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I’ve been hesistant to write this post but The ‘Rona has given ya girl a little bit of free time so now seemed like the perfect opportunity to discuss The Honey Pot Effect.

If you do not know, Beatrice Dixon, CEO of the Honey Pot Co. went viral after a target commerical caused a wide and significant amount of backlash from predominantly white women across America. If you hadn’t seen the commercial, check it out here.

So what’s the problem sis? As most black women, we’re still unsure why wyppo had their panties in a bunch but what we do KNOW is that you will not run up against one of ours without feeling the strength we truly possess. I felt the love we black women have for each other and I’m not Beatrice.

I, too, went and purchased the products that were available at my local target. However, it dawned on me or rather plagued me after some time why black women only seem to rally like this when another race tries us? I don’t mean to ruffle any feathers here but I have to ask the question. Why do we wait until someone outside of our race says that we’re not worthy to show up in the thousands and support one another?

As a black female entrepreneur, I have felt both sides of black women. The side where we can tear each other down without blinking and the other side when we rally behind one another and show strength in numbers. My hope is that our show of support for each other’s dreams will soon become an everyday occurence and not an “only once she goes viral” moment.

For me, black women are like sisters that fight everyday all day behind close doors but as our moms used to tell us, keep in house issues in house so when we step outside of our doors, we present to the world that we’ve got us. In many ways when we absolutely need one another, yes but everyday? Nah, sis.

Have you ever thought why didn’t Bea have that same support prior to the commercial? Or why your cousin that runs a business struggles to find her audience (aka black women) to support her? I know for me, I went through a situation at the beginning of my business that could have broken my spirit and ended my business. My target audience rallied together to shame me vs educate and lift me up and to this day I often feel I’m not as far ahead as I could be if they would’ve chosen to support me. I have even dealt with being told the infamous, “this is why I don’t deal with black businesses” by Black Women!

At what point do we stop and say, I see my sister trying and I’m going to support her efforts. Sis, may not have it all together from day one but how can she get it together if we’re not providing the means, education and guidance to get her there?

I was so excited when I saw the Honey Pot effect I even made a facebook post. My post stated, “Lord please let someone bad mouth me so that I can receive this level of support.” How ridiculous did that sound when you read it? I know right, why would you want to be bad mouthed? Because history has taught me that to get my sister’s attention, someone has to speak ill of me first.

Let’s change that narrative. During this nationwide “shut-down”, now is the time for you to support your community. Now is the time for you to rally behind one another and make sure we’re all able to eat. Don’t stop supporting small businesses because they are the backbone of America. Make a conscious decision to support black owned businesses. Understand, we all we got! I charge you with the responsibility of doing your part.

And the next time a Bea Dixon comes along, there won’t be a need for a public show of support because we’ve been supporting our sister all along.

Until Next Time,

XOXO Fe.

You Can Support The Honey Pot here. https://thehoneypot.co/products/sensitive-system

The Road to the Bag is Definitely Tied to Your Team and the Company You Keep…

Diddy.

Coming off of vending in Chicago the last weekend of February, it feels necessary to discuss the importance of having a solid team.

Listen, I am a 30 year African American female entrepreneur and what I can tell you without any doubt is that I wouldn’t be where I am or doing any amount of what I’m able to do without my team and support system. My support system consists of my family and friends but my team involves my staffed employees.

I was one year into business when I realized that I needed help. Business was booming at a consistent pace and I was beyond overwhelmed. On average, I was working 16-18 hours and taking care of a baby in between. Exhaustion doesn’t even begin to describe the state I was in. I was still working the business out of my home so it was important for me to find someone that would be comfortable in my home and that I could be comfortable being that close to. Then it dawned on me, stay at home mom.

I jumped on the Nextdoor app and posted a brief description of the position I was offering. It read a little something like this:

This is when I received a message from Jooae. Our first meeting was so easy that I didn’t hold any other interviews, it felt good and I knew she was the perfect match to my crazy. She’s calm, reserved and focused, just what I needed. The icing on the cake was she lived two houses down so transit was not a problem. That following week, Jooae started to work and within 2 months, my sales increased 30%.

After a year of me and Jooae working out of my dining room, I decided it was time to start looking for an office space. I was nervous, scared to pay someone rent, worried about credit and everything in between. Needless to say I didn’t feel it would happen any time soon but you know when you throw things out into the atmosphere, God starts to position you. That’s exactly what happened to me. It took less than 3 months to find a space and get this, there was no credit check, the rent was affordable and utilities were included! GOD! Okay.

We did our best to work our normal hours but it became apparent pretty quickly we needed more time and more hands. I leaned on the help of family and friends as long as I could until one night a customer/friend came to help and unbeknownst to me brought her adult and teenage daughters with her. We worked until midnight and the entire time I felt a nudge that her oldest daughter could use a part time job and possibly even some mentorship. So as they were getting in the car, I blurted out “Do you need a part time job. If so, call me!” I received a call the next day and asked her to come in so we could discuss everything. She already had one job she was working at so it was understood that the position would only be on her off days. That quickly changed.

Brianna became my right hand. She was eager and willing to do the work that frankly I had grown tired of doing. I wanted to focus more on engagement and creating content and designing more products. Packing orders was no longer my calling and she filled the position with ease. Brianna became instantly like a little sister and I realized I was being called to teach her and show her all that the business entails. Daily she makes me so honored to have her working with Jooae and I. And yes, our sales increased again over 30%.

Because I was obedient and did not concern myself with the money and focused on growth and sustaining the business, I have been blessed with two amazing team mates that understand the vision and fully support it. I remember praying this prayer to God about the business as a whole,

“Lord, I don’t want anything or anyone that will cause me grief or hassle. If I’m meant to hire more people or do more things send them my way and let it be easy so that I will know.”

Amen.

In 3 short years, by having a team, that little dream of Goldmine & Coco has quadrupled in sales. We’re now in discussion about seeking a bigger office space, teaching classes and even hosting community events. None of these ideas would have been possible without my girls. I remember the moment I realized that because of them, the business went from low 4 figures a month to high 5 figures in as little as a year and a half. With this realization, I’m excited about the possibility of hiring more women and building my very own Fempire.

So here’s my advice, if you’re in a position where you can hire help, do so. Don’t be hesitant because you’re worried about the money, the funds will come. Focus more on the work and less on the payday. When you do find help, treat them well. Do right by those that do right by you. Loosen your grip and allow them to flourish. You’d be amazed at the ideas and strategies that they come up with. I’m blessed to be in a position to bless and I owe a portion of that to them.

Until Next Time,

xoxo Fe.

And as my old manager, Natasha, used to say,

T. E. A. M.

Together

Everyone

Achieves

More

Who Knew that Taking Content Pictures Would Result in a Multitude of People Asking Where My Outfits Were From, I Sure Didn’t. But Here We Are and Here I Am Giving You ALL of the Deets. Let’s Dive In!

I’m Going to Come Right Out and Tell You, My Favorite Brand in the Whole Wide World is BCBGMaxazria. Honestly, this article can be over now lol.

I LOVE Fashion, I Always Have. You May Not Know This but I Used to Try and Sell Shoes. Lol. Yes, Shoes. I Would Buy Wholesale Shoes and Try to Sell Them via Facebook. Needless to Say that Was Short-lived. If You Hadn’t Noticed, Fashion Plays A Major Role in Fulfilling My Passion with Goldmine & Coco. Each Doll is Carefully Pieced Together with My Designs. I Love the Process! With that Being Said I Guess It Only Makes Sense that Others Want to Know Where Did I Find My Pieces.

I Hate to Be the Bearer of Bad News But I Was Unable to Find You All a Link to the Above Jumpsuit As BCBG No Longer Sells It. My Husband and I Went On A Recent Trip to Miami and I Purchased It Directly From BCBG There. It Was Like I Walked Into Jumpsuit Heaven and Everything Fit. Glory!

This Outfit is the One that Sparked this Blog Post. Can You Guess The Brand? Yessss Queen, That’s It, BCBG! Head’s Up The Top and Pants Combined are Around $450 but It is Worth Every Single Penny In My Opinion. I Saw this Jumpsuit on Sarah Jakes Roberts and Decided I Needed It Too. After Perusing the Comments Section of Her Stylist J.Bolin’s IG Page, I Saw Someone Post It Was From My Fave! I Went To the Site for Several Weeks because Let’s Admit $450 on One Outfit is No Small Ticket but Once the Site Said They Were Running Low In My Size, I Went Into My Stash Before I Could Blink. Admit It, You Have A Stash Too. Get Your Top Here and Your Pants Here.

Let’s Talk Fashion and Why It’s So Important to Me and Should Be to You. Your Fashion Introduces You Before Your Mouth Ever Opens Up. It’s Expressive and Representative of Who You Are at Your Core. You’re In Your Clothes at Least 12 Hours Out of A Day, You Might As Well Be Comfortable With Your Style Choice.

I Use Fashion and Style Daily When Creating Dolls. It’s What Makes Each and Every Doll. The Funny Part About All of This is Recently I Decided I Wanted to Expand the Brand and Create Pieces that We All Could Wear to Match Our Dolls! My First 2 Dresses are Listed and Honey They Are Cute! Grab Yours Here. We’ve Also Listed A Couple of Sweatshirts for the Fall that You Should Definitely Put On Your MUST HAVE List.

Another One of My Favorite Brands is Coins & Connections. Check Them Out Here. If You Ever Catch One of My Instagram Lives, I Talk About Them All of the Time. Again, Your Fashion is Representative of Who You Are and They’re Brand Truly Represents Me As An Entrepreneur. Not To Mention It Is Owned by A Fellow Black Woman.

My Last “Go-To” Site is Nordstrom’s Trunk Club. Let Me Tell You I LOVE Trunk Club. Trunk Club is an Online Styling App. They Partner You with an Actual Stylist that Inquires About What You’re Looking For, What You’d Like to Spend, the Occasion and the Frequency in Which You’d Like to Receive Your Trunk. What I Love Most About the Program is They Allow You to Try On Everything Upfront in the Comfort of Your Home and Send Back What You Don’t Like. You Can Test Out Trunk Club for Yourself with My Link Here.

I Could Go On and On About All of My Favorite Sites but Let’s Face It, Our Attention Span is Simply Not that Long. Lol. I Hope this Answered Some of Your Questions Today, Next Time I Do This, We’ll Talk About Shoes. Until Next Time….

XOXO,

Fe

If You Hadn’t Noticed I Have Been MIA On this Here Blog. Of Course There Are Several Reasons or Rather Excuses that I Could Offer You for My Absence but the Truth Is God Was Removing and Shifting Some Things in My Life to Prepare Me for the Next Level. I Wasn’t In the Right Mental Space to Come and Share My Story. When You’re Going Through It’s Okay to Fall Back.

If I Can Be Very Frank, This Entire 2019 Leading Up to this Point Has Been Exhausting. Yes My Business is Growing, Yes My Kids are Happy, Yes My Husband and I are Still On One Accord… Yes Yes Yes. However, In the Midst of My Yes, I’ve Been Dealing with Continuous Mental Anguish. At the Beginning of the Year, I Chose My Word of the Year to Be Elevate. Giiirrrlll, Ya Girl Has Leveled UP Okkkuurrr. Wayyyy Up I Feel Blessed In Every Area of My Life.

What I Failed to Understand When I Asked For Elevation Was That It Was Going to Require Quite A Bit of Separation. I Went In Head First Thinking I Was Going to Bake the Cake, Be the Cake, Serve the Cake and Eat A Slice Too. So What Type of Separation Did I Experience? I’d Like to Think That I Experienced Different Levels of Separation. I Went Through Phase One, Two and Now Three.

Phase One

Phase One Was the Hardest. It Forced Me to Open My Eyes and See Others through the Lens of Discernment and then to See Myself. Was I Doing All that God had Called Me to Do? Was I Being Responsible with My Gifts and Talents? Was I Too Entitled? Were They Too Entitled? Did I Bite Off More than I Could Chew. SOOO Many Questions On A Daily Basis Left Unanswered. Eventually I Decided that My Only Focus Would Be On How I React to Situations and Not How the Other Side Behaved. It Allowed Me to See Past My Own Frustration and Discern Whether or Not This Was Even A Battle I Was Supposed to Fight. I’ll Let You In A Little Secret:

Silence is Golden.

Phase Two

The Improvement Phase. Phase Two Was More About Me Actively Identifying Habits and Things that I Needed to Separate Myself From. I Placed My Focus Back On My Grind and Slowly Begin to Remove Distractions. When You Are Focused on the Distraction and Not the Calling You Tend to Lose Yourself in All of the Hype. It’s Okay and It’s Normal. The Key is Recognizing that You’re Not Focused and Getting Back on Track. Knowing that Iron Sharpens Iron, I Begin to Link Up with Like Minded Individuals and Proceeded to Win.

Phase Three

Now, Let Me Tell You, Phase Three Has Been Fun. I Stepped into The Month of August with a Fresh New Perspective. I Got a Personal Trainer, Started Doing My Devotionals Again, My Business Reached A New Peak…Do You See Where I’m Going Here? I Was Separated from People, Places and Things that Were Hindering My Growth. These Things Were In My Way of Elevation. Once I Surrendered to the Calling and Said Openly That I Would Go Full Force and Stopped Asking for Permission to be Great, Doors Sprung Open. The Month of July Was the Craziest and Most Eye Opening Month I’ve Had this Year. Because of The Constant Calamity Happening Throughout the Month, I Became Proactive at Putting Systems in Place that Didn’t Make Me Feel Overwhelmed and then I Simply Did the Work.

I Want to Encourage Whoever May Be Reading this Today, to Remain Focused on Your Calling and Purpose. Don’t Get So Wrapped In Your Current Situation that You Forget What Has Already Been Promised To You. Say Boldly and Confidently the Things You Desire and Go After Them. You Can’t Be Afraid to Lose Some Things Along the Way because Fear Can Not Go Where You’re Headed. Be Blessed Love. Until Next Time.