how much they were really diggin’ Freeform’s newest comedy, and Jenkins even went on to say that he felt “honored to be on the same network as Grown-ish.”

Talk about critical acclaim, right?

Check out the video below when I broke the news to Yara that Grown-ish had been renewed for a second season.

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