I wanted independence.  I wanted no cap on my income. I wanted to be able to create residual income and to be able to work with a team of people.  I did not want the traditional business model.  I wanted a way to earn money.  This field is not for everybody.  It’s for people who understand the model of being independent.

As African-Americans, you are told be like everyone else.  One thing I am learning is to speak my truth.  It starts with knowing your truth and who you are.  My biggest challenge was not owning up to who I was and what I wanted, and being willing to settle because that’s the best you can do.  It’s the times where I just sat on my hands that I regret the most.  Had I been willing to be a little bolder, more open, and not think that it had to be done the way somebody else told me, I would be a lot better off and be okay with failing.   It’s okay to fail, as long as you’re working to get back up.  If you are going to have failure anyways, why not have it be because you went in your direction and have time to correct it? It’s our time. To the African-American community and African-American women, it’s our time.

I was looking for networking events.  A colleague and I came to our first event, which was a soiree about 5 years ago. After that, I started attending events.  At that time I couldn’t wrap my arms around the value of the organization; nobody was really talking to me.  It didn’t appear to be something that made sense.