Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Lessons from Trailblazing Women Entrepreneurs

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Lessons from Trailblazing Women Entrepreneurs · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  Three, two, one, zero.
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  Ignition.
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  Lift off.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with the number one small business expert, Melinda
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  Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's your host, the small biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Have you subscribed to the small biz chat podcast?
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  Well, it's time.
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  Every Wednesday, we offer listeners bite sized actionable tips to start and grow a successful
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  small business.
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  In just twenty minutes or so a week, you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel
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  your business forward.
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  Be sure to subscribe to the Small Bitch Chat podcast today.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  This is Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady, America's number one small business expert, and
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  I am so excited to welcome you to another edition of the Small Biz Chat podcast.
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  And I wanna say happy March, happy Women's History Month.
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  I am so excited to talk to you guys today about something special that I wanna do for Women's
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  History Month.
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  Women are not just history, they are inspirational and their inspiration is
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  instructional.
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  As I believe success leaves clues, I thought that I would highlight in this solo podcast
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  nine of my favorite female leaders and why they're so awesome.
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  So women have always been innovators, builders and disruptors, even when the systems were not
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  designed for us to win.
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  And some people might argue that they're still not designed for us to win.
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  But the question is not whether or not women have led, it's what can we learn from how they
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  have led?
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  So today I'm sharing lessons from some incredible women trailblazers, both historical
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  and contemporary, and breaking down what modern women business owners and leaders can steal
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  from their playbooks.
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  Not copy, steal because these lessons are timeless.
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  So the first entrepreneur that I wanna talk about is Madam CJ Walker, who is the very first
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  self made woman millionaire in the history of The United States.
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  And she happened to have been a black woman.
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  And she built a haircare empire in The United States.
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  And she built her fortune by solving a hair growth problem she personally experienced and
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  understood deeply.
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  And she didn't just create products, she built a distribution network.
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  Basically she was one of the first direct sales companies, I guess we would call them now multi
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  level marketing companies, but she trained sales women and she empowered them to have
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  their own money because she was around in the early 1900s and she helped women.
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  Women had no agency, women had no money unless their husband gave them an allowance or
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  something.
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  And certainly Black women then were still working as washer women, maids.
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  If they did go to college, they were teachers, they were homemakers and things like that.
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  So I think that Madam CJ Walker opened up the opportunity of commerce for so many people.
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  And so what I love about her is that she built a business by solving a specific problem, but
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  she also controlled the distribution of her product, which is why she made so much money.
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  So if you are serving an underserved market, that's actually your advantage.
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  You can build products and services that speak directly to that community and create a sales
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  channel that allows you to reach them authentically.
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  Everything is not being sold by Amazon in this country.
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  So think about what you can build where you can control the distribution network.
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  And that might look like strategic alliances and joint venture partners, But think about
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  what you can do to build not just your product, but your own distribution network to sell the
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  product.
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  Then I wanna talk about Estee Lauder.
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  Estee Lauder built her empire on storytelling and product experience.
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  Now, she also became a multimillionaire in the beauty industry, but she did not just sell
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  cosmetics.
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  She sold aspiration, she sold confidence, and she sold transformation.
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  So in the early days of her brand, she personally demonstrated products at department
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  store counters, engaging customers in one on one conversations and telling the stories
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  behind each formula that she created.
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  She understood that beauty was emotional.
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  So she focused on creating an experience that made women feel seen, elegant and empowered.
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  And one of her most influential strategies was the now famous gift with purchase, which is
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  standard operating in department stores now.
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  She allowed customers to sample additional products, which really deepened their
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  relationship with her brand.
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  And this tactic not only increased her average order value, but also encouraged free trials
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  across her product lines, driving repeat purchases.
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  Estee Lauder also believed that storytelling elevated the perceived value of her beauty
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  products.
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  One of the things that she was famous for was letting people experience your value before
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  they buy.
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  So today that might look like webinars, free trials, discovery calls, samples, sampling.
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  Your brand is not what you say, it's what people feel when they interact with you.
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  So that was the thing that Estee Lauder became so, so famous for.
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  Now, entrepreneur who's one of my favorite entrepreneurs, and she's actually the reason
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  why I became an entrepreneur, is Ms.
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  Oprah Winfrey.
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  And Oprah Winfrey is, she is a person, but she's a person that built a platform around her
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  own personal brand.
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  What made her so special to so many people, or I should say what makes her so special to so
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  many people is that her true authenticity and she leveraged that influence into an entire
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  ecosystem.
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  So the first thing she did was build trust with her core audience of television viewers.
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  And then she figured out how to monetize her tribe in so many different ways, from her book
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  clubs to her multiple channels, her Oprah Magazine, Oprah's Favorite Things, her book
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  clubs, own cable channel, as well as her Super Soul Sundays, which is her show that she does
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  to profile people who she still wants to elevate into the national conversation.
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  And I think that one of the things that Oprah taught all of us is that your voice is an
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  asset, that you can build a community and monetize that community, especially if you are
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  transparent with that community and your voice is an asset.
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  I love how she shows up consistently.
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  She always shares value.
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  She's always leveraging her credibility because trust compounds.
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  And once people trust you, the opportunities multiply.
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  And Oprah Winfrey is a perfect example of that.
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  Another entrepreneur who I think is phenomenal, and a younger woman entrepreneur is Sarah
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  Blakely.
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  And she is an innovator.
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  Sarah Blakely created Spanx really to solve her own frustration.
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  She wasn't chasing trends.
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  She was responding to her own lived experience.
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  As a young saleswoman selling fax machines door to door, she struggled to find undergarments
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  that created a smooth silhouette underneath her white pants without showing her undergarments.
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  Instead of accepting the problem, she cut off the feet of pantyhose and realized that she had
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  stumbled onto something that has become almost a billion dollar business for her, that women
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  in the market had been overlooked, because there's so many issues that women have that are
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  overlooked by the marketplace.
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  But she was relentless in her pursuit to helping women have not just, because girdles
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  have been around forever, but she wanted people to have comfort undergarments, shapewear she
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  called it, and she prioritized comfort, confidence and functionality over traditional
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  industry assumptions.
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  And she has that thought take her all the way to the bank.
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  She didn't have fashion or manufacturing experience.
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  She prototype tested and refined her product through real user feedback.
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  And she personally wrote her packaging copy to be relatable and humorous and reflect her
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  customer's perspective rather than corporate jargon.
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  And her direct engagement with customers help build trust and loyalty very early.
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  Pay attention to what frustrates you or your customers.
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  Those pain points often create seeds of your next product, service or offer.
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  Another giant of business and industry is Janice Bryant Howard.
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  And she is the CEO of the ACT ONE Group, which started as a modest home office that she grew
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  into the largest privately held minority woman owned staffing company in The United States.
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  And she did it without relying heavily on traditional advertising.
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  Her growth strategy was centered on trust, service excellence, and long term relationships
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  with both clients and employees.
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  Early on in her career, Ms.
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  Howard recognized that staffing is fundamentally a people business.
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  And her success was dependent upon credibility, reliability, and a deep understanding of
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  customer needs.
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  So she invested time in listening and delivering consistently and following through,
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  which turned satisfied clients into repeat customers, referrers and advocate.
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  And so that's how you do it.
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  Anybody will buy something once, you've got to get people to buy it over and over again.
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  So her thing is relationships can scale faster than advertising.
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  She was all about building a reputation, building partnerships because they outpaced
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  paid marketing.
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  So if you invest in people, the growth will follow.
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  And that's what Janice Bryant Howard has always believed.
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  And I've had the opportunity to meet her on more than one occasion.
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  And she is exactly who she is in the media, is exactly who she is in person.
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  She's a delightful person.
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  Another entrepreneur that I have come to admire is Whitney Wolfe Heard.
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  And Whitney Wolfe Heard is the founder of Bumble.
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  And I really admire what she did because she didn't just wanna build another dating app.
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  She really redefined the rules of online dating by centering it around a woman's agency and
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  safety.
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  Most other dating apps, if the man swipes on you, that's how you get to talk to them.
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  Well, on Bumble, women swipe on the men.
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  So if a woman doesn't swipe on you, you don't get to speak to her.
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  And so I loved that.
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  And I am actually, I have used Bumble and I have someone in my life who I met on Bumble.
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  So I'm big fan of Whitney's in a couple of different ways.
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  But what I will say is that by her introducing her disruptive concept of having women make the
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  first move, that transformed Bumble from a product to really a cultural statement that
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  empowered women, gave women respect and really modernized relationships about waiting to be
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  chosen by some man.
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  That is not it.
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  So she embedded her brand values directly into the user experience And Bubble became more than
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  a tool, it really became a symbol of a shift in social norms.
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  Wolfherd's company marketing leans heavily into storytelling, social causes, user driven
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  content, and she has really created a sense of belonging amongst her audience.
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  And she's branched out to other platforms.
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  She's got Bumble, which is her main dating platform, but then she's got Bumble BFF.
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  If you move to a new town and looking for some friends, there's another application for
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  Bumble.
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  So there's lots of different things that she has turned Bumble into, but I love that she has
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  led a movement of creating emotional loyalty that a product cannot do alone.
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  When you align your brand with a clear mission and you empower your community and design
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  experiences that reflect your values, your customers become advocates who help your brand
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  grow.
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  And that is exactly what happened to Bumble.
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  Your brand values matter and if you can infuse your brand values with something that your
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  customers care about, that's a win win scenario.
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  And so community creates loyalty and loyalty creates longevity.
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  And that is what we have seen from Wendy Wolf Heard.
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  So, Bravo to her.
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  She is an amazing young entrepreneur and I'm excited to see what she does next, frankly.
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  And the last entrepreneur I want to highlight is a woman who I have recently become friendly
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  with in the last six, seven months or so.
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  And she is just a remarkable leader and her name is Mary Kennedy Thompson.
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  And she is CEO of BNI International.
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  And she leads one of the largest networking organizations with a philosophy of quiet
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  leadership.
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  And while she is not the founder of BNI, Mary Kenny Thompson is a serial entrepreneur,
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  successful entrepreneur.
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  And now she leads an organization that facilitates other people becoming entrepreneurs
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  because she runs a franchise system and she has over 11,000 chapters across the globe in 76
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  different countries.
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  So a huge, huge organization, almost 400,000 people belong to BNI groups worldwide.
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  And really her leadership message is pretty simple, but profound.
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  She said, Your character should remain consistent regardless of your circumstances.
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  Whether you're having your best day or navigating chaos, people need to see who you
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  are as a leader.
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  She's a big fan of how quiet leadership builds trust through consistency.
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  She doesn't need you to know that she's the smartest person in the room.
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  She doesn't need anyone to know that she was the person that solved the problem in the room.
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  She's just about getting the problem solved.
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  And what I love about that is that one of the things I've learned from her is that leadership
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  isn't about volume, it's about steadiness.
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  Your team mirrors your energy, so if you show up grounded and calm and reliable, that you are
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  creating psychological safety for people and really that confidence can emanate across the
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  organization.
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  And she's such a remarkable leader that I did not want to highlight my top women leaders for
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  this Women's History Month and not highlight her as well.
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  So if I could just wrap this up so that all of us could think about it, some of the key
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  takeaways across all these women, the common threads are they own the problem, they trusted
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  their perspective, they led with their authenticity, They built strong brands and then
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  they built stronger communities around those brands.
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  They prioritized relationships and they led with courage and consistency.
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  And regardless of the industry, regardless of the personality, they all had the same
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  intentionality.
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  And so I want you to ask yourself, which of these lessons do you need most right now in
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  your business?
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  Women's History Month reminds us that legacy is built one decision at a time.
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  The women that I just talked about didn't wait for perfect conditions, they also didn't wait
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  for permission.
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  They built their businesses and you can too.
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  So whether you're currently running a business or looking to buy a business or franchise,
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  you're only one idea from being able to do anything you want.
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  And I'm always here to help.
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  As always, I want to invite you to head over to smallbizladyuniversity.com/freetools because I
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  have a ton of resources that I offer to help you.
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  Please book a free consultation call with me.
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  If you go on my LinkedIn profile at Melinda Emerson, you will find my scheduling link.
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  Please, you can always book a free consultation call with me.
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  I want to help you win in business, especially if you need some sales support or you're ready
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  to buy your first business.
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  I just want you to know that I love being the small biz lady and I just wanna help you win in
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  business.
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  So if this episode resonated with you, please share it with another women entrepreneur.
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  I want to keep lifting up other women as we climb in business.
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  And I will leave you with this, you never lose in business, either you win or you learn.
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  God bless everybody.
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  Thanks for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us next Wednesday for
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  more fantastic information and interviews.
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  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
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  website, succeedasyourownboss.com.
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  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.