As a follow up to last week’s episode, I talk about how to use the information uncovered in the entrepreneurial discovery process to determine if starting a service-based business is right for you, and if so, what the next steps involve. I also talk about my own path to entrepreneurship, why I believe it’s important for women to earn money, and what I’ve discovered to be my “why”.
Listen to the Episode
Episode Transcript
Welcome back this is Traci and you’re listening to Refined By Divorce. I have had laryngitis for the past week and it’s very slowly healing so my apologies for the scratchy voice but I’ve waited long enough, so here I am!
Refined Rebel - Edmonia Lewis
The Refined Rebel today was born as Wildfire, a fitting name for a woman who blazed her own way through the 1800’s as both a minority and woman.
Known to be a master of her own biography, the factual details about her life are fuzzy at best. She would tell different versions of her own story to the press, I’m sure as a way to make her way in a bigoted man’s world, but I’ll do the best I can to honor her life.
Mary Edmonia Lewis was born to an African-Native American mother and West Indian father.
Her mother was an artist who made Native American souvenirs to sell to tourists and her father was a gentleman’s servant.
Both of her parents died when she was young, so she was raised by her mother’s family in upstate New York.
Edomonia’s half-brother made a fortune in the Gold rush and financed her education.
She was eventually accepted to Oberlin college, which was founded on the principles of coeducation, abolitionism, and integration.
Despite Oberlin’s progressive foundation, she was one of only 30 students of color and faced daily racism, discrimination and abuse.
Her two roommates fell ill after drinking some spiced wine, allegedly served by Edmonia, but they recovered and there was no action brought against her.
Rumors spread throughout the town of Oberlin where the general population was not as progressive as at the college. They were angry and took matters into their own hands.
Several men grabbed Edmonia as she walked home alone one night, dragged her to an open field, severely beat her and left her for dead.
The men were never identified or charged, but after the attack, local authorities arrested Edmonia, charging her with poisoning her friends.
The first African-American lawyer in Ohio and former Oberlin alumni, represented her during her trial, and was successful in getting the charges dismissed.
Although she was proven innocent, she faced horrible prejudice and isolation in the year following the attack. She was accused of stealing, found innocent, and then later accused of aiding and abetting a burglary. By that point she was fed up and left just before she could graduate.
After leaving Oberlin, she moved to Boston where she encountered a sculpture of Benjamin Franklin and decided she could make a “stone man” and was determined to find a tutor.
Despite introductions being made on her behalf to many sculptors, she was turned down by at least 3 before being accepted by a moderately successful sculptor who specialized in marble portraits.
Her first pieces featured well-known abolitionists and were acclaimed by the abolitionist community, but she didn’t want to receive praise for being “a colored girl” and felt her race limited her in the United States, so when she could afford it, she moved to Rome, where she was welcomed into a circle of expatriate artists and established her own studio space.
She told the New York Times in 1878, she was, “practically driven to Rome, in order to obtain the opportunities for art culture, and to find a social atmosphere where I was not constantly reminded of my color. The land of liberty had no room for a colored sculptor.”
Edmonia was unique in her sculpting process; she insisted on enlarging her clay and wax models in marble herself, rather than hire native Italian sculptors to do it for her, which was common practice at the time.
She had a mind for business, a trait not always found in artists, and she would make sculptures before receiving commissions for them, or send unsolicited works to Boston patrons requesting that they raise funds for materials and shipping.
Edmonia would go on to explore her African-American and Native American heritage and become one of the most celebrated sculptors of her generation.
In 2022, she was awarded a degree posthumously by Oberlin College.
You can read more about her life and see her work on the website. Refined Rebels
Be A Trailblazer
Edmonia was an entrepreneur, which is not common among artists, and it was almost unheard of for women in her day, especially women of color.
She used her talent, resources and determination to build a successful career as a sculptor in a time where she faced blatant discrimination and outright abuse, and when women had few rights. It’s a feat that as a people pleaser I can’t even imagine attempting.
The obstacles and barriers aren’t as outwardly visible today, but racism and sexism still exist, especially for women of color, as racism and sexism often go hand in hand.
We’ve made a lot of progress as a society, but race and gender equality has not been achieved, and we have a ways to go.
Unconscious bias, negative stereotypes, penalties for motherhood and underrepresentation in business and government leadership are just some of the factors that continue to keep people of color and women down.
Some of it is sinister, an attempt to keep the status quo, but I believe the majority of it is unintentional, especially for older generations. I myself have had to work through many long-held, but terribly misguided beliefs about my own gender.
It’s human nature to only see things from our own perspective, and it takes work to see things from another point of view.
This is why we need to have more women and people of color in power. Only then will we be able to accomplish true equality.
But the predominance of male-led companies has created an unfavorable environment for women, making it difficult for us to take positions of leadership.
I’ve seen and experienced this discrimination first-hand. Sexism and racism is so entrenched into the system that the deck is stacked. Companies are not built with women or mothers in mind, let alone divorced women and mothers, which adds an extra layer of difficulty to finding success.
So rather than attempt to climb your way up a corporate ladder, I encourage women to simply go around it and start their own service-based business. I believe every woman, particularly mothers, have the experience necessary to start and run a successful small business.
Being self-employed is not for everyone, but if you have the opportunity and resources, and the stomach for it, you’ll be on top from the start and limited only by your own imagination.
In last week’s episode, I talked about the discovery process to determine if entrepreneurship is right for you.
Go back and listen to that episode if you haven’t already, and go to refinedbydivorce.com/podcast and subscribe to The Kaleidoscope, which is my very occasional newsletter, you’ll get my discovery document as a bonus to help you with the process I talked about in that episode and that we’ll touch on now before moving into the next steps.
Finances –
Can you afford to not have little to no income for 3-6 months?
Can you afford to have variable income for the first year?
Do you have an emergency fund?
How much do you need to make to support yourself?
Health Insurance?
Options – work part time, move or downsize, sell assets
Mindset issues you may need to work through:
Pressure to “have a job”
Need vs want – trim down expenses
What does success look like to you?
Strengths
When starting a business, rather than trying to shore up weaknesses, we want to
leverage our strengths.
Improving weaknesses is admirable, but it can be a goal in another area of life, Playing to your strengths in business can lead to quick wins. By stacking these wins, you’ll gain confidence and eventually success. It’s an easier jumping off point.
What have you uncovered?
Which strengths will help you achieve success?
Deep Interests
What did you find out about yourself? How do you envision your business?
How do they work together to paint that picture?
Other Resources.
Support
Education
Physical
Emotional
Connections, Time, Network
So when you take a look at the whole picture, does it make sense to go out on your own? I’ll share a bit about my experience to help you see what I mean.
After my first divorce, I wanted to start my own business. I had plenty of strengths, interests and other resources to draw on, but I was lacking in the Financial category.
I didn’t think I had the financial support to do it. I had young children that needed my time and attention, and I had to support us financially. From this perspective, I can see that was just an excuse, because what I really lacked was confidence. I didn’t believe in myself enough to seek out funding, apply for grants or apply for a business loan. I could have done it, but it was easier to continue working for others.
Since we had moved from Hawaii to Utah, I had to find a new job but continued in the same line of work as a Project Manager. The difference in working conditions and the environment between Hawaii and Utah were shocking, and I didn’t handle it well, having never been exposed to such blatant, outwardly sexism before, and I didn’t know how to work in that kind of situation. I do think it helped push me towards starting my own business sooner though, so there’s that.
After my second divorce, I spent some time going over the different areas of my life again to see if I was ready, and here’s what I found:
Finances –
1 Year of Runway – my bills paid for one year
Emergency Fund set up
No debt
Self-Fund the Business
Strengths –
Fast Learner
Flexible, Easily Adapt
Creative
Innovator – shine in the midst of uncertainty, which has been a theme in my life
I actually willingly Jump into uncertainty
See Failure as Learning
Deep Interests
Serial Hobbyist
Adding Value and Teaching
Creating
Variation
Something Meaningful
Other Resources
16 years of Experience in Sales, Day to Day Operations, Project Management and so much more
Formal Education and more wisdom that comes with age
Home Office
One son at home to support, my older two are adults and support themselves
Network
Lots of Time on my hands
When I looked at everything, I could see I was in a perfect position to go out on my own. And using my strengths, experience and resources, I decided to start my own consulting business for women who are navigating divorce, and wanting to rebuild a thriving life by starting a new business or by taking their business to the next level in order to increase profits, purpose and peace.
I love what I do and want to help a wider audience, which is why I started the podcast. My intention is to provide the information you need to start your own business, but if you’d like to work with me one on one, go check out my website refinedbydivorce.com/services for more information.
I am also looking at opening up a group program that would be more affordable than my one on one consulting, so please let me know if that’s something you would be interested in, so I can make that a possibility.
If after doing the discovery exercise you determine that you’re ready to start your own business, it’s time to figure out what that business is going to be.
By using your strengths and deep interests, start brainstorming possible ideas. Take your time doing it and I’ll link to a few resources in the show notes to give you some ideas. Once you’ve got a good list, you’ll want to narrow it down to just a few and ask the following questions for each idea:
1. What is the problem I’m solving?
2. Will people pay for the solution? And if so, is it enough to support my needs?
3. Is this something I can do for the next several years?
A lot of people will say to build a business around your passions and my friend Dusti talked about her successful cake business and how she got burned out, so I would recommend you think on these questions with that in mind.
There are so many options out there that don’t take any specific education or hard skills, but you want to make sure it’s something you’ll enjoy and that brings you a sense of purpose, which is particularly important after going through something like a divorce.
When women make more money, they have more power and influence, and they reinvest it in their families, their communities, and their countries to make the whole world better — for everyone.
There’s so much research out there that speaks to diversity being good for business and good for any organization.
Since I’m struggling to talk I’m going to end it there, but I do want to reiterate that I think that anyone who, well any woman really, has the ability and experience to run a successful business, and I would encourage anyone who wants to do so, to continue listening to reach out and get help. There are resources everywhere and I’ll try to list some of them in the show notes, but thank you so much for joining me today.
Love In, Peace Out.
Bye.
