200: Celebrating 200 Episodes with 8 Must-Have Business Tips to Elevate Your Business

Monique:
Welcome back to the Black to Business podcast. I am your host, Monique T. Marshall. And as you can probably tell from listening to this clip that I am cheesing and smiling super hard because I am so happy. And the reason why is because today’s episode, it’s episode number 200. Yes, we have done overdose. 200 episodes on the Black to Business podcast. Can you believe it? I sure have a hard time believing.

Monique:
I cannot believe we’ve already done up to 200 episodes. And it is just such an amazing feeling, because if you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that this has been quite a journey. It has certainly been a labor of love, and we love to pour into the community. And this has been something that we initially started in 2016, and it was on and off. And in 2021, we came back and did weekly episodes. And just to see the growth of the podcast, I’m so proud of what we’ve done. I just can’t thank you enough for being a part of the journey. And I love that we get to be along with you on your entrepreneurial journey.

Monique:
Like, we’ve had some incredible guests on the Black to Business podcast, and we’ve discussed a lot of amazing things. And to be honest, a lot of times I see people who are in the business world and they are thriving in the black business community. And I’m like, oh, I’ve spoken to that person. They’ve been on the Black to Business podcast. It is such a great feeling to be with them, whether they’re in the beginning stages of their journey or they’ve been at it for a while, and they’re just constantly getting the recognition. It’s also so great for black to business to be a part of their journey as well. So to celebrate episode 200, we decided to do something a little special. We have decided to take eight of our top episodes between last year, 2023 and then 2024, and just give you a little bit of nuggets from those episodes.

Monique:
We got some business tips, we got some motivation. We got some things that if you’re in the beginning stages of your business, start starting growing your scaling, you are going to love these insights. So we’re going to play a couple of snippets from those episodes. But before we dive into that, I do want to thank you, the listener, for being a part of the black to business journey. And for those of you who have just shared an episode, shared an email which highlights an episode, told someone about a podcast episode, just shouted us out. In any way. I truly, truly appreciate it. And then also, for those of you who have taken the time to write a review, it means the world to us.

Monique:
And so I want to take a moment before I dive into the first episode that I’m going to do a snippet for and read one of the podcast reviews that we have. And I’m also going to encourage you to write a review as well. But this podcast review says that I recently had the pleasure of discovering this podcast. It gave me tons of advice as a first generation entrepreneur. Everyone on the podcast was well spoken and spoke so clearly, helping me better understand business. I love that everyone on the podcast had experience in business and is giving me advice on how to navigate the business world. This podcast is a ten out of ten, and I really do recommend it. Shout out to Fatu for the five stars.

Monique:
Thank you so much. We appreciate people like Fatu and appreciate you for listening. And also, I would love for you to write a review. And speaking of what Fatu said, being a first generation entrepreneur and gaining so much insights from the podcast, actually, the number one up on the list for the snippet is actually an episode from myself that was very popular on the podcast, and it was all about starting a business as a new and first generation black entrepreneur. And I wanted to do this episode when I initially did it, because at that time, black to business was pivoting to who our target audience was. And I wanted to give a little more insight as to how that related to my personal journey as someone who is a first generation entrepreneur. And also, I was in the early stages of business and just understanding what are some of the things that I wish I would have known in those early stages or some of the things that I know as a first generation entrepreneur that others can relate to. So this first snippet is an episode from episode number 142, starting a business as a new and first generation black entrepreneur.

Monique:
As a first time entrepreneur, or as a first generation entrepreneur, we’re a lot of times married to the original idea that we have for our business. And that’s not to say that the why will not change the purpose, the goal, not that it won’t change, it will stay the same. That it will stay the same, rather. But the way that you do that might change. So for me, it was about impacting the black community, but then also I had to get. And as time goes on, what you’ll learn is that you’ll get even more clearer on who you serve, how you can serve them, and in what ways. So for me, it became really clear to me that there is a need here. There are people that I’m speaking to that are doing this for the first time, and they don’t know necessarily the best next steps.

Monique:
And I remember when I first started my business, I was in that exact same place. So what it made me think of is, okay, how can you use the platform that you have to serve this need? And so that’s really what inspired me to make some pivots within black to business on who we focused on. So creating resources for those who are in the first stages of business, who are first generation entrepreneurs. I have personal lived experience with that. So that’s really what inspired me to talk about this today. And then also some of the tips that I’m going to share with you today. I think that we overcomplicate the process. So I’ve been doing business for eight years.

Monique:
One of the things is we overcomplicate the process of business when it can be so much simpler. So these are the reasons why I wanted to talk about this today. And so now I’m going to move into some of the tips that I have on, if you’re experiencing this or if you’re new and first generation entrepreneur, some of the ways that you can navigate the world of business. And this is in no particular order, and this is from my personal experience and research based on what I found. So the first things first is that you want to get clear on your why and you want to get honest about your why. So it might be you want to work for yourself, but why? Because I talk about this all the time. Entrepreneurship is a long game. It’s a marathon.

Monique:
It’s not a sprint of, so there are going to be some high times and they’re going to be some low times. But when I tell you, listen to me. When you know why you do something, that’s what gets you up every day. When you get kicked down, that’s what keeps you getting up. Like, there have been so many times where I’m like, okay, this isn’t working, but let me pivot, because I know why I’m doing this and I know who I’m doing it for. So you really want to get honest about the reasoning why you want to start a business and why you want to serve the people that you serve. So for me, getting clear about just the fact that I didn’t want to not only work for anybody else, I wanted freedom. I also wanted the fact that if I did work for someone else, oh, going back to that point, I forgot to mention, if I did work for someone else.

Monique:
I wanted it to be a black owned business. But what I realized is that when I was doing all the things that I was taught on, how do you pursue getting a job? I was doing all the right things. I was doing the COVID letters. I was going to start staples and printing, you know, resume books, presentation books. But what I found is that there weren’t a lot of businesses, or there weren’t even any. And I’m in New York City, there weren’t many black businesses that could hire and afford to hire. So that became an issue, like, why? Why are we not able to? Why are we operating as solo founders? So it’s getting us to a level where we’re not just a solo operation. And that’s the goal with black to business, is to get you started, get you creating revenue.

Monique:
But then you need to be thinking about hiring, because that’s how you build wealth, that’s how you build impact in the community. So getting even clearer on the why. Alrighty. And next up for number two is episode number 181, which talks about the power of focus, mastering your niche one thing at a time with AJ Simmons. And I’m so glad that this episode was popular because this was a real and raw conversation with AJ, who has really, really specialized in, when you type cleaning businesses, how to start a cleaning biz, the clean biz network pops up. And the reason for that is AJ and his business is a go to when it comes to that industry. So he was the perfect person to have a conversation with on the power of focus and doing one thing. I think that we are in a multi passionate, and I’m all for it, multi hyphenate era.

Monique:
But it is true the richest are in the niches. Imagine honing in on one thing and then going all in. And in this conversation, AJ really keeps it real about going all in, even if it’s in the beginning. Especially if you’re in the beginning going all in on that one thing, being known for that one thing. And then once you scale up, you can do different things. But it’s first having that focus and mastering your niche and wanting to be the go to person in your industry. So in this snippet, AJ is going to lay it out for you. And so, AJ, what advice would you give to somebody who is tempted to wear too many hats or they’re feeling like they’re in a point in their business where they’re just doing too many things or trying to start too many businesses?

AJ:
Yeah, I would say definitely pick one and pick the one that’s. That’s making money. Right. If any of them are making money, pick the one that’s making money and go for that one. And then again, like, let’s just use this example with cleaning houses, for example.

Monique:
Mm hmm.

AJ:
If you get, you know, let’s just say each at one house takes 4 hours to clean. Well, typically, most people work 8 hours in a day, but let’s just say, all right, well, if you get three houses, okay, well, you’re going to work 12 hours in that day. And then if you do that Monday through Friday, yeah, you’ll make decent money. But the problem is you’re capped at three houses a day. But if you go higher, you know somebody else to do it. Unless you say you were charging a customer $50 an hour to clean the house. If you keep you clean, if you clean it yourself, cool. You can keep the $50 an hour, and you might be excited because you never made $50 an hour at a job before.

AJ:
Or you can go pay somebody else dollar 25 an hour. Don’t clean yourself. Let somebody else clean for the 25 an hour. You keep a pass of dollar 25 an hour. And now, how many houses can you clean? Unlimited. Because you’re not the one that is actually cleaning it. Right. You just put other people in place to do it.

Monique:
Mm hmm. Perspective. AJ is giving us game. Okay. Love it. So, AJ, for you, how did you identify or articulate that unique value that you provided to your niche?

AJ:
I just realized that nobody can do, like, no, only I can be me. You know what I mean? And that that’s my value add and shout out to, I hate to. I don’t want to give how free advertisement. But I just want to make sure I always credit people when I learn something from them. It was a lady named Danielle Leslie. I took her course, and she had something called the culture ad, and she was saying how basically just being yourself is your value add within itself. Like, that’s your superpower. And so I just.

AJ:
I just try, you know, if I just be myself and just talk to people the way that I would like to be spoken to, which is straight up, then typically that’ll help me stand out. So it’s like, it’s plenty of other people out there that’s trying to do what I’m doing and, you know, want to, you know, get in this space. But at the end of the day, I think that I’m leading in my industry simply because I’m not copying anybody else. I just do, you know, I do what the customer needs I just look at, what do they need? What more? How can we be better? And then I make sure I do it in a way that only I can do it.

Monique:
Yes. Love that. And so let’s get into mastering your niche and more into the power specializations. Cause that’s one of the things that you’ve also been able to do very well. And I just want to hone that in for my audience. So for somebody who might be in the cleaning industry or in a different industry, like, what are some of the things that they can do to identify and master their niche for that long term success? So how do they make sure that they’re in the game for the long haul?

AJ:
Yeah, I will say, number one, figure out what you. What you want to do first, I guess. What, figure out what you actually would like to do and wouldn’t mind doing for a long time. Right. Make sure that there’s some actual money in that, because, you know, you might want to do something, but it might not be a lot of money. And also, like, for example, let’s just use an, like, examples, you know, let’s just say you want to sell pencils, and it’s like, okay, well, how many. How much does a pencil actually make? You know?

Monique:
Right.

AJ:
$0.50. You know, if you sell an individual pencil and it’s like, well, you’re gonna have to sell a lot of pencils, versus if you, you know, sell the lid that they put in it, maybe you can get more money. So I would just make sure, number one, that you’re in the right lane and make sure you choose something that you actually want to do, and then just try to figure out what would the customer want as well. Like, make sure that you can. You’re the one, or your company can provide a service that actually serves that. You know what I mean? And as long as you can find a long term path to solve those three things, I think you’ll be in good shape.

Monique:
And coming in at number three is episode number 133, getting your business back in an order with Bianca Robinson. Now, this episode really, really was good, and I love the fact that it was very step by step. That’s one of the things I enjoy about the Black civic podcast. I always say, if you come on the blacks business podcast, we’re going to make it so easy to understand that a fifth grader could get it. And in this episode, Bianca really goes in on what’s the difference between a back end and a front end. Understanding the importance of. Of getting your back in order so that it helps you to not only get people who come to your website to know what you do transition into a customer, but then also how to keep them as a repeat customer. And all of that is in your systems, your flow, your back end, the not so fun stuff, but the necessary stuff.

Monique:
So in this snippet, Bianca is really going to break down how it is feasible for you to do and really lay it out in a way that is actionable and step by step. So what actually is a business back end, and why do you feel it’s important for entrepreneurs to really focus on getting these things in place?

Bianca:
That’s a good question. So I definitely believe that the money is made from the back end, not the front end. But we are very good at saying, you know, I need a website and I need a logo. I need to make my colors good and my aesthetics good, and that’s great. I that will attract the client. However, it’s the back end where the money and the repeat money is made. Like, 82% of our clientele is repeat clientele on purpose because I’ve created the back end for that to happen. And so for me, when I’m creating a client’s back end, from a professional service standpoint, we have to figure out, when they say, hello, what’s the process for that? When they say, I need more information, like, what’s the process for that? When they say, like, okay, I’m ready to work to sign the contract, like, what’s the process for that? And when we’re done working with them, how do we go back to them to get some more money? So now old clients can become new clients.

Bianca:
So really understanding that, hi, I need help, I’m ready to close, you know, I want to give you some more money. And so that back end is making sure that the questions that the client would have in order for you to make more money, that needs to be done. So, for example, when they say hi, they it takes a lot of courage for somebody first to email you to even say that they need help. So when they say hi, they’re looking for additional information. So do you have a welcome funnel set up to say, hi? I’m super excited that you reached out. You know, I want to look, I want to know where you are and how I can help you. And so, you know, click here to learn more information about me. Here’s a couple freebies.

Bianca:
Things of that nature. So once they come in, now they’re excited. So now I need to keep that anticipation and excitement going. Well, I’m not doing it from a service perspective, but I’ll definitely do it from a funnel, a back in automation perspective. And so is that automation set up to keep them building a life, no interest, and then kind of converted them into buying a product or service and giving you some money. And so that back end is really what most people drop the ball on because we just want them to say, hello, give us some money. But what if they’re not ready? And once they give us some money, are you onboarding or off boarding them properly so that they can give you more money? So I like to focus on the human component from a sales perspective, but everything else in the back end can be automated. Like, you can automate that.

Bianca:
And if they have questions, that’s that human component. A. Email me back if you have questions, comments and concerns. A call the office. This is our office hours, so a lot of us don’t have that. We do all the work to get the client on the front end, but then when they come, we drop the ball when that’s really where the money is.

Monique:
And coming in at number four is episode number 134, a beginner’s guide to human resources, HR for small businesses with Joey Price. Now, this episode is so important because oftentimes as entrepreneurs, especially as early stage entrepreneurs, let’s be real. A lot of times, you’re not thinking about, oh, I need to have HR. I need to think about HR. Having someone that handles HR, delegate that to someone, because oftentimes you’re thinking, that’s for a big business. I’ll worry about that later. And I’m here to tell you that you should worry about it now. And Joey really breaks it down.

Monique:
It could be so simple as making sure that even in the beginning, you’re thinking big. Like, we want to think big. Remember, think big and make sure that you start with something simple as a hand handbook and how that can really protect your business. So in this snippet, Joey is really going to talk about the importance of one, the fact that you do need to be thinking about HR, even if you’re small. And then also some of those tips for those of you who are scaling up in your businesses. And then he’s going to talk about what are some of the things that you can have in place in just starting small and what that really looks like and how it will protect you and your business, but then also set you up for growth. So let’s dive into this snippet. What are some of the things people need to have in their employee handbook?

Joey:
Well, you’ve got to have a few things that you need to include. I’ll start with, like the compliance piece and then the things that are really good to have. From my standpoint, people need to know what paid time off looks like in your company. In many states, you have a set minimum number of days or hours that you can give a person time off. So you need to make sure that that’s communicated. If you are in a state that requires sexual harassment training, you should include that and how often you are subject to that training. Stuff like jury duty. In some places, you actually have to give paid time off.

Joey:
In some places, you don’t. So just understanding jury duty, what’s another fun one? In the city of Seattle, Washington, they have a special insurance fund that goes to paying out a specific kind of, of insurance to workers. So if you have to abide by that, you should communicate any special funds that may be withdrawn from an employee’s paycheck. People need to know where their money’s going. So it’s things like that that you need to include in your handbook and then some stuff that’s nice to have maybe a letter from you as the owner saying, hey, we’re so grateful that you’re working here. Here’s our mission, vision, value, and culture. You might want to include, obviously, definitely include a place for employees to sign and say, hey, I’ve taken a look at this handbook. I know that I’m accountable to this.

Joey:
And then you also might want to think about, and I haven’t even talked about this piece, but if you have folks that are working remote and what does it mean to be in the office versus out of office, what is your cell phone policy? Do you expect people to check their slack on Saturday night? Do you expect people to respond to clients on Friday evening? What happens if they’re on travel? So all these sorts of things would go into a handbook because they’re all the questions an employee is going to want to know. And you don’t want to have to stop your day, sit down, talk to them about a policy. It just makes it so much easier to run your business if you put all this stuff in one place.

Monique:
Wow. So, so good. Thank you so much. It’s already on fire. Joey, thank you.

Joey:
My pleasure. My pleasure.

Monique:
Yeah. So clearly you’ve expressed some of the benefits of creating, well, a lot of benefits of creating a separate HR department and just focusing on this. I always like to bring it home. So if you had, say, a list of the benefits of creating a separate HR team, what would you say?

Joey:
So if you, if you want to have us, if you want to outsource or if you want to have a department in your business, a department in.

Monique:
Your business, because we’re also going to talk about outsourcing as well.

Joey:
Okay, cool. Yeah. So you want to have a department in your business or someone thinking about HR in your business, because laws change all the time, and no one from the government is going to knock on your door, schedule a Zoom call and tell you, hey, this thing changed, right? So you need to have somebody who’s paying attention to all of that. If you are the owner of a business and you have more than one employee, you need to start thinking about who else can be HR. Because from a business relationship standpoint, it’s hard to be the boss and HR at the same time because your employees are going to be too afraid to go to the boss and say, hey, there’s an issue. I don’t feel comfortable working here. So you need to figure out how you’re going to split those duties up away from you. And then another reason why you want to have HR in your, in your organization if you’re not, you know, working with someone who does outsourcing is because workplace culture matters so, so much these days.

Joey:
And there needs to be someone who’s focused on making sure you have the best culture that you can have in your business. So you got to have either someone or department focused on those aspects. Focused on, if, you know, if payroll wasn’t run, who communicates that to people? And how do you settle that for people that might have bills due on the same day that payroll was supposed to be run? If you have, you know, if you’ve had high turnover and you’re trying to figure out why, you know, maybe someone who’s skilled in HR recruiting will help you unpack why all that’s happening.

Monique:
Isn’t this so good? Like, this is a perfect way to celebrate a 200th episode. So I want to pause for a moment and remind you to please go leave us a review. How are you liking these episodes thus far? What are some of the things that you’ve learned to? And then also, if you are loving this kind of snippet playlist type, we’ve created something super special for you. So the black tip business team has created a personalized business playlist filled with episodes to help you on your business journey. We made it fun and creative. It’s actually a quiz, so once you take the quiz, it’ll determine where you are on your business journey. Whether you’re starting growing, scaling, and some of the tips that you can use to help you get to the next level. But we’ve actually used those tips and formed those into a playlist, a business playlist of different podcast episodes that can help you build your business to the next level.

Monique:
All you have to do is go to blacktobusiness.com playlistquiz and take the quick it’s not even a minute quiz to get a resource that will help you build your business. Again, that is blacktobusiness.com playlist quiz. And what you’ll get is a personalized playlist filled with podcast episodes that you can listen to on the go that will help you build your business. Alrighty, so let’s get into number five. Number five is episode number 192, which is all about shutting down, navigating the entrepreneur journey of business closure with Netta Dobbins. We wanted to have this conversation on the podcast because we know it happens in business. You may have reached a point where it’s time to close the doors. And so you’re thinking, what do I do next? Or you’ve been thinking about closing the doors, but you don’t know if the sign is there, if it’s the right time.

Monique:
And in this episode, Netta really goes into what it felt like for her having a business, that it was at the height of success, but making that tough decision, personal decision, to say, this isn’t for me. And what that looked like for her, and then also what it looked like for her business, for her partners and all of those things, and just getting to a space where you do what’s right for you in your business. So this is a nugget in itself on how to make that right decision. So here it is. So what were those pivotal moments that made you realize, this isn’t it, it’s time to shut down.

Netta:
A lot of people say that I’m crazy for doing this. And I was like, but you weren’t with me in the trenches, y’all.

Monique:
You weren’t here.

Netta:
So the difference with me shutting down memconnect is that memconnect was doing great. We weren’t on a decline or anything. I know a lot of people, they go out of business, so they shut down. We weren’t there. We were easily making money at this point. I had a team, and everything was kind of like, just going as it should with. With minimal need for me to be there. But then you.

Netta:
You wake up one day and you realize that, like, it was an accident. I never intended to go into recruiting, which is kind of what it shifted into. And you just realized, like, is this what I want? And I think what made me really stop and, like, reflect on all that is that I’m now in Nashville. Like, I’m no longer in New York City. I’m in Nashville. I had gotten engaged. I was talking about, you know, the next ten years of my life. And I was like, do I want to be doing this business for the next ten years of my life? I had to come to a realization that the answer was no.

Netta:
I had already been trying to distance myself from the business. I had already been waking up feeling, like, just overwhelmed with the minimal tasks I had to do.

Monique:
You know, it’s real at that point.

Netta:
Yeah, you know, it’s real. And I was like, um, I think I wrote in my. My Instagram post that it started to feel like the jobs that I was trying to from. So that’s when I was like, okay, you know, I had been sitting with that, and I think people think you wake up one day and you just, I’m gonna shut it down. No. I had been sitting with these feelings for at least a year, and I was like, okay, you know, let’s say you shut it down. I just said it out loud to myself. I was like, you’re gonna shut it down just to see how I felt.

Netta:
Like, what did my body feel? Or what did my, like, spirit feel after saying that? And I felt lighter, and I was like, oh, okay, you know, maybe this is the right move. And it’s scary to even think about transitioning out of something that you’ve been known for, you’ve built so much success in. You’ve been recognized for, et cetera, et cetera. But my body was telling me that it was time for something different. If nothing else, that is powerful.

Monique:
That is powerful. And that was one, because I did read your post, and that was one of the things I was like, I know. So I’ve talked to friends who have, you know, experienced similar, and I think that me, us watching your journey and saying, okay, I think Netta is, like, the perfect person to talk about this, because looking, it was like, all of these things are really going well. And then for you to make that decision, I knew it was so much deeper. So to listen to yourself, like, that’s bravery.

Netta:
So we, like, I had a. I had grown memconnect publicly. Like, there was no beta, there was no private portions of mem connect. Y’all saw everything from the ground up. So I felt like, you know, the child celebrity who’s like, you see them growing up, and then they’re, like, going off and doing something different. Now, that’s kind of how I felt. So I. The reason that I posted it publicly was because mem connect had grown publicly.

Netta:
I felt like, you know, I think that was the hardest part.

Netta:
It’s like, in my mind, I was.

Netta:
Done with it, but I was like, how do I tell these 15,000 plus people who have, you know, found joy, found friendships, found love, found jobs with memconnect that, you know, it’s going to be no longer? So. Yeah.

Monique:
Yes. And then I also have a question on if you. Because I noticed. Noticed that you also mentioned, like, the growth during this time. You were making your decision as well. If the market. Did you see any changes in the market when it came to, like, Dei and things like that that had any influence or just, did you notice anything in general?

Netta:
Yeah, I mean, there were definitely changes in the market. You could read about, you know, the attack on Dei. And even if we take Dei out of it, the economy was just not doing as it should be. That was very noticeable. I would say that we were able to keep the majority of the partners that we were working with. So we didn’t really see, like, a major financial issue from, like, sustaining where we were. But there, in terms of growth, it was harder to, like, break into new companies with the same pitch around Dei because people were scared. Like, there were laws being passed, people who shouldn’t be running for elections, were running for elections.

Netta:
There was a lot happening. And I, you know, I understood that, too. And my question to myself, when I was also thinking about shutting it down, was like, do I want to fight against that?

Monique:
Yeah.

Netta:
And I didn’t have the energy coming in.

Monique:
At number six is episode number 132, speaking and communicating with confidence with Robert Kennedy III. Now, this episode was one of our top episodes, actually, in 2023. And then also, it’s still going strong in 2020, 2024. So I had to include it. And I think this topic was so great because, one, it was such a fun conversation. Like, if you listen to that episode, we had all the bells and whistles in that conversation. But then also, Robert really dispelled a lot of myths on what confidence looks like. And I love the fact that he shares that.

Monique:
It does not matter if you mess up. People will still respect you. People will still love you, people will still buy from you. And then he also gave some practical tips on how to use filler words when they are okay and when they’re not okay and how to practice not using filler words. But then we also talked about inflection and just making sure that you’re presenting yourself in a way that it commands the room or it commands the attention of your team or that stakeholder. So this episode was really, really fun, but then it was also really, really good. They’re like, okay, I have what I need to start to build my confidence when I’m communicating. So how do I avoid using or minimize using filler works when I’m communicating? Any tips?

Robert:
Well, there are, there are quite a few things. Number one, filler words. At least some of them aren’t the death of your talk. Barack Obama was a phenomenal communicator, and a lot of people thought of him as one of the best presidential communicators that we’ve seen in a long time. If you listen to Barack speak, there are times where he speaks and he says, well, and he has filler words that he uses all the time. The frequency of your filler words is what really gets people. So I’ve listened to podcasts, and there are people, they’ll go on and they’ll use words like, and since this is a black to business, I’ll use some typically black words. Right, okay.

Robert:
No, mean. Yeah. And I’ve heard people saying every few sentences, they’ll say, yeah, and I was doing this, this, that, and the third, and this, that, and the third, and the entire thing is this, that, and a third. What are the things that you repeat? So we typically think about them as just like, and so, and, you know, what are the things that you repeat? One of the things, and all of us have them. Sometimes I have this filler word that I use, and I cringe when I listen to some of my talks sometimes, and I hear it, and my filler word that I’m working on still is. Right.

Monique:
Oh, my God. I was just about to ask you about that. I was like, right. I don’t know where this came from. Where did this right come from?

Robert:
Yeah, that. That’s the word that I use. I listen to it and I go back and I say, okay, cool. That’s the thing that I’ve got to work on. So as I practice, I’ve got to listen to that.

Monique:
That is so funny you said that, because I was thinking about asking you about, I’m like, where is this right coming from? I’ve heard it most within the last two years or so. And I’m like, where did this right come from? And you were pausing, but you didn’t say right. And I was like, I can ask him.

Robert:
Yeah, yeah. And so there are times where I still use it, and as I practice, as I look back, I take a look at what are the things that I need to do to get better, to be more precise, to be more influential in my speech. And so I use tools to help with that. There’s an app called Orai, o r a I, that gives some of that feedback. Orai app.com is the website for that. There’s another phenomenal one called Yudly yoodli, and I don’t remember if it’s udli.com or udli AI, one of the two, but udli is a phenomenal tool, and you can use it for free as well. That gives you. You can use it on your Zoom calls or any online thing that you’re taking apart in, and it gives you feedback on your filler words, where you sounded confident, where you sounded like you weren’t certain.

Robert:
What are some of the words that you tend to use that are not clear? Where are you speaking with passive language versus active language? Those are some of the things that tools like that can help you identify, and then you can work on it. It’s hard to work on something if you haven’t identified it. So filler words. One of the other things that. The last thing that I’ll say about that is filler words are typically there because we are scared of silence. Our minds and our mouths work at two different speeds. And so when one is catching up with the other, there’s a little bit of silence, and our mouths fill that with, uh. So that there’s no silence there.

Robert:
So if you talk and you are thinking, make yourself used to stopping just to be silent, just to pause for a moment and then pick up your next phrase. Because a lot of times, we don’t want it to be silent. So we fill it with something because we think that silence is awkward for the audience, and it sounds longer to us than the audience is perceiving it to be.

Monique:
Okay. In this next episode, I am so proud that this was actually also one of our top episodes. And it makes me think about all the things people maybe think about black owned businesses or black business owners, and we never care what they thought. But then also, it’s made me proud that we’re planning for the future. And so, episode 135, this was a top episode. It’s all about planning for retirement. As an entrepreneur, we’re thinking of long term. And this episode is with Andre hall.

Monique:
And I love this conversation because one of the things that Andre talks about in the earlier part of the interview is, especially for many of you, you are either working a job or you came from a job and then went into a business. And so at a lot of jobs, they set you up for retirement. You got your 401K, you’re thinking things going on automatically. I don’t really have to worry about too much. It’s kind of like set up for you when you come into the company. Those are some of the earlier things that you do when you start a job, you set all of those things up. But then in entrepreneurship, there’s nobody there to tell you to do these things. So you have to take the initiative and do those things yourselves.

Monique:
So I’m so excited that this was the top episode because, again, we’re thinking about the future. And so Andre really breaks it down on what that looks like for, even if you’re a solo entrepreneur, how you can start to prepare yourself for retirement. But then if you’re building, you’re growing, you’re scaling what that will look like for you, and then also how you set that up for your team and what are some of the options that are out there to plan you up for your future? To set you up for your future. So here we are.

Andre:
A lot of times, that small business owner really is the business. So you got to put processes in place, programs in place to ensure the business is a business without you. Because if it’s not a business without you, who’s going to buy it? So you got to make sure that you have the right programs, processes that that business can run when you’re on vacation for six months.

Monique:
Right?

Andre:
Okay. So you have to make sure that you have everything in place so that someone looking to buy the business sees the right kind of financials, sees that it’s profitable, and sees that it’s not a, you may have employees, you know, 1020, 30, 5100 employees, but they have to see that that is still a business without you being there if they’re going to pay any decent money for it.

Monique:
Well said. So I want to kind of walk us through the stages like I have here. So I want to talk about, like, what it looks like. What does retirement look like then? I want to talk about the decision making process and then business after retirement for those who are looking to either sell or looking to, you know, transfer the ownership of the business. So let’s start diving into what it actually looks like. So I think it’s important to discuss, like, the different types of retirement accounts. Like, when you think about, like you said, like, business corporate, you know, 401K matching and all of that. But understanding for an entrepreneur, like the different options that they have, what would you say the type of retirement accounts are?

Andre:
Well, you have, if you have employees, probably you’re going to have something very similar. It may not have all the same bells and whistles that a corporate retirement plan has. It’ll be a 401K. Okay. And you can design that four hundred one k a number of ways, but you’re going to have regular traditional contributions that are pre taxed. And then you’re going to have an AFATA tax, which is normally a Roth 401K. Then inside of there, you will have another program that some people have and some people don’t, including corporations, whereby you can put up to including your 401K contributions. And if you’re over 50, $72,000 a year or 73,000 I think it is right now.

Andre:
And a lot of people don’t realize that they know how much you can put into the, they are clearly understand that most people just put in the pre tax. A lot of people don’t realize it’s much more beneficial. A little painful right now because you’re not getting the deduction for it, but you really want to put your money into Roth 401 ks, not the traditional 401 ks. Then you can set up an after tax that where you can contribute another 40,000 plus and convert that to a Roth IRA at some point in time.

Monique:
Gotcha. And one of the things I do have here is like that tax deferred versus tax exempt or tax free, like, how do, how does one make sure, like, they have that right mix of that accounts?

Andre:
Well, let me say it this way, I’m a firm believer you want to mix. At the same time, you want to put as much as you can into the Roth portion, the Roth side, because think of it this way, when you have a hundred thousand in there, let’s say you did it 20 years ago and that 20 years grew at the same rate, be it in the traditional 401K bucket, the pre tax bucket versus the Roth bucket, and it’s a million dollars now. I’m just going on the high end. It’s a million dollars now. You’re going to pay 40% of that between federal and state taxes out of the pre tax bucket. You didn’t get the deduction in the four to 100,000 initially, but you’re not paying any more tax because it’s grown tax free and it comes out tax free. When I didn’t go through a lot of different, I went through what’s inside of a 401K. But there are a number of accounts, like things like simple 401 ks you have, you can do in a company, can set up an IRA program inside of the company also.

Andre:
So there are a number of different type of accounts that you can do. The one that we’re, excuse me, we’re most used to seeing, obviously, is the 401K. So I focused on that. But at the same time, there are a number of different other type of accounts. And some, if you’re really a small business owner of a couple of people, two or three people, you might want to really look at a defined benefit plan where you can put hundreds of thousands into that each year.

Monique:
And finally, at number eight, it is episode number 137. Six, how to find your spark and unleash your brilliance with Simon T. Bailey. And I know for some of us, it’s not as easy to understand what is the thing that makes us, what’s our spark? What makes us unique? What should we start a business about? How do we know if we’ll love it? What if. What if all those things and this conversation is all about how do you make it simple? It’s so simple as, I’ll let Simon tell you. So this episode is for you. This snippet is so, so good. If you’re thinking, what makes me unique? What will make my business stand out? How do I know if I’m going in the right direction? Let’s get into it.

Monique:
What would you say would be some of the steps that people can take to uncovered their spark and their superpower?

Simon:
Oh, I love this question. So take out a blank sheet of paper and write down when you are in the zone doing what you love, what’s the activity? What are you saying? What’s the environment that you’re in? Number one. Number two, who are three people that know you really well and whenever you around them, they compliment something to you. That’s just second nature. You don’t think about it, but it just comes natural to you. So, for example, when I was in high school, I went out for the football team, got cut, went out for basketball team, got cut. But friends began to share with me that, hey, you’re really good on your feet. You can think on your feet really quickly.

Simon:
You have a platinum tongue. And I’m like, oh, my goodness, that’s my thing. And when I zeroed in on that, it’s because people were giving me feedback that I didn’t know. You know, the old saying is you can’t see the picture when you’re in the frame. Okay, then the third thing, to really tap into your spark. What would you do if no one paid you to do it? What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail? What is that thing that when you do it, you’re just like, boom, that’s it.

Monique:
And for some people, they’re like, I had to spark, but life, you know, imposter. I don’t know if I’m worthy. I’m good enough to be successful. That self dot or those things that are really beyond their control happen. So what would you say to someone that’s trying to find a way to reignite that spark?

Simon:
Number one, remember, it’s not who you are that holds you back from sparking your brilliance. It’s who you think you’re not. That whole you back. Number two, rewrite your story. That means if you need to begin to write down the story of where you’re going, not just where you are, you have literally created a new script to go into the movie of your mind and begin to pre play pictures of a coming attraction based on what you’ve written down. And then, number three, identify someone who may be doing what would like to do. Study them. Find out what has made them successful, what were their failures or mistakes.

Simon:
Because success leaves clues. Cut down your learning curve. And then tomorrow morning, get up and say, what am I going to do to put 1ft in front of the other? When I got ready to leave Disney years ago to do the work that I’m doing now, before I left Disney, I created an exit strategy. And that X strategy required me getting up one to 2 hours earlier each day just to work on my business. Not in quit my nine to five job. But what it did, it built up the confidence within me that when it was time for me, 18 to 22 months later, to take that leap, I had already built the muscle within my mind that, oh, we are doing this because I sold myself on myself. Sell yourself on yourself through your storytelling.

Monique:
What an incredible, credible way to celebrate 200 episodes. I still can’t believe it. Thank you so much for being a part of this journey. There were so many episodes that were just amazing, very step by step. And we have poured into this podcast since, as I mentioned, 2016. And we’ve just loved every minute. We love the messages that we get to say, thank you for featuring such and such. Thank you for helping me with my business in this way.

Monique:
Thank you for making it so digestible and easy to understand, and just thanking us for the work that we do. And we appreciate all of the messages all of the shares, all of the support. And if you didn’t hear an episode that you would love, love to hear, please check out the Black to Business podcast. We have a whole archive of 200 episodes. Like I like to call them a masterclass in an audio version. So you can go to blacktobusiness.com podcast, but then also we have an additional resource that has been curated just for you in a quiz form. You can go to blacktobusiness.com playlist Quiz and there you would take a short quiz that will give you a podcast playlist that will help you at whatever stage you are in your business. Of course, you got to get the results to see where you’re at.

Monique:
But again, that’s blacktobusiness.com playlistquiz. And if you want to hear the full episodes that were mentioned today, you can simply go to blacktobusiness.com 200. I just gave you so many links. So Blacktobusiness.com podcast for all of the 200 episodes blacktobusiness playlist Quiz if you want to have a little fun and get something curated and personalized for you, take that quick quiz and then blacktobusiness.com 200 for all of the episodes that were mentioned in this conversation today. Again, thank you so much for being a part of the black to business family, a part of our podcast journey. For every share, every like, every retweet, every repost, and then also every comment that you’ve made, we truly, truly appreciate you. Thank you again and I will see you back here next week, same time, same place.