Mogul Chix® Chat Podcast Adrienne Graham

On Facebook, I posted about Women of Color & access to capital, & it got lot's of like's comments & views. Clearly this is a conversation that needs to be had. People often lament about there not being any viable capital resources for Women of Color and how we can't get into those rooms.But you've seen Mogul Chix® Academy, right?This is not a new conversation. There ARE resources to get WOC in the door and across the threshold. And I have been talking about this since the early 2000's. The conversation has been there. So let's make some inroads to change the narrative. Today I'm giving my insight into why the media headlines will keep us thinking there isn't much out there for us, and what we need to be doing (as founders and investors) to make sure that WOC are getting the access and getting into the rooms to make it happen.

Beyonce is coming out with a new Haircare Line! And it's got people talking. It seems a lot of people, fans and non-fans are confused about this. The general consensus is she is not known for haircare. But it opens up a deeper conversation. Will consumers buy for name recognition or is your personal story behind the brand what attracts them? Well we're all not Beyonce so we don't have a built in audience that will buy whatever. We as businesswomen have to be strategic. It has to make sense to the buying public. People are more focused on authenticity and alignment these days when making purchasing decisions. So let's talk about it.

I made a post on social media the other day. I said “If you can’t take a 2 week vacation and be off the grid and the business can still run smoothly, you have a leverage problem. If you are not looking to build a company that is independent of you, this episode is not for you.  I have been stressing since forever the power of building a team. Most times I get favorable responses, but every now and then I get the peanut gallery who want to stay small justify all the reasons why they shouldn’t hire.  I’ll guess that right now if you’re listening to this episode you don’t have the luxury of stepping away for any amount of time. Whether a vacation or an emergency, stepping away now would severely handicap your business and earnings. Mostly because you have build a business that is heavily reliant on you, instead of building a company that can be autonomous. Is it fear? Is it the desire to NOT be responsible for other people? Is it that you want to be the center square in the business? Well whatever it is, if you have any goals of building a successful profitable company, you need a team. What that team looks like depends on you and the vision for the company. Today I’ll talk about operational leverage and building a solid team. I’ll share my own tips and when I got to the point that leveraging a team was priority one.

Whether you're a starter or a veteran entrepreneur, we all experience bouts of imposter syndrome. But more often than not, it's a result of someone else's words, not what we tell ourselves. As women we have to recondition our minds to not let other people's perceptions, labels or words hold our minds hostage. Stand proud and firm in your value and know what you bring to the table.

No one woman can be an island unto herself…or however the saying goes. Let me just say if you are not looking to build a company that is independent of you, this episode is not for you.  It’s OK to be the little fish and play small, for a little while. But if you’re listening to this, I get the feeling you’re ready to play bigger. When you’re looking to build generational wealth, a company that can be handed down through generations, you have to build with the intention to scale. And for you that means, as the Founder, diminishing your day to day role so that you can leverage the expertise of your team. I know, it can be tough to spend so much time and energy on building the business, endearing yourself to clients, servicing all the clients, and doing every job within the business simply because it’s YOURS. But guess what. Doing that leads you to burn out and severely handicaps your earning potential. What do you want? Do you want to build a thriving company that produces jobs as well as solves your clients’ pain points? Or do you want to be the star of the show? You can’t do both, nor should you want to. Let’s look that the long game here. Building a company that can stand strongly independent of you takes time, understanding and releasing the ego. Today I want to focus on building a scalable company without crumbling beneath the weight of it all. I’ll share my own tips and when I finally got a firm understanding of what it all means.

You know the old saying. “Everything ain’t for everybody”. Well that’s true. Now a lot of people may not want to hear that, but it’s the facts. As you grow your company and become more mature as a CEO, you start to realize that you cannot serve everyone. And by the same token everyone isn’t meant to come along with you on your journey. So it’s not just about the business and clients.  So many of us try to bring everyone along on an idea or a journey and we don’t even realize they’re not meant to come. Well that’s the nice way of putting this. In reality, sometimes you just have to laser focus in on a select niche in order to achieve your goals. Again everything ain’t meant for everybody and you have to be OK with that. Today I want to focus on giving yourself permission to eliminate clients who are not aligned with you. I’ll share my own tips and how I became a master at this by necessity.