The Secret, the Significant, the Successful: Profiles of Women-led Businesses, Vol. 7

Welcome to the seventh edition for The secret, the Significant, the Successful. Each newsletter is broken down into three parts:

• The Secret - Finding your internal anchor in the midst of COVID-19 
• The Significant - Looking inward, embracing silence, and leaning into spirituality.
• The Successful - Top Women-Led Business to Support During COVID-19

Read one section or read them all.

Quick Ways that we can help your business now:

1. Established U.S.-based businesses that need $50k - $250k in working capital, Apply.
2. Businesses that need help navigating uncertainty. Don't Stall, Shift includes weekly digital summits every Thursday that cover funding resources and business strategies specifically for times of crisis. Join Us.

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1. The Secret

Finding your internal anchor in the midst of COVID-19 

By: Roshawnna Novellus ? Newsletter: The secret, the significant, the successful: profiles of women entrepreneurs

?? Watch my morning work out ?? and reflection ???

What routine are you leveraging to stay anchored?

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2. The Significant

Looking inward, embracing silence, and leaning into spirituality

By: Roshawnna Novellus ? Newsletter: The secret, the significant, the successful: profiles of women entrepreneurs

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus at Arabia Mountain. Photo by J. Braxton Photography.

Right now, most of us are dealing with a reset caused by an unexpected change in work schedule, a sudden shift in access to life outside of our homes, and a surprising difference in our sense of community. Some of us are now exclusively around our family, while others of us are completely alone during this time. It's normal for all of us to feel a bit out of sorts, for this reason, now just like any other time is a perfect time to look inward to find your anchor.

Communication 

One of the ways that my life has changed is communication with myself, my team at work, and my loved ones. For each group is seems like Zoom calls all day is the "new normal". We can no longer go sit on someone's couch and not say anything or co-work in the same office with co-workers or friends. In fact, video calls have become the only way to communicate with others that stimulates the visual and auditory senses. While we're grateful for this technology, many of us have started feeling a bit of angst. The angst that we cannot get a hug when we need it. Angst that we cannot have a picnic with friends in the park, and angst that we cannot show people, someone, physically that they can touch, hold, and smell. But, looking inward gives you possible solutions. Instead of feeling angst, it's best to experience gratitude. I'm grateful that I'm healthy, safe, and loved and have access to others through this technology. As such, by looking inward, I gained an entirely new perspective of video calls. This perspective enabled me to look forward to visually reconnecting from college friends and accelerator groups. I broadened my mind about converting my in-person meet up groups to virtual meetup groups so that more people could participate. Overall, it's best to focus on the good part of the situation, rather than being consumed by the lack of access to the way things were.

Meditation Practice

Now, just like everyone other time, it is good to focus on your meditation practice. Many believe that they don't have time to meditate because of their long commute or obligations away from home. As such, now is a perfect time to add those practices into your routine. I find that even 6 minutes can change my entire day. For myself, I increased the amount of mediation, affirmations, and dharma talks daily. Now I average about 5 hours a day. The sense of peace and joy that I receive from doing this eliminates all anxiety and fear, the desire to inhale all my pandemic snacks, and the tendency to get upset at the uncertainty. As such, looking inward provides the anchor that we seek. The good news is that everyone can do this.

Radical Compassion

Now it's clear to me that what most people need is compassion. A lot of business owners are receiving a record number of bad reviews online. This wave of negatively is not necessarily because the business is actively doing anything wrong, but many people are lashing out on whom they communicate with to feel some power. Furthermore, many business owners are trying to figure out how to survive with a massive lack of economic power, access to goods, services, and clients, and a requirement to stay at home. As such, as I receive negative emails or hostile communication, I remind myself that the person is only doing that because they're in pain.

All in all, I have been able to find my anchor by looking inward to find strength and compassion. By embracing this practice, you will be a better communicator, more effective in your navigation, and more compassionate to yourself and others.

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3. The Successful

Top Women-Led Business to Support During COVID-19

Small business owners were greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is our hope that highlighting our EnrichHER Society community will encourage others to come to their aid and support their needs.

1. Gwen Taylor founded Wind and Soul eco-lodge in 2018. Wind and Soul aspire to be the Southeast's first zero-waste eco-resort specializing in world-class yoga + wellness retreats. Gwen was inspired to found her business out of a desire to align her work with who she wanted to be in the world. She says, “My organization represents for me an embodiment of the power and potency of love – the practice of love for self, love for others and love for the precious planet. At Wind and Soul, we believe doing good is for business.” Wind and Soul’s first location is opening soon in the North Georgia Mountains and will offer seasonal, farm-to-table local food and use sustainable materials in all its retreats. If you agree that “It’s time to disconnect in order to connect more meaningfully,” you can learn how to support Wind and Soul here.
2. April Smith is a breast cancer warrior and the Founder of The Survivor’s Nest, Inc., a nonprofit organization whose goal is to “To inspire, uplift, and provide support to individuals impacted by cancer.” The Survivor’s Nest is a holistic service focusing on nutrition, fitness, and overall well-being. Some of their programs include: peer-to-peer support, health & wellness scholarships, beauty make-overs, and holistic care packages. If you or someone you know is dealing with cancer, you can apply for The Survivor’s Nest’s services here.
3. Tracy Taylor co-founded Yoni V-Steam Stools with partner T.H. Thomas in August 2019. Tracy was motivated to found her company when she noticed an increased level of tension and unhappiness in the world around her. “I just felt like a large part of it was that women stopped taking care of themselves and stopped loving themselves, and I wanted to do something to help that. We rely on hair and nails and lashes but we’re not cleansing our souls and our bodies. If you have a clean body and soul, it offers a clear mind,” Tracy said. If you are interested in learning more about Yoni V-Steam Stools, you can reach out to Tracy at [email protected] or call at 617-291-6445.
4. Farah Allen CEO cofounded The Labz in 2018 with CTO cofounder Nael Alismail. The Labz is an ecosystem of tools specially designed to support varying types of creative roles in one workspace. Along with collaboration and cloud storage, The Labz supports the business process of tracking and preserving collaboration activity, establishing agreements and protecting access to users' content. There Platform serves content creators in the music and film industry. Now more than ever remote collaboration tools are the life-blood for these professionals. The Labz will release its biggest set of features next month. If you are have questions for Farah or Nael you can reach out at [email protected]
5. Quyionah Wingfield, mother of two daughters, fitness professional and co-founder of Cool Moms Dance Too launched the company with her two daughters Jaira and Serenity-Marie. Cool Moms Dance Too provides classes, programs and pop-up events to help mothers and their children utilize dance fitness and movement therapy for mental and physical wellbeing. Cool Moms Dance Too’s goal is to “provide a coping and support mechanism out of dance to strengthen the well-being of the family.” CMDToo! is set to take their classes online in April 2020 hosting classes for moms and children at home via their Family Happy Hour Wellness challenges. You can learn more about Cool Moms Dance Too by contacting Quyionah Wingfield, [email protected] @coolmomsdancetoo on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube 
6. Samia Bingham, a self-described “commercial real estate enthusiast and government contracts nerd,” founded Flavors, a safe, health-inspected, and licensed shared commercial kitchen space community whose grand opening is scheduled for late Summer 2020. The space will host separate savory and confectionary kitchens, a private demo kitchen for private events, classes, podcasting, photography, or any food-based social event hosted by its members, open coworking space, virtual receptionist services, and business development workshops. Flavors is the epicenter for culinary entrepreneurs to create, cook, and serve creative, flavorful, and healthy cuisine to local communities, government, commercial, retail and private contract clients. Samia notes that she started her business to solve a problem common to the culinary industry: “Winning my first subcontract supporting the Department of State and in 2019 winning my first prime contract with the Department of Defense had me on a mission to find amazing culinary entrepreneurs to work with in support of the food service management contracts we were performing. Many of the culinary entrepreneurs did not have access to a dedicated and licensed commercial kitchen, which is required to participate in most government contracts. I knew we had to figure out a way to support our culinary community and help them enter this financially lucrative government contracts lane; therefore I decided to expand our operations to include the launch of a shared culinary kitchen community for emerging food and beverage entrepreneurs.” You can contact Samia at [email protected] or by phone at 202-729-0206.
7. Dra. Nicole Cabrera Salazar founded Movement Consulting after a difficult experience as a doctoral student in Astrophysics. She says, “Unfortunately, I encountered discrimination--everything from off-color comments to being forced to teach without pay. The atmosphere was so negative that I started having panic attacks and had to take a 4-month medical leave. Decades of research-validated my experience: marginalized people leave science due to toxic work environments. After receiving my Ph.D., I decided to leave the academic path for one that would allow me to transform science culture.” Movement Consulting offers services to make sure science organizations, universities, and laboratories can provide a positive culture for their employees. To learn more or to partner with Movement Consulting, fill out the contact form here.

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If you enjoyed this newsletter, subscribe; after you do, here are a few other ways to stay in touch: 

1. Apply for Funding - EnrichHER offers growth capital for established businesses. If you or someone you know is looking for $50k - $250k in working capital and have been in business over 1 year and have generated $100,000 in annual revenue, apply. 
2. Are you a business owner who needs help navigating through COVID-19? If so, join Don't Stall, Shift: Keeping your business in motion through crisis. Don't Stall, Shift includes weekly digital summits every Thursday that cover funding resources and business strategies specifically for times of crisis.

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Dr. Roshawnna Novellus is the founder and CEO of EnrichHER, a financial platform that connects female entrepreneurs with lenders who want to earn a return on their investment while fueling the growth of women-led businesses. Dr. Novellus is a gender equality advocate who believes in economic empowerment and inclusive economic growth. Dr. Novellus holds a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering, with a Minor in Finance, a Masters of Science in Information Technology emphasizing Information System Engineering, a Bachelor of Arts in Business Management Economics, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering – achieving Summa Cum Laude in each. Roshawnna served on the Commission on Women for the City of Atlanta and was honored as one of the Women Who Means Business by the Atlanta Business Chronicle, one of the 40 Under 40 by Georgia Trend, one of the Top 25 Disruptors and Innovators in Tech, one of the 27 Black Founders and Investors to watch by PItchBook, and LinkedIn Top Voice #5 in Technology.