Transcript 0:00 Hello everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Honey and Hustle. I am your host, Angela Hollowell, and we are a little over halfway through our daily podcast challenge for the month of Black History Month. 0:14 If you're new here or if you're returning, every day for the month of February, I'm reading a chapter or a few chapters from books related to creativity, entrepreneurship, and business. 0:26 Today, I'll be reading you a chapter from The Memo by Minda Harts. Okay. 0:32 [upbeat music] If you're a creator or entrepreneur who's been thinking about starting a newsletter or building a community around your work, I've got something for you. 0:44 I created a course called Community OS, and OS stands for operating system. It's my full system for writing consistently, growing your audience, and turning your community into revenue online and in real life. 0:59 And right now, you can preview a free lesson to see if it's right for you. No credit card, no catch, just a real look at what's inside. Head to communityox.xyz and grab your free lesson. 1:14 That's communityos.xyz, and I'll put the link in the show notes. All right, let's get into it. [upbeat music] Let's dive in. I'll be reading from chapter six, which is titled Invest In Yo' Self. 1:30 It never gets old, watching Donna and Tom from Parks and Recreation tell us to treat yourself. It is equally important to invest in yourself. 1:38 As Black and brown women, we have no problem spending hundreds of dollars on new hairdos, red bottom shoes, and trips to Essence Fest, yet some wouldn't even consider spending the same amount of money on hiring an executive coach to help advance their career. 1:54 I hate to break it to you, but if you invested in learning how to be a better negotiator or took a public speaking course, perhaps you would learn how to ask for more and have extra money to buy the hair you can't get in a bag at the local beauty supply store. 2:08 No shade. Being your best advocate is not just dressing for the C-suite, but also making sure your skills match the shoes. How are you gonna rock the latest fashions when your skills are stuck in 1999? 2:22 What good is it to walk around the office in your new Yves Saint Laurent if you never get invited into the boardroom to show them off? 2:30 What if instead, you were in the boardroom giving them the fiercest shoe-icide game while delivering the presentation of a lifetime? 2:37 Unfortunately, none of this happened because you never invested in fighting your fear of speaking in public. You stayed in the same position, working on the same projects with your new shoes. 2:47 This is by no means a happy ending. Can you smell what The Rock is cooking? R-E-S-P-E-C-T in regard to your career requires an investment, and college shouldn't be your last stop. 3:00 We have to invest in our upward mobility. I don't think enough women of color invest in their professional development, myself included. 3:08 Sometimes we think we've ascended to the top of the mountain, and investing in our professional success is no longer required. But every step of our career will require enhanced skills. Don't play yourself. 3:19 There was a time in my career when I thought professional clothing was the only thing I needed to invest in. You know that old saying, "Dress for the role you want." 3:28 I was missing out on the other part of that equation, which required me to level up my skill set as well. One regret I have is never learning how to be more than proficient in Excel. 3:39 At best, all I ever learned to do was bold, highlight, and delete. I noticed that certain colleagues were valued by many managers because they could make pivot tables and fancy charts. 3:50 My level of Excel was as basic as they come, and I knew that and owned it. Funny thing is, Excel is still around 100 years after I graduated from college, and my skills are pretty much the same. 4:01 Even today, I sheepishly ask my co-founder, Lauren, who is an Excel wizard, to do everything Excel-wise for our company because I never learned more than the basics. 4:10 Excel has always been a pain point, and I never took the time to invest in myself. Obviously, this is just one example. There were other skills that I identified and invested in, like public speaking. 4:22 I was terrified to speak up in public, and I knew this fear would not help me get closer to my secured seat. What is that invest-in-yourself skill in your life that could be a huge benefit? 4:32 It's up to you to figure out what that is. Maybe you should consider hiring a career coach or taking a webinar. That's a step in the right direction. 4:40 There are many tools available to us if we want to level up, but we have to take advantage of those resources. Once I started investing in my professional development, my entire work game changed. 4:51 Some of you might be thinking, "Oh, no. The only investment I made was my degree, and I'm still paying for that bad boy." First of all, that is not the mindset to have when we think about the seat we want at the table. 5:03 Why do you think women pay thousands of dollars to be part of mastermind groups or travel across the globe for retreats? They understand the cheat code. 5:12 They know that in order to make it to the next level, something is required of them. It's called putting some skin in the game. 5:19 Let's be clear, investing in yourself is not for your job, it's for you, so you can obtain everything you said you wanted out of your career when you started college or entered the workforce. 5:30 Researching and utilizing additional career resources will help you advance in your career. You can't leave your professional development up to anyone else. You are your brand. 5:40 You are an asset to yourself, and if you don't invest in the skills and training it takes to advance, your value will depreciate. And investing in yourself doesn't necessarily mean you use your own money. 5:52 There might be scholarships or fellowships that allow you to invest in yourself. But the bottom line is, you have to take the initiative and take that first step. Cue Ciara's Level Up, there money. 6:04 I know this investing in yourself thing might sound daunting and expensive, but did you know most companies have a professional development budget that you can tap into? 6:13 It might not be publicized, but that doesn't mean your employer doesn't have one. There are ways to leverage investing in yourself without using any of your coins. 6:21 Let's discuss what resources might be available via your employer. A professional development stipend or budget is money just sitting there available for you to enhance your skills. 6:30 This money can be used for conferences, continuing education, and certifications. One year, I used my professional development stipend to attend the Black Enterprise Women of Power Summit. 6:41 At this summit, I was able to meet other professional Black women, and many of those women have turned into great friends that I added to my network. 6:49 I've heard some of my peers use their stipends for anything from coaching certificates to professional subscriptions to their MBAs. 6:56 As long as you can articulate how adding this new skill to your toolkit will benefit your team or the company's bottom line, you can get real creative with your professional development stipend. 7:05 Let's say one day you wanna become a career coach. 7:07 You could ask your employer if you could enroll in a coaching program because this new skill set would help you become a stronger leader and serve as a mentor to your colleagues. 7:16 Whatever your goal is, inquire about your company's professional development resources and how you can start using them today. Don't wait. 7:23 One of my former employers offered a professional development stipend, but I had to ask about it. 7:28 No one ran up on me and told me about it, and not only did they offer a stipend, but also there were monthly lunch and learn classes that I could participate in. 7:37 Attending those served two purposes: to network with new colleagues and to enhance my skill set. 7:43 If your company or organization does not have a professional development program in place, think of this as a good opportunity to pitch creating the program. 7:51 Creating a professional development program would allow you to take on a leadership role. Look at that. You kill two problems with one big idea. 7:59 Additionally, some companies host free professional development resources that are open to the public. Often, I attend these types of events at Twitter and Microsoft, and I have never worked at either place. 8:10 I am not encouraging you to go broke by investing in yourself, but I am encouraging you to seek out the likely and unlikely resources for your development. Don't leave any potential opportunity on the table. 8:21 This is your career we're talking about. Here's another way to look at it. What skills can you enhance today that will help position you for the next role? 8:29 If you aspire to hold an executive title one day and you're currently just a few years into your career, what skills do you think someone in the C-suite would have? 8:37 Start to look at job descriptions for the roles you want, figure out what skills you need, and start investing in those skills. If someone offered you your dream job today, would you be ready to start tomorrow? 8:48 Or would you have to say no because you weren't prepared skill-wise to take on that role? Whose fault would that be? You have to assume the Lil' Kim mindset from the Quiet Storm remix. I'm 10 steps ahead of you. 8:59 A winner needs a coach. One untapped resource I have discovered not being used by many women of color was career coaching. 9:07 I wanted to understand why so many of us weren't investing in ourselves in this way, so I interviewed over 100 women of color and asked them if they had ever used a career coach. Only five said yes. 9:19 I asked them how they found out about executive coaching, and they said their white colleagues had one, so maybe you didn't even know this was a thing. 9:26 And now that you know, you can start planning how to incorporate this resource to assist in furthering your career. 9:32 Listen, Linda, in the perfect workplace scenario, your manager would sit down with you, map out a path for advancement, encourage you to take advantage of all the resources your company has to offer, and mention how career coaching helped him or her move into a management position. 9:47 But we know that hardly ever happens. Most managers are not invested in your success, so you can't leave your professional development up to them. 9:56 Most managers are just trying to make it through the day and check the boxes. For those women who are lucky enough to have a manager that gives a damn, God bless you both. 10:05 Unfortunately, the reality is that if you don't have someone other than yourself invested in your career, then you must identify your blind spots and figure out where there's room to improve. 10:15 Career coaches can be used to help you negotiate, advocate, and plan the next step in your career. They provide their clients with a curated career roadmap. 10:24 I've used my own resources to hire a coach on a couple of occasions based on the career need I had at the time. I last used a career coach in the summer of 2018 to enhance my leadership skills. 10:35 I have to hold myself accountable to the people I lead. I take my position as CEO seriously. One of the tools that my coach, Isaiah Hunter, used was called the Energy Leadership Assessment. 10:47 Forbes named this assessment tool as one of the top 11 assessments every executive should take. During this assessment, I learned about the seven levels of leadership and how my energy shows up at each level. 10:59 I was coached on how to level up in areas where I had room for improvement. 11:02 The investment that I made during the time it took to take the assessment and the session with the coach not only helped me strengthen my leadership skills, but also benefits those I work alongside. 11:12 Another coach I admire and respect is Tiffany Sutherland, founder of Four Corners Coaching. 11:17 I often recommend Tiffany's services to my friends because she knows what it's like to have a seat at someone else's table and to build your own. Her unique perspective helps many clarify their career goals. 11:29 I spoke with Tiffany about the benefits of hiring a coach and her thoughts on the importance of women of color investing in this resource. 11:35 Women of color often carry the weight of taking care of other people, usually at the expense of our healing, goals, and development. This is just as true in our professional journeys as it is in our personal lives. 11:48 We are taught to show up and work twice as hard. We are not always taught, though, that much more is required to advance. Coaching provides an excellent opportunity for women of color to prioritize their advancement. 12:01 It is a powerful way to make time for yourself and invest in your vision for your career and life as a whole woman. Coaching gives a woman protected time that is dedicated to her goals, development, and advancement. 12:12 By working with a coach, either one-on-one or in a group setting, women are given the opportunity to explore possibilities, be vulnerable, and be supported as they develop actionable strategies that will move them toward a self-determined version of their life and career. 12:27 I agree with Tiffany. Plus, I would never advise you to invest in a resource that I wouldn't invest in as well. Have you noticed that every professional athlete has a coach? Why would you be any different? 12:38 You are the captain of your team. You are the point guard for every shot you shoot, and you are the goalie that has to keep out lame managers that would try and stifle your career. 12:48 You can't win this workplace game without a coach. Well, you could win without one, but wouldn't it be easier if you had one? Coaching can be expensive, but so can a cup of premium coffee each morning. 13:00 We choose what we want to invest in. It's not lost on me that not everyone can afford a career coach. This is why we created career boot camps at The Memo. 13:09 We want to make career education and exposure accessible, whether you're a recent graduate, in transition, or making a six-figure salary. 13:17 And remember, your employer might pay for professional development resources like career coaching, and you could also request professional development while negotiating your recruiting package or during your annual review. 13:28 As I said before, leave no stone unturned when it comes to your professional development. Proficiency isn't enough anymore. 13:35 Besides considering a career coach or investing in a similar career resource, it's important to think about developing your long-term skills. Remember that career blueprint I told you to think about? 13:45 We'll get to that more in depth, but your long-term skills all relate to where you want to take your career. Investing in yourself will require adding new skills to keep you marketable. 13:54 In this new economy, it's not enough to work for 30 or to 40 years and receive a gold watch when you retire. If something happens to your job before you get to retirement, you need to be marketable elsewhere. 14:04 Recently, I was at a McDonald's, and the manager asked each person to place their orders at the self-serve kiosk because they were understaffed instead of going up to the counter to order. 14:14 When I left McDonald's, I couldn't help but think about the future of the workforce and the potential downsizing that could occur as a result of self-serve kiosk. 14:21 Conversely, I thought about the opportunities that might present themselves for their employees and the career exposure to tech, which might ignite a passion to learn more about the technology behind the kiosk, which might result in a desire to learn a new skill in the tech field. 14:35 There's nothing wrong with reinvesting in your skills, and we must be self-aware enough to realize when it's time to seek out new credentials or certifications. 14:43 For example, if you have been a certified public accountant for the last 30 years, the ever-changing economic markets and technology will require you to stay up to date on the latest software and read up on how blockchain might affect the future of your industry. 14:56 We no longer can skate by with our skills from the past and expect to remain competitive in the future. 15:02 I don't want any of us to be afraid of growing older in the workplace or dismiss how ageism has forced talented people out of their careers. 15:09 Ageism is a real thing, but perhaps taking additional professional development training to help underscore that you are still a viable part of the talent pool could be helpful in your next career transition. 15:20 None of us are exempt from staying on the top of the latest trends. 15:23 Or if you're a recent grad with limited work experience, how do you describe the leadership roles you held that helps you prepare for the position you want to apply for today? 15:32 Don't let your age stop you from investing in yourself. We all need the extra investment to help us succeed. Here's another way to look at it. I remember when I put together my first resume. 15:42 Back then, it was trendy to put how many words per minute you could type. In high school, I was required to take a typing course. 15:48 If I prepared my resume today with those same words per minute as a skill set, they would throw my resume in the trash and think my skills were outdated. 15:55 Or if you're still putting proficient in Microsoft on your resume, honey, they are throwing that resume in the trash too. Any person with a computer and internet is proficient in Microsoft Office. 16:05 You might not be aware of or up to speed on the latest skills and trends in the workplace, and I know resumes might seem like a petty thing to focus on, but if you don't know what they look like in the 21st century, or if you haven't worked in a decade or more, you can't afford not to invest in yourself. 16:20 And if you aren't sure what a modern resume looks like, or you want to transition into using a virtual resume or create a personal website, you should connect with a career coach or even a trusted friend who can help you. 16:31 Recently, I offered to help one of my relatives update her resume. She had been out of the traditional workforce for decades and found herself needing to return to work. 16:39 For months, she was sending out resumes and receiving no bites. I could sense her frustration, and since I'm in the career development field, I wanted to be of service. 16:48 I am pretty sure she didn't have the most up-to-date resume and was using her work experience from the 1970s and 1980s to tell her career story. She refused my help and was in denial about the need to level up. 17:00 It hurts me to say this, but she still hasn't been called in for an interview. Often, we want others to invest in us when there's an investment we must first make in ourselves. 17:08 We cannot afford to be ambivalent about our careers at any age. One quick thing before we continue. 17:17 If you're enjoying this conversation and you want more stories like this, more insights from creators and entrepreneurs who are building something real, then you need to check out my newsletter, Please Hustle Responsibly. 17:30 It goes out two to three times a week, and it's where I share creator profiles, business strategies from a bootstrap perspective, and practical advice for building community without burning out. 17:41 We've got over 1,600 subscribers, creators, entrepreneurs, and marketers who care about sustainable growth. You can sign up at pleasehustleresponsibly.com, and I'll drop the link in the show notes. 17:55 If this episode resonated with you, the newsletter will too. All right, let's get back to it. I'm gonna stop right here in this chapter. 18:08 It goes on for another couple of pages, but I think this is enough where you get an idea of Her concept of investing in yourself. There's a couple of things I want to 18:21 mention that she talks about in terms of investing in yourself. A lot of this is geared towards women who are in traditional careers or salaried positions, not necessarily entrepreneurs. 18:31 But a lot of this is translatable to people who are entrepreneurs and self-employed because you are responsible for your own professional development. 18:39 You are responsible for learning new skills, and you are responsible for being able to translate those new skills, those new advancements in your professional career into bigger contracts, maybe different types of work, different types of services that you offer, and the cost associated with working with you as it increases over time. 19:01 When I last had a salaried position, there was a professional development, um, stipend at that job, and when I was a part-time contractor, long-term contractor with a nonprofit, I still was able to access some professional development funds that allowed me to travel to different conferences and things like that. 19:21 And I think that is a really important piece of this for people who want to make the leap from maybe having a nine-to-five or a salaried role into entrepreneurship, is leveraging those tools that can help you succeed as an entrepreneur while you're still at your nine-to-five. 19:38 Um, simply having a job and having the skill set is not a one-to-one translation into being an entrepreneur. Just knowing how to do something is one part of it. 19:48 Knowing sales, knowing public speaking, knowing marketing, um, understanding networking, uh, knowing how to set up the backend of your business, whether that is your finances, you know, setting up a spreadsheet, understanding your cashflow, understanding where leads are in your sales process, all of those things are skills as well that go on top of delivering a product or a service. 20:11 Um, 20:12 when people do brand photo shoots, myself included, you'll see women or people in general in suits, and they're looking nice and expensive [laughs] and they look great, and they look like someone who's worth a five-figure, six-figure, seven-figure deal. 20:27 Um, but that's only part of it. There's a whole experience that goes along with, um, running a business and creating a good customer experience that people value and want to pay for. 20:38 And learning that is really important, and a lot of that learning is gonna be at your own expense. There are executive coaches for entrepreneurs and career coaches for entrepreneurs. 20:47 They are expensive, but, you know, as someone who is in the filmmaking space, there are cameras more expensive than some of these coaches. So it's really not out of the question to pay for something like that. 20:59 If you're making any decent amount of money, paying for an executive coach is a similar investment as paying for a new camera, and you have to consider which one is gonna take you further. 21:10 Are clients really gonna care that you just invested in a camera that will allow you to do your job maybe 2% better, or are they gonna care that you know how to speak to them when they're frustrated, when they have doubts, and when maybe they've been initially unsatisfied with something and are coming to you out of frustration? 21:25 There are ways to invest in yourself that are free. You know, you just have to understand that they're gonna take longer, and I've talked about this on an article in Please Hustle Responsibly. You know, there's 21:36 YouTube, there's free articles, there's free newsletters, there's free podcasts. I've listened to them all. I've read them all. I've watched them all. I get it. They are helpful. 21:46 But it takes significantly more time to try to ingest all of that, make sense of all of that, figure out which aspects of those YouTubers, podcasters, writers is applicable to your situation and how to apply that in a way that aligns with your capacity and with your budget versus just paying someone or buying a course that gives you the information you need that's directly tailored to your direct situation and business that you can apply pretty much right away and not in six months. 22:16 And money is really a differentiator in that. Again, when you have a nine-to-five and you have an employer who has a budget for you that you can invest in that way, absolutely take advantage of it. 22:29 But also understand that the money that you are earning as an entrepreneur, a certain percent of that should be set aside for you to invest back in yourself in ways that don't directly tie to your ability to provide a service or products. 22:43 There should be ways that you're investing in yourself to help you grow as a person, as a leader, and as a business owner, maybe even as a creator if it involves learning new skills that will get you further than investing in equipment. 22:55 And I think that is ultimately the heart of what she's trying to get at, is that, you know, something can look pretty all day long, but you have to have the skills to match, and you have to know when to ask for help, and that is just a part of it. 23:10 Having a coach, no- there's nobody on this planet that's gonna say, "Yeah, LeBron got a ring, but he had a coach, so does it really count?" Yeah. 23:20 Yes, every basketball player, every NFL player, every baseball player that's gotten a ring got a ring with a coach. It's okay to have a coach. It's okay to ask for help, and I hope that you know that. 23:32 I hope that this chapter inspires you to think about the ways that you can invest in yourself in ways that maybe aren't so sexy. 23:40 I like to say this all the time, buying media and buying computers is the least sexy part of being a photographer or filmmaker, but you quite literally cannot run a business without them. 23:51 So same thing goes for investing in career development. You can't run a business without learning how to get better at public speaking, learning how to get better at networking, learning how to get better at sales. 24:02 So highly encourage you to do that. 24:05 Love the spirit of the book, and I think that there's many things that can be translated from, you know, people who wanna climb the career ladder to people who wanna start their own business. 24:14 So I hope this chapter resonated with you, and I will see you guys in the next episode. [upbeat music] If you've been getting value from Honey and Hustle, I need a quick favor. 24:25 Would you take 30 seconds right now to leave a review? Reviews help other people discover the show, and honestly, they help me know what's landing with you. 24:35 Whether it's this episode or one from a few months ago that stuck with you, just share what made it worth your time. You can leave a review wherever you're listening right now, and I appreciate it in advance. 24:46 See you in the next episode. 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