On our first ever She Runs It Panel Discussion, it’s a Women of Color panel interview with five dynamic black women business owners, and I’m so excited for them to share some of their experience, and what it means for them to be black women in business in our very male dominated worlds.

We talk to them about how they got started in their business, and why it’s important to them and for others around them. And we also talk about the all-important factor of how race and gender played a role in growing their business, and what kind of barriers they had overcome in the process.

Click here to listen to the discussion >>

Listen in to get some unique perspectives, inside information and advice from each of these black women business owners that will help you in your own growth and success. All the information about their services, their website, and their social media hangouts are listed below in the show notes – make sure to check them out!

Key Points from this Episode:

Owning a business as Black Women Business Owners

• [05:11] How owning her own business helped Daphne not only manage her own time, but also be there for her children, while being a role model for them that they too can do this for a living.
• [07:18] Why Tamara left her 9 to 5 job to start her own consulting company so she could wear her hair natural, talk the way she talks, not worry about someone mistaking her passion for anger, and not need to wear a gray suit to assimilate.

Knowing your own Worth

• [14:09] Knowing your own worth, and overcoming the message of “you’re not enough,” especially as black women business owners, is a lesson gained from experience. Listen in as Merlyne likens the process to the dating game.
• [19:47] Jennifer shares how to also help her clients know their own worth – it’s just as important, as we try to support and pull each other up.

Representation of Women of Color in the Industry

• [23:00] Marie asks if the trope that black women are strong hurting us or helping us? Are we able to deal with conversations about diversity?
• [23:25] Why are women of color not represented among the influencers of the industry? Daphne shares her experience as a speaker where she often finds herself the only person of color on the stage. The rest of the panel chimes in with their experiences in their industry.

How to Collaborate better as Black Women Business Owners

• [32:01] How can we better collaborate as black women business owners, so we’re not working in our own little worlds without support? Can we better support each other for business growth? Tamara shares how not playing at the bigger table sets us back.
• [35:30] Our youngest panelist, Inaya, started her own business at 15. She talks about how she had to step up into her own worth and take charge of her business, with a little help from her mother.

Does the Internet help level the playing field? Or not?

• [38:50] We all love the internet! And how leveraging the internet can help build our businesses. The panel shares their own experiences with whether the internet is an equalizer, or if the cliques that keep us out exist here as well.
• [52:19] Jennifer expands on how we can create a better culture, a culture of celebration, by collaborating with other business owners, the contractors who support our businesses, and our clients.

Giving back to the Community

• [59:15] The panel shares how they each give back to their communities, to help young people start their own businesses, being board members on organizations, providing their time and knowledge freely, encouraging diversity, and paying to send young girls to school when they can’t pay for themselves.

This is a generous, dynamic, amazing panel of black women business owners, and I’m so honored to have this conversation with them today.

Please visit and say Hello to each of the Panelists:

Merlyne Jean-Louis, Founder of Jean-Louis Law, P.C

WEBSITE: https://www.jllaw.net/

INSTAGRAM: @wizardlawyer

TWITTER: @jean_louis_law

LINKEDIN: Merlyne Jean-Louis

FACEBOOK: @jeanlouislawny

Daphne F Leblanc, Social Media Strategist, Marketing agency Cafe and Laptop, LLC.

WEBSITE: cafeandlaptop.com

FACEBOOK GROUP: facebook.com/groups/thesocialbusinesscafe/

FACEBOOK: @daphnefleblanc

FACEBOOK: @cafeandlaptop

Tamara Burkett, Customer Loyalty Architect

WEBSITE: https://www.tamaraburkett.com/

FACEBOOK: @tamara.burkett.7

LINKEDIN: Tamara Burkett

INSTAGRAM: @tamaraburkett

Jennifer Covington, Life Coach and Business Strategist

WEBSITE: JenniferCovington.com

INSTAGRAM: @therealjcov

FACEBOOK: @jennifercovingtonfanpage

TWITTER: @therealjcov

Inaya Robinson, 15 year old CEO and Founder of Timbuktutu Originals

INSTAGRAM: @timbuktutu_originals

FACEBOOK: @timbuktutuoriginals

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