As a business owner, entrepreneur, or side hustler, you want your work to matter. Trust me, I get it! That’s why I brought Monica Harris, founder of Every Woman Knows a Woman, onto the podcast today. She’s going to walk you through how she grew her brand and pivoted it to give back to her community.

The Branded by Bernel Podcast is brought to you by Bernel Westbrook, lead designer and founder of Branded by Bernel, a design studio dedicated to building strong brands and Showit websites for creative entrepreneurs.

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Monica used her experience as a hairstylist to give back

After almost 20 years as a hairstylist, Monica pivoted her business to serve women struggling with hair loss. Whether her clients are going through medical treatments or experiencing natural aging, she wants them to feel confident.

Monica identified her passion for helping women when she noticed that women usually put themselves last. As a business owner, mom, and wife, she knows how easy it is to put self-care on the backburner. 

“My aim is to help the everyday woman, the professional woman, the woman who is, you know, maybe struggling to find more time in the day to make things simpler for her.” -Monica Harris

Monica made another business pivot when she branched into e-commerce

As you get older, you need to make adjustments to your business so that it continues to work for you. For Monica, that meant not working in a salon for 16 hours at a time, seeing up to 14 people per day.

She decided to start offering wigs and extensions to her clients and styling them for them. Her clients were always bringing her products from outside stores to use on them, so she decided she could sell them directly to her clients herself. 

Monica is still learning how to balance having both a service-based business and an online eCommerce business. She often flips between focusing on one for a month and then the other the next month. Hiring a business coach helped her learn the business side of her passion. The best advice she has for new entrepreneurs is to invest in their education and people who can help them grow.

“If you have a talent, that’s great, but you need to know how to run a business.” -Monica Harris

Monica used her business savvy to start Every Woman Knows a Woman

Every Woman Knows a Woman is a program that Monica started to bring awareness to hair loss. Most people think hair loss only happens because of a medical reason or aging, but Monica has seen people of all ages with hair loss, and after serving some clients for 15 years, she has watched the progression of hair loss.

Every Woman Knows a Woman is a program where you can nominate a woman to receive a free week of services for hair loss. Monica wanted to help women feel comfortable telling their stories of hair loss, bring light to the issue in her community, and bless women with beautiful hair.

“I love that because it once again goes back to you having a heart-centered business. Your business is all about helping others.” -Bernel

3 Actionable Steps with Monica

1. Avoid analysis paralysis. Don’t sit and wait because you want everything to be perfect. If you have a dream, take the leap and finish what you started.
2. Write things down. You should write down your goals and your systems to get your business organized.
3. Never stop learning. Invest in education and the resources around you because there is always more to learn when you are a business owner.

Get to Know Monica

Monica Harris is a Greensboro native, mother, and a former firefighter-turned-stylist who has a very tender connection to women struggling with hair loss. It’s an issue that just doesn’t get talked about. Monica created a program called “Every Woman Knows a Woman” which gives beautiful wigs to girls and women facing hair loss. 

Monica serves women by helping them maintain or regain their confidence through a healthy hair routine. She offers salon styling services, specializing in extensions and wigs, and she offers quality products on her online store. 

Connect with Monica

https://monicanicolehair.com/

https://www.instagram.com/iam_monicanicole/

https://monicanicolehair.com/pages/every-woman-knows-a-woman

Connect with Bernel

brandedbybernel.com

instagram.com/brandedbybernel

Review the Transcript:

Bernel
Hey, hun. Welcome to the Branded by Bernel podcast. I’m your host Bernel. You may know me as the branding and web designer who obsesses over the details so you don’t have to. We all desire to be great at what we do. Although once we get there, no one seems to talk about the messy middle. This motivated me to set the table and invite industry peers over to share stories about living and working in the creative world. So grab the OJ and champagne, pull up a chair, join the creative community and be prepared to build a brand you fall in love with. This is the Branded by bernel podcast.

Bernel
Hey, hey. So today on the podcast, I am joined by a very special guest, Monica Harris. For those of you listening at home, she is a hair stylist, a beauty blogger, she owns an online store. And what we’re really exploring today is She is the founder of the every woman knows a woman program. Monica has been in this industry for a little over 20 years. And she has served Greensboro, North Carolina and the surrounding areas with grace, style and beauty. So thank you so much for being on the podcast today. Monica,

Monica Harris
thank you so much for having me. We’re no I’m super excited to be here and nervous. So yeah, but I’m looking forward to chatting with you today.

Bernel
Yes, just like anything else, we’re having a just a brunch style conversation. So awesome. Well, for the people listening at home, tell us a little bit about what you do. I know I touched on it in the introduction. But I feel like I gave a generalization like what services do you offer?

Monica Harris
So Bernel, I am a hairstylist and Greensboro, North Carolina, and I have been in the industry for about 20 years. But just recently, I have been more focused on helping women who suffer from hair loss due to medical reasons and health issues. And so that’s kind of been my focus, just maybe last three years, I really am in a business where I’m reaching out to help women to be more confident as they go through challenges of medical treatment, or even just aging, just natural aging. A lot of times women experienced difficulties with their, you know, with their hair. So that’s kind of my focal point right now, with my business. I also recently started an online business as well, where I sell wigs and hair extensions. So I also am offering services to go with those products. Oh, I love

Bernel
that. I love that your target clientele is women, because women so often spend so much time serving others during their job taking care of their family. And they don’t really do things for themselves. And a lot of times when we think of the beauty industry, we think of special occasions, getting dressed up things like that. But what I love about your services and your products is they’re really catered to the everyday woman, and to making sure that you can show up confidently and beautifully in any place in your life. And I think that’s awesome. So it’s not just a Saturday night, look, it’s a seven day a week

Monica Harris
look. It definitely is, you know, as a wife and mom myself, I’ve, you know, been in that place in my life where you know, I’m a mom and I have to put myself on the back burner to make sure my son has everything he needs. And now I’m a wife and I have to make sure that my husband is taken care of I have a home, I have a job, like I have all of these things that depend on me to be at the top of my game. But what about me like and especially I don’t know, like as I got older, I realized is so important for us to take time for self care and to love ourselves. Like how can I show up and be my best self, if everything that I am doing is for everyone else. So my aim is to help the everyday woman, the professional woman, the woman who is, you know, maybe struggling to find more time in the day to make things simpler for her so that she can show up at the job at that maybe staff meeting and whatever it is that she has to do. She could show up she can be the best version of herself, quickly, efficiently, effectively in confidence and just you know, we’re her own little her own little vibe. So yeah, that’s what I’m about.

Bernel
I love it. I love it. I love it. Okay, so let’s back up. Tell me a little bit about your story like what made you want to be a hairstylist?

Monica Harris
Oh my gosh. It is crazy because I don’t know what it was but I just had this vision in my mind of hairstylist and I was like hair stylists are such fly chicks and they have XY and Z and they be like this and they have the cutest boyfriends like I had this vision in my mind of what a hair stylist was outside of that I also just loved like hair just naturally even from like a little girl. I remember having an I don’t even know if they still make these but these doll it was just Like a bus. So the dog just had like all his hair. And I remember like, wanting to do her hair and wanting to braid the dog’s hair. And then as I got older, I would go to my mom and I always wanted to be in a beauty salon. I’d be like, Mom, can you pay me to get my hair done? Can you take me to get my hair done? And she’ll be like, girl, you better go in there and do your own hair. My mother is such a hard working woman. But unfortunately, she fell into that category of women who took care of us, she took care of me, my brother, you know, other family members, my dad, and she put herself last. So she wasn’t that woman that went to the salon and was like, let me do something for myself. Because I’ve done all these things for these other people. So growing up, she’d be quick to tell me like, girl go in there and do your own hair. Because I’m not taking to the salon. And I’m like, okay, so I will tell you, I have some horrible school pictures from from all the times that I said, you know, because after she was telling me, I was like, Okay, I can’t do my own hair. Like I got this little swag like, oh, I can do it. So I would cut my own hair, curl my own hair, relax my own hair cut. I mean, anything that I wanted to do to my hair coloring, I would do it. Oh, my goodness. It didn’t always turn out great. But I was like, it was a learning experience. Right? Yeah. And so after years went by, you know, I kind of I got better, obviously. And then, you know, like my aunts and my grandma would be like, can you do our hair? And then people in the neighborhood like, can you do my hair? And so it just kind of became a thing. But funny enough, I actually did not want to be a hairstylist. When I graduated high school, I wanted to be a mortician.

Bernel
Really? Yeah, that is a very interesting occupation.

Monica Harris
That’s a story for another day. But I did, I wanted to be a mortician. But I ended up going straight into cosmetology school out of high school. And, um, I mean, I never looked back. I was I graduated I think in 98. And I honestly didn’t go straight into the salon though. I was pregnant with my son. And I spent some time working, just just working regular job. But in 2001, I went to the salon, and I’ve just I’ve never looked back since then.

Bernel
So hair has always been your passion. And I talked to so many entrepreneurs, not just on the podcast, but also, you know, as a web designer, I’m constantly asking people, What is your why? Why did you get into this? And why do you continue to do it, and it really sounds like you love hair, and you love beauty and you love making other people feel beautiful?

Monica Harris
There is nothing? Well, I said that, because I did spend some time in the fire service. And I had some experiences. And I was gonna say there’s nothing like when you turn the client to the mirror, but yeah, there are some things that make you feel better than that. But as a hairstylist, there is nothing that I love better than when I you know, turn my client around. And she’s just like, overwhelmed with excitement. And she feels so beautiful. And I can see it in her reaction in her face. I mean, I’ve even had people that have literally been brought to tears like and just, I don’t even know how to describe it. But it’s just a good feeling. And it is the feeling that I can get over and over again. So it’s like a highs, like, you get a high you want the high again, I get the high from my lady. So it makes me excited.

Bernel
I love that. So if you’re listening at home, and you have not taken the plunge into entrepreneurship yet, but there’s something that you’re super passionate about, there’s something that gives you that high. Just know that like you can turn it into a business and you could get that high repeatedly. And it can pay you and you can make money. So that’s the real goal out here doing something consistently that you love doing that serves other people. Well, that also pays you so badly. I love that. So you touched on so many things in your story. Oh my goodness, like I’m all over the place. So you were a firefighter. Yeah, that happened

Monica Harris
that happened by accident. But it was it was an amazing experience. I actually came through the salon, one of my clients, she was a firefighter for the city of Greensboro. And it was around 2008 when the recession hit, and you know, I was getting a little older and I’m like, Man, I need some insurance. I need some retirement because I wasn’t at that time. You know, I had a talent, but I did not have businesses. So I hadn’t put things in place to set myself up to you know, I didn’t have an out plan. I was just living day to day. And one of my clients, she was a fireman. And she would be like, I was telling her I was like yeah, I think I’m gonna look for you know, some part time because I just needed some some benefits. And she was like, oh, you should apply IT department. And I was like, No, I should not. And she was like yeah, she should. So she came into the salon legit for like, I don’t know a couple of months and every time she would come to get her hair done. She would talk to me about the fire department and outlet Girl by I am not running into a burning bill. Wouldn’t that is not? That’s to be like, Why did you suppose the run out? Not yet? Like, it was hilarious because I was just dead set against it. So this one day when she was talking to me, I was like, Girl, where do I get the application? Because like, I legit don’t want you to ask me no more. I’m just gonna, I’m just gonna say, I’m gonna try it. I’m gonna apply. And the application turned into an interview interview, certainly in the training, and during the whole process. I’m like, okay, so when I’m gonna get fired, so when I’m gonna get fired, so when are they going to fire me? Like, I’m just waiting for them to fire me. But as I’m going through the process, I continue to make progress. And yeah, I ended up getting hired in being there until I met my husband. So I actually was working for the city and also still running the salon on the side. So

Bernel
Oh, my goodness. So you take the seven streams of income thing? Literally.

Monica Harris
Oh, yeah. Yeah, she has had every hustle. Not every hustle. But mostly every hustle in the world like I’ve had it.

Bernel
Yes. Oh, my goodness. I love that. So once again, you were serving people. That was still the common thread there. So after you retired from being a fire fighter, a fire woman, and

Monica Harris
it’s funny, because I tell people that ever like So how long is yeah, I retired after three years, because, you know, I mean, I had a retirement plan was my husband. It was amazing, right? I mean, no. And people were like, Are you sure you want to leave? I mean, that’s just and I was like, Yeah, I’m leaving, like, he, we good? We good. So just for anybody who might come across this question, the fact should I have left it was, it was a good, it served its purpose for that time in my life. But it was the right decision for me to leave. Because what I have built, you know, with my husband, with my family, and in my business, I could not have done that. Had I still been there, you know, serving in that capacity, because that’s a very emotionally challenging career. So yeah,

Bernel
exactly. I love that. So you let go of one thing, and you made room in your heart for a lot of other things, your marriage, and then also expanding your business. So tell me a little bit about when you decided it was right for you to branch into E commerce, because a lot of people that I talk to are service providers, the bread and butter of my business are building websites for service providers. So when did you know it was time to step into offering products and pivoting to an E commerce service?

Monica Harris
If I had to be totally honest about that? Getting a little bit older, okay, made me realize, hey, it’s time to work a little smarter, not harder. Because yeah, you don’t have, you know, you’re not gonna have this body forever, that allows you to provide the services and old school Monica in the salon, I could go in there, and we’re 1213 1416 hours at a time and service 1314 people in a day. This more mature Monica, she can’t do that. I mean, she might can but she don’t want to. So just realizing that, you know, you reach a place where you want to, again, like I said, work smarter, not harder. And so I was just sitting there one day, and I was like it and because I’m doing these services, and people are coming to me for your service, but you bring in a product from outside into my facility for me to service you. And I’m like, this makes no sense. Why am I having ladies come in and bring hair from the Chinese store? Why am I coming in and having ladies bringing hair from the beauty supply store, when I could be selling them the product myself? And a better quality? Because the quality? Oh gosh, but we’re not gonna get into that. But it was just a variety of things that just made me realize like, hey, maybe it’s time to do something different. I mean, what is your out plan? What is your retirement plan? Because you’re getting older? And you know,

Bernel
yes. And that just really kind of plays into I think it was episode four where I talked about sustainability on the process. You want to make sure that you’re setting your business up for sustainability. What if something happens to you, in a horrible event that you are no longer able to use your hands or whatever it is that you do in your business at home? What do you have as like your fallback plan as your passive income? And I feel like that term passive income is slightly misleading because there’s work right it’s work, you put some work into that basket

Monica Harris
every day. But you can you can set up a system that will allow things to, to move and transpire in and processes go through whether you can actively or physically do it or not. And Brunel knows this about me, I love to roller skate, and I will go rollerskating every Sunday before COVID-19 So I’m like man, if I fall and break my wrist like I can’t work for six weeks, eight weeks, if I have surgery like so. It was a lot of things that made me realize that it was time to do to do something different to to bring another element into the career that I had set out for myself.

Bernel
I love that I love that I also expanded my business last year to offer website templates. So that was my version, I guess, of passive income or things that I could sell that if I can’t customize a website today, then that’s fine, I can still be serving my clientele, but in a different capacity. So I think that that is awesome. And I’m so glad that you found that opportunity in your business as well, because I feel like as things went digital, it has really opened up all of these opportunities to make money online. So a question that I have to ask because I get this question from a lot of my clients, how do you balance having a service based business and a product based business? And how do you balance marketing those?

Monica Harris
It is a very challenging task. I will say, and I honestly don’t know if I balanced it yet. I try. You know, I try my best. Thank you. I try my best. I mean, honestly, it’s weird, because what I do, I kind of do like a flip flop. So one month, I really hone in on my service base customers and that business and I really go through and just kind of tweak things and or update things or add things or whatever it is that I need to do. And then maybe the next month, I kind of focused on my online business. Because I mean, honestly, you need to be honed in on one thing. But the reality is, it’s, you know, the salon business, it’s been there for a long time, but I realized something. And it really came with the challenges the COVID. And that was another thing like I started my E commerce business before COVID-19. So when COVID hit, when I tell y’all, I was so happy to have set myself up to have a little something that I could generate without having to physically service people. But you know, I realized during COVID that the salon I knew how to do hair. I knew how to do hair. Well, I mean, you know i do i do i But I did not know how to run a business is so many people out here, they have talent, but they have no businesses. And I was one of those people. And I’m not a hottie person by any means. Like I’m not sitting here saying like I’m the best house ever, like, No, I still have a lot of room for growth and improvement in my industry. But I did have a talent, but I lacked business sense. And so I started working on a business coach that was so for me, I’ll say when the salon shut down, what can I do to make this experience better when my customers come back? Because I didn’t want to be one of the businesses that went under, right? Because a lot of them did. I was like I it’s either sink or swim. So what can I practically be doing right now during this two months to help come back better when I come back. And I started working with a business coach. And her program has been absolutely phenomenal. I’ve seen so much growth, like so many new clients, since implementing the things that I learned. So that is one thing like if you have a talent, that’s great, but you need to know how to run a business. Because if you don’t you will run yourself on the ground like had I implemented the things that I know now, when I started 20 years ago.

Bernel
Yeah, so we can all look back and see things that we would like to change. You know, they say that Hindsight is 2020. But I love that you took the pandemic as an opportunity to expand on the education side of your business. Because I think that that’s something especially when you have a talent, I mean, we talked about it, you’ve been naturally good at doing hair for a very, very long time. And a lot of times when we have a talent to something that comes natural to something that comes easy to us, we don’t invest in the education behind it a lot of times because it’s like, Hey, I know how to do it. But do you know how to do it on a professional level that will be sustainable, that will repeatedly bring you the kind of profits that you’re looking to have? And does it have a process? And so I feel like that’s what you found by you know, venturing out and getting a business coach, and I’m so happy to hear that because that’s something that’s such a common mistake that I’m seeing with creative entrepreneurs specifically, they’re like, oh, but I’m good at that. Oh, but I can draw Oh, but I can do hair. Oh, but I can put flowers together. Oh, but I can cook. Oh, but I can. And that’s great. But can you run your business? And can you run your business as the CEO, and not just the worker? And I feel like that is where the education component comes in. So it

Monica Harris
does and it’s because it’s super important. You asked me something earlier and I meant to say this, but I can’t remember exactly what it was but one thing that I learned also is that having people to help you is super important. Like, you cannot run a whole multifunctional business by yourself like you cannot do it you can. So, like you said, investing in education, but also investing in support people to help you accomplish your goals like you have to do that you in order to grow in order to scale, you have to be able to delegate and be like, Hey, can you take care of this for me?

Bernel
Yes. And delegation is not an act of weakness. It’s really an act of strength and power. Like I, I looked at delegation, because I am a slight control freak. I am I, I am a slight perfectionist. I am a person who kind of feels like if I don’t touch it, it might not it might not be right. Um, but that is not operating as a CEO.

Monica Harris
I actually recently hired an assistant and like the first few times we worked together, I’m like, Okay, can we get on this zoom talking to tell you everything I need. But now like after working with her, now I’m getting to a point where I can be like, Okay, let me just send her an email what I need, like, she’s learned me and what I like and what I need. And so it feels good to be able to have like, Okay, I got this, this this on my list, let me send this over to her and let her take care of that. And to be confident that she’s going to do it in that it’s going to be fine.

Bernel
He’s exactly I love that. And the same way, I recently hired an assistant. And I feel like it has taken so much off my plate. And I’m sitting here wondering why I didn’t do this years earlier. But I know why. Because we didn’t trust the process. So I know. I know, we didn’t do it earlier fear. But speaking of taking things off our plates, and being able to operate as our best selves in our businesses, it has allowed time to really give back. So I wanted to talk about your every woman knows a woman program, because for the moment that you told me about this, for those of you listening at home, me and Monica are definitely friends outside of business as well. And this is something this program was something that she spoke about with such passion and such life. And it wasn’t a business call. Like, we were literally like having a happy hour zoom call drinking wine. And she told me about this idea of helping women with hair loss. So can you tell people listening at home a little bit about that program and what really the heart behind that program?

Monica Harris
So every woman knows a woman? Yeah, Bruno and I were just chatting when I and we actually like think for each other a lot. We’ll be talking like she’ll have an idea. And she’ll be like, and I’ll give her a solution. And the same for me. So we were talking about this, this thing, and I was just like, I just want to be able to help women who suffer from hair loss. I personally have hair. So it’s not like, I don’t even know why it makes me so emotional. But a lot of the women in my family have very thin hair and just kind of deal with like thinning hair from medications and stuff that they use. Being in the hair industry for so many years, almost two decades. A lot of my clients, we’ve grown together, we you know, I was talking to one of our clients the other day, she was like, Do you realize I’ve been coming to you for 16 years, I was like, oh my goodness, like I’m so I’ve seen the progression of hair loss and how it’s affecting the community, how it’s affecting women. And it’s not just older women is not just sick women. I have young, healthy 1819 20 year old, young women who come into the salon. My actually, I think my youngest that I’ve seen was 1414 years old when she came into the salon and she had alopecia. And so, I mean, I don’t know, like, I cannot imagine being a 14 year old girl and not having hair. And every time somebody comes in, that has hair loss, like I get anxious, because I’m always afraid of like what I’m gonna see. But just seeing it and dealing with it. One of my clients, I have to give her all the credit for me even getting into like lace wigs. Because she’s been coming to me for years her her mom her daughter’s and she’s like, she has alopecia. And so she was like, we were doing so wins. And we were doing things to kind of get by and she would always be like, so are you going to learn how to do lace weeks? Like she kept asking me and I was so intimidated by the idea. I was like, I don’t know, like, Yeah, I’ll learn at some point. And she was so patient with me, y’all. I’ve been doing this lady forever. And literally, I just started working with lace. Probably about three, maybe four years ago, and I’ve been doing her hair for 16 years and all it is time when I mean she probably brought it up maybe like maybe eight years ago, but for four years was like I was like yeah, I’m gonna get around to it. I’m getting around to it and then I finally started like is definitely changed everything about my business. Because not only am I able to give her a look where she feels amazing when she leaves the line, I mean, every time I turn around to the mirror, she’d be like, I’m back. Every time every, and we do the same thing. She keeps the same look, because she’s she, you know, she’s a mature lady. She’s, you know, entrepreneur herself. And so she keeps, she keeps her same style. But like, every time she gets bent around to the mirror, she’s just like, Yeah, I’m back. Yeah, I’m back. And I was like, Yeah, boo you bag. One of my other clients, she is in her 70s and has had alopecia for probably 40 years and had been wearing just your standard beauty supply store wig. And so she would come to me, she had enough hair to where I could do some crochets. And she would come to me and get crochets. And by this time, I had been doing the lace wigs and I was like, Hey, why don’t you let me do this work for you? Why don’t you try this week? Why don’t you try this week. And finally after like two years of begging her, she finally tried it. And

Monica Harris
she was like, I can’t believe it. It looks like it’s coming. She was just so excited. She was like, it looks like it’s coming right out of my scalp. And so just to experience those things with those ladies who have hair loss, I wanted to create a look, I forgot what the point of story was. I wanted to create a program that allowed me to help women who deal with those issues. Because I mean, it’s hard. And it’s one of those things that is kind of not talked about, like people don’t really want to talk about it. People who have hair loss, like most of my clients who have hair loss, you’re never going to know they have hair loss, you usually don’t think they wear wigs, they’re not going to be like, yeah, you can share this story, right. So every woman knows a woman is for those stories to be shared by women who are, you know, comfortable sharing those stories and letting people know, letting other women know Lin other young young girls know you’re not alone in your struggle, like a lot of people suffer from hair loss. And what the program is, is basically, you can nominate a woman that you know, because every woman knows a woman who suffers from hair loss, and every one of us do. So you can nominate that woman to receive a free week from our online store, up to $400 value. And so the way that she would enter or be entered into the program is basically you just have to tell her story, she would have to be comfortable with her story being told. But I just wanted to bring awareness to that issue because it is a serious issue that we are seeing more and more in our society with the food that we have and the medications that were prescribed and the treatments that people are receiving. It’s the real issue. So every woman knows a woman was created to to bless somebody with some beautiful hair.

Bernel
I love it. And to bless them with confidence. I have confidence. Yeah. Oh, that story like literally gives me chills. I have hair. Have a lot of

Monica Harris
it’s funny, because like the first time I was telling Brunel about this, she was like, oh, what’s your cry? Like? You don’t have hair? I

Bernel
was like, what? I don’t know.

Monica Harris
It’s just it is I don’t know. It’s, it’s just something that it just touches me?

Bernel
I don’t know. Yes, well, and I love that because it once again goes back to you have a heart centered business. Your business is all about helping others. And what really stood out to me the first time you were telling me about this program, and the hair loss and all of that. And all of that is tremendously sad, and I do I feel that. But what really stood out to me was when you say it, you want it to share their stories because they weren’t. It’s not talked about. It’s not something that people really feel like they can speak on. And I am all about Amplifying Voices, whether it’s amplifying your voice as a business owner, amplifying your voice as a new entrepreneur, amplifying your voice as a woman, whatever way we can amplify the voice of those who feel like society’s telling them that they don’t have something to say. And by giving them that platform and and not even putting them on the spot but having somebody nominate someone because you’re right. Every woman knows a woman every woman knows a woman who suffers from hair loss and spends countless hours trying to hide it. Yeah, every woman knows a woman who has experienced some sort of health illness that maybe they had a beautiful head of hair before that. But now their lack of hair reminds them every day of this illness that has changed their life. Every woman knows a woman who deserves to feel beautiful who deserves to feel confident who deserves to feel seen. And so yeah, like see now now you’re making me want to cry. I love that though. So I really if you’re listening at home and you know a woman which I’m sure you do, definitely nominate her definitely go see You to Monica his Instagram page or to her website, I am Monica nicole.com. And I’ll link to all of that in the show notes and read more about this program because this program really is beautiful. And you could you could potentially change your life and in a way that most people don’t even think about it. Like most people don’t think about the hair loss aspect of illnesses, or even the hair loss aspect of aging, because there’s usually bigger things that people are trying to help that person fulfill in life. So definitely nominate someone if you know somebody, and as I mentioned, I will link all of those pages in the show notes.

Monica Harris
Yeah, it’s a good gift to give. I mean, it is it is a free gift, it only takes for you to share a

Bernel
story. Yeah. And so one of the things that I asked Monica prior to this conversation that really stood out to me, I asked the question about how do you continue to stay on top of things in your industry? And I thought her answer, like her answer, I wrote it down. Because it was it just it really touched me. She said that she aligns her business and vision for her brand with industry leaders that feel and share the same values. And I think that that is so so important as business owners and just as people, find your tribe, love them hard. Find your community who stands for the same things that you stand for and who back the same things that you back. And, and I think that you show us that by creating programs they give back to strong women. So I love that. Well, if you are familiar with the podcast, you know that this is my absolute favorite part, grab your pen, grab your paper, because Monica is getting ready to give us three actionable steps that you can take today to move your business forward.

Monica Harris
Okay, so my first tip, and all of these are things that that I learned and I applied to my own business. That first one would be to avoid analysis paralysis, like it took me so I want it to the doing, being a hairstylist. That wasn’t hard for me like I was young, and I was ready to do it. And I was like, Yeah, let’s do it. But starting that ecommerce store, and building this online site, I thought about it probably for two years before I actually started taking steps to do it. So a lot of it was I am a perfectionist as well, like, I want everything before I put it out there, I needed to be perfect. But reality is, you will never get it done. If you wait for it to be perfect. It’ll never be done. And I found that people who support you and support your business and support your vision, they don’t work with you while you tweak things and you work through your process. So I’m so thankful and so grateful because I have such a tremendous support system, not only from my family, but from, you know, my customers and my friends and my followers. So you know, don’t sit in Wait, like take action, do something to get yourself started and keep doing things keep taking steps to make progress. And also, once you start, don’t start over, that was something I told her now I made it my own word, it was called Start Over syndrome. I was like girl, every time I get something done, then I realize, hey, I might have should have done this. And then I go back and I want to start over from the beginning. But I can’t ever get to the end if I keep going back to the beginning. So realizing that you have to complete the thing, the task, whatever it is, and then it’s okay to go back and tweak after you complete it. But finish what you start, like finish what you start. That was all one tip.

Bernel
But I love that make a no have start over syndrome because that is so true. I feel like a lot of times we don’t get the to do list completed because we learn like after you do thing number one, two and three, you learn oh my goodness, this is the more efficient way to do it. And now you want to do one, two and three all over again. The problem with that is you never get to 10 ly

Monica Harris
ever get to 10 Yeah, so my second tip is something that I have also had to learn to implement because I thought I could remember everything, but I don’t remember anything anymore. So writing things down, getting organized. And setting goals have been major for me. And in in that process. I learned that I need to have systems and once those things are in place, stick to those things. I had a friend client recently asked me about some services and I’m like, yeah, just you know, because we’re talking casually, I’m like so when you want to do it, blah, blah, blah. I didn’t put it in my system. She showed up to pick up an item and it wasn’t ready for her. Had it been in my system it would have been ready for her but because it was a friend, business relationship or transaction. I wasn’t able to show up on a professional level the way that I wanted to so stick into your systems, don’t let anything take you out of your your systems that you put in place and making sure that you’re writing things down. My last thing is never stop learning. I love to learn, like I literally probably listened to a podcast audiobook, you too. I mean, I pay to, you know, train with people or work with business coaches, like, I am constantly investing in education. So I feel like as long as you know, I’m in business, there’s always room to grow and improve. So

Bernel
there is, you know, I truly agree with you never stop learning because life never stops teaching. So

Monica Harris
and time never stopped changing, things change so quickly. So

Bernel
they do. Well, thank you so much, Monica, for coming and sharing all of that, oh, my goodness, I feel like so many valuable gems were dropped not just on the business aspect of life, but also on the personal aspect. And definitely from the philanthropist side of giving back. So if you know a woman who can use these services, if you are looking for a way in your business, to give back to the community to do something that really aligns with the values of your brand, and I hope this inspired you, and Monica is very active on her Instagram. So I’m sure if you have any questions, thoughts, comments, concerns, she would love to hear them in a direct message I’d love to. And likewise, same here. If you have any questions from this podcast, you know where to find me. I’m always happy to chat. So thank you so much for coming on the show today. Monica,

Monica Harris
thank you so much for having me, Bernel.

Bernel
Wow, that went by really fast. As always, thank you so much for showing up in my little corner of the internet. I would love to hear your thoughts on the show. So please, please subscribe, leave a review and share what you learned with friends. Some of the best things in life are freebies. So don’t forget to head over to brand if I pronounced.com to check out our free branding goodies, the show notes and more educational resources.