Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / How I Became SmallBizLady

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How I Became SmallBizLady · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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Hi, everybody.
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I'm Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady, and I wanna invite you to enter the small biz check
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podcast, giveaway contest, for the next 30 days starting today, you'll have the chance to win
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amazing prizes if you subscribe to the podcast.
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All you need to do is take a screenshot after you subscribe to the small biz chat podcast and
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tag me small biz lady on Twitter or Instagram.
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Once a week.
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I'll select a winner, and you have a chance to win one of my autograph books become your own
0:27
boss in 12 months or fix your business, or you might even get a chance to win one of my
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limited edition small business chat podcast t shirts.
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Don't delay.
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Subscribe to the small business chat podcast today.
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3, 2, 1, 0, ignition.
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Ripped off.
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Ending small business failure.
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Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert Melinda 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 the small biz lady herself.
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Melinda Everson.
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Everybody.
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I'm Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady, and I am so excited to welcome you to the small biz
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chat podcast.
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Now let me tell you how this is gonna work.
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We are going to be featuring wonderful interviews with small business experts and book
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authors every week.
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But once a month, I am gonna do a solo diary podcast.
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It was gonna be called a small biz lady diary.
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And that is actually the kind of podcast I'm gonna be recording today.
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You know, I realized that I have been the smallest lady over 12 years, and I have a brand
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that reaches millions of people each week online.
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But there are still some of you out there that do not know my story.
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You don't know how I became the small business lady.
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And I wanted to share that with you because every time I tell the story, someone tells me
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that it touched them or that it inspired them.
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And so I wanted to make sure that all of the people listening to my podcast knew why and the
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heck they should be listening to me.
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Right?
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So I, you know, my name is Melinda Emerson, and I have been an entrepreneur over 20 years ago,
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but about 7, 8, yeah, I guess 7, 8 years into my business You know, something miraculous
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happened to me.
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I became pregnant with my only child, my son, Jojo, and in doing so, I ended up with a high
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risk pregnancy.
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I ended up on bed rest, and this was about 2000 5, 2006.
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And I gotta tell you, WiFi was not what it is today.
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You know, it wasn't like I could sit in my house and still work from my laptop, like, no
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big deal.
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I had to be from home back in the day.
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You got sent home.
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We got put on bed rest.
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You were just at home unless you operated a home based business.
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And by that point, I was located in offices in downtown Philadelphia, I had 78 employees.
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My husband at the time worked full time in the business as well.
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So our entire livelihood came from this business.
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And, obviously, I was the the the CEO, chief rainmaker, but when I got put bed rest.
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I gotta tell you, it put the brakes in almost the Kibash on on everything.
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I basically went from being the worst workaholic you ever met to to being put on bed
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rest for 6 months in my house.
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And that was pretty rough for me because first of all, the reason why I got put on bed rest
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was because they thought my child had a heart condition.
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So I had to go to the hospital three times a week and get testing done.
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And every week, we would fail the test.
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Like, for those of you that are moms out there, How many of you guys ever had a stress test?
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Well, I had a stress test every single week, and me and my baby would fail.
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This stress test every week.
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So, you know, how some people only got ultrasound pictures in their 20 week
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ultrasound.
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Well, not me.
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I got pictures every single week of the inside.
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So I got a chance to fall in love with my baby.
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1, I'll just down picture at a time, but at the same time, it was very serious.
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You know, my child, they didn't know what was going on.
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His little heart rate, they never could get it to accelerate, and it was very, very stressful.
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But the other thing too is how I had been living my life up until that point was very,
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very stressful.
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I'm not kidding.
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I was a really bad workaholic.
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I actually used to leave.
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I would leave church on Sunday and go to my office and work 5 more hours.
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I was that bad.
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I mean, you could call my office at 9 o'clock at night, and people would literally answer the
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phone.
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Like, it was 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
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Not only was I a workaholic, I actually demanded that my whole team kinda be
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workaholics too, and it just wrecked havoc everywhere in my life.
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And and so, certainly, you know, in my marriage, which did end up dissolving And I
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don't know that my my business habits killed my relationship, but I it probably finished
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killing it.
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So I think it's really important for you to think about 1st and foremost, you know, what
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kind of life you wanna have as an entrepreneur?
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Because if you're not careful, your business can not only become your mistress.
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It can become all consuming to your entire life.
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And that is not why we start businesses.
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Right?
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We start businesses so that we can live our dream life.
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But let me tell you what happened.
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When I got put on bed rest and I basically couldn't work, you know, my business end up,
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you know, kind of being in a shambles because if I wasn't there, to make rain.
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Like, there wasn't anybody else really making rain.
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You know, my employees would do anything.
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I asked them, but nobody kinda proactively did anything.
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So while I was at home, having my baby trying to get my son here, you know, I almost lost my
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business.
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And but the good thing about all of that happening was when I got put on bed rest, it
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was the first time I had actually stopped to really think about my life and think about my
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business and how I had been running my business.
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And I am a freak about handwriting things.
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I I'm not big on dictating things or typing things on computer.
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I actually have tons and tons of yellow roll pads in my life and all over my off and all
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over my house.
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And I think it's from when I was a kid, my dad always had yellow roll tablets in in his
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office.
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And so I am addicted to yellow roll pads.
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They can't even be white.
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They have to be yellow because I'm always writing things down.
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I'm always thinking about the next things I wanna do or, you know, how I wanna organize
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something, and and I get my best inspiration when I'm looking at a yellow roll pad for some
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reason.
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But, anyway, I was home on bed rest, I started writing down all the expensive lessons I had
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learned in my business, literally.
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And the list was so long.
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Like, when I got finished feverishly writing, I'd it took over, like, 2 or 3 days to write
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everything down that I could remember.
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And when I got everything down, I was like, wow.
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This is a really long list.
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And and and and it was a sobering list because when I kinda looked at it and I read through
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it, I was like, dang.
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I shouldn't have made these many these many mistakes.
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And but the reason why it was a good thing is because it gave me inspiration.
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Like, I realized that I would have run my business better if I had had better advice.
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But I gotta tell you guys, like, in the early 2000, there really weren't a lot of people out
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here given small business advice.
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Certainly, there were people that were writing books.
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You know?
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Michael Gerber had written the emails.
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And, you know, some people like that that there were people that had written books, but there
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but there wasn't anyone in the media every day, sort of like giving small business advice.
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There certainly was people out there giving financial advice.
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You know, there was Susie Orman.
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There was my my buddy, Gee Chaski, from the today show.
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I mean, there were people talking about your money and your money management and 401 k's and
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all this kind of stuff, but there was nobody saying, hey, if you build a better mousetrap,
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if you have an idea for a better mousetrap, I'm gonna tell you how to do it.
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I'm gonna tell you how to maximize it.
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I'm gonna tell you how to you know, leave your corporate job.
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There was no one out there in my spear really talking about that.
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And it was interesting because at the very beginning of my career, my my actually
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undergrad degree is in broadcast journalism.
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I was a television producer originally, and I got my dream job very young.
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I hated it.
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You know, I I it was such a toxic environment.
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I was like, I cannot stay here.
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I cannot keep doing this job because if I do gonna start acting like all these people in
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this newsroom, or I'm gonna be the big story on action news.
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So I gotta get out of here.
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So, literally, I I left my dream job when I was twenty six years old, and I started my business
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in the basement of my house.
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But what I realized was I was very young when I started my business.
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And because of that, that was actually a good thing because it made me a very just reader and
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made me a student of business.
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Like, I wasn't so arrogant at 26 to think that, you know, I got this.
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I, you know, I knew everything.
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I did not think that.
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Thank goodness.
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And so I turned myself into sort of like the ultimate student of entrepreneurship.
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I also made it my business to find everyone in the Philadelphia area that could help me with
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my business.
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I made sure I went and met them and introduced myself to them and took courses.
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I, you know, I went through the self employment program.
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I went through the Prudential Young Entrepreneurs training program.
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I I went to the enterprise center.
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They had a business incubator there, and signed up for their programming.
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And, you know, I mean, I literally was like, okay.
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Anybody teaching business?
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I wanna know about it.
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You know, business plan course, leadership course, negotiation course, whatever.
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I I made sure that I took it because I knew that I knew how to do my craft.
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I didn't know how to run a business.
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And because of that, I was like, I gotta make sure I learn as much as I can.
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But after 7 years, I had been you know, pretty successful.
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I mean, I actually, at that time, when I got pregnant with my son, I had the largest woman
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owned video production company in the city of Philadelphia, I had made the Philly 100 list,
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which is like the mini inc 5000 list in Philadelphia.
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I was number 29 on the list.
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My, you know, my then husband was able to leave his full time job at GE and join our business
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full time.
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You know, so we were doing okay, but it wasn't like we weren't still making mistakes.
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We were we were wasting money.
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We were, you know, hiring the wrong kind of insurance company.
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I mean, did, you know, just all kinds of stuff.
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And I I was like, wow, There's no one out here giving people small business advice on any kind
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of regular, consistent basis in media.
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And I wonder if I could do that.
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And literally, I started thinking about it.
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And but also too, whenever I get a a glimmer of an idea, one of the practices that I have as I
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believe in praying over things.
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And literally, you know, my business was in shambles.
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I had these notes I had taken you know, I was pregnant.
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I was about to birth this baby.
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And I was like, okay.
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What is it that I am supposed to do next?
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And literally, I went and I had lunch with my pastor.
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And he was like, well, you know, have you been praying about it?
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And I was ashamed to tell him that I hadn't been, but Of course, I knew I needed to.
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And and literally, I started praying over my situation and and asking god sort of like,
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well, what is next for me?
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I knew I couldn't continue working like I had been working because I was having a baby, but I
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also, you know, wasn't sure I loved my business like that.
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Anymore.
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And I literally started praying it in in after about two, two and a half months, god gave me a
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vision to do it three times.
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To become America's number one small business expert.
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And I didn't recognize it at first.
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It's not like he called me on the phone and said, hey, Melinda.
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Here's what I need you to do.
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You know, god spoke to me through a vision and in my dreams.
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And literally, and and it wasn't until the third time he showed it to me that I finally
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got it.
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Believe it or not.
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And once he once I did get it, though, I was like, oh, okay.
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And then I started looking at people like Susie Armen and and looking at people like GeneTasky
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very differently.
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I started looking at them and trying to understand what their business model was.
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I started looking at them and looking at how they were launching things and how they had
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built their brands and, you know, looking at one of the things I noticed was both of them
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had books.
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And had multiple books and stuff like that.
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So I was like, oh, well, I had a journalism degree, fortunately.
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So writing a book was daunting, but not really Gary.
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It was like, okay.
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I gotta I gotta get some time to do this, but but the other thing was they were both very
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consistent about who they were in in in the marketplace.
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And I was like, well, if I'm going to, you know, be a small business expert, that's what
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I'm gonna have to be everywhere and be consistent with it.
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And so the first thing I did after I had my son, and he was born healthy and strong.
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Thank goodness.
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I got him to his first birthday.
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And I didn't permanently name him in any way.
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And after that, I was like, okay.
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Let me go back to my yellow rural paths that I had been working on while I was pregnant and
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went back through the pages even and got my ideas.
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And I was like, you know what?
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I think I can turn this long list of mistakes that I made in my business into my first book.
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And, actually, that is exactly what happened.
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My first book become your boss in 12 months, which is Praise god been in print almost 10
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years now.
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That was born out of my bed rest.
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That was born out of that monster long list I made.
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Of mistakes.
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And I was like, wow, you know, people need business advice.
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People need to know what potholes are out here waiting for them.
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And so In 2008, I got a book deal.
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My my book, becoming our boss in 12 months, was due to my publisher, September 1 2008, but
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ironically, that was also the year of the great recession.
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Right?
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So My book was due September 1 2008.
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The great recession happened.
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I think it was, like, September 14th.
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2008.
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And I'll never forget it because my wonderful editor, Peter called me on the phone, and he
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said, listen, Melinda, I wanna thank you for being a first time author that actually turns
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your booking on time, but due to the recession due to the fact that all these people are
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losing their jobs, don't think anyone's thinking about entrepreneurship right now.
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So we're actually gonna shelf your book.
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And I said, shelf my book.
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What do you mean?
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And he literally said, we're not gonna publish your book until March of 2010 because we wanna
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release your book in a more, what they call, favorable book environment.
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And I was absolutely devastated.
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Like, I was like, what are you talking about, Willis?
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What do you mean?
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You're gonna shelf my book And he was just like, well, Melinda, you know, the editorial
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board just thinks this isn't the right time.
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And I was so outdone because I had worked like an animal, of course, to get that book done.
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I literally had gotten up at 5 to 7 AM every day for months.
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To work on that book and, you know, the last 2 weeks that that book was, you know, had to be
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finished.
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My husband took my son, and they went away for you know, 7, 10 days, leave me in the house by
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myself so I could finish and get it done on time.
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And and I was like, these people were throwing me under the bus what am I gonna do?
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And I'm a member of the National Speakers Association, and I went to the our meeting was,
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like, right after this happened.
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And I was telling people you know, my sad story, what happened to me.
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And there was a woman that was at the meeting that night, and her name was Laura Stack, and
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She's actually a very famous productivity writer and and expert.
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And she said, you know what, Melinda, if I was you, I'd get a publicist and start publicizing
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that book like it's coming out anyway.
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And I was like, really?
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And she was like, no.
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I'm dead serious.
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You got 18 months to get your act together.
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So get you a publicist and start publicizing that book like it is coming out next week.
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And I'm like, I wasn't sure about her advice, but I thought, I don't know.
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And then another friend that was that was at the meeting that night He leaned over and
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whispered to me.
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He said, actually, I know somebody.
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I know a publicist who actually knows social media I think she'd be perfect for you to work
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with.
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And this woman's name was Kathy Larkin, and he did an email introduction to me and her.
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And I called her up and, you know, told her my sad story.
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And she said, Melinda Bill Gates said if he had $5 left in the world, he was spending 3 on PR.
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So how much you got?
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Literally, I think I had, you know, a $1000 that I could even come close to spending And
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she said, alright.
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I won't even charge you that much.
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She said, why don't we work on a plan to get you started on social media?
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And then we'll go from there.
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And she said, and I know exactly what we're gonna do.
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And I said, well, what are we gonna do?
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Cause literally, I was just dejected and sad and disappointed by this entire experience.
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So I didn't even have the best attitude when I was dealing with her.
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And she said, look.
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She said, we're gonna go out on Twitter and build your brand.
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And you guys, this was 2008.
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So I literally said to her, what is tweeter.
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What are you talking about?
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And she said, oh, don't worry about it.
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I'll teach you how to use Twitter.
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And, you know, we just gotta get you on there.
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And, I think that's gonna be the right platform for you to build your your your your author
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platform.
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And, again, this is 2008.
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People weren't using the word author platform.
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I didn't even know what she was talking about.
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And so finally, the day came for her to teach me how to use Twitter, and I got on my computer
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on the phone and She was on her computer, and she told me to go to twitter.com and log in
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with my name, Melinda Emerson, and I put my name in little box and I got this notice back.
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This name is already taken.
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Now I wanted to tell you guys, in 2008, for my name, Melinda Emerson to already be taken on
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Twitter was pretty ridiculous because I probably have met 6 Melinda's adult, like my
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age or older in my whole life.
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So the fact that there was another Melinda Emerson than that that hepar had gotten to
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Twitter before me was completely ridiculous.
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So I gotta tell you, I was furious, but my publicist thought it was hilarious.
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So she said, well, why don't we go over on Facebook and find out how many Melinda Emerces
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there are?
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And so, literally, we did we went over to Facebook, come to find out there is actually 7,
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Melinda Eversense.
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However, I'm the only black one.
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And I also owned melinda Emerson.com.
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So even though there were other Melinda Emerson's, she told me that I was gonna be the
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most famous, Milan Emerson.
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I said, okay.
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Great.
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But what are we gonna do about Twitter?
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And she said, well, we gotta come up with a nickname for you.
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And I said, a nickname What do you mean, like, Mindy or Millie Mall or something?
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And she said, no, fool.
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You're not a rapper.
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I'm not gonna give you a name like that.
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So then I sat there looking at her.
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It was like, okay.
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Fine.
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So she said, why don't we brainstorm some stuff?
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And I was like, okay.
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And she said, how about small biz guru?
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And I said small biz guru.
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I don't like it.
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I don't think it's for me to call myself a guru.
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She said, okay.
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Okay.
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Well, what about small biz expert?
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And I was like, again, that feels a little bit obnoxious.
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I don't really wanna call myself small biz expert.
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And then she said, well, how about small biz lady?
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And I thought, I think I can be her.
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And so that ladies and gentlemen is how I became small business lady, but let me tell you
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what happened after I became small business lady.
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Well, the one beautiful thing about Twitter, especially back in the day, was that you could
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only use a 140 characters at most.
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And, really, the world of thumb was you needed to use a 20 characters to give people room to
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retweet so you could use a hashtag.
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And so I had an assignment.
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She gave me an assignment every day.
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She told me that I was to find a helpful article, small business article written by
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somebody else, and share it every day.
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She also told me to share something personal about myself, Well, you guys remember I had a
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one year old, you know, when we were doing all of this.
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So I would tweet something like, you know, had to act like an aide to get Jojo to eat a banana
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this morning.
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And then I answer somebody's small business question every day.
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And I did this for at least a year.
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Honestly, I worked Twitter like a job.
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And then about 6, 8 weeks after I got on Twitter as the small bus lady, I noticed that
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people were doing tweet chats.
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And so I noticed that there was a a a small business chat some people were doing and I, you
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know, went and introduced myself to them and find out what their email address was and sent
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them an email.
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I said, hey.
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You know, I'm the small business lady.
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I'd love to be involved with your small business chat.
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If you guys are ever looking for a cohost or something.
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You know, I'd love to, you know, help you guys out.
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And they politely sent me back an email saying, no, thanks.
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Kick rocks.
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So I decided to create small biz chat, my own chat, and my own hashtag, and my own chat And
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what these good old folks didn't know about me was that I was a former television producer and
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I knew how to produce a live show professionally on and off the air.
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So that's what I did.
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I created small business chat, a 1 hour show every Wednesday night from 8 to 9 pm Eastern.
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And that is how small fish chat was born, and it's been, gosh, well over 10 years now that
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we've been doing small fish chat every Wednesday night from 8 to 9 8 to 9 PM Eastern.
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And that is how the small business chat podcast is born because for years, people have been
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saying, you know, you do so many great interviews on Twitter.
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It would be wonderful to be able to listen to a podcast.
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So We gotta give the people what they want.
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Right?
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So that is why now I'm so excited to be launching the small biz pet podcast but I had
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to tell you that whole story so that you would know how I became the small business lady and
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how small business chat was created.
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So I'm gonna leave you with this action point and every single podcast I do, I'm always gonna
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leave you with an action point for the week.
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So here's what it is this time.
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I want you to figure out what your calling is and then be ready to do the work.
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Because if you want the same, same cost, but you will pay, and you're gonna pay with your
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time initially.
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But, listen, the reward is well worth it.
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I am Melinda Emerson, this small biz lady, and you are listening to the small biz chat
23:05
podcast.
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If you want more information about how to start grow a successful small business, head on over
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to my website succeed as your own boss.com.
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I have thousands of articles on how to start a grow a successful small business.
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I'm sure you can find what you need there.
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See you next time.
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You for listening to the Small Biz chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss.com.
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Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcast and join us next Wednesday.