The Black Girl Business Bar

It's been an incredible six months of recording and meeting guests and bringing you this beautiful mentorship so that your business can grow.

Show Notes

Ladies, I’ve compiled some of the best mentorship moments we’ve had this year on the Black Girl Business Bar podcast. 

As you guys know, I launched the podcast in July 2021. It's been an incredible six months of recording and meeting guests and bringing you this beautiful mentorship so that your business can grow.

So if you're like me, hearing this information for a second time, maybe even a third time, just remember that this is super helpful after implementing it, testing it, and experimenting with your business.

Over the past six months, I hope you’ve experienced lots of personal growth and business growth. And so maybe on this second or third listen, you’ll hear this mentorship through another filter and get something more powerful out of it. 

If this is your first time listening, be sure to go back and catch the full episodes linked below. You won't regret it.

Episodes mentioned in this podcast 

Resources

More on Khalida
 
Khalida DuBose is a business mentor specializing in sales strategy. As a previous crowdfunding coach, she supported more than a thousand crowdfunding campaigns and project creators in their quest to bring their dreams, passions, and ideas to the world. Now, she focuses on helping women of color who are early-stage online business owners as they navigate the entrepreneurial journey. For more information on Khalida, visit khalidadubose.com.
 
Follow Khalida on Instagram @khalida.dubose. You can email her at khalida@blackgirlbusinessbar.com.
 
The Black Girl Business Bar is produced by Zuri Berry (@ZMCPodcasts). Music by Vincent Tone and Die Hard Productions.

Creators & Guests

Host
Khalida DuBose
Business + Mindset Coach
Producer
Zuri Berry
Principal Producer at ZMC Podcasts

What is The Black Girl Business Bar?

The Black Girl Business Bar Podcast is for Black entrepreneurial women who crave practical information to implement in their businesses and careers. They want tips and tactics that work and they want on-the-go mentorship that will make a difference in their businesses, projects, and lives.

Hosted by business coach and crowdfunding expert Khalida DuBose, the Black Girl Business Bar is all about letting Black women know what's possible for them in their entrepreneurial journey.

Khalida DuBose: Welcome to the Black Girl Business Bar podcast. I'm your host Khalida DuBose. This podcast is all about helping you as a woman of color, increase your sales, overcome your mindset blocks, and giving you the practical information that you need to thrive in your business and your life.

Today, we have a special episode for you, which is a compilation of the best mentorship moments that we've had on the show in 2021. As you guys know, 2021 was the start of the podcast we launched on July 6th, 2021. It's been a wonderful six months of recording and meeting guests and bringing you this beautiful mentorship so that your business can grow.

So if you're like me hearing this information for a second time, maybe even a third time is super helpful after implementing it, testing it, experimenting with your business. A lot of times we experienced lots of personal growth and business growth. And so when we listened to things the second or third time, we're hearing it through another filter and hopefully you're getting something more powerful out of it. So if this is your first time listening, be sure to go back and catch the full episodes. You won't regret it. If this is your second or more time. Welcome back. Sit back and enjoy.

First up here's Erayna Sargent, AKA, the burnout whisperer. She walked me through the entrepreneur's framework for a wellness routine.

Erayna Sargent: Having your wellness routine and wellness is not one dimensional. So think about those four pillars, growth rest, play in community, test out some different ones.

What are the ones you want to focus on? Build your plan, test it out. Don't work, try a different one. But having that is super important as an entrepreneur, because you have to take care of yourself because if you fail at taking care of yourself, then the house of cards starts to tumble. I always talk about your burnout battle team.

So your burnout battle team consists of experts as well as people within your community. This is your accountability safe space in a sense. So your therapist, that's your like pilot, co-pilot a coach.

So depending upon what you want to do, whether that be a career executive, start out, coach, whatever type of coach that can help you build a plan and the direction you want to go, that type of guidance is super help.having your wellness guide. So in that wellness behavior, if there's something you want to learn or someone you should follow that can help keep you on track, like there's a yoga teacher, you like, that's your guide go to their classes. If there is a mindfulness, usually like if there's someone who hoops or like, like plays a sport that you're like, Ooh, I'm going to use them as my guide, whether you're paying them or you're like taking their advice throughout, , then you also have your, , cheerleader, so really getting into your personal life.

So your cheerleader that is at one, your height man, is what I call it. , yes. Is when you're dealing with burnout, regardless if it's corporate or entrepreneur like that negative internal speak, like is on an all time high. And so having that person that can hide you up when you're down is super, super important.

And then having a person that is used to radical candor. So whether it's your rock, your mirror, whatever you want to call it, someone who could tell you the truth, because when you were going through things, you may not see the signs as early as you could, but someone on the outside can. So that role is super important.

You need to have someone you can trust and they need to be able to, to communicate something in a way that is not like offensive, but still tells you the truth.

So that rock I joke, like when I do my sessions, I talk about it as, , having someone that a tuck in your tag.

Khalida DuBose: Next up, we have expert copywriter and email strategists, Eman Ismail. Eman advised us on the importance of testimonials and how she uses them for great success in her business.

Eman Ismail: So testimonials are huge part of my business because I really believe in no one wants to hear me talk about being a good copywriter. Like no, one's going to listen to me, but I'm like, oh, I'm a great copywriter. Well, people are going to listen to you.

For example, say that I'm a good copywriter. And that means so much more coming from you, right? Because it's not me saying about myself. So when the people are saying good things about you, it is so much more believable and that's really important for people who are interested in working with you. They don't want to hear you brag about how great you are. They want to hear other people talk about how great you are, and also, you know, the results that you've been able to get for them. when I go into a project, I'm thinking about the testimonial, but I can get at the end because testimonials are money and that's how we should think about it. Because it makes it so much easier for the next person to buy from you. If you have a solid, solid testimonial from the client before, and you know, as many kinds as you can, as you can have.

And so the way that I get testimonials is firstly, it's in my contract that I will ask for one.

So everyone is aware from the beginning that I will ask for a testimonial. So it's not surprised everyone's expecting it. And then at the end of the project, I create a survey that is a feedback survey. Yes. But also a survey that allows me to pick out a review for me that I can put on my website and my social media, et cetera, et cetera.

And so these questions, I think the mistake that people make is that the question is always like, did you like working with me or either really like, , yes or no answers that don't leave any room for the person to actually answer the question or you just ask him the wrong questions. Like, uh, it's all about kind of you, you, you, whereas what I do now is a survey that I give clients at the end of a project is tell me what was going on in your life and business when you decided that you wanted to work with me.

So at that point, I'm understanding the context and like the journey that brought them to me. Because right. Because, well, I want to be able to do is show the next client. I understand the struggles that you're going through and I understand why you've come from, and I understand the journey that you had to get to me.

And I do that by looking at the journey that all my past clients had to get into me, the struggles that they had, the goals that they had for themselves, the objectives that they had. So that I always thought with that question, and then I'd go into various. So the questions like, you know, um, was there anything that.

Almost made you say no to working with me. And that's a really great question because it allows you to understand people's hesitations and objections around working with you. So if someone says, you know, they weren't sure about what the process was going to look like. For example, I know that I need to go and make it much easier to understand what my processes.

So whether that's like working on my service page and like create an, I already have this, but, you know, for example, just creating a how this works section so that people don't have that hesitation and that, that, um, friction around wanting to work with me, or if people are maybe talk about the price point, that's a great, that's a great, it's always a great answer because it is an investment working with me.

So sometimes people will say the thing that almost stopped me was the investment. Then the next question is what helped you overcome that hesitation? And so then they will tell me what that decision-making process was. It was, you know, I realized that this ha this is something that I really needed to do for my business.

And I trusted that you were the person to be able to do this for me. And so the questions go on like that. And then, uh, from this, I build a testimonial and it's often a long testimonial. I think people are scared of long testimonials that they think testimonials should be like two or three sentences.

They don't have to be the best testimonials, , have detail and, context and like really like something that you can sink your teeth into. So then this testimonial that comes out of this survey is a whole journey about how this client, what they were struggling with before they came to me. You know what almost stopped them from working with me.

And then what made them overcome that hesitation and then, you know, the results, how they found working with me, firstly, and then the results that they saw and, and, and you know, what they would say to someone else who wants to work with me for example. So it's a whole story. And then the point of that story is that the next person who comes and sees it, whether it's on my website or my social media or wherever else, they see themselves in that testimonial, they see that own struggles and that own objections around working with me and their own hesitations.

And they see this person getting the results that they want to get. And so they see this as like a, as a mirror of where they are versus where they want to be. And seeing that and hearing that come from someone else is so much more powerful than it coming from me than me just describing the situation.

Also just really simple things like having the photo of the person who gave the testimonial, like alongside the testimonial is so important. Yeah. You know, as humans, we're social beings, right. We crave connection and we trust seeing someone else's face. Right. We want to see that face in the eyes. And again, that testimony will become so much more real when the person can see the face of the person who gave the testimonial and even things like the description, like, okay.

So how do you describe who this person is that gave you the testimonial? Yes. You put their name cause we want to know like that name. Well, what about after? I see a lot of testimonials that say stuff like, I don't know, Florida or United Kingdom, like why does anyone care where the person is from? It gives no information whatsoever.

Everything that you write has to be super intentional and super strategic. So if you're going to give me something after the name, it needs to be relatable. So for me, I'm always going to put what they do. So for example, Emily Thompson, podcast host, or business coach, or money mindset coach, or, you know, membership, membership maker, or membership owner, or course creator, because I want to attract all the course creators or the money coaches or the, you know, um, membership owners.

And so again, you're allowing your future clients or future customers to see themselves in the testimonials. And then the final part of the testimonial, um, you know, building a business around testimonials or growing a business around testimonials. That's the thing that people always forget is to share them and to actually share them and promote them and to share them regularly.

So not just one time and don't share the same testimonials over and over again, because firstly, when you post anything on social media, no one, not everyone is going to see the thing that you post or. So you want to be posting the same testimonials over and over because there were going to be people who missed it the first time.

And then of course you have new followers every, every day you have new followers. So keep posting those testimonials, whether it's on social media, whether it's to your email newsletter, whether it's on your website, your website should be full of testimonials and not just a testimonial page, like they should be sprinkled strategically around your entire websites.

And so really think about how you can reuse them, even like putting one in your email signature, or you also respond to like get creative around how you can continuously share them.

Khalida DuBose: So much great advice there. Our next piece of memorable advice and mentorship comes from Latasha Gatling, the founder of Mommy Morebucks. She focuses on helping women heal from trauma and grow their businesses.

Here she reminds us that we do not have to force ourselves to work with everyone.

LaTasha Gatling: When you see you're doing stuff that is not serving you check the trauma, see what happened that got you to that point. I had people that I was helping and I mean, helping them sort of point of getting on TV, helping them sort of point where they're getting offers and getting in front of people who they would not have met.

If it wasn't. Like yeah. If it, if it was meant on a journey may be, but I feel like it was meant on my journey. And that's why, you know, you got this connection. Right. But then I realize like they were kind of taken advantage, you know, sometimes when you do stuff like that, people get that. What I call a genie in a bottle syndrome that they think they can come to you with any wish and you're going to grant it.

They're not looking at the fact that you had to put hard work in. It probably took you three years to get to this connection. So you can really know who this was and, you know, get stuff done. But I had to be honest with myself and say, I got like a rush out of being able to help people. So sometimes that will be to my own detriment.

If something is not working out, I'm trying to fit that square peg into a round hole. I'm still trying to make it work some kind of way. Like, no, this has to work. So this person can be happy because if they're happy, then I'm happy. No, I need to be happy with getting paid. I need to be happy. You know, having great results that I can repeat.

It's not about just getting something done, one orphan being done, but that comes from the trauma that I went through in my life, because I didn't have anything that was stable. So without having a stability, you don't think about having stability in your business, you think about doing one or things, you know?

So yes, there will be some times that you can do things and you're not going to charge. But that cannot be your entire life and you have to be doing it with a purpose. Let it be that that's research. A lot of times research is free anywhere you go in the world. Think about when you go to a restaurant, fill out this survey and we'll give you our new free fries that we are trying, that it may be try and fries with some new type of seasoning on it.

They don't know if it's going to sell or not yet, so they will give away for free to get your feedback and see how you feel. Mm, you know, so you have to be mindful of stuff like that because it's not like the people are taken advantage of your trauma is that you have to learn how to harness it in.

Khalida DuBose: The next piece of mentorship comes from Olivia Owens, the general manager of iFund Women of Color. She reminds us to have faith in our vision and put in the work.

Olivia Owens: Things that I can guarantee you, you're going to fail. You're going to hear no countless times. You're going to feel anxious, tired, exhausted. You're going to want to give up. But if you're rooted in, you're rooted in your vision and your mission and the value that you're looking to put out in the world.

And also, women of color or the most persevering women out there you've got this, you can do it. You just have to be willing to take the advice and do the work and get there. And that's something that we are more than capable of doing.

Khalida DuBose: Lastly, we hear from Heidi Lewis-Ivey, an author and former finance executive. She tells us why mentorship is so important for your success.

Heidi Lewis-Ivey: I think a mentor in general, it would have been nice if that mentor was a woman of color, but a mentor in general would have been nice. And let me also say a sponsor, right? Because a mentor will help you navigate all the little minefields and help you see the blindspots. Right?

But a sponsor will speak your name in rooms. And help to open doors for you. I think if I had a mentor, it wouldn't have taken me so long to get to an executive level. It wouldn't have taken me so long of bad reviews because of attitude. Right. Because my thing was, you know, what, if I'm mad, I'm just mad. But you can't do that in the workplace.

So a couple of years of that, and then somebody to just tell me who's who and how to approach that person. As opposed to making all sorts of mistakes. You know my work was good, but sometimes attitude was everything, right? And other times it was not knowing who I was talking to. Not knowing what to say in the right situations. Because I didn't have anybody that could show me or teach me how to get there.

Khalida DuBose: All right, friends. Thank you so much for hanging out and listening to the Black Girl Business Bar podcast. If you haven't already hit that follow or subscribe button, so you never miss an episode. If you found today's episode helpful or had any aha moments, I invite you to reach out to me personally at khalida@blackgirlbusinessbar.com and let me know all about them.

And if you're a woman of color business owner, I invite you to join me and a group of like minded women inside the Black Girl Business Bar community over on Facebook. It is free.

And I regularly go live inside the group and discuss the episodes.

As always friends we're dropping episodes every Tuesday and we can't wait to see you back then.