This podcast is a part of the Maisie Media Network, a community podcast for women by women. Hey, girl, hey, and thanks for dropping into the Switch, Pivot, or Quit podcast. Candy convo for the girl needing a lifestyle plot twist when she's deciding if it's time to switch, pivot, or quit. I'm Ayanna Angel, a former sports entertainment publicist in New York City, turned traditionally published author with Simon & Schuster, who quit my old life to write a book, live in London for a bit, and explore my dreams to find my happiness and fulfillment.
I'm here to help encourage and guide you through your plot twist years as your chief encourager and host of the Switch, Pivot, or Quit podcast. Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe on iTunes if you have enjoyed listening to this podcast so far, and check out switchpivotorquit.com for even more personal and professional development resources. But for now, just sit back, open your mind, and enjoy the show. On today's show, we're chatting with Leanne Mimbus.
Leanne is a web developer at L'Oreal and also the founder of Boss, a lifestyle site for self-made women of color, including a private Boss Squad community of over 1,000 members. Leanne has successfully pivoted from being a journalist to a web developer, and through her pivot came Boss. Her mission is to help women from disadvantaged backgrounds and low-income communities overcome obstacles to achieve financial freedom and personal success. Let's jump into Leanne's story.
I am sure that you're going to be inspired and love it. Leanne, welcome to the show. How are you? I'm good.
How are you? I'm doing well, doing well. So let's dive right in, and I want you to tell us about your very first paying job. What was it?
What were you doing? Ever in life? Yes. Okay.
Oh, my God. My first job ever in life, I was, what about 16, 17? 16? I think I was 16, yeah.
I was 16 years old, and I actually worked at a beauty supply store. I'm originally from Atlanta, Georgia, so I worked at a store and sold, like, sleeve and wig to people. I love it! During the summer.
That's so awesome. It was honestly the only place I could get a job at that time. It was weird. Like, everyone I knew was working at, like, McDonald's, like, the typical, like, teenage job and movie theaters, and I ended up just getting a job at a beauty supply store.
I was always there, I guess, but I don't know how it worked out. So, as you know, on this podcast, we talk all about the switch, pivot, or quit experience, and I know that you currently have a full-time job, but you started your own movement and own platform as well, so talk to us a little bit about your SPQ experience and what your career has looked like leading up to this point. Yeah, so I would say it kind of, it's always been in tandem to having a full-time job. So, my first role, full-time job role, was working as a web producer at a TV station, and it was crazy because at that time, I had really odd hours.
I was working nights and weekends. I was working mornings, literally from midnight to 7 a.m., so I didn't even have a regular schedule compared to the rest of my peers that were, like, living their lives in their 20s, and so at that time, I had a lot of time alone in the station, and so I kind of started blogging just to kind of pass the time because there wasn't really a lot of news happening in the middle of the night, and so I would blog in the middle of the night, and that's kind of how I started this platform. It wasn't what it was until later on. I was just kind of creating random content for African-American women, for black women, and over time, you know, I kind of started gravitating towards, like, stories about people who are, you know, building their own businesses and success.
I feel like, I would say the mid-2010s, or I don't even know what we call that era, but during that past decade, like, the whole entrepreneurship wave, like, really came on super, super strong, even though it's been around for years, but it was just such a big thing, and so I found myself kind of gravitating towards more of those stories and starting to kind of reflect in writing the things that I was seeing, like, being from Atlanta coming to New York City, this big city of dreams where everyone's hustling and trying to make their, you know, fantasies reality. That was kind of the stuff that I started writing about, and so my random blog kind of turned into Boss Mag sort of overnight, and at the time, and this is, like, early, like, 2013, 14, early, early, early when I started writing stuff, that's when it kind of evolved, and around 2015 is when I started, like, getting some growth on site, and people were responding to posts that I was writing and commenting and being like, oh, I love this, can I write for you, can I submit it, and I'm like, oh my god, there's people actually doing this in truth with this, and so it kind of morphed, it kind of morphed, and I think because of that pivot moment of changing from, like, I'm just going to write, you know, all this random lifestyle content to, like, really just honing in on a niche, which was, like, you know, self-made women, and their goals and journey towards building wealth and financial freedom is really what kind of transformed the site, and we kind of transformed our community, and so, yeah, ever since then, things kind of blossomed and ballooned. I received angel investment for the site in 2016, and so that kind of helped us to, like, get money for advertising and promoting content, which, like, when Facebook's algorithms were working right, it was really powerful for us, and so that kind of created this buzz about the site, and started getting a lot of pitches and things like that, and a lot of great opportunities started coming out of that, and so, yeah, now I am where I am today, where we kind of turned BOSS from a single blog into a magazine, a digital community, and also, you know, we have events now. We had our first conference last year, which was really, really dope.
BOSS has really blossomed in a lot of ways, and there's still more pivoting to do, still more work to do, in the sense that, you know, I want to continue to grow this platform into one that really invites a lot of people together to be more accountable and achieve their goals at the minimum, at the space point, and see these things through, so, yeah, we're still growing. We're still a cool community for ambitious women who are trying to go from nothing to something, trying to get to the top, like, you know, start from the bottom to the top. Right, right, right. No, no, start from the bottom, now we're here.
Now we're here, yeah, exactly. So, with the angel investment, how did that sort of come about, and I just want to touch on that briefly, because you mentioned it, and there's a lot of people who are looking to sort of have their ideas scaled, but they don't really know how to go about really finding the funds to make that happen, especially if they don't have it themselves. Was angel investing something that you were looking into, or was an opportunity brought to you, like, how did that sort of come together? It was a little bit of both, to be honest.
So, basically, around that time, like I said, the startup community world thing was really huge, especially in New York, you know, there's a lot of, like, hackathons, pitch competitions, etc., so I started kind of moving around that community to learn more and understand more about it, and, like, you know, do I need funding, can I do this myself, etc., so I'd done, like, a few business, like, pitch competitions, and I didn't win anything, but it was through those competitions that someone, like, one of the judges, I think, connected me with someone else who ran their own angel investment firm, and they eventually ended up reaching out to me later on to talk about boss, so that was kind of a crazy roundabout way that it happened, so in essence, it was, like, I put myself out there, and even though I didn't get what I wanted in that current time frame, that, you know, whatever I sent out to the universe, eventually came back to me, like, a couple years later, and, yeah, they kind of found me, and was, like, we want to support, so, yeah, it was a beautiful blessing, but, you know, I don't think it would have happened if I hadn't really been, you know, out there and, like, pushing for my brand. Yeah, now, with the angel investment, what does that look like in terms of the role that they have within your business, and do they have a stake in your business now from a financial perspective, like, do you owe them anything? Talk to us a little bit about what that looks like. Yeah, so at the time, there wasn't, at the time that invested, there was, like, a slight stake taken out, and I will say that the challenge I had moving forward was more so, not moving forward, because I did work with them, they were great partners, was more so, like, some ideas around content creation and generation that they had didn't really align with what would work for my audience, in essence, so, you know, you have people who don't really look like me, who are people of color trying to tell you, you know, this is the type of thing you should be putting out for people of color, and that didn't really, you know, resonate, and that kind of came through through the data, so eventually we ended up kind of just parting ways, not in, like, a bad way or anything like that, but more so, like, you know, we kind of agreed that I wanted to, I wanted to kind of retain full rights of the site and, you know, have more say over what, it happened, because I felt like I was more authentically tied to it, so we eventually just kind of ended the partnership, and I moved on, so I now have 100% ownership of the site again, but, yeah, that's kind of where it is at this point, however, I will say that, you know, having that cash injection was what we needed at the time, because I think I was really out of space where I was trying to understand, like, seeing the site as just a side hobby versus a business, and having that experience and working with them, you know, drafting agreements and things like that really helped me realize, okay, this is something that could be a business, and that's kind of how I walked with it moving forward.
You mentioned about, you know, treating the boss platform as more of a, as a legitimate business, if you will, versus a side hustle, so talk to us a little bit about your, your, I don't even know if it's a nine-to-five exactly, because you're talking about the hours you had before, but your day job, and sort of what you do, and if there's any crossover with the skill set that you have to have for your day job versus with what you are required to have with running boss. So when I left the TV station, I was like, I'm never working these crazy hours again, so most of my jobs have been, you know, a typical nine-to-five since then, and in my current role, I work at L'Oreal as a web developer. I pretty much run the technical aspects of different brand e-commerce sites, and basically make sure that they are running smoothly, that there's no glitches and bugs, and then I also, like, build out different landing pages and on-site experiences for our customers in order to help them convert, and I love, love, love, love, love what I do, because it definitely is, like, the opportunity to kind of marry my passion with my profession. With Boss, Boss was actually how I started learning how to code.
I didn't really know much about coding prior to that. I was a little intrigued by it, but I was, like, English majoring in college, so I didn't, like, go down that path, and then when I started Boss, it was, like, a WordPress.com site, and so I didn't know much about hosting or anything like that, but I was so curious to figure things out, like, how do I change this, how do I change that, you know, when I was up in all those odd hours working at the TV station, I just had so much time to, like, Google and figure things out, so now that eventually evolved into me, like, doing a coding boot camp and learning how to code, and now I work full-time as a developer, but a lot of those skills are beneficial to me, you know, running the site because I can kind of figure out ways to optimize the site to work faster or perform better via SEO because of my skill set, or I can change the design or know how to fix things here and there if they're broken, so it's kind of cool to be able to sit in this kind of, I'm, like, in the middle of two different worlds that both kind of connect to each other, and then at the end of the day, like, I work for a beauty company that supports, you know, in person with all people, but, you know, obviously women are a big chunk of their customer base, and to know that I'm empowering women through beauty and also empowering women through my site is just, like, I don't know, I think I've been one of the happiest people I've ever been in my career so far, so that's kind of an exciting place to be at, yeah. Yeah, so what does a typical day look like for you? Because I know that there's a lot of women who really have aspirations of doing, of being in the place that you just described you're in, of loving what they do, nine to five, sort of, like, their day job and getting that secure check, and then also having something on the side.
Maybe they don't want to be an entrepreneur, but they want to have something on the side that also equally allows them to do things that they feel very strong about, but that also gives them maybe some sort of, like, outlet, but a lot of people are just, like, where am I going to find the time, or how do I even get started, all that kind of stuff, so what is, what does a typical day look like for you? Do you kind of break your days down, and does L'Oreal know that you have Boss? Like, how does that all sort of work? Yeah, so I think for me, and this kind of started early on, I was very key about having a routine when it came to Boss.
Like, I knew I wanted it to work. I had to make the time for it, regardless of what was going on. So in the early days, I literally would just wake up early. I had no writers.
I was the one writing all the content. I'd wake up two hours, like, at 5 a.m., write for two hours, and then, you know, quickly edit, post it, and then go about my day, and then come back to do it again the next day, like, for multiple days. Obviously, that evolved over time, but now, you know, one of the first things I do when I wake up is I'm constantly, like, at this point, I have a team that does a lot of the concentration. So now I'm more so just, like, managing communication, checking emails in the morning, and then I go about my day and, you know, do my working the night and spending it working on Boss, and I would say that because I do have, like, a really great team now, but in the evening, I do kind of carve out, like, at least an hour to two hours to work on it, and I'm not going to lie to this time during my lunch, during the day where I'm, like, taking a phone call or working on something for Boss, but it's not, like, you know, I think my work, life balance with it has gotten a lot better because I've been more open about having a team and not it just being me.
In regards to, like, L'Oreal, they actually do know about my site, and when I interviewed for the role, I actually, like, pitched it as a part of, you know, what I do, and, like, hey, what's this magazine I build myself? They were actually pretty impressed by it, and I think it might have been one of the reasons why I got the job, to be honest. So, yeah I was super supportive, very open. I think my manager told me once, he's, like, oh, I shared the link of your magazine with my daughter.
I was, like, that's so sweet. I was not expecting that, which is so different from, like, other things where I work, where, like, you can't, you know, just talk about, like, what you're doing on the side, kind of what's a distraction from everything going on. So, I think because I have a discipline in place, it helps because I am able to do my job and do my side job, but I wouldn't be anywhere without, like, the team that I have, and, you know, I'm still working on growing that team right now and firing myself. So, you know, I'm just, like, creating a system, creating the process, automating where I can so that I'm free to do the things that I love more.
I think it's really important. I just want to make sure that we do highlight the fact that you found a company that works for you for multiple reasons, and one of the biggest things is that they champion and they are an advocate and love that you have something else that you're doing, and I think a lot of people, they're fearful to do things on the side or to let their company know what they're doing because they think it'll be a conflict or, you know, they'll get some pushback, and I think what's really important about what you're sharing is that you want to find a company where you guys can have a happy medium and meet in the middle because that's a part of what's going to make you happy and probably then perform better at your job, right? Yeah, I agree. I think at the end of the day, like, the fact that I don't feel like, you know, a whole type of boss is going to be a problem at work, like, that, it's just, like, a big relief, and it just does make you feel more empowered as both an employee, both as a boss, so really show up every day and do what you do.
I think, honestly, at the end of the day, you know, it is really challenging, not only to work on something on the side, but to work on something on the side when you hate your day job, like, hating, like, that, and I know that feeling because I've been there before, and that feeling in its essence where you're, like, you're just ready to go, you're already, you've already sent, like, 20 LinkedIn applications during your lunch break, like, if you're at that moment, you know, maybe it's not the right time to start something because I do feel like, you know, maybe for some people it is, but I think it's really, really hard to be in a place where you're, like, grappling with your mental health because you hate your job and you're still trying to start something else, like, you can't serve, but, like, it's hard for you to serve, you know, yourself when you're in such a terrible place so I think, like, you know, some people do the whole, let me start it on the side to transition, and I think if you're at a job that's, like, neutral or is positive and does support you, then that is helpful, but I think if you're in a space where it's just toxic for you or it's just not healthy, like, I would say get out of that place and move somewhere else or just take the risk and quit your job if you can and just focus on it, what it is that will make you happy. I think that's, like, essential to anyone, whether you're starting a side hustle or starting a full-on, you know, business. I really, really like that you said that because I think that's one of those things that so many people think, because I'm miserable where I am, I should start something on the side, and I like that you bring up that that might not be the time. It just might be the right timing.
So what role, I feel like that probably has something to do with some personal development that you might have done, honey, so I want to know what role has personal development and just sort of, like, getting to know yourself better and understanding yourself as an adult and how you move in this world, like, what role has that played in getting you to where you are right now? My first experience opening up a business bank account was frustrating. It required me to take time out of my day to go down to a local branch, sit with a banker for over an hour and answer a ton of questions that I wasn't prepared for, only to have to turn around a few weeks later and do it all over again because said bank closed my new business account over a simple form error that was not my fault. I bet you can see why I would be interested in Aslo, a banking platform made for small businesses.
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So for me, personal development has been very key to my growth as both an entrepreneur and as a young professional. I would say a few years back, I read Jack Canfield's book, The Six-Level Principles, which is one of my favorite self-help, self-development books. And there's one, one of the starting chapters talks about how you're 100% responsible for things that happen to you in your life. Like whether things do happen, they don't happen, you know, you kind of have the power to create your future.
And so that's really stuck with me for a very long time. And I really tried to harness that energy to really, you know, go after the things that I want. You know, even with my brand, it's like, man, if you want to see, you know, yourself get to a certain level, you have to put in energy. Or if you want to be able to free yourself to do other things, you need to hire your team.
And, you know, even with my personal career, like I kind of pivoted there from just, you know, doing web via marketing, digital marketing to like deciding, you know, I just want to focus on web film and do what I love. And that's probably been the best decision I've ever made in my entire life. So I'm really committed to that. And I really believe that, you know, sometimes a lot of, a lot of us, you know, I do think like sometimes things happen to us in life where it's like beyond our control, right?
Like, you know, and there are certain things we have power over and there are things we don't. But we do have the power to say, you know, even if this unexpected thing happens, like how do I respond to it? You have power in that. You have power to say how you're going to pivot or, you know, this month isn't going to do well.
What am I going to do to respond to that? So, you know, that's something I try to keep with me day to day as I'm moving through the world. And, you know, I hope it's something that other people will resonate on and remember when they're feeling down or feeling like, you know, I'm not going to be successful. I can't start something on the side.
Like, yeah, you can, you will when the timing is right and you know it's right for you. If someone was trying to like maybe take some control or switch up some things in their life because they just felt like they needed some change and mix it up, what's something that you would recommend that they do? It could be something big or small, but something that maybe you've come across that you feel like this is a good thing to do when you're trying to take some type of action to sort of mix things up in your life. I feel like if there's something that you want to do, you're trying to switch up something.
I'm going to use an example like what's in your career. And let's say you want to be a web developer or whatever, or you want to switch into marketing. I would say, if you can, try to do a test run. Practice it and not just like saying, oh, just go on your own and like Google and research like this is a job right for me, but like literally see if you can take a course.
You know, you could go to Skillshare or there's different online courses. There's a lot of like prep courses for coding, things like that, or even digital marketing. There's like Acadium I think offers digital marketing apprenticeships, like I would really say try to practice at it to see if like this is something you want to do. If you're really like, oh, I want to be an entrepreneur, like commit yourself to going to an event or experiencing an event where you're in a room with other founders and connecting with people.
Like really try to get a taste of what it is you say you want to do and where you want to be. Like even if it's trading stocks, you can do fake trading online. You don't even have to risk your own money first to really recognize like, okay, am I into this? Am I really ready to commit to it?
I think that's the beauty of life is like there's so many ways and opportunities to kind of test things out. Even if it's I want to start a YouTube channel, you can just start by making videos on Instagram or just doing like, just getting on your stories and talking. Like that's your way of practicing before you're like, okay, I'm going to commit to this. I think that is the beauty of life.
There's so many opportunities out there and so many ways to create what you want to create. And so I would say before you switch, like just do a little pilot test. And if you really like it, you know, then go for it. Go in.
You know, when I started Boss, I didn't really have an audience. I was so committed to like creating the content every day, even if I met one person read it or a hundred people read it. So, you know, I think when you see yourself like really going after something, even if it takes time, but you're so dedicated, that's the time when you know, like this is a switch. This is what's right for me.
Right, right. Can you share a time where you had to handle or approach the emotion of fear and what did you do and how did you navigate that? I would say for me, it was really when I was trying to decide if I wanted to continue like working in digital marketing versus becoming a developer. And especially because a lot of like engineers and web developers, you know, there are more of us.
There are more people of color in the field, but it's still the ratio is small. Right. And so I didn't really see a lot of black people, if I'm being honest, or black women, women of color. And it's beautiful to see the communities that are growing now.
But for me, I was kind of scared. Like, what if I like sign up, do the boot camp and don't get a job and now I'm stuck? Or like, what if I, you know what I mean? Like, how am I going to make this happen?
That was really a place of like fear for someone like me who, you know, some people are with a verse. I would say I'm more like listening to a girl where I'm like, okay, I'll take a chance, but I want to take an educated chance. Yeah. You know, I'm strategic about my, you know, stuff.
Like, I always want to have like all that plan just in case. So that was definitely a place where I'm like, okay, I'm literally spanking my career on doing this boot camp and switching and all this type of stuff. And it actually works out. And I mean, if you told me I would be able to go after all that, I would have been like, what?
Like, no way, you know? And so I'm grateful that I took the chance. And honestly, for me, it's really like faith is kind of the one thing that holds me down through a lot of challenging periods, you know? And I mean, it's, I could attest to that.
I could do a testimony right now. I'm not going to go. What did you say? I'm like, I'm sorry.
Who's been hollering on this call? Right. But no, if I'm being honest, I would definitely say my faith has been a huge, a huge part of me being able to kind of move through difficult times and be grateful in difficult times and just learning to be still and understand, you know, hearing when God is trying to tell me, like, you need to do this. This is what's next for you.
So, and that has, you know, come up with, like, has manifested itself in many periods of my life. So, yeah, I would say, like, that's kind of a huge part of helping me navigate through fear and just knowing, like, we're going to meet fear in a lot of different ways. But, like, for me, I always say, like, if you have faith, there can be no fear. And so, you know, that's just kind of how I try to get over those tough moments.
Doesn't mean I don't get afraid or, you know, feel fearful. I think that's human nature in us. But, you know, when I do connect to my faith when I'm in those moments, that's when I do feel like, okay, I can do this. I will find a way.
I will figure it out. God has worked miracles in my life before and he will continue to do that. So, yeah, yeah, that's how I now do that, though. That makes sense.
Absolutely. What do you think would have been useful for you to know before embarking on your current career path? I would say, especially when it comes to running my site, that it would have been helpful to know when to start building a team. I think I kind of got into that game a little late because, you know, in the blogger world, it's kind of like you're doing your own thing for a very long time.
And then you don't realize until you're, like, exhausted and you don't have time for people and you're constantly busy that you realize, oh, wait, I can hire someone to do this. Or I can, like, you know, reassess my funds and, you know, allocate some budget to have someone help me or find a tool that can save me more time. That whole concept of, like, work smarter, not harder is kind of what I met later on in life when it came to that. So, for a very long time, I was, like, doing a lot of writing, doing a lot of editing, doing that, doing that.
And I'm just, like, now I'm in a space where I'm, like, okay, what path are you doing day to day? What can you have someone else do? And what can someone else do for you better than you can do for yourself? So, I would say that's a huge, huge thing is, like, don't think that you need to do this all by yourself.
And that, you know, whether it's, like, signing up for a membership where people support you. I know, for example, there's this woman in the U.K. named Chloe Watts. She has a business called Chloe Digital that does web development for bloggers and developers.
If you're not a web developer, that's okay. Like, I think she has a very affordable platform where you can just sign up and have someone maintain your site and do all that. And it's, like, sometimes you have to make certain investments in order to grow. And your team could be physical people.
It could be a person and, you know, a tool. It could be an agency or whatever you need to support you and your growth. I would say that's very important. And I'm still in that journey right now.
But it's kind of been exciting to see, like, wow, like, I was over here struggling just trying to figure out how to create this content when I could have someone else do this for me. Or I could use these templates and make my life so much easier. So, yeah, that's been really cool discovering the different ways that people can help you and how you can build a team that works and serves you. Right.
But let's dig into the team idea a little bit more because I know that sometimes, you know, when you're just starting a business or you're, you know, trying to invest in something that's on the side and whatnot, it feels like, oh, I'm putting a lot of money out. And that can be overwhelming for people, right? But you also have a 9 to 5. So do you think that with you having a 9 to 5, it's helped you to invest in your business more?
Or do you feel like most of the investing that you're doing in your business, you're just investing right back in the business, the money that's coming from the business? I would say absolutely. My job has been, like, my own investor to what I'm doing, you know, like, on the side, especially when I was first starting out. You know, that's how I paid to, like, get my side up.
Or if I had issues, like, I would just use my paycheck to pay for it. And I think it's a really smart way, like, when you're starting out figuring out things, like, where am I going to get the money from this? Like, okay, I'll not buy this bag this month so I can afford a blind pay for my business, right? Like, that's a good sacrifice.
At this point now, it's, like, a lot of the money that's being made is going back into the business and, like, funneling towards, you know, paying for writers or paying for a team that can help grow things. And so that's kind of the investment that I've chosen to make. But there are ways to kind of be smart about that. When I first started out, I tried to do the whole intern thing.
And it was helpful. Like, I used, I don't know if the site is still around, but it was a site called Ed2010, which was, like, a site for anyone who was interested in becoming a magazine editor. And so you could post, like, magazines out there and get a good, like, amount of interest from there. And that was really helpful when I first started out trying to find intern stuff.
And wait, what was it called again? Ed2010.com. Okay, Ed2010.com. I think it was, like, the goal of the site was, like, they wanted to be top editors by 2010 and now we're in 2020.
Got it. But it was, like, yeah. So I'm, like, I think it might still be around. But anyway, so I do that.
I've tried every other method. Barefoot interns or something like that as well back in the day. And, like, it was helpful. Like, I would generate a lot of interest with people to join my team.
But then sometimes the interns wouldn't stay on or sometimes they just weren't consistent. And consistency is very important when you're running a content business. So that just didn't pan out. But eventually I was, like, okay, I'm going to budget to pay for writers.
And that's actually been very beneficial moving forward. And sometimes we have to refresh the team, get new voices and stuff. But having shifted in that space has been helpful because we get consistent writers. We have people who do their assignments.
They don't disappear. Things like that. And that's been super, super great. Also another platform that's helpful if you're looking for, like, marketing help, Acadium is a cool platform that kind of partners with businesses and brand.
I think you have, like, established brands. But you can go on there and work with basically students that are in the program to learn digital marketing. So, like, you can hire them to do product for you, which is a really great resource when you're looking for someone who's hungry. And, you know, they're hungry, they're interested, they're passionate, and they have enough skills to do the work.
But you don't have to spend, like, a million dollars hiring a marketing consultant. So that's been a tool that we've been testing. It has been really great for us. And spell for me?
It's A-C-A-D-I-U-M. Okay, got it. I know somebody's going to be listening and they're going to think that. Yeah, no, it's good.
Because you can find people who do, like, paid ads on Google. Like, there's SEO experts. There's people who do viral marketing, social media, a lot of cool tools on there. So, like, if you're looking for – and it's, like, a company that's back.
So, like, they're not going to be disappearing on you or things like that. You know, or if they do disappear, at least you can go to the company and they can find you someone else to replace them. And then, lastly, I would definitely say virtual assistants are key and keen, too. Sometimes we get a lot of emails, similar requests, or we get a lot of PR people pitching out.
It's like, ugh, I don't want to say you're tied to the same thing over and over again. So having an ABA is very helpful to kind of manage email flow or just get certain tasks done that, like, you know, are repetitive that you kind of need to automate to some degree. So, yeah, I'm really in the space of trying to figure out, like, how can I make the business start to work more for itself? And that's why having a team and building a team and systems are very important to that.
Absolutely. Of your strengths, which one or ones would you say has significantly helped you to get to where you are today? I would say for me resilience is one of my strengths, being able to kind of just pick myself up even when I get knocked down, whether it's by my own fault or, like, for something else, especially when it comes to, like, the content game. It is ever-changing and very challenging and super-saturated.
And it's like, how do you continue to keep your brand afloat? How do you continue to run a profitable business when, like, everyone and their mama has a blog or a podcast or whatever? I'm sure you know. Yes, girl.
And it's like, it can be hard some days, but I would say resilience for me is key. I've kind of figured out, like, you know, even when I was, like, that young teenage girl just trying to find a summer job, I was like, I don't care if I have to work at the week store. Like, I just knew I just wanted to have a check for the summer so I could buy my prom dress. Like, that's all I want to do.
Those are my dreams and goals. Right. That's priorities. Exactly.
But I think it's, like, for me, that really speaks to the fact that I'm someone who, you know, I'm going to figure out no matter what it takes. And that is something that's up with me, you know, both in my professional career and, you know, in my, I guess, high-hustral career as well. Yeah, absolutely. That totally makes sense.
Do you feel like there's been any missteps that you've made that maybe you later realized, I thought that was a misstep, and it was, but it was a really good learning lesson? I would say, you know, when I first moved here, I worked with an intern for a newspaper, and I ended up getting fired from that job. I was an editorial intern, and I made some mistakes. I own that, and, you know, that's just part of my story now.
Right. But at the end of the day, it was a huge learning lesson for me because it taught me a lot about the importance of one's integrity when it comes to their work, you know, and how quickly that can be questioned or challenged. And so for me, especially being a media brand, you know, it's very important that everything that we do, everything that I put out is, you know, is honorable, is honest, is the truth, and it just is authentic, and it's real, you know, and I can back everything up with receipts. That's very important to me as well.
So I would say that's been a big learning lesson is just to make sure that, you know, whatever I do, whatever I create, whether it's a website, whether it's an article, you know, I'm doing it with integrity, and I'm doing it with grace, and I'm doing it in a way that I know that my skills and what I'm creating will be questioned. Do you find yourself doing anything to actively expand your comfort zone? I definitely have, and I would say when it comes to Boss Mag, I, you know, often have to push myself out of my comfort zone in order to look at numbers, and I will tell you, I was not a STEM student, I wasn't a math person, like, that's just not my thing. And so to this day, like, you know, I realize, I'm like, I need to get a handle on this.
Like, I can tell you, you know, how much money we made last year, but if you ask me what my profit and losses were, I'm like, I have to look it up. Like, it's just not something I know in the top of my head, at least I did not know now. myself out of my comfort zone to get better at understanding like bookkeeping softwares and you know looking at analytic records on a monthly basis really digging deep into data like a lot of the stuff that is just not natural to me but it's important if you're growing a business like you have to know these things it's important so you know that's something that's definitely an area where i push myself out of my comfort zone a lot um i think currently i'm in a space um you know once we're um able to attend events again and stuff like that i think that i i definitely i'm pushing myself actually to do things that i wouldn't normally do i kind of i kind of fell into a space where i started attending a lot of like entrepreneurial events but i started kind of feeling very routine and the same and i'm seeing the same people all the time and so i'm actually kind of trying to challenge myself to like you know more outside of my circle new people connect with different people connect with people who don't even look like me sometimes um but in authentic way to see like you know how can i partner with um new people to help grow my business as well so that's another place that um you know right now i'm challenging myself to do that digitally but um you know once um you know i start attending events again and stuff like that that's something i'm gonna try to do offline as well yeah and you know we i would be remiss if i didn't say that this podcast episode is being recorded during the time where we're all under quarantine and we're experiencing covid19 and the coronavirus pandemic and you know i don't i didn't want to spend too much time in interviews with individuals who have a story to tell talking about coronavirus right because this podcast is going to be around forever and you know this is a time in our lives although very significant and impactful in our lives i don't want to make it you know just about that right but i do feel like i would love to hear from you how you have been faring within this time period and maybe if there's anything that you found yourself doing to um maybe cope or to expand your comfort zone during this time or to connect with people or just like what are your thoughts what's been going on in your world since we've been in this space yeah um i mean i think this is like day i don't know i'm like yeah i feel like you lose track of time yeah it's probably like week three or something i don't know yeah i've i've been in i'm in new york and so i've been in like working from home quarantine whatever since like the middle of march to be honest and so i would say like it's definitely in the beginning was definitely like shocking but it's kind of just you know at this point i just literally take it one day at a time and for me having a routine especially in the mornings is very key and like helping the top of days and things like that and so i will say that you know every morning i do a workout i pray and then i make a healthy breakfast that's like a key part of my day and then you know the biggest thing i would say i'm actually gaining out of this period is like slowing down and just having more time to reflect especially when you're like in a city like new york you're constantly on the go and i'm like yo i didn't even know how much time i had to like do stuff like you just i literally was in a world where i felt like i don't have time and i'm like now i'm like oh my god i'm so grateful to be able to actually eat breakfast this morning like it's like i feel like i have to rush out the door yeah oh my god so it's like been the biggest blessing and so and loki i'm like honestly even when things are better they will be um but when things are better like i don't want to lose that like i'm like this is such uh just being able to cherish the moment like this is such a like rich feeling to have and i don't want to lose i don't want to go back to just being another person running around the city like this so um having time to slow down has been amazing learning new skills being able to work like even with boss i've had time all the time i just i used to like be like i need to put time on the calendar to be like just sit here and face and strategize i needed to be time on the calendar now like okay i can spend a day thinking about this thing and preparing this and like i just feel like so good i've been doing the balance of like self-care but also like working you know hustling quarantine and working on things and getting things prepared and shifting things around and i'm actually very grateful for it for this time so you know um like you said it will pass this is a moment in time a very you know striking moment in time for a lot of us that you know equalizes all of us but at the same time you know i'm like there are things about like new york and the no traffic like do we really have to go back to like congestion and it's like do we really you know i'm just gonna train between all the time all the time i know can we see people all the time like thank you thank you we need it i know i think it's my friends and i have been talking about how the world is going to change and be different after this and i just hope the ways that it changes are for better and positive because so many companies were hesitant to let a bulk of their employees work from home and things like that and i'm forced in this situation you see that it's actually not required for some people to come in every day so maybe that will help to lessen the amount of congestion and confusion because you know commute time like rush hour time maybe won't be so hectic because some people are going to be more lenient now and i think also people we're all going to have this natural like i don't want to say fear but we're all going to be looking at things with a different eye now because i don't know you know i don't i think that some people are saying everybody's gonna run outside i don't know that everybody's gonna run outside oh no i think people will definitely be still more like i know for me i'm like i'm just gonna want to be more intimate you know like the intimate things like yeah like i want to be outside like you're still going to be you know questioning yeah i think obviously everything questioning until you know there's like a permanent fix to all of this but you know at the same time i think we'll definitely it might this might be the year of like the house parties and just hanging out with your friend like being around people you trust and know being in more intimate spaces until things really really resolve so yeah i'm like i'm hoping that the positives that come out of this time will stay with us because at the end of the day like this is this is an eye-opening experience across multiple industries and it's just like okay there's a lot of positives in this how can you take this with a post-quarantine um so yeah it'll be interesting to see how things unfold absolutely absolutely i totally 100% agree i hope we hang on to the positives and um and it just gives us all new perspective on certain things right so my last question for you is what does success mean or look like for you oh success has been shown in so many different forms i think for me personally success means achieving my goal of financial freedom it means being able to afford the life that i want being able to support the people that i want being able to do the things that i want without the fear of you know a bill in the mail or whatever like things about money won't scare me i'll be able to live the life of my dreams and not you know be nervous about how i'm gonna pay my rent next month like that that's ultimately the goal of success for me and you know i want that to kind of radiate through my family and my future generation etc etc where money is not something that limits them and creates problems but it's more so freeing them to do the things that they want to do and leave the mark on the world that they want to leave so um that's really huge for me and i would say like you know if i'm able to continue like empowering uh women especially women of color in a way to help them know that they can achieve a goal whether it's big or small for me i'm like really huge on you know um just execution i think it's so key um and it's one of the things that stops people from doing a lot of things like i'm going from like believer and dreamer to doer like that's that little that little thing right there is like so huge and so um that's something i'm really hoping to focus on and really hoping to harness kind of harness that doing um energy and mindset for other people in a way that is healthy um and not toxic is really important for me so i feel like if i'm able to continue doing that over the course of my lifetime like i will be successful that's really important for me so um yeah i'm hoping to have that impact um and you know not be worried about bills while i do it right i love that i love that lean that's that's pretty much i think what a lot of us are thinking so i love the way that you wrote that down um before we go let everybody know how they can continue to keep up with you follow you and um just kind of step into your world a little bit more and be inspired by you as well i'm sure yeah yeah um so they can follow me through my personal instagram it's millionaire it's literally m-i-l-l-i-a-n-e-i-r-e um and i tell that name obviously it's more so like manifestation of my social wealth that's like why i'm like i'm a millionaire or you can follow at boss mag um on instagram on like pretty much everywhere on the internet it's at boss mag um boss mag.com um and yeah like a little different yeah it's boss like b-a-u-c-e-n-a-g love it love it thank you so much lean this is a great conversation we appreciate you spending time with us today thank you i want to thank you for your time and just allowing me space on your platform to be able to share my story and like also kudos to you for like rolling out so many amazing podcast interviews like they're really dope really inspiring learning a lot so please please please keep doing this this is really great thank you thank you thank you and as always you guys be good