Season 7 Episode #22 Lessons Learned Growing My Business This Summer

In this special episode of The Cultural Curriculum Chat, host Jebeh Edmunds pulls back the curtain on her own entrepreneurial journey—and celebrates 5 years of Jebeh Cultural Consulting! 🎉

From batching content to building meaningful partnerships (with zero paid ads), Jebeh shares honest reflections and behind-the-scenes stories about what it really takes to sustain a values-driven business while balancing motherhood, podcasting, lesson planning, and DEI consulting.

You'll hear Jebeh’s top 3 game-changing lessons:

1. 🛠 The Power of Systems – Why batching, automation, and planning give you time and peace.
2. 🤝 Invest in Relationships – How handwritten cards, local networking, and podcast guesting grew her business more than any ad ever could.
3. 🧘🏽‍♀️ Rest Is a Business Strategy – A cautionary tale of burnout, birthday “timeouts,” and learning to color code rest into your calendar.

✨ Whether you're growing your own dream, leading a classroom, or launching a new venture, these lessons will save you time, stress, and maybe even a few tears.

🎁 BONUS: Want actionable resources to help your students or workplace grow too? Check out Jebeh’s self-paced mini course, Empowering Your BIPOC Students—packed with strategies for meaningful community impact. Link in the show notes!

COME SAY Hey!!

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Transcript

0:36

Hey everyone. Welcome back to the Cultural Curriculum Chat podcast. I'm Jebeh Edmunds, and today I'm doing something a little different. I'm pulling back the curtain on my own journey. This summer, while balancing my podcast and creating new lesson plans and de and I consulting, I learned some big lessons about growth, time management and resilience. And if you are building your own business or dream. These lessons might save you a few headaches, and I must say, I have to toot my own horn because today, August 4th, 2025 is the fifth. Anniversary of Jebe Cultural Consulting, my flagship business that started this dream to create this podcast. So yes, if there was a be, be, be, be, I would be doing that right now. But I don't have any fun little, sound effects, so you're just gonna have to use my voice. But I'm so excited to share with you. I've come a long way this. Dream of creating this podcast. You might kind of chuckle. If you've been a fan listening to this podcast for the last four and a half years, I have to say. I was that girl in the eighties with her boombox screaming into the speaker with my blank cassette tape recording the Jebeh Metzger radio show, and my sisters were my guests. So that dream over 40 years ago has created this podcast. Thank goodness for good technology, but. I'm gonna go share with you some really great life lessons that I learned in this business the last five years. And I'm gonna start with lesson number one, the power of systems. Yes, automation is my bestie and um, yes, not gonna knock my husband and my best friend Tara but. Automation in your business is so vital to keep it going, especially this summer. I have two teenage sons. They're very self-sufficient, but they still need their mama, you know, to get groceries and to get them to their sporting events and things like that. So I learned in the power of my systems that I have been working like a well oiled machine. I batch record my podcast. I love to record three or four episodes at a sitting and then I batch edit it the following day and I set up my copy and create my blogs. I create my Pinterest and all my other social media, um, schedules, and I get it all set up once a week. One week a month, and that helps carry me in through the following month. So that has been a really important system for me. So I'm not just scratching my head and going, oh my gosh, I have to do my email newsletter. Nope, I have it all already taken care of. And automating it by batching my content, gives me hours back to focus on my family. Focus on, you know, enhancing my book, which comes out this October. And so those are the things that I do. It's a, you know, usually the first week of every month it's marketing month and it's recording month. And basically getting the podcast in my YouTube channel ready to go and getting that, runway for you all my listeners and my viewers and um, folks on my email list. So speaking of that email list, I want you to understand, because I will be sharing some other nuggets of insight and how I utilize those. Systems. So join my newsletter, the Inclusive Educator, where I share more behind the scenes tips and inclusive resources for you. That goes to your inbox every week, and you can sign up in my show notes below. Now, another lesson that I learned is invest in your relationships, not just the marketing piece. I have. Two new partnerships just by showing up authentically and having those real conversations. No paid ads, just connections. There's sometimes when you feel like, oh, I'm just gonna let my social media do all the talking, and that is just one arm of my marketing, strategy. But the other arm of my strategy, which I really. Hold really dear is writing cards like personal cards to my previous clients, sending out personal cards to my potential clients. Postcards go a long way, and another thing too is networking at your local chamber. I have gotten a lot of wonderful, potential clients by just showing up in person. It goes a long way by just having that human connection, to. Put yourself out there and just by showing up, you know, it, it goes a long way from just a cold email by actually having a name to a face, going to other, community aligned, events that align with your, values and that to me is also very important, being immersed in and talking to others. Another way that I do in investing in those relationships is, connecting with other podcast hosts and being on their podcasts that align with my philosophy with promoting positive change and sharing, educational materials with the masses. That's another connection. And then meeting those hosts and connecting with those hosts after an interview. I don't like a one and done, after an interview connecting with those, previous guests as well and sending them a card to say, I'm thinking of them and I'm hoping everything is going well. And that connection continues to broaden my network of people that I know. And if you're curious about building partnerships and growing your own reach, check out my mini course with your students, empowering Your Bipoc students, and it includes strategies for community impact that apply in classrooms and businesses alike. That is something that I think. Connecting with your students more than just in the classroom, but sending, those celebration emails to their families is also very important. And I've got some wonderful tools in that mini course for you, and you can get the information in the show notes. Now, lesson three is a hard lesson that sometimes gets me on the couch sick because of stress, but rest. Is a very important business strategy. Burnout, y'all is real. I felt the burnout last fall, going hard in my business and meeting all my clients' needs and just,, burning the candle at both ends. That really got me. I really hit a wall last fall and I had to learn to block out days for my creative work. And I had to block out days for rest, which made me more productive and less stressed. I really got used to creating and enjoying like color coding. My Google calendar, yes, I had to do it. I had to block rest days. I had to go into my settings in my email and block out of office. And I'm a one woman, entrepreneur, and having to color code those days really had it into my eyes to say, okay, the golden rod days, those are days of rest. That's when I would clock out. And go with my family and hang out at our cabin nearby, or go to the Twin Cities and spend time with my family. Or just walking around Lake Superior, for an hour or two and really get grounded and just. Having my out of work days, and I have to say it is so much harder when you are on your own as a small business owner to block out rest days because you are the only thing that is getting things going. But if you, like I said, in the power of systems with our lesson number one, if you have things already automated, the rest. Is the best thing for yourself because that's when you can be your creative side and do the work and have more fun in it. When you block out times of just getting away from your computer and even yes, reminding yourself on your Google calendar of, nope. We're not working today, Jeb, or Nope, we're taking the week off'cause it's your birthday. You know? So those are the types of things where rest is so, so important. And trust me, when you get burnt out, you really suffer the consequences because no one's there to fulfill what you have to do as a business owner. So you need to really take care of yourself. And there's some things where. I have to say, I hit a wall again and on my 45th birthday on August 1st. Yep. That was literally three days ago while I'm recording this and I was sick, y'all, I was real sick and my mama said, Hmm. Yeah, because you're doing too much. God told you to sit down. So I sat down, I was in my own birthday timeout. My hubby and my sweet sons, they, catered to me and. Brought me my birthday cake in bed and I binged Netflix for a couple days, so I had my time out, but that's not a healthy thing. Friends, you need to continue to be conscious of blocking the rest so you don't get sick and stuck on the couch for days.'cause your clients and your listeners like my. Fan listeners here, um, are listening and my viewers are watching, and they need me at my best as well. Now, if you want some more behind the scenes tips and growth strategies for your business, follow me on Instagram at culturally jebeh_ or on my YouTube channel, Mrs. Edmond's Cultural Corner, where I share weekly tips that you won't hear. Anywhere else. So going back to this, those top three, you know, three is like my magic number. F lesson number one, the power of systems. Automate, automate, automate, automate that email list, automate your social media posts, and even automate when you are going to attend a conference. Get those dates blocked out so you are ready to go and automate how you create your content. I always do my magic Four episodes in a sitting. Then I just record. I have my fun. I get my makeup done, do YouTube, videos, and then. I take a separate day to edit all of those episodes and a separate day to blog what I talked about and shared, and then I also use those days to get everything scheduled. It makes life so much more easier. Especially when you are doing it all on your own. Lesson number two, invest in those relationships and not just the marketing part. Go to those networking events in your area. Go to those charitable events that align with you and your values of your business and connect with those owners of those. Organizations, an old fashioned business card goes a long way. Set up those coffee dates and meet with potential clients. You know that to me, warming up to your potential clients and investing in your work is so important. And lesson number three, yes, your girl still needs to highlight this lesson. Number three, rest is your best business strategy. Okay, my dear. Take a load off, read a book. Get away from your computer for at least an hour or two a day., Usually setting up your morning routine is so important so you can block out that time. Maybe it's during your lunch break, you eat in fun lunch, and then you go for a walk. That's my favorite thing that I love to do. I walk two miles in my neighborhood and then I get back to business, but I have to just get away from the computer. I am so excited that you tuned in today. Thank you so much for hanging out with me on the culture curriculum chat. And remember, I am five years in honey. I am still learning. So growth isn't just about hustling, it's about building sustainably. So check out the show notes for all the links that I mentioned and I'll see you here same time next week. Bye-bye.