My journey as an entrepreneur was probably like most. It happened post-college. You see, I didn’t go to school to be a business owner, I had the skill set and knowledge to work in sports medicine and education. After college, I was married and then became a mama – eventually to three kiddos. I supported my family by staying home and making sure the home ran efficiently – everything got done when it needed to be done, everyone was where they needed to be, so on and so forth. I was what they called a stay-at-home mom. But after my third and last child, I just felt a missing piece. I was happy with my life, but felt like I could do more, that I was meant to be more, to contribute more to THE world, not just MY world. I wanted to help others fill a need or want.
At the time, I was still nursing my baby in the middle of the night. As y’all know, feeding while sleepy will have cause a mom to do what during that time? Either watch your show on Netflix or Hulu or scroll Facebook or shop on Amazon. As I was doing just that, I came across clothing that was cute – but it was expensive – and I’m thinking to myself – “people have families and growing kids, we don’t want to be spending a huge chunk of the budget on clothing! I’m sure it’s possible to sell affordable quality pieces.” It’s because of my late-night scrolling that the idea for my store Lollipops & Lemonade Clothing Shop was born (the name being a tribute to my late father in that my kids used to tell him they loved him more than lollipops & lemonade); and over the months that followed, I researched, planned and created my business, then debuted it in June of 2016.
So, business was going great, and then the shine wore off and sales plateaued, then took a dip. I started to doubt myself and my abilities, if I even had what it took to be an entrepreneur. This was at the same time that I was in the thick of my divorce, so double whammy there. I was at the point of thinking, I’ve gotta make this this business thing work – I’ll be on my own soon, and if it’s not going to be profitable in the future, I need to point my energy elsewhere.
So what do I do after that minor freak-out moment? I head to Facebook and scroll aimlessly. Lol. Then I come across a video of some lady and her husband walking around a college campus talking about their oldest kid. Now, two things happened, I leaned in because I was being nosy AND as I continued watching this lady talk about how she just handled this situation I found myself nodding in agreement – multiple times. I was identifying with this stranger I never met, laughing about the steps I would take to teach my future college-aged kid a life lesson, because those lessons were the same. But there was something else she mentioned casually in conversation. That she was an entrepreneur – my ears perked up and I filed that tidbit away for later. Now because the things she said made me laugh and I related to it – and she was an entrepreneur, I looked her up. I found out that she wasn’t just some one-hit wonder in business, homegirl came from corporate! A place where she helped build out multi-figure businesses. Apparently, she was so successful at using corporate strategies to help everyday people build successful businesses of their own, she quit her 9-5 and started out on her own as a full-time entrepreneur.
Now, I was still a little skeptical about this lady named Nicole Walters, but luckily I saw she was offering a webinar to learn more about her strategies and formats, so I joined. Well, she got me y’all. Nicole’s methods and her product called 1K1Day pulled me in – and I HAD to join the course! To this day, I am so thankful I took the step to invest in myself.