We’re continuing our conversation around being black and in business and being women of color and in business. So I want to share some of my favorite women of color to follow as I’m building my business.
Last week we talked a little bit about identifying who you want to work with based on their lens. So taking a look at unconscious bias, how that impacts your hiring decisions, and how that informs the work that various contractors could be doing for you. Today, I wanted to share a little bit about some of the women who I have allowed into my space as my go-tos, their words of wisdom, and who I think really sets themselves apart in terms of what they provide, as far as business mentorship and knowledge and wisdom.
How this Women of Color Business Guru list is organized:
- First, I will just share the name and info ABOUT the woman who I think is awesome.
- I will also liken her to some others in the space. So maybe some men or some, maybe even white women who are doing SIMILAR work.
- And then just point to why I liked this particular woman and WHY she kind of stands apart.
- Also just the nuggets of what this particular influencer is good for. And HOW it might fit into your business.
Rosetta Thurman
WHO IS SHE:
The first woman that I’m going to shout out is the one I know the least about – Rosetta Thurman. I spoke about her a little bit as I was digging in about a month ago looking for retreats and strategy sessions.
Rosetta Thurman is the woman behind the Happy Black Woman brand – I talked a little bit about this before. She doesn’t have a great online presence, but what she does have is a private Facebook group, which you can join and be a member of, and be a part of the thriving community there.
HER WORK IS SIMILAR TO:
In terms of who she’s like, I don’t know that there’s anyone specifically like her in this vein because it looks like what she does is put together an annual retreat every year. That is her model for her business – is setting up retreats. The only other kind of vein that I’ve seen this in is a lot of small business retreats for women in the south. I think when I spoke about this last, I had found a couple that were like in Nashville and things like that, where it’s a small cohort of women coming together in a house to talk business strategy and to play a little bit.
WHY SHE STANDS APART:
And that’s what Rosetta Thurman does – smallish business retreats. But she does focus specifically on black women who are in that space. So to check her out, definitely check out her Facebook page.
HOW SHE CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS:
The reason I like her is because in a black community, if it’s a sleepover, you don’t have to explain some of the basics. Also, I think she’s really good for people who are just looking for a plugin/plug-out in terms of finding a retreat solution. So you can dig deep into your business and then come out and do all of the work.
Danielle Leslie
WHO IS SHE:
A second woman on my list – good old Danielle Leslie. And if you are anywhere doing anything related to creating a course and are in the Facebook universe, you have heard of Danielle Leslie. If you’re on Instagram, I’m sure you have swiped through some of her stories or seen her ads because Danielle Leslie has built an empire around her course, called Course from Scratch. She teaches creatives how to build content to create an evergreen funnel for their business.
That means a plug and play solution that generates money for you while you can be off sipping coladas on the beach.
HER WORK IS SIMILAR TO:
Danielle’s methodology, her theory, her whole entire business model is very similar to Amy Porterfield. I love Amy Porterfield. I don’t know that there’s anyone like her in the space who teaches online marketing with a thoroughness that is one to behold. If you’re not following her, I highly recommend it and then when it comes time to buy a course, I would recommend buying Danielle Leslie’s Course from Scratch.
WHY SHE STANDS APART:
The reason that I really liked Danielle is because unlike Amy Porterfield, Danielle does not overwhelm you with content and to-dos and tasks as an entrepreneur. I think we do that on our own very well. Instead, Danielle’s whole philosophy is around the lean startup model and thinking about your minimum viable product because she is a course creator, she tells you to create your minimal viable course.
Get that first iteration out as soon as possible because then of course you can iterate (which if you’ve read the Lean Startup, that’s exactly what it’s about) and so I highly recommend Danielle for that.
HOW SHE CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS:
If you’ve been procrastinating on starting, she is a good person to go to. Also her Course from Scratch private Facebook community is the bomb.com for ongoing support. The community is largely women of color, though anybody and everybody’s up in there because her goodies are so good and she keeps it real. She’s talking to you in a language that is very casual, that makes her feel very accessible and real. So a great place to start, especially if you’re trying to create a course and figure out how to market it and build out a framework, and think about a content creation from a very focused and centered place.
Rachel Rodgers
WHO IS SHE:
The third woman on my list is good old Rachel Rodgers, the queen of Hello Seven, the innovator behind the Glow Up.
HER WORK IS SIMILAR TO:
This woman has a Business Builders Incubator and in a lot of ways she is very similar to Marie Forleo who has her B school. So, and I’ll just put out there, most of these online marketing influencers are largely teaching you the same thing over and over. It’s just finding the one that best fits what you’re trying to do with your business and your model. Marie Forleo’s B school, I would argue, you’re gonna learn a lot of what you would learn from Amy Porterfield’s cores and a lot of what you would learn in Danielle Leslie’s course.
WHY SHE STANDS APART:
Rachel Rodgers offers her Glow Up that actually walks you through understanding your ideal market, understanding your product and your positioning and then building out what that looks like to create a high ticket product and how to market that high ticket product.
So she incorporates things like Facebook ads and webinars and all of that stuff into her content. Her program is on the pricey end. But from what I’ve heard, it’s very, very thorough. I do know peeps who have gone through her Glow Up and got a lot of value out of it. She, like everyone else, is also incorporating live group coaching and those sessions. So you get a lot of face time with people who can really dig in with you on your business and what it is you’re trying to create.
HOW SHE CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS:
I think Rachel is phenomenal, if you’re really looking for high-touch, and someone to push you. That is some feedback that I actually received from another woman who took her course not that long ago and said, if you’re not ready to go really big, don’t do it because they are going to push you to think really a lot bigger than you’re probably thinking right now.
The reason her website is helloseven.com is because she is dedicated to taking people from their first 100K to 7 figure businesses. What!? So you’re at six figures, you just hit that six figure mark, how can you jump to seven figures? And she does that through this model of her Glow Up program and then eventually her mastermind groups.
Sandra Yancey
ABOUT:
The last one (saved the best for last) is good. I’ve talked about Sandra Yancey before because I’m an Ewomen member. A part of that extensive all women entrepreneurs network. I first discovered them last summer. And I love, love, love what Sandra does.
HER WORK IS SIMILAR TO:
Her content is amazing and again, similar to Rosetta Thurman, I don’t know anyone who is quite doing what Sandra is doing in this space. She, has this annual conference where she brings hundreds of women together and the content at this thing is unbelievable.
Now take this from me because I’m a professional development junkie, but when people corral you into a room and say they’re going to teach you things, oftentimes what they end up doing is trying to sell you things. They’re all about selling you things. There’s like 30% content and 70% someone selling you. At Sandra’s conference, it is like 90% teaching you things and 10% sales. So, all these things are very structured, very similar where you’re going to get all the content upfront and then the backend is going to be a sale, “Here’s how you can continue learning with me.”
WHY SHE STANDS APART:
If you go with a notebook to her conference, you are going to walk out with like 30 actions that you can take for your business. And it could be 30 actions for every session that you sit in. Last year when I went to that conference, I had to decompress every night of the conference. I was there for three or four days and every evening I was sitting there like, oh my gosh, so many ideas. What can I do next? How am I going to build it? What am I going to do? Who can I tap? How can I leverage my VA? Like what can I take off my plate? What do I need to put on my plate? How can I reposition my social media?
And it was phenomenal!
HOW SHE CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS:
So Sandra is really good for anyone who is at any stage in their business development. It’s a really a nice catchall because you’re going to get so many ideas across the business building process. It’s also great for community. In the conference itself, you’re going to meet so many amazing women of color out there, and others as well, which is what I kind of love about the entrepreneur community. Everyone there is dedicated to learning and growth and pushing people up. It’s a great space to start supporting other entrepreneurs. When I went last year, that’s where I met my bookkeeper as well as where I met my additional accountability partners. There are women who I’ve met at that conference who I’ve kept in contact with and it’s a year later. So it’s phenomenal for surrounding yourself with people that you could really call into your tribe to support you as a business owner.
So that’s what Sandra is good for. It’s for community. It’s also good for just a leveling up, no matter where you are. The mission statement of the Ewomen network is 1 million women and gross in $1 million. And so she really is dedicated in helping women get this money. We do that by upleveling and networking and leveraging each other. So, um, that’s my final plug for women of color who are doing big things.
Support Women of Color in Business as you support yourself!
I know that Rosetta Thurman is a black woman, Danielle Leslie is a black woman, Rachel Rodgers, black woman, she’s very fair, so there’s like some other, ethnicities in there as well. And then Sandra Yancey is black, but like French Canadian, a whole bunch of other interesting things. So women of color who aren’t just your plain vanilla, and are giving back in really powerful ways to communities that are important to them. And so whether you’re looking for a one-and-done overnight retreat to jumpstart your business and strategic planning, or you’re ready to build an online course and create an evergreen product, or you’re ready to level-up and stretch for seven figures and build out your value ladder, or you’re looking for community and networking and support, there is a woman out there who wants to help you.
And of course, if you can support the black and brown out there among us, I highly encourage you to do so. Please as you jump off today, drop a note in the comments. Let me know who you’re excited to check out or even if you have questions about any of them. I’m a big fan of Danielle Leslie and Sandra Yancey. And then the other two, I have some contacts that I can connect you with if you want to know more. Go out there and do amazing things. Support black and brown business women of color as you continue to support yourself!
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