If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my entrepreneurship journey, it’s that “no one is going to ride harder for you than you will for yourself.” That’s a fact. In this episode, I’m giving you the real on Side Hustle Pro becoming an LLC after months of side hustling and landing my first podcast sponsor. We’ll also take an inside look into my business process for goal setting and accomplishing tasks, step-by-step. Get your pen and paper ready because you’re going to want to take notes! Click here ...
May 13, 2020•36 min
It’s May! And that means it’s time for a rewind. Every week this month, I’m resharing an episode that gives you a behind-the-scenes look at how I turned my side hustle into my main hustle. In this first episode, I talk about how when I started my side hustle, I didn’t read business plan books or follow a business plan template. I just started. Shocking, I know! I share the six steps you can take, now, to start building your business as a side hustle. Let’s jump in! Click here to grab your recap ...
May 06, 2020•44 min
Imagine being neighbors with the same person in multiple cities for the majority of your life. Well, that’s the story of the women behind Neighborly Paper—Robin Beck and Carmelle Kendall. Neighborly Paper is a paper goods brand dedicated to, in the founders’ own words, serving all the realness for all the occasions. Carmelle is an art director, illustrator, and filmmaker. She now resides in Atlanta where she’s working as an art director and growing the Neighborly business. And Robin is the write...
Apr 29, 2020•47 min
Today in the Side Hustle Pro guest chair, we welcome Monique Greenwood, owner and CEO (Chief Enjoyment Officer) of Akwaaba Bed & Breakfast Inns, a collection of upscale B&Bs in Brooklyn, NY; Washington, DC; Cape May, NJ; Philadelphia, PA and a boutique resort in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. After graduating from Howard University, Greenwood became a fashion journalist, eventually becoming an intrapreneur while working for Women’s Wear Daily by launching her own magazine about childre...
Apr 22, 2020•53 min
Today in the Side Hustle Pro guest chair is Dionna M. Dorsey, a gifted designer and brand development strategist and the creator of apparel line DISTRICT of CLOTHING. After graduating from Villanova University in 2002, Dionna moved to Italy to study fashion design and pursue a job in the fashion industry. She ended up relocating to New York City and designed outerwear for Oscar de la Renta and men's apparel for several other licenses. After rocky times hit the retail industry, she was eventually...
Apr 15, 2020•53 min
Today in the Side Hustle Pro guest chair we welcome Lorraine West, the Founder of Lorraine West Jewelry. Lorraine developed an affinity for creating and donning unique jewelry at a young age and says she’s been an artist since she was in the 1st grade. Her mother's love for ornate pieces was the inspiration for her to delve into jewelry design while studying Illustration at the Fashion Institute of Technology. After teaching herself how to manipulate various metals into beautiful original jewelr...
Apr 08, 2020•44 min
Today in the Side Hustle Pro guest chair, we welcome Petrushka Bazin Larsen, the Co-Founder of Sugar Hill Creamery in Harlem, NY. Sugar Hill Creamery is Harlem's only family-owned neighborhood ice cream shop. Petrushka’s Co-Founder is her husband, Nicholas, and prior to opening the shop, she worked as Vice President for Programs & Education at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum and Program Director at the Laundromat Project. Even with her successful career, she had dreams of being an entrepreneu...
Apr 01, 2020•1 hr 12 min
Today in the guest chair we welcome Kesha Watkins, a true side hustler! Although she has a successful 13-year career in the Human Resource profession, she is also passionate about entrepreneurship and being her own boss. Her latest venture, BPolished Beauty Supply offers an array of hair care needs and provides an unparalleled level of beauty experience to customers in Arlington, TX and online. Kesha’s hope in opening BPolished Beauty Supply is to provide representation as an African American Ow...
Mar 25, 2020•51 min
Today in the guest chair we welcome Kyara Uqdah, the Co-Founder of Charm City Buyers. Her Co-Founder is also her husband, Khalil Uqdah and they started investing in real estate only one year after graduating college. They had an idea that they wanted to build their own empire, so they developed a plan to do it! They’ve gone from that first investment in a property in a depressed neighborhood in Connecticut to investing in over 20 properties in Baltimore. They are literally buying the block. Almo...
Mar 18, 2020•54 min
Today in the guest chair we welcome Brittani Allen, a Professional Home Organizer, and CEO and Founder of Pinch of Help-Home Organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. I came across Brittani’s business on Instagram and was instantly hooked! She is passionate about creating environments her clients love living in, with her expert ability to match functional organization with aesthetically pleasing solutions. The entrepreneur bug hit her while she was studying biomedical science in graduate school an...
Mar 11, 2020•51 min
Today in the guest chair we welcome Mattie James, a full-time content creator and the influencer behind MattieJames.com. After being crowned Miss Liberia USA in 2009, Mattie started her blog as a hobby, but it was consistency and a great first hire that helped her grow her blog into the business it is today. She now creates lifestyle content for her blog, podcast and YouTube channel while working with brands like Samsung, TJ MAXX and J. Crew. In addition to blogging, she has taught over 1,000 bl...
Mar 04, 2020•1 hr 10 min
Today in the guest chair we welcome Tammeca Rochester, the owner and founder of Harlem Cycle, Harlem's 1st and only indoor cycling studio. Tammeca's journey to opening an indoor cycling studio in Harlem started when she was looking to find a workout that would both get her back in shape while putting her in a positive frame of mind. After exploring the various workout options, she found herself drawn to indoor cycling. Her entrepreneurial spirit and her passion for all things Harlem inspired her...
Feb 26, 2020•47 min
As a busy working mom and wife, Chantel Powell found herself shuttling her son Kameron between summer basketball camp and football practice. She quickly noticed that he was starting to smell like a grown man because he was sweating buckets under his armpits, and that’s when her innovative mindset kicked in. Chantel decided to develop an all-natural deodorant for her son. And so Play Pits the brand was born. Play Pits is a 100% all-natural deodorant for active kids. It’s free of aluminum, paraben...
Feb 19, 2020•40 min
Today in the guest chair we welcome Imani Ellis, Imani Ellis, the Founder of CultureCon and& The Creative Collective NYC (TheCCnyc), a community and creative agency dedicated to facilitating brave spaces for multicultural creatives. Born in Imani’s one-bedroom apartment as a means to foster meaningful connections, TheCCnyc has since become the fastest growing community devoted to creatives of color in NYC who are looking to cultivate relationships that go beyond the business card. TheCCnyc’s...
Feb 12, 2020•52 min
Today in the guest chair we have Tracey Pickett, Founder of Hairbrellal. Hairbrella is an innovative rain hat combining fashion and function to protect women's hair from the rain. Hairbrella was launched on Kickstarter and was successfully funded in December 2016. Since then, this passionate entrepreneur, attorney, inventor, and speaker has invested her money, time, blood sweat and tears into bringing Hairbella from an idea and prototype to fully developed product on the market. In today’s episo...
Feb 05, 2020•52 min
Today in the guest chair we have Chris-Tia Donaldson, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Thank God It’s Natural (tgin), a manufacturer of natural hair and skin care products. Prior to starting tgin, Chris-Tia, a two-time Harvard graduate, worked at a top law firm in Chicago. It was there she realized that she wasn’t receiving the support she needed to advance in her career. She wasn’t willing to play the game anymore, so she decided to get out and create her own game. Like many of us, Chris-...
Jan 29, 2020•1 hr 1 min
Today in the Side Hustle Pro guest chair we have Tanya Sam. Tanya is a tech-savvy investor who has made it her mission to empower the next generation of minority entrepreneurs. You also know her from TV. She appears on one of my favorite guilty-pleasure shows, The Real Housewives of Atlanta! She is currently Director of Partnerships at TechSquare Labs, Co-leads the Ascend 2020 Atlanta program that supports minority and female founders, and Co-founded BuiltxWomen, a business accelerator for femal...
Jan 22, 2020•41 min
I’m back with a solo episode to share how to make money podcasting. Consider this your definitive guide to having a profitable podcast. I’ll be breaking down: How you actually make money from podcasting How and when I started earning revenue from the Side Hustle Pro podcast I am providing a recap, including a sponsorship calculator for this episode. If you would like it, simply visit: sidehustlepro.co/183 And if you would like to attend an even more detailed training where I’m teaching you LIVE ...
Jan 15, 2020•30 min
I’m back with an Entrepreneur Diaries episode to share some updates and kick-off 2020. This episode is divided into three parts: 2019 lessons, 2019 wins, and how I’m preparing for this mompreneur life. 2019 was an excellent year (The TODAY Show, Side Hustle Pro Live , and O, The Oprah Magazine !) because I saw a lot of my hard work pay off. But as you may have noticed, I experienced some burnout after my live show in October. I share some of the most important lessons I learned that will be so h...
Jan 08, 2020•52 min
Today’s episode is a REWIND with Sakita Holley, Founder, and CEO of House of Success PR. Sakita started her own PR company when she was 23, but faced a number of financial struggles as she figured out her business model. She has since grown, scaled, and gone on to be featured Essence Magazine, Black Enterprise, Women’s Biz Journals, xoNecole, and was named as one of PRWeek’s 40 Under 40 honorees. Sakita breaks it down and gets real about how to start charging for your expertise and stop doing th...
Dec 30, 2019•49 min
Today’s episode is a REWIND with Danielle Leslie , the Creator of Course From Scratch , an 8-week online intensive that helps people create and launch their profitable online courses. She has been an online marketer in Silicon Valley for almost 10 years and helped personal brands and influencers, including Guy Kawasaki, earn collectively millions of dollars by launching their online courses. She teaches people like myself to not fall into the trap of creating your course content all before you’r...
Dec 23, 2019•1 hr 5 min
Today’s episode is a REWIND episode with Melissa Butler, Founder, and CEO of The Lip Bar. Melissa is a former Wall Street analyst turned Founder and CEO. She describes her move from stocks and bonds to beauty as a natural one, not because she loved makeup, but because she was frustrated with the beauty industry and ready to create a solution. You might not know that Melissa first launched this vegan and cruelty-free product line from her very own kitchen. Now her products are available in Target...
Dec 18, 2019•53 min
Today’s episode is a REWIND episode with Angel Anderson, Founder and Owner of The SpiceSuite, an interactive spice bar in Washington, DC. Listen on Apple Podcasts , Soundcloud , Stitcher This episode is brought to you by: FreshBooks Try FreshBooks FREE for 30 days. Go to freshbooks.com/sidehustlepro and enter SIDE HUSTLE PRO in the how did you hear about us section to get started. Links mentioned in this episode The SpiceSuite Leverage Leadership: A Practical Guide to Building Exceptional School...
Dec 11, 2019•46 min
Today’s episode is a REWIND episode with Lisa Price, the Founder of multi-million dollar hair and beauty company Carol’s Daughter. Why do I love this episode? Lisa came from a space of side hustling because she loved her full-time job. She was filled with creative and positive energy after work, so she used that to fuel her love for developing her own products. If you don’t know, Lisa Price and Carol’s Daughter has been in business for over two decades. In 1992, Lisa dedicated herself full time ...
Dec 04, 2019•1 hr 5 min
Today’s episode is a REWIND episode with Kim Lewis, the Founder of CurlMix. Kim and her husband Tim are two entrepreneurs I really admire. They are teammates in life, love, and business and their hard work has really paid off. Since this episode originally aired, they’ve grown exponentially, appeared on Shark Tank, turned down a $400,000 offer from the Sharks, and have turned CurlMix into a company with a $12 million dollar valuation. In this episode, you’ll hear them in the early days, before t...
Nov 30, 2019•59 min
Today’s episode is a REWIND episode with Janice Bryant Howroyd, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The ACT-1 Group, the largest privately held, woman-owned workforce solutions company founded in the U.S. I love this episode because Janice exudes confidence, energy, and just makes you want to walk into a room and take up space. As Auntie Janice (as I now refer to her in my head) likes to say, “knowledge married to experience breeds confidence.” When you have the experience and knowledge y...
Nov 27, 2019•47 min
I’m in the guest chair this week answering your questions! Listen on Apple Podcasts , Soundcloud , Stitcher , Spotify . Gusto Gusto offers modern, easy payroll, benefits, and HR to small businesses across the country. Sign up and give it a try at gusto.com/shp . Links mentioned in this episode Podcast Moguls How To Write a Killer Cold Email Arsha Jones’s Side Hustle Pro episode Therapy for Black Girls: Why Do We Procrastinate? Click here to subscribe via RSS feed (non-iTunes feed): http://sidehu...
Nov 21, 2019•50 min
I’m in the guest chair this week talking about how podcasting helped me figure out what I want to be when I grow up. Growing up, people often told me I was a good writer and I was fascinated by how people got jobs on TV, so when I learned about the profession of broadcast journalism, I thought the combo of writing and TV was the perfect fit. I pursued a Communications degree in undergrad and had a number of internships for major companies, but I graduated not knowing what I wanted to do with my ...
Nov 13, 2019•39 min
Today in the guest chair, we have our Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Lisa Pegram. She is a Data Scientist who launched a cutting-edge home laser for melanated skin. Listen to Episode 155 to hear when she was first introduced to Side Hustle Pro listeners. She has built a career in analytics and is currently in pursuit of her PhD at Columbia where she studies meta-cognition and data sciences. At the time of our last conversation, she was getting ready to launch her business Belle 51; a company dedicat...
Nov 06, 2019•52 min
Today in the guest chair, we have Lisa Brown Alexander, Founder, and CEO of Nonprofit HR, and owner of the Wellspring Manor & Spa. I’ve interviewed a lot of side hustlers, but it’s not often that I interview a side hustler who is not an employee at their full-time job, but the CEO! Lisa was driven to serve the often-overlooked human resources needs for the social impact sector, and that is what first led her to found Nonprofit HR, now a 50-plus employee organization and the leading talent ma...
Oct 30, 2019•45 min