How I Started My (thing) as a Woman
Did you know, there are 114% more women entrepreneurs now then there were 20 years ago? Hold that thought….
In years past, Women’s History Month has come and gone for me. I never used it to intentionally ruminate on just how amazing women are. It’s crazy to me when I look back on it because I am so extremely proud to be a Black Woman.
This year, likely due in large part to this continuous pandemic, I was able to really reflect on the amazing women that surround me every day and how they have greatly impacted my life. I am so lucky that women have always pushed me to dream, pushed me to achieve, pushed me to be great, but the question remains: where does greatness even start?
I think I’ve always had an entrepreneurial mindset; however, when I was in college and everyone was so excited about the idea of starting their own business, I found the thought quite stressful and exhausting. To be fair, like most college students, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life; therefore, the idea of doing it on my own made me impeccably scared. All I knew then was that I wanted to write. I think I’ve known that fact all my life. Even as a little girl I always carried a notebook with me just in case there was a thought I absolutely had to get down on paper. I thought the only way to become a writer was to write for other people‘s websites and publications, so in my freshman year of college one of my dorm mates and I applied to start a branch of Her Campus at my alma mater and...they rejected us. I felt like it was because of my writing that they rejected us; I saw the failure as my sign that I wasn’t supposed to be a writer.
After that, I enrolled in some creative writing classes and continued to write here and there but mostly just for grades. About two years later, I saw an opening for an opinion piece for that same website so I decided to submit my own. They published it! That was the spark that I needed to renew my confidence in my own writing. From that article, I was invited to write for another website and then I started writing think pieces for our schools fashion magazine. It was a bit of a domino effect from there, which led me to realize that I didn’t need other peoples credentials to write down my own words, so I created my blog. I started something! The girl who was so scared of all the talk about starting their own businesses started something.
From that journey, I realized the barrier to entry for us, in this day and age, is so much smaller than it has ever been. We don’t have to do things the traditional way, we don’t have to ask for permission to put our work into the world. Because of this ability, I am able to be so inspired by all of the women entrepreneurs out there. I gathered a few that I aspire to emulate on a day-to-day basis and asked them how they overcame their barriers. I wanted to know how they started their thing as a woman. Here’s what they said:
Why did you start your thing?
“To heal”
Darel Scott, Founder and CEO of Earth in Color, and Mia Hoover, creator of Write by Mia, both cited forms of healing as their spark for creation.
Darel’s mission began out of a desire to heal her community. Earth in Color — an emerging multimedia studio that celebrates Black people’s connections to the Earth and helps encourage living healthier and more sustainable lives — exists to remove cultural barriers to engaging in sustainable living. What started as a series of experiences created to combat the “black people don’t go camping” belief, is now an amalgamation of creative ventures that create space for Black people to heal their connection to the Earth.
On the other hand, Mia created Write by Mia as a way to heal herself. After leaving her job, Mia found herself turning to writing to process the emotions of this pivotal life decision. Her fiancé encouraged her to share her writing with the world and slowly but surely what began as a way to let out emotions has morphed into her sharing her peace and piece of herself with others.
“To transform”
“Topicals is transforming the way people feel about skin by making the treatment experience more like self-care rather than a burdensome ritual.”
-Olamide
Olamide Olowe, Founder and CEO of Topicals, started her skincare brand because she experienced firsthand how “skin conditions like acne, hyperpigmentation, ingrown hairs, and boils” can negatively impact a person’s mental health. This compassion and passion drove her to the creation of an innovative blend of mental health practices and fun, self-care focused, skincare.
How did you fail forward?
“Consistency is so crucial and I honestly struggled with it…”
As she began building out her social media platforms, Instagram and YouTube content creator, Sarah Ojay, struggled with the frustrations that came along with striving for perfection. In the beginning of her journey, she found herself wanting to focus on so many things and realized that narrowing down her scope of focus allowed her to become consistent with her content and helped her establish a rhythm and a brand.
“I faced my fair share of bias from investors…”
As a 23-year-old Black woman entrepreneur-in-training, at the onset of an economic downturn and an unprecedented international pandemic, Olamide went up against time and the ugly faces of implicit and explicit bias as she began fundraising for her business. But, like many successful entrepreneurs, she didn’t quit when the future appeared murky. By leaning into her confidence in herself, her “overqualified background, and [her] unique insights” Olamide was able to wow and excite enough investors to back Topicals’ mission. Basically, she said: “Who better than me” and continued to make herself and her vision heard.
“I leaned into the curves!”
If you know anything about track and field (which I don’t so bear with me), then you know that when you’re running around the track quickly, you’re instructed to lean into the curves to excel without falling. According to Darel, the same principles can be applied to starting a business. She explained to me that starting anything is like “you’re stumbling through and trying to get your feet to catch up to the rest of your body”. Like I said, I don’t profess to truly understand track references, but I remember being forced to run during soccer practice and I concur that this is how running feels.
“The whole business of starting a startup is a series of failures.”
Co-founder of Edlyft, Arnelle Ansong, recalled this reflection to me when we chatted and, can I just say, all these women dropped nuggets of wisdom GOLD! I don’t think I can do any further justice in explaining this, but what I will say is that this advice feels true to life in general. For me, one of my biggest fears is the fear of failing and I’m working to get past that because failure is what brings growth and understanding.
“Humility”
As I listened to my conversation with Mia again, I was in awe of the way she faces getting over shortcomings and disassociating from caring about what people think. Her way to approach this is by, “coming to it with humility”. She finds that when you’re passionate and comfortable with yourself, you’re able to embrace the unknown.
What challenges did you face?
Changing Thinking
I’d like to think that I’m a pretty thoughtful person, or at least I aspire to be. I’m always looking for ways to challenge how I think about the world and the impact that has on my perspective of life. Both Arnelle and Olamide shared that their greatest challenges to overcome, while starting their thing, were their mindset shifts.
Arnelle made the realization that, differently from her time at Bain & Company, validation for her work no longer needed to stem from people who worked with her. It had to come from the people she did the work for. She “had to change [her] thinking around where [she] received value” in order to refocus her attention and efforts in a productive fashion around the outputs that made the most sense.
Conversely, as she was planning to launch Topicals in March of 2020, Olamide found that her original timeline didn’t work with the start of the pandemic -- to be fair, nothing worked at the start of the pandemic. She postponed the launch a second time to make space for the Black Lives Matter movement because mental health for all people is a core part of her company’s mission. For some companies, these postponements would have led to a loss of momentum and morale, but not for Olamide and her team. They were able to turn this less than ideal circumstance into a learning experience. They used the extra time to carefully craft their products to garner real results while simultaneously being fully supportive of the fight against injustice in our community.
Y’all listen, time was on her side, the last Topicals drop sold out in less than 48 hours at Sephora!
Learning
A huge part of creating that thing is generating buzz around it, which you can do for free these days due to all of the social media at our disposal. However, I’ve learned firsthand, that it’s a lot harder to cultivate an organic following than your favorite influencer might make it look. Content creators, Mia and Sarah, told me that their hardest challenges to face were as simple as six little words: How do you even social media?
“I simply didn’t have a clue what I was doing, I was winging it for the most part. I did my research, I had all the equipment and tech that I needed, but I was still like huh?” said Sarah. She and Mia recalled getting started on their platforms and feeling like they were fish out of water. However, as they’ve learned to navigate the space and become comfortable with being a bit uncomfortable, they’ve learned to test and fail and test and succeed but most of all, the two see this opportunity as a learning experience.
“I don’t have an end goal, all of this is a challenge in improvement!” -Mia
What’s been the most rewarding part?
People
“The most rewarding part is when I get messages from women telling me how much I’ve inspired them.. that honestly is one the driving forces that keep me going on the days when I’m just over it.
I know there is someone that is actually looking forward to my content so I do it for them more than myself.. I have to keep showing up.”
- Sarah
When Sarah told me this, I felt it so deeply in my soul. It’s the reason I’m up late writing this blog post right now, it’s the reason that on the days that I don’t feel beautiful I still post on @fat.fit.fly, it’s the reason that I continue to do my thing. If just one person reads my blog, sees my post on Instagram, or in some other way, feels inspired to love themselves deeply and unconditionally and believe in their worth, then I feel successful. This goes back to Arnelle’s point about resetting where you find value.
Every single woman mentioned this as a reward to their work in one way, shape, or form throughout our interviews.
Passion
“This is what I think I should be doing; there’s no other thing that I feel this passionate about, there’s nothing else I feel this way about.” - Darel
With all the hype surrounding getting rich quickly and working until you’re burnt out while you’re young, there’s something to be said about the people that do their thing because they truly believe it is what they’re meant to do. Darel is one of those people who has continued to fight for what she believes to be her calling. It’s inspiring for aspirers like me to see women like this win.
During her interview, she mentioned that she’s learning all these things about finances, operations, and the nitty gritty of running a business that might be otherwise boring, but since she’s learning it about something she feels deeply connected to, it’s always interesting and motivating.
How do you stay motivated?
Mediation
“I often pray to help me refocus my energy away from the stress. Even if you don’t pray, I think just being able to find some time to just relax your mind and meditate helps clear your head and think better.”
- Olamide
Love
“I literally just love to write and nerd out about books; writing for me has always been really cathartic.”
- Mia
Boundaries
“Setting up boundaries for balance; building a company is a marathon not a sprint and I need to behave that way.”
- Arnelle
What advice would you give to a younger you?
“Don’t try to make it too perfect and wait to put something out, you learn while you’re imperfect.”
- Darel
“Don’t care so much about what other people think.”
- Mia
“Allow yourself to be open to finding your path, even if it’s uncomfortable. Don’t be afraid to look outside of things you already know because there may be goodness there.”
- Arnelle
“Find mentors and friends and family that care about you and push you.”
- Darel
“Trust your intuition fully, even when others doubt you!”
- Olamide
“Don’t focus on what everyone is doing, use it as inspiration sure, but write your own story.”
- Sarah
“Don’t forget to practice what gives you joy.”
- Mia
I know this blog post is longer than most, but if you’ve made it this far this is your sign to start that thing...especially if you’re a woman.
Happy Women’s History YEAR!
Book/Podcast Recommendations from special guests:
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
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Remember, loving yourself out loud is mayaesthetic.
Yours Truly.
