Through a heartfelt and engaging dialogue, Monica Wisdom provides listeners with an intimate glimpse into her life as she prepares for an event at the art museum, focusing on the significance of Black culture and representation. As she shares her thoughts while doing her nails, a symbol of self-care and personal expression, she transitions into a broader conversation about the unique experiences of Black women in entrepreneurship. Monica's reflections on her journey are interspersed with humor and authenticity, making her insights relatable and engaging. She discusses the challenges she has faced in navigating a predominantly white business landscape, including the lack of funding for Black women entrepreneurs compared to their white male counterparts, shedding light on the systemic barriers that persist.

Monica's vision for the Black Women Amplified Academy emerges as a central theme, a platform she aims to create to empower Black women through education and mentorship. This initiative is not just about business; it's about fostering a sense of community and support that is often lacking in traditional entrepreneurial spaces. By sharing her own experiences and the lessons she has learned over decades of being an entrepreneur, she encourages other women to embrace their stories and the power they hold. The episode also touches on societal issues, such as the maternal mortality crisis affecting Black women, highlighting the urgent need for advocacy and awareness in the face of systemic injustices.

As she navigates her thoughts on the current political climate and the importance of representation, Monica draws connections between her personal experiences and the collective struggles of Black women. Her narrative is infused with a sense of purpose and a call to action, inviting listeners to reflect on their own journeys and consider how they can contribute to uplifting one another. With an empowering message of resilience and community, this episode serves as a reminder of the strength found in shared experiences and the importance of amplifying Black women's voices in all spaces.

Takeaways:

• Monica Wisdom shares her entrepreneurial journey, emphasizing the importance of self-care for women.
• The discussion highlights the challenges black women face in obtaining business funding compared to their counterparts.
• Through her podcast, Monica aims to empower women to share their stories and experiences.
• The significance of community support is stressed as essential for women entrepreneurs' success.
• Monica reflects on the impact of systemic racism on women's visibility and representation in business.
• The episode emphasizes the need for an educational space tailored to black women's unique experiences.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Soul Sister
• Becca
• Fenty
• NARS
• Target
• Walmart
• WeWork
• HarperCollins
• Blavity

Hello, black women amplified family, this is your girl, Monica Wisdom.

I hope that you're having a fantastic day.

I am actually doing my nails.

I have plans to go to the art museum this evening.

They're having an event.

They're bringing in an author.

It's just a whole blackness event, so, you know, I gotta be there.

But I said, while I'm sitting here doing this, instead of watching something or working on something, let me just turn on my mic and have a chat with my peeps and see how you all are doing.

There's a lot been going on in the world.

There's a lot going on in America, as everybody knows.

And, you know, I just want to talk about this journey of black women amplified and the I bought these nails sidebar.

I bought these nails and they're called coffin nails or something.

I said, well, let me try something different because I normally just do, like, square shapes, but I can't say that I'm loving these.

But it is what it is.

This is what I have right now, anyway.

So, yes, I'm doing.

I'm gluing on nails, and then I'm gonna polish them so they look like acrylics.

I miss going to the salon to get my nails done.

I haven't done it in a while.

You know, when you're starting a new business, there are sacrifices that you have to make, and one of them is my religious journey to the nail shop every two weeks.

But I am a licensed cosmetologist, so I do know how to do my own nails.

I just prefer for somebody else to do them.

But I can't do the fancy.

The fancy acrylics.

I never have been able to get that right.

I don't think I have the patience for it.

Anyway, so I'm doing my nails, I'm talking to you all and just, you know, want to chat about how are you all doing, what's going on in the States where you are, with the country where you are.

My week has been pretty eventful.

I was on a podcast.

I think it's called Soul Sister, and a woman named Noni Banks I'm not.

She has a platform and a podcast that is not the same name like mine, but I know her movement.

Her podcast, I think, is called Soul Sister.

Anyway, it's all about midlife.

I don't really think of myself as a person going through midlife, but it is what it is.

I still feel like in my head, I'm 23.

My body says a little different sometimes, but my head says that I'm 23.

Because even at this big age, you're still learning a lot about yourself.

I don't know if you are, but I know that I am.

What else is happening today?

Today is the day that Beyonce has come out of the woodworks, and she is planning on campaigning in Houston with Kamala Harris.

And their focus tonight is women's health.

And I think that's great because I know that Beyonce's pregnancy with her twins, I don't know about her oldest, Blue, but I know her pregnancy with her twins.

She had a troubled pregnancy.

And I remember she and Serena talking about it.

And a lot of women, black women specifically, have been coming out and talking about the problems.

Maternal mortality is a very big problem in the black community.

And it's not because we are not physically able to have babies or there's something wrong with us.

The problem is with the medical system.

And so Kamala Harris, even before she became senator or president, she was getting intel on this and learning about it.

And so she has taken the issue to the White House.

I really appreciate that.

This isn't just something she's doing as a campaign talking point.

This is something she's very serious about.

And people talk about.

Well, you know, you hear people say, well, women with babies don't understand.

Well, she's a woman that has not birthed a child.

I don't assume that she's never been pregnant.

I don't know that.

But she's never.

She doesn't have any children.

But so for her being a childless woman, as people call her, taking this issue to the White House is, I think, is a pretty big deal because it's not something that personally affects her.

But leaders don't have to deal with issues that personally affect them only.

That's the point of being a leader for everybody, is that you make sure that most you try and get as many issues in that you can handle.

So I really appreciate that by her.

But I'm curious to see, I don't know if Beyonce is just performing or she's actually going to sit down and talk to Kamala Harris about her experience.

I think that would be great just because there's so many women who are dealing with these issues, especially in states that have the Trump abortion bans.

I know I live in a state that has one.

And luckily, despite the fight with the Republicans, it's on the ballot.

So we have the opportunity to remove the ban because ours is very harsh.

It's very, very harsh.

And although I have no plans to have a child, I've never had plans to have a child.

I think that all that want to have a child and want to have a healthy pregnancy and want to build their families the way that they choose, they should have every opportunity to make that happen, even though it does not personally impact me.

But anyway, back to doing my nails.

So I have these coffin nails and so right now I'm gluing them into place.

I have three of them on right now.

So, you know, you have to size them, glue them on and hope it's not crooked, too crooked.

And then I have this purple polish because, you know, I'm a prince fanatic.

So I.

My signature color for nails is purple and it has to have sparkles.

I'm not a girly girl, but I love a sparkle and a sequins honey shiny.

If I could walk around with sequins on, I even have a long should take a picture of and put on Instagram.

I have a long silver sequins skirt.

There's a plus size store.

I don't think they're in business anymore, unfortunately, but they.

I have a black tutu, long black tutu skirt.

I don't think it's called a tutu skirt, but I don't know the terms.

And then I bought a silver.

I wish I had bought more.

Had I thought, even thought they were going to close, I think I would have bought the other cup.

At least two other colors.

Because honey, I love a sequins.

I love bright, bold patterns.

Well, no, man, bright bold palettes.

But jewel tones and sparkles.

So I don't know why I said that, but.

Oh, my nail polish.

My nail polish has to have sparkles.

When I go to the nail shop, she would only bring me the sparkles colors.

Colors that have.

It's like, don't bring me the iridescent.

Give me the stuff that has the glitter in it.

I want all the glitters.

So when I look at my nails, they go bling, bling, bling, bling, bling.

But that's the girly part of me.

That is the girly part of me.

And so my signature purple, I'm putting it on.

I don't know what I'm gonna do with my makeup.

I'm running out of foundation and unfortunately the company that I used went out of business.

I used Becca and it was the perfect shade.

It's hard for me to find the perfect shade because I think because I have white in my lineage and native American, according to my great aunt, that my.

I'm not.

I'm like a true golden color.

And it's hard to find something that's not too red or not too neutral, like ashy.

So when I find something, I try and buy a couple of bottles.

But I had no idea the company was going to go out of business.

So I'm going to search for a new foundation now.

Before then, I used another brand that was out of Australia.

So I might, I might look at some Australian makeup companies because they tend to have colors that suit my complexion.

And I know everybody, people told me to try Fenty, but I don't like stick makeup.

I like cream makeup and I like something that has a full coverage and something that has a long wear to it.

So I don't want it to rub off, you know.

So the Becca foundation didn't rub off on my clothes or didn't, you know, if I hugged or somebody didn't rub off on them.

So it's just a high quality product and it's hard to find something.

So I tried nars, but NARS is too ashy for my complexion.

So we'll see what happens.

I don't want to walk around with a bunch of powder on and look all cakey and crazy.

So let's talk about this journey.

As an entrepreneur, I know there's a lot happening and people are wanting to start their businesses.

But you know, it being an entrepreneur is, it is a very interesting journey because entrepreneurship.

I was watching Mark Cuban talk to Kamala Harris about entrepreneurship and she wants to do a lot of things for entrepreneurs, which is great.

It's absolutely great.

And the thing about having an entrepreneur mindset, as opposed to a business mindset, we focus on solving a problem.

So typically you'll see an entrepreneur that wants to make a great cup of tea or they want to knit the perfect sweater.

So they take on one project and it becomes their business.

Or they try and find a solution in health care and childcare.

And so entrepreneurs are really about bringing business, bringing ideas to life, and it becomes a business.

But typically with an entrepreneur, it's something that you're passionate about.

Now, a business person, yes, they're both businesses, but a business person is typically about profit, about dollars and cents, and that's their focus.

So they don't really have an attachment to the.

If you hear anything, that's me pulling out more fake nails.

If they don't, they don't necessarily have an attachment to what they're doing.

It's does this business make money?

And so a business person can go from selling knives to creating something like Walmart, where There's, you know, it's just a store that houses a lot of different companies products, an online store or whatever the case is.

So it's typically not something that they're necessarily like, this is my passion for my life.

So that's how I distinguish the difference between being an entrepreneur and being a, a corporate type of business person.

Because corporate people will typically go whoever pays them what they, and they do their job.

But entrepreneurs are typically passionate about whatever they plan on bringing to life, whether they're a graphic artist, a musician, a coach or author, you know, so they're specific in what they want to bring to life.

And I have, I'm an entrepreneur.

I'm second generation.

My dad was an entrepreneur, but my dad's journey, entrepreneurship was a bit different because back in that time period, if he was still alive, he'd be in his 80s, I think he might be maybe 83.

And he.

Back then, black people, they had to create their own jobs.

So it wasn't necessarily that you were an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneur is a new term that I think became popular with millennials.

But it was back in that day you just, you had to create your own income because you weren't being hired by non black companies.

So just like catering was started, the whole industry of catering was started by black people.

Because when the emancipation happened, then you had people who were typically cooking in the master's house.

And so now they were able to cook for the people but get paid for it.

So now you have this whole industry created called catering that was started by black people.

I mean, what didn't we start?

So my thing is that there are a lot of people.

Black women are the highest group as far as starting businesses.

Black women are the highest number of businesses opening.

But here is the distinction.

Black women do not get funded like white boys do.

So when you hear about people, let's use Elon Musk, for instance.

Elon Musk had an idea.

Whatever his initial idea was, I think he was one of the investors in PayPal.

Elon Musk is immigrant from South Africa.

He was born and raised into apartheid South Africa.

And I believe in South Africa, when you turn 18, you have to go to the military.

He did not want to go to the military, so he ended up in America.

I don't know if his journey was legal or not, but he ended up in America.

And now he's a citizen.

And he came up, I think he invested in PayPal.

I think he was one of the original investors in that because he was rich.

I mean, let's Just say what it is.

He.

It's so funny because he says he's not rich, and.

But his daddy was like, you know, you're rich.

They had emerald mines.

Like, they mined emeralds.

Emeralds.

You know, the jewel, the green jewelry.

So very wealthy.

And he probably came over and just didn't leave.

That's my speculation.

But so I'll say allegedly.

Anyway, so to start his company, Tesla.

Now, this is a person that say people need to work hard.

He says all these things, but he got a $44 billion investment from the United States government, the one he's trying to purchase.

Now, let me.

I'm gonna be quiet about that.

I'm just gonna be quiet.

Allegedly.

Allegedly.

Allegedly.

But he got a $44 billion investment in his company from the United States government.

Now, when regular people get money from the government, they call us welfare queens.

They call us living off the system.

Well, he's a corporate welfare queen, and he got $44 billion.

Then I was watching a media outlet.

I believe it was Roland Martin.

And they were talking about him and said that he has.

Maybe it wasn't Roland Martin.

Maybe it was.

I don't know.

But he had.

I listen, I have watched more news in the past three months than I have in the past 20 years.

So I don't know where I saw what, because I normally don't watch the news.

But I'm completely intrigued by this election, so I'm consuming way more than I normally would.

But anyway, they were talking about how he has.

He has gotten and lost money over seven times billions and billions of dollars.

And they talk about there's not enough money for this.

Or they're talking about cutting that because there's not enough money.

I'm like, if you just took the money, if you just stopped giving, you know, people like, why are we sending money overseas?

Listen, if you just stop giving money to Elon Musk, we have enough money for everything.

$44 billion is just one drop.

And that doesn't include the VC money that he's received.

You know, I don't really know how much Tesla brings in, but $44 billion once is a lot.

But $10 billion here, $10 million there, that all adds up.

And truthfully, you know, you'd have money for everything if you didn't.

If the government didn't write him another check.

So I digress in saying that, but my point is that the problem with black women entrepreneurs is we're not funded.

There's a fund called the Fearless Fund, and I don't know if you all heard about it, but they offered $20,000 grants for black women and women of color.

And the same person that went after affirmative action went after the Fearless Fund and took them to court.

And they've been in court for probably the last year and a half fighting back and forth.

And used a law that was to benefit black people against black people.

And his fight, he was trying to take it to the United States government.

And she got, she did the smartest thing she could ever do.

She settled the case before it went to the Supreme Court.

Because if go.

And that is what his goal was, to take it to the Supreme Court so that anything that was specifically for black people would now be, it would be against.

You wouldn't be allowed to do it.

Right.

Basically.

So she stepped out of it.

But my point is that when you have people like the man who owned WeWorks, who got 300 something million dollars for his idea of a co working space around the nation, he bankrupted it and then they turned around and gave him $200 million more dollars.

Just imagine if you had an idea and somebody said, oh, well, let me write you a check for $200 million.

Oh, oh well, let me write you a check for $40 billion.

Could you imagine what you could create?

I know what I could create.

I could create a whole series, whole city, you know what I'm saying?

I could create a whole.

I mean, all the ideas that I have in my head that I've written down, I would honestly, I would honestly, if I had $44 billion, I will create a state of the art university that taught creativity, economics and, and technology.

Those are the three things that I would focus on.

Creativity, economics and technology.

And anybody could come, but it would be black centered.

Anybody will be welcome.

But you're going to learn a decolonized way of education.

And so if I had somebody gave me $44 billion, I would definitely open up a learning system center, an educational center, which is one of the reasons why I expanded black Women Amplified into a learning space.

You know, not just the podcast and not just the blog, but really a learning space for black women that is not specific about business.

It's not specific about personal growth.

It's about learning many different aspects, especially if people want to go into entrepreneurship, visibility, personal branding, self care.

Because as women, we like to learn holistically.

You Know, we can't be just focused on learning about business because that's not how our natural way of being is.

We are innovators, we are explorers, we're adventurers and we really, for us, business is personal.

So we have to handle all aspects.

I remember I went through, was it last year, maybe 18 months ago, I went through the, there's a program through NASTAC that is an entrepreneur.

They have an entrepreneur center for women entrepreneurs.

And so I went through their program, it was like three months and eventually became a mentor through their program.

And it was really cool, it was really interesting.

It was 12 weeks.

And one of the things that they stressed because it was women, is that self care was a part of the program.

So when you're writing out your plans and your vision, a big part of what they want.

And this is NAS tech.

Like this is, you know, the big, you know, stock market center and they have an entrepreneur learning center and networking and all the things.

And I went through it so that I could get, you know, get proximity to women who are, who are women entrepreneurs.

It's, it's hard to find us in spaces because we're always just working.

So anyway, one of their big pieces was self care.

And it was, we had to make a self care plan.

Like when are you going to turn off the computer?

When are you going to stop doing this or stop doing that?

You know, when are you, when are you going to take a day off?

Because that's the one thing about entrepreneurship is everything is on us.

We are the, we are every department.

Like at your job.

I tell people this all the time when I'm talking mentoring people.

Understand when you come and become an entrepreneur, every department has your name on it until you're able to afford a team, virtual assistants or a staff.

So now you are not just going in to do your job, you're going in to do all of the jobs.

And so in emphasizing that with the Milestones program, they were like, because it is so intense, you have to make office hours for yourself.

Because literally I can get on the computer and start working on something and the sun will be up and then I'll look out the window and the sun is down, it'll be 8, 9 o'clock at night.

And I'm like, I still got to finish this one piece.

So I have had to train myself to turn, to have a clock out time.

And it's been challenging.

But my point is that women learn differently than men do.

And when I went to Cornell University last summer and got my Certificate in women's entrepreneurship.

Right.

Entrepreneur for 30 years and then go to college.

But when I was young, they didn't have entrepreneurship, and I didn't know what it was called back then, but I've always.

This is natural for me.

And the one thing they talked about was being a woman in business and how difficult it is and how only really 1% of women get in those spaces, those C suite spaces where they make decisions, and that means all women.

And when it comes to black women, it's even smaller than that.

So the idea that they're trying to increase women in the workforce, they say it on paper, just like they say diversity programs, but it's not.

The math ain't mathing.

As the kids say, the math ain't math.

And black women still make 65 cents to the dollar of white men.

Of all these diversity programs that have been happening, we still don't make dollar for dollar with white men.

We still don't make dollar for dollar with white women.

And then there's a case of investment.

They don't invest in us.

And Morgan, the woman, her name is Morgan and she owns Blavity, she was talking to on her podcast, I listen to lots of podcasts now.

She was talking about in her podcast how they're not funding these hair care products.

And people are like, where are all the hair care products?

Where all the black girlies who sell the hair care products.

Well, there was a big rush with Target, and Target was putting it out there and doing all the things and like, yay, Target.

Yay Walmart.

But here's the thing is, when affirmative action ended, so did people's interest in it.

And so a lot of these hair care, you know, companies are, if they're fortunate enough, they're able to sell to a larger company and take a cash settlement that hopefully covers their debt.

And they have money to live off of and to do something else with, or they're having to switch to rebuild their brand.

But what happens is when you get comfortable with the company doing it for you, you don't necessarily spend the time to build your brand.

That's why Tabitha Brown is so genius, because even though she has all of this with Target, she also stays strong in building her own brand because she knows what it took her to get there.

And so when I look up all of these factors, I'm like, well, there needs to be a space where we can have these real conversations where you're not going to people who haven't been in the game.

Like, I've been Doing entrepreneurship for over 30 years.

And I started working in my dad's business when I was 9.

Child labor laws, child, they didn't care.

But even with that experience, he didn't know what he was doing.

He was providing a service and a business for the community.

He was a community leader.

But black folks don't get business, didn't get business classes back then.

And so he was able to build a business and be successful and do all the things.

But, you know, his business failed after 20 something years.

And his business failed because the onslaught of Walgreens, Walgreens came.

He had a pharmacy, and here comes Walgreens with these convenient pharmacies everywhere.

And so the neighborhood pharmacies, it wasn't just his.

The neighborhood pharmacies became obsolete.

But now, interesting enough is people are going back to that neighborhood pharmacy field.

They want to be able to have a relationship with their pharmacist.

Because truthfully, pharmacists are very knowledgeable about many, many, many different things because they see everything across their, you know, they see everything.

They see all the diseases and the disorders.

And so if you go to a pharmacist and get an answer, you pretty much are getting an answer that you need.

And anyway, so the landscape of entrepreneurship covers so many different aspects.

You can go all the way back to, to Madam C.J.

walker and Annie Malone, you know, the first millionaires and the first women to really have their own enterprises.

And so when I said, okay, God, I have conversations with God, what do I want to do next?

What is my next step in my journey?

And it was, what I've always loved is educating people.

And it's not just something that I came up with.

Oh, I want to educate people.

I want to be a coach.

I come from educators many, at least four generations back that three or four generations.

Well, my great grandfather might have been the first.

I'm not sure.

I don't know about my.

I don't know much about my dad's side of the family.

They came up, my grandmother came.

My grandmother on my father's side came up from Arkansas.

And I would believe it was from the great migration when 6 million people left fleed the south because of Jim Crow.

People always say, well, apartheid over here, apartheid over there.

I'm like, what about Jim Crow?

That was apartheid.

But anyway, there's a whole nother conversation.

And so I don't know much about them.

And the story that I was told was that my grandfather killed somebody, probably a white man.

And so they left.

And my dad was two when his mom took him and his sister and brought them to Illinois.

So I don't know much about them, but on my mother's side, I know about my.

I want to say my great, great grandfather, he was an educator and he was the administrator and principal of the black school in the town that my mother was born in, Edwardsville, Illinois.

And he was there for 50 years until integration.

And the part that people don't talk about integration is that all the black teachers lost their jobs.

So we had scholars teaching our kids back in that day because the white schools wouldn't hire them.

And even when integration happened, they were not hiring black teachers.

But that's a whole nother story.

So education is in the fabric of who I am.

I have family members that are educators.

My mom was a teacher.

Not only was she a teacher, she was an award winning teacher who got a master's degree.

And education, I always tell people, is our family, our family business.

So it's in my bones.

I mean, I would sit there as a kid when I wasn't working for my father and help my mom grade papers.

Her business, her business plan, her.

I can't think of the word.

Her lesson plans.

Her lesson plan.

So I would sit there while she.

I would do my homework while she was doing her lesson plans, and she would tell me all the things that she got.

She planned for the kids to do.

And then I was grading papers for her while she was cooking dinner.

So that was our thing.

And she say, these are the answers and when they're wrong, put them a red mark on them.

So I sat at the dining room table and grated papers while she cooked.

And so education and entrepreneurship has been a part of my whole DNA, the fabric of who I am.

So the natural progression for me was.

So this is the natural progression for black women.

Amplified.

I have been teetering with the idea.

First it was a blog.

I didn't take it seriously, honestly, it was just something to put my writing out there.

And then when the pandemic happened, you know, everybody was on.

Everybody was on Clubhouse.

So I got on Clubhouse and I never really thought much about when I was younger, I did want to be the next to Yana Van Zandt.

I really did.

Like, I was so such a fan back then.

She's changed now, but back then I was such a fan and so I consume.

I mean, she was one of the first black women I saw putting out books, weren't romance novels or trash novels or church books.

And she just talked about things that I was curious about.

At the time.

And I got my nails on now, so all my nails are on.

I need to find my file so I can file these things down.

But anyway, so when Clubhouse happened, you hear me filing my nails.

That's the noise in the background.

But when Clubhouse happened, everybody was on Clubhouse.

Because this was during the pandemic, and we were stuck in the house, and I needed to talk to somebody because I just did, you know, I couldn't go to the place I want to go to.

I couldn't work for almost three months.

And that took me into just.

That was a mess.

I don't know how people forget that whole time.

That was a mess.

It was so mishandled.

But anyway, so get on Clubhouse.

Start having conversations.

And then one day I was.

I was on a podcast, and I have this.

I keep telling you, I had this visioning process.

And so they wanted to interview me about my visioning process.

So I did the podcast.

Episod episode number 55.

Podcast is called Girl, Can I Tell youl Something?

I don't know if they're still doing it, but it's called Girl, Can I Tell youl Something?

And she emailed me one day and.

Or text messaged me one day and asked me did I want to do a talk show on Clubhouse.

I was like, okay, cool.

So it was me, her and her partner.

Her name is Romel.

Her partner, TAWANDA, and then Dr.

Stephanie Brown, who is a physician, but she's also a life coach.

So the four of us got together, came up with a name, and then we.

Every Monday at 8pm Eastern time, we would talk for an hour about life, about women and all these amazing things, you know, just great topics.

We didn't get a lot of traction because, you know, people like salacious stuff.

So the salacious rooms had, of course, had all the people.

But when women, predominantly black women, discovered us, they were like, oh, my God.

So we were building slowly.

And then Tawanda no longer wanted to do it.

And so it just became Ramel, Stephanie and I.

And then I loved the way technology was with Clubhouse back then, because you could bring people up to speak and give their opinion and their thoughts or whatever we were talking about.

We had some great topics and it was a lot of fun.

But my only problem was we couldn't record it because at that time, Clubhouse did not have recording capability.

And Tawanda was the one that had the recording equipment that could record it.

Because I said, it doesn't make sense for us to keep having these conversations.

And at least we should be able to take it and put it somewhere so that people can hear it outside of Clubhouse and so that we have a record of everything.

So after a year or so, I was like, you know, I think it's time for me to do my own thing.

And so I.

And we were all getting.

I mean, every Monday was a lot and, you know, the world was opening back up.

And so Clubhouse wasn't that big of a thing because we were able to actually go outside and have real life experiences.

So the next phase was buying, okay, well, then I'm gonna start a podcast.

So I got in their ear was like, okay, what do I do?

Because at the time they had podcasts.

I did not.

So I got the equipment, and it was the wrong equipment.

I wasted my money.

And then luckily, I was able to sign up for a six week workshop with a couple of the top people in the podcasting industry.

So I was able to get really good insights on what I needed to do as far as developing my show.

And it was basically about getting the right equipment.

And then I remembered, Monica, you did work in the music industry.

So I contacted the people that I knew in the industry and asked them simple things like what type of mic to use, how do I isolate the sound so I don't hear the background in my recording?

So I asked some really, you know, important questions and then fix the sound.

Then the podcast was born.

And initially it was born so that I could tell my stories.

And I've told this story before is because my goddaughter and I saw her baby were in the middle of the pandemic, long story short.

And I was like, what happens if I die during this pandemic?

She's not going to know me.

So I wanted to lay down some of the stories in my life.

So if you go back to season one, you hear about my trip to my first time in Paris, my first time in South Africa.

I think I talked about Ghana and just different stories in my life because my intention was least, there's a record of some of the things that I've done in life, because I don't.

I'm like most black women.

I don't want to talk about my life.

I'll talk about you, I'll talk about people I'm in love with.

I'll talk about all the things.

But talking about myself was a challenge.

So, anyway, then the podcast was born and I started doing the podcast.

And what shifted in the podcast is one day I got a email from Harper Collins and they asked if I wanted to interview one of their authors.

And that author was Jane Allen, who wrote the Black Girl's Black Girl Magic trilogy series that's now getting turned into a television show.

And this was for her second book.

And I was like, sure.

I had not interviewed anybody in years.

The last time I interviewed people was when I worked for a magazine called Today in Church.

And I interviewed people like Kirk Whalem and Evander Holyfield and, you know, just different people.

And I was director of operations for the magazine.

It was a startup magazine.

And so I was able to kind of, you know, shape the culture and the tone and the stories of the magazine.

So I also got to interview, you know, people from around the world.

And it was a religious magazine, so I also got to.

So I was talking to people about their spirituality, about their beliefs, and how God worked in their life.

And that was the first time I interviewed Eric Roberson.

But this was print, so I would record it on one of those little mini recorders.

I record the interview that way over the phone, record, and then I would transcribe it and then write the story.

So it was a tedious process.

But I love writing for magazines, and I've written for newspapers and things like that, because, like I always tell y'all, writing is my first language.

Not speaking.

You can see I'm all.

I'm always all over the place when I'm speaking.

But I tell people my brain works in a circle.

So anyway, that was the first interview.

And then down, God downloaded do a series on women in the arts.

So I was like, oh, okay, well, let's.

Let's keep moving with this.

And then it became all about.

Mainly about interviewing these incredible women because Harper Collins started sending me a ton of people, and I had to say, I've said no to some of them.

And then people, you know, authors and different experts, a lot that I have turned down, I probably revisit them now because they weren't right for season two or season three.

And so having these incredible conversations with these amazing women, and then it just reminded me that what really stuck was when I talk about it.

But when my cousin Alice Windham passed away, and I realized that she's a hidden figure that didn't want to tell her story.

So then the interviews moved into more of Person's life story and not just their.

The work that they wanted to promote.

So it became, if you're gonna come here, it's about your story.

So moving on from that, the one thing I realized.

And Oprah talked about this, is that And I noticed this at the conversation with a woman who is a Broadway star.

And during our interview, I real.

Now, here's a woman who's.

At the time of the interview, she had been nominated for a Tony, and she was going to the Tonys, I think seven days later.

So talk about God's timing.

And I said, okay, we're in this interview.

And I noticed that every time I asked her a question about her, like when she talked about her work, and this is just me having a trained ear, when she talked about her work, she was alive and vibrant, all the things.

But when I asked her about herself, she would kind of get feeling she felt uncomfortable talking about herself.

And in the middle of the interview, I said, okay, okay, okay, let's do this.

Let's create a character.

You know, I'm bold as hell.

Let's create a character and let's talk.

Let's let.

I'm.

I want you the answers to be for you.

But through this character, she's like, okay, let's go.

So we played this little game.

And so when she was in this character and talking about herself, she was vibrant and alive and all the things.

So I was like, oh, my gosh, this is a big difference.

And every time I finished the interview and I remember distinctly Oprah talking about this.

Yes, I'm comparing myself to Oprah.

So what?

Get over it.

But she said, no matter who they were in life, when the interview was over, they would ask, is this, Was it okay?

I get the same question.

So here I am talking to Broadway stars, business leaders, you know, singers.

And when the recording goes off, now that I figured out how not to turn off the whole thing, they were like, was it okay?

It was amazing.

And so what I realized is that as black women, and I've talked about this before, because we were raised from children, from the parents, from our parents being a part of Jim Crow.

We were trained to be quiet.

And I realized I had that in me.

So when it comes, people like you need to be visible.

You need to do this for your business.

You do that for your business.

It, you know, it kind of shrinks me because I'm not.

Although you can tell I will talk to a tree about many subjects.

You know, I'm.

I'm just that.

But when it comes to talking about myself, it is something I had to train myself to do, right?

I had to do with my self worth.

It had to do with my childhood.

It had to do with so many different factors that I had to unravel to feel free to speak about myself.

And so I said, well, okay, so then how can I support other women getting past that?

Because I see these incredible women, and I have approached women, they're like, no, I don't want to talk on a podcast.

And a lot of it is because they don't want to talk about themselves.

And I know what it's from, and I know what it is because I experienced it all.

The circumstances may be different, but I feel it's all rooted in the same thing, that we were told to be quiet and be as small as possible for safety.

And so that's why when people talk about imposter syndrome, I think there is an imposter syndrome, but I don't think imposter syndrome is always the problem.

I think a lot of times I have talked about this before.

I call it systemic racism syndrome.

We know what we're going up against.

So sometimes we just inherently pull ourselves back because we know what the possible backlash will be.

So I say all that to say, when I decided to expand, I said, well, how can I walk people through this process that I have been through, that many have been through?

Because there's these incredible people who don't want to share their stories.

And that's why I always push people start to just start a podcast, because once you start talking, even if you don't release it, once you start talking, well, hopefully one day you release it, but when you're beginning, you be like.

Like, I recorded episodes that nobody will ever hear.

Probably about eight episodes that nobody will ever hear.

I even wrote an article about it for the Podcast Academy.

You know, focus on developing good show.

Because honestly, a great show doesn't really start until its eighth episode because you got to get through all the glitches, all the nervousness, all the things.

So I said, well, let me figure out what I can do with the knowledge that I have.

You know, I don't need to go get a college degree for it.

What can I do to help women get through this process?

And so I said, well, maybe it's time to open up an academy for women that we can learn how to get past those fears, and we can learn how to tell our stories and we can learn how to build our personal brands.

Because here's the thing, the way this society is going, and I'm going to say this, no matter who gets in office, they are already trying to shrink us down because we're so powerful.

They're canceling our TV shows, they're canceling programs to finance us.

They've Canceled affirmative action.

They're getting rid of diversity equity inclusion programs in these companies.

So whole teams of black women are being fired.

And here's the thing.

Their exclusion is specific to us.

There are still white women doing the work.

There are still Asian women doing the work.

It's the specific specifically to us as black women.

And so if you look at how they are precise and who they're letting go, it's us.

I.

And just like the conversation I said where they're getting rid of beauty products are specific to black women.

In our hair, Right.

But they're not getting rid of the Korean makeup, the Korean skin care.

You know, they're not getting rid of any of anybody else's stuff.

The French makeups and the British makeups.

They're getting rid of stuff that is specifically for black women.

So there has to be a place where we can sit down and have these conversations where we can learn from me and other people and learn from each other, have peer learning.

And so that's why I said it's time for me to open up the Black Women Amplified Academy.

Because in this academy, we can have these conversations.

We can learn, we can build our confidence, and we can support each other in the sense of a community.

And because of that, I'm going to start off with masterclasses.

Yes, it will cost money.

It's not free.

This is not a charity.

And yes, we will have opportunities to learn and to join a community.

And all this stuff costs money.

We pay for everything else.

We pay for groceries.

We pay for trips.

We pay for going to the movies.

We pay for all those things.

And there's nothing more important than investing in ourselves.

So people, if they're interested in investing in themselves, then they will join this.

If they want to continue trying to figure it out on their own, then they'll do that as well.

Your choice.

I'm just here to present what I have to present and where I feel I can contribute best to make sure that we as black women and women of color can really fortify who we are, understand what we bring to the table and do like all these other people are doing, monetize from our knowledge.

So that's why I expanded Black Women Amplified out, and I was doing it all over the place like I had.

I still have monicawisdomhq.com where you get more into the details of it.

But for my life and where I am, I needed to integrate everything into one space.

Space so that I could learn, so that I could focus just on this one space branding.

Because all the things I'm doing until I can get to the space where I can get a team or, you know, a staff.

So I needed just one space where I could dedicate my time, because I'm producing and hosting the podcast, I'm writing the blog.

I'm out here looking for opportunities every day.

I'm interviewing on other podcasts, and I'm creating educational programs.

I have an educational program called Unmute.

Sidebar.

Let me say this.

I was in a class, because I'm always taking classes to educate myself.

And the coach was doing audits of our products.

So I sent.

And she's very critical, so I don't mind that.

I actually like people to be very critical of my work because it just makes me better.

And so she was like, well, let me.

Let me see your.

It's called a lead magnet.

So my book, Unlock youk Story, I designed it.

All the things.

I wrote it, I designed it.

I did all the things from the knowledge that's in my head.

And she was like, well, she was asking me what I was charging for the masterclass.

And I told her.

She's like, well, your lead magnet, you know, she was just like, well, your lead magnet needs to look like it's worth that much money.

I was like, okay, girl.

All right.

And I sent it to her.

Now, mind you, she's a very critical person.

She's very honest and very blunt, which I appreciate personally.

A lot of people can't take it, but I love it.

And she had nothing to say.

She said, oh, it looks great.

It's well written.

It looks great.

It's actually very good.

And I was like, what?

She has nothing to say.

And then I sent her the sales page.

The sales page is what when people click on, they get to read all about the program for the class.

And so she's like, it looks great.

Just take this one part off.

And it was a design element that was there.

It had anything to do with the writing.

All that was really well done.

Cause I know what to do.

I know I have refined.

I've been doing this for 18 months, and I have refined and refined and refined and refined and refined.

So now I feel like, okay, it's ready to be released.

And she had nothing to say.

But here's the kicker.

And I'm not.

I'm never going to tell her name.

I was watching her tick tock.

And she was in.

I'll just say this.

She was inspired by what I showed her so much that she was adding it to her.

Her stuff I was like.

And one second I was like, well, see, I knew I was a bad, you know, bad at what I did.

And I was like, damn, I trusted you with my stuff.

I don't show people my stuff.

I worked in the music industry.

We don't.

We didn't show people nothing until it was time for release.

But I thought I could trust her and.

But then now she's using elements, and I was like, oh, this ain't cool at all.

But anyway, sidebar.

That's a sidebar.

So the point is, is that I, opening this academy, will have a membership.

And I hope that if it's not for you, that's perfectly fine.

But if you know somebody who's looking for somebody that they can trust to help them develop an idea, help them with personal development, help them extract knowledge from their brain and create something, a side hustle if they want to, or if they're transitioning from corporate America to their own business to entrepreneurship, and they just need somebody to talk to, talk about the real process of what to do of somebody who has not only learned about it through Cornell University, but has actually lived it.

And so I think it's important, especially in this day and age of AI and all the things, to have somebody who has actual practical experience of not just of what they're teaching, but the business climate that they know.

And it's so funny.

I'm mentoring two people in Mexico now who have.

They are.

They work for a large production team in Mexico.

They produce podcasts, ironically.

And I didn't realize how big their company was because I don't know anything about what happens in Mexico.

But when I, when I figured it out, I was like, wow.

It just opened my ideas to the possibilities of podcasts because they were, you know, I'm not going to talk about their projects, but some pretty incredible stuff that they, they have planned out.

And I was like, I just never thought about all this.

And so I was like, wow.

Just, you know, people want to write books.

Maybe you don't want to sit down and write, but maybe you want to do an audio book.

They even have audio films.

Like, the whole film is just audio.

The whole, you know, there's no visuals.

The whole film is just 100 audio.

They have television shows that are audio.

But this is just harks back to, you know, back in the day when they had radio shows before television, everything was done audio over the airwaves.

And so I think we're going to go back to that, especially AI.

If there has to be awareness, there has to be a place where people can have human connection.

And as much as you can duplicate, you cannot duplicate the feeling of a human voice.

You know, there's.

Because there's an emotion and an energy that comes out that I'm not going to say they won't do it in the future, but as of now, Siri and all these people still sound very robotic to me.

But anyway, it's been, I need to polish my nails and I'm cooking a piece of fish and I'm sure it's burnt by now because I got into this conversation, but I just wanted to, you know, have a chit chat while I was doing this.

I need to get it together because like I said, I'm going to the art museum and I'll come back and tell you all about that.

But I hope you have a great day and I hope you get a little bit more insight on the evolution of black women amplified and why I am taking it to the next level.

Because as I expand as a person and as I move into this new era of my life, I know that I have a lot of knowledge and information and experience that I can share with younger generations or people who want to walk into the realm that I've been in for the last 35 years.

And I'm the type of person, as you can tell, I'm very honest, I'm very vulnerable, and I'm very authentic.

And I will tell you, if you have ideas and information, we can always book consulting time and talk about your ideas and figure out a roadmap for you to get from A to Z or maybe just A to C.

And we can have those conversations through a consultation.

And I'm happy to answer all of your questions and do all the things, but this is not something that I'm like, oh, this is what I want to do.

This has been my life's work.

And this is just another iteration of the things that I've always done.

Not necessarily working for.

Not just working for a magazine, but also working in education for global hair care companies and teaching seminars at music conferences and doing all the things.

So this is a combination of all of my life's work with under the umbrella of Black women Amplified.

And so anyway, I'm going to end this conversation and I want you to have a beautiful and a blessed day.

And I can't wait to tell you all about the art museum tonight.

And let me get my fish, hope it's not burnt up and polish my nails.

And I want you all to have the most amazing day.

I'll talk to you soon.

Don't forget to Visit the website www.blackwomenapplified.com.