Finding Freedom - Faceless Businesswoman #13

What is your Job title?

I would describe myself as an entrepreneur. Or an activist. What did I put on my Instagram bio? I think it says activist, entrepreneur, and documentarian.

Did you get a degree? If so, is it directly related to your field? If no, what is your degree in?

I have a high school diploma and a beauty school certificate.

How long have you worked in your various industries?

I remember being a kid and like going door to door, trying to sell things. I have always wanted to make money and do it my own way. I went to beauty school about 10 years ago. But then I quickly realized I enjoyed the business side of it more than the service side. So I gravitated towards trying to build the business to a level that I could remove myself from and focus on other projects. That was the first step in this journey, about 10 years ago.

If you were advising somebody who wants to be an entrepreneur, what would you say to them?

Pick one thing and master it, and then use your earnings, your foundation, your community, or your followers that you've gathered from mastering that one thing to in turn build upon and create more. That's really hard for a lot of entrepreneurs because we want to do all the things. So everything's an opportunity and it's hard [sic] to focus on one thing. It's still a struggle for me; it probably always will be - just staying in my lane and building on what I have instead of spreading myself so thin by trying to do all the things.

What do you think are essential qualities for somebody to possess if they're interested in becoming an entrepreneur?

Have a high tolerance for risk. If you're a highly anxious person, this will wreck your life. This will wreck everything. But you also have to learn to temper your high tolerance for risk with calculated risk, you know?

Just because you have a low tolerance for risk, sometimes that can translate into just pure stupidity. But it's balancing that tolerance for risk and calculated risk, and that kind of a sweet spot so you don't completely self-destruct.

What is the hardest part of being an entrepreneur for you specifically?

Not being able to do all the things.

Especially when you start working in nonprofit and activism, you see all the places that you could impact and make a change but learn to stay in your lane and focus on why you started the mission. Then any extra time or resources you accumulate from focusing on your mission, use those to support other people who are fully vested in those other things.

I work for women to get grants to support their small businesses. So they can create free freedom for themselves.

But I also feel strongly about animal rights, right? But with extra money that I make or with the platform that I have I can give that to somebody else who is all in on animal rights. I feel in, in that way, we can do the most good in the world - if we support the ones who are a hundred percent laser-focused on their mission instead of spreading ourselves too thin. You can pick all kinds of things. The world's falling apart. You can pick anything to be passionate about and there's somebody else whose life is devoted to it. So find that person and support her. Do it with a check. Let her take that money with her high tolerance for risk and make the most out of it.

What is the most fun or rewarding part of being an entrepreneur for you?

I don’t think that I will be around to see the most rewarding part. At least that's my goal. I hope that I can create something that lives longer than I do and that continues to give after I'm gone. I don't think a lot of us realize the impact we can have on the future with the way we spend our time while we're here. Because the time we're here is so short and it's full of real life, you know, aging parents or health problems or money problems or whatever. So my hope is that the reward continues long after I'm here to see it.

If you could meet any businesswoman who would she be?

Oprah

If you could do it all over again would you still want to end up where you are now?

It's tricky because I'm still in the thick of it so I'm not exactly sure where it's gonna lead.

I’m early in the game so I’m still having a chance to like self-correct. But I should have waited until my foundation was stronger before I branched off into something as big as worldwide activism, you know? Or started smaller with the activism projects instead of like “I gotta be all in around the world and cram all of these interviews into a year.”

I mean, other than that, you just gotta start before you can know how to grade yourself.

What is the worst advice you’ve ever gotten, or in hindsight given? Did the advice hinder or embolden your advances?

I wouldn't say it's so much advice. I don't know if this is like probably a little overkill for your project, but so I was raised in a cult. So when you come out of something like that, you have all of this indoctrination. You don't even know you have it because it's such a part of your DNA that you behave in a certain way because you've been raised that way. So it's not so much *bad advice* I was given, I just think that being raised and told the world was a certain way, that this is how a woman should behave, or this is a woman's place, or education is bad. That the world is ending, you need to live a strictly perfect life, or you're gonna incur the ultimate wrath of God. I think tho that's not advice; but living with those kinds of constraints and when it’s gone you realize, “Wow, I am free, what can I do with that”? Freedom is pretty amazing.

So it's not so much advice, it's the weight of religious indoctrination. And the weight of patriarchy. And having that held over your head is very limiting. It changes your starting point. Because you don't even know you're starting from a different point and you don't know what is different out there because your scope has been so narrow.

I can't even complain about that because my weird life has just made my current life and my future that much more exciting. If I'd had a normal life, I never would've known what this was like, you know, I would have a normal job and a normal life and I wouldn't have all these interesting perspectives on the world and the way the mind works and the things that I could potentially do.

As far as bad business advice, probably the worst business advice is stuff I've given myself. Like, “I think this is a great idea”. Then it ended up being a really horrible idea.

What does your typical daily schedule look like?

In 2022, I spent almost a whole year traveling. Now I'm trying to take 2023 to be home more and focus on my spa.

Typically my day now is - I wake up early and have coffee. I take my dogs to the park. No matter how cold or windy or snowy it is, we go out there and they run around - I put my AirPods in and listen to some audiobook, something inspiring, whether it's an autobiography or something business related. Then I either am in Zoom meetings all day or work at the spa, write reports, look at spreadsheets, do phone calls…that kind of stuff.

How do you show yourself care and compassion while ruling your world?

I do one thing for myself almost every day - I take a nap.

What did you do for your last vacation or time off?

It's kinda funny. I went to London in October, it was for an interview with a Ukrainian refugee. That was my last trip. I was supposed to go to Kenya like two weeks later for a Liberte interview a fashion designer. I've done trips before, all over the world, so I knew better - but for some reason, I get to the airport, my husband dropped me off in Chicago. “Bye, honey. See you in two weeks.” I go inside, go to the desk, hand her my passport, checking in for my flight, and she's like, “do you have your visa?” I was like, “oh, I, I knew this was too easy. I knew I was forgetting something"! I didn't have my visa! So I ended up staying in Chicago for like two days trying to get it figured out, and it just wasn't happening. So I went home and I remember as I was leaving Chicago on the train to come back home, I was like, “you know what? Everybody thinks I'm in Africa”! I’m not telling anybody that I'm home. That was my last vacation.

Literally, I had no phone calls, no zoom meetings, no nothing. I just came home to my dogs because my husband was gone. After all, he thought I was going to be gone for two weeks. So he was visiting friends and I was like, “this is freaking awesome”! I had like 10 days of just solitude and no meetings and just me and the dogs and like a bowl of Lucky Charms. That was fabulous!

What did you want to be when you were a child?

Well, as a child I was told I couldn't be anything; I was told that the end of the world is coming. But when I got older and finished high school, I got married for the first time and I was like 19 - I wanted to be a doctor. But I couldn't because that would be college and I wasn't allowed to go to college, but I really wanted to do that - Study medicine.

Is there anything else you'd like to share about entrepreneurship or Liberte and your nonprofit?

I think that the role women play and their contributions to the world are very much undervalued. I want there to be a place that women can turn to for money to start a small business, that they don't have to ask permission to have. Because for myself, I feel like I was able to achieve at least a portion of my freedom because I was able to start a small business, which has led to all these other projects I'd never even dreamed I'd be able to do. And it all starts with cash.

I feel like women have the babies. So we're already, we're already tough. We run households, we raise children, we keep the peace, we nurse and mend - we are already CEOs, but a lot of women are in a position where they don't have access to capital. I don't even mean a lot of capital. I mean it could be a few thousand dollars, it could even be a pair of dog clippers. I hope I can use what time I have left to provide some kind of resource for women to get access to cash - that they don't have to repay - and they don't have to ask permission for when they get the money. It's a gift between the giver and the receiver. And there is no man involved in that circle. There's no dad, there's no boyfriend, there's no husband, you know? I know places like that probably already exist, but I feel like I want to contribute to that.

Favorite band or singer? 21 Pilots.

Hobby? World domination.

Favorite food? Pizza.

Favorite color? Cheetah Print.

Any secret talents? I know most of the lyrics from all the rap songs in the nineties.

Any mundane thing about you? I think sleeping is superpower.