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A community of the curious led by Hyatt Howard, an Ivy-League lawyer, writer, and entrepreneur. Engaging interviews and reflections on things that matter. Pull a seat up to the table and come chill with us!
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Liane Agbi: A Digital Entrepreneur's Career Journey
Hyatt interviews Liane Agbi, web developer and digital entrepreneur, on her fascinating career journey.
Liane is the founder and editorial director of BAUCE Magazine, a lifestyle site for self-made women. Her mission is to help women from disadvantaged backgrounds and low-income communities overcome obstacles to achieve financial freedom and personal success. A digital media maven at heart, Liane is also a web developer and UX designer that owns Beautifuli Digital, a boutique agency that helps women business owners elevate their online presence. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Liane received a B.A. in English and Ethnicity, Race & Migration from Yale University and her Masters in Design from the University of Creative Arts in London.
Welcome to the bevy podcast on the bevy podcast, we have fun, thoughtful conversations with friends. Pull a seat up to the table. Come chill with us. Hey, what's up bevy family. This is Hyatt Howard here, your host of the bevy podcast. And I am back. Yes, I am back. I know it's been a minute. Well, We had some big things happen for me. Last summer, we welcomed our second child of the family. And you parents out there know is no joke. Having a second child and here at the bevy week. Nope. Are very much behind parental leave. So I took some time, spend some time with the little one and his big sister, and it has been. Glorious. Seeing them together. And I'm so excited to be back with you before I went out, only from the podcast, I had some wonderful interviews last summer. And so I'm excited to share those with you over the next few weeks. This week, we have an exciting dynamic, innovative entrepreneur, Leann ag. Be joining us. It's a great episode. So let's get back to it.
Hyatt Howard:What's up? What's up? What's up? It's the Bevy podcast and I am so fortunate and delighted to have a friend on Leanne Agby. What's up? Welcome to the Bevy
Liane:podcast. Hello. I'm super excited to chat with you.
Hyatt Howard:Well, I'm excited that you're here. You guys, you got to know that you are in for a treat today because Leanne is a entrepreneur and she's actually killing, killing the game. She's a web developer. She builds beautiful, high performing websites for female focused brands and entrepreneurs. So you already know, like she's good people, she's doing big things. And today we're going to delve into her entrepreneurial journey. And so before we go any further, we just got a few icebreakers for you. So this has been the summer of big concerts. We've had Drake, we've had Taylor Swift, we've had Beyonce. Have you been to any of the concerts?
Liane:Yes. So I've been to the Beyonce concert. Actually traveled to Toronto to see Beyonce. And I was a little disappointed because Blue Ivy did not show up. And I don't understand why because Blue is out. However, I'm going to see her again in Houston. So, wait, you got,
Hyatt Howard:you got tickets two times. You're so lucky now.
Liane:Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Atlanta's, yeah, Houston's her hometown which I'm super excited about. And so I know it's going to be a really, really great show. But literally when I heard Beyonce was having this concert, I think I hit up like, All my friend groups, like who's going. And so I kind of got like pulled into a few different shows.
Hyatt Howard:So you just got friends everywhere, like national to have Toronto, Houston. My mom went shout out mom to you, she went to the Atlanta concert a couple of weeks ago.
Liane:Heard Atlanta was amazing. It
Hyatt Howard:was amazing. And then some, my mom told me, and my mom's not usually kind of the. You know, woman to fangirl over, but she said that it was an immaculate, immaculate, no other, no other words for it. Like every, all the details, the dancers, everything was just right. So out of the songs she performed in Toronto, what was your favorite?
Liane:Oh my God, it's so hard. I will say I was really, I love all of her new stuff. Like, I was surprised at like how many words I knew, but I will say like her going back to her older stuff, like Dangerously in Love, like from her first solo album, I was like, whoa, like she really reminded us like she is a true singer and she's really talented. Like that kind of just stuck with me the whole night. So the fact that I'm willing to see the show again shows you like how good it
Hyatt Howard:is. Yeah. Yeah. And you're willing to travel down there to Houston. And what is that? When's that show? Is that in September?
Liane:Right? September. Yeah. So I feel like it'll still be pretty warm. I'm not sure how hot, but, that's where I was
Hyatt Howard:going with that. I was like, that's true vacation. Like Toronto and Houston are two different
Liane:climates. I know. I know. So I'm looking forward to it. Oh,
Hyatt Howard:that's awesome. And the whole dangerous in love. That's so funny. You mentioned that because I feel like there's certain songs from the era that I just You know, you kind of come up in and that are there songs of your adolescence and I can tell you, I was dangerously in love from 1999 to like 2002 or three and then yeah, Shanti from there for me.
Liane:No, that's, that's, that's kind of the truth. I mean, it's always been Beyonce, but it's kind of funny to see how like. There was a lot of great, you know, female singers, Black female singers, including Ashanti. And now it's kind of like, they all kind of just like, faded into the ether. Not saying they're not talented, but like, Beyoncé really has. Surpassed a lot of the people within the class group. So it's kind of amazing to see.
Hyatt Howard:Yeah, and to have that longevity, that's one thing I say. I look at people who are like, wow, like, I was 12, 13 when. And you know, now I am a grown man. I got a full time job. You know, two children, you know, all these things going on in my life and
Liane:I'm like, she's still out here. She's still relevant. Yeah.
Hyatt Howard:I think it's a real, yeah, real testament to her talent. So when you're in the office kind of kicking it and you need that like little push of inspiration, do you go to Beyonce? Is that something you, someone you listen to?
Liane:Yeah. I will definitely say I do. The Renaissance album has been really great for my productivity. Like when I'm deep in work I tend to like play that in the background. Gives me a lot of confidence to get stuff done. I'm also a huge like Afrobeats listener, so I listen to a lot of like Thames, Burna Boy, like Wizkid, all that as well. I like music that's like upbeat. Like, I kind of like to maintain like positive energy when I'm working. So anything that's like, Gonna make my head bob is typically what I'm listening to. Oh my
Hyatt Howard:gosh, I've been getting into the Afrobeats myself. I also thought it was hysterical that the NBA All Star Game, one, was in Salt Lake City. Like, who wants to go to Salt Lake City? I know. Two, like, the introduction of like Afrobeats, at least as it, you know, pertains to the NBA, was, you know, Burner Boy in Salt Lake City. I know. Icing on the top. Like, I'm like, y'all need to have that in Atlanta or something, you know, like Right.
Liane:Of all places Yeah. Like people
Hyatt Howard:who might have like a fan, you know, there's like a fan base there, but I feel like Salt Lake City got a lot of culture in one. Yeah.
Liane:in one. Yeah. No, seriously.
Hyatt Howard:That's so funny. Speaking of just like Afrobeats, I, I'm, I'm curious. For you let me take a step back. What, what got you interested in web web design? I mean, we went to the same school, shout out, you know,
Liane:very
Hyatt Howard:talented, intelligent entrepreneur, but like at that time. When you were there, like, was entrepreneurship even on your radar? And now you're like, you're running we were talking briefly before this, not one, but two, two entrepreneur get downs. I mean, tell me about that.
Liane:Yeah, yeah, for sure. So I'll say it's interesting because I think growing up entrepreneurship was like not on my radar. It wasn't something I thought about. I grew up with Nigerian parents. My parents are Nigerian, African immigrants. So very much lives kind of like that immigrant child lifestyle where you're like told to go to a great school and become like a doctor or a lawyer or engineer
Hyatt Howard:or what have you. It's kind of ingrained y'all going to be doctors and I know some amazing Nigerian doctors.
Liane:Exactly. So that was pretty much like the, I guess. intense, like push that my parents had. And it's funny enough, I think as a young kid, I was always very creative leaning. So I was really into like anything artistic, like painting, writing, drawing playing the keyboard, like whatever was creative. Okay. Can we just pause there
Hyatt Howard:just for one moment? Yeah. This is just, I mean, a testament to how talented Leanne is. I mean, she was like, Oh, like I was into painting, drawing keyboard. I mean, I'm missing one. Writing
Liane:Like writing? Yeah. Yeah. Just really
Hyatt Howard:doing it all. Just no, you know, no flex, it's just
Liane:You got it like that. I mean, I just liked to be creative, like that was like my outlet. And so by the time I got to Yale, Yale, funny enough, I knew I was, I was really into writing. I knew I wanted to be an English major. So again, like entrepreneurship really wasn't on my radar. I was really like thinking I'll go to school and get a standard job and do the whole corporate thing and what have you. So it wasn't really until my senior year at Yale, actually, there was a seminar called entrepreneurship. It was one of those like seminars where someone outside from Yale comes and teaches it. I forgot the formal name for it, but so this. Really this guy who was also like a grad named john box toss. He was the teacher for this class. And like, I remember it was so weird. I feel like that year graduating was when I felt like the whole entrepreneurial revolution was kind of happening again, where You start to hear about startups and VC funding and all this type of stuff that no one had talked to me about for years and years and years. And so I remember taking the seminar and I'm learning more about like, what is entrepreneurship and like, people can make money doing things that they love. And so in that senior year, we had to do like a or in that seminar, we had to do like a final project or what have you. And so at that time I had, I'd been working on like a blog and I, I started this, like. Online magazine which is called like Boss Mag today. And that online magazine was really just like this blog I had spun up on WordPress. Ah, and through that is how I kind of started learning how to code.'cause I was like, I wanted to change the color of my, the background on my page or like change like the typeface or the fonts or what have you. And I didn't know any of this wasn't like a computer science student. Like I literally was just Googling stuff. Yeah. It seems she trying to figure it out.
Hyatt Howard:And on campus, I mean the English department is like on one side it feels like and computer science is on a completely
Liane:a completely different side. Yeah,
Hyatt Howard:so you're learning to code. I took some coding back in high school way back in the day, but was it You know, were you doing html like that type of coding?
Liane:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's still relevant by the way. It definitely is. Okay. You cannot have a website without html. But it's like, so starter code, like learning little html, css, like how to style things and change things. And really that's like what began my whole coding journey and also entrepreneurial journey. So when I left college, I kept working on boss mag on the side, but it was really just like me, like creating posts and writing articles and things like that. And so that kind of morphed into its own little business where it's like, you know, just this media platform where I'm like sharing stories of successful self made women of color. But on the side of that, I'm still working a corporate job, ended up deciding that I really loved coding to the point where. I was like spending my weekends like just working on like, like landing pages and things and but I was like, I really want to formally get better at this. So I decided to do a coding bootcamp. And that eventually led me to get a formal job. It's like a web developer for L'Oreal. And then during the midst of the pandemic, I ended up starting my own like agency web development agency. So that is really like the 2nd business. So the 1st 1 was really like the online magazine. And then the 2nd business, which is really kind of grown more exponentially would be my web development agency. Beautifully digital that I'm still running today. Wow. I
Hyatt Howard:mean, the way you describe it, you're like, I did this, I did this, and this seems so seamless.
Liane:I mean, it took time. It took time and a lot of effort, and it was not easy at all. So I won't make it sound like it was just, you know, flipping a coin or something like that, but, yeah, and I'm just
Hyatt Howard:going back to the moment where you're like, you just kind of discovered that you're doing this and then you start doing it on the weekends. At what point did it seem to you like, nah, actually, you know what, I'm willing to like pony up, I'm willing to put in some money for this and actually go to, you call it, it's a bootcamp? A
Liane:coding bootcamp, yeah.
Hyatt Howard:A coding bootcamp, and could you just tell us
Liane:what that is? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So I will say to answer your first question I think I knew I had that feeling when I was starting to have the Sunday scaries. I think that's like the new phrase where you feel like before your work day starts, your, your, you know, your job starts on Monday, you're like dreading going into work. And that time, you know, I was working at a major like global brand, like company, but I was doing like marketing and media there. And I just, I didn't have the most fun boss at the time. So it made it a little challenging for me. And I was just getting to the point where I was like, I have more passion towards like the side hustle that I'm working on than my corporate job. So I need to like do something about this. So eventually that's what led me to be like, you know, Leanne, if you love doing this shit to the point where you're like, sorry, to the point where like, it's. free, like you're literally not paying yourself. You're going to do it anyway, then maybe that should be your full time job. That maybe that should be your career. So, and
Hyatt Howard:you talked about this a little bit at the beginning with your, you know, childhood upbringing and kind of having these like expectations, you know, some of the culture, some of it from your family. Can you talk about what that conversation was like with your parents
Liane:when they
Hyatt Howard:were like, Well, I guess that's,
Liane:you know, yeah, yeah, no, I can definitely talk about that. I will say so, I guess, honestly, this kind of became more my family and their thoughts around it became more relevant when I ended up doing the bootcamp and like, or actually when I ended up completing the bootcamp, because I remember like telling my parents like, Oh, like, I'm really thinking about going to coding and they like, they, They understood what like engineering was so they're like oh you're gonna go be a software engineer like that's what you're gonna go to do like that's right that's checked off yes but when I mentioned like oh I'm thinking about doing my own thing and being entrepreneurial they were kind of like Why? Like, you're gonna, like, what? Like, my mom, oh my gosh, my mom was on me for, I will say, years about, like, going back to school, because for her, she's like, well, you're not a lawyer or a doctor or an engineer, so, like, what are you doing? I feel like you're just wasting your time. And so she was really big on, like, she kind of was pushing me to, like, go back to school, go get your master's, maybe you could be a professor, maybe you could do this, maybe, like, I think she just thought, like, if I'll go back to school, then I'll land in one of those careers anyways. I had even, like, thought about going to B school at one point and applied and got in and, like, turned it down. So my mom was pretty pissed about that. But I think it's because I, and maybe I just always knew that I had this entrepreneurial bug in me, and that's really where I needed to end up. But when I applied for a coding bootcamp, which is really like doing a program where someone's teaching you how to code, but in a very accelerated fashion. So I was doing like an apprentice style bootcamp where I was learning like HTML, JavaScript. CSS. Also I think we did like Ruby on rails at the time was pretty popular. And then we learned a little bit of Python. So it's like some backend web development as well. So I'm doing all of this on the side of my full time job. So pretty, pretty exhausting. But I, because I was so committed to like, I just knew like I was, I, I needed to transition, I needed to do something else. I was pretty committed to it. I think my parents, you know, I feel like they kind of got to a point where they realized like Leanne's going to find a way, like they gotten pretty confident at, you know, even though we don't, they may not a hundred percent understand, which I think sometimes the non agreement is just like not understanding. But they, they seem to have confidence that like, okay, well she'll figure it out. She'll find her way. She's always. Done that anyways, like getting into Yale or taking the SATs, like my parents weren't there, like coaching me or helping me study for it. Like I had to figure it out, right on my own. And so at this point they're pretty, they're pretty fine with what I do, but at that turning point, they're kind of like, why are you gonna leave this big company and go do, like, what are you doing Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, it was like hard to like get them to understand why I wanted to like. Take the entrepreneurial leap anyways.
Hyatt Howard:And I think it's, those are fair questions. And I think the people who, you know, are really about you at the end of the day, they're going to ask those questions because it gets you to think and to assess like, yo, this is actually something I really do care about. And this is kind of the. Rewards. These are the risk, but kind of put things in perspective, going back to the boot camp, because I'm really interested in this, this idea that, you know, you're being in a space that is traditionally, you know, very male, I would assume like very homogenous in terms of a lot of white guys, you know, perhaps what was. that experience like for you?
Liane:So I will say that it was definitely eye opening. But also like, I would say I found a lot of encouragement from other like female mentors that were in the program. So I would say from a diversity perspective, didn't really see a lot of like, Black people, African Americans or whatever in the program, but I did connect to like the women that were in the program because even that is still an area where you know, women in tech or women who code the, you know, the numbers are rising, but there's still predominantly men in the space. So I was able to kind of latch onto like a female mentor through the program and that really helped. me to like just build my confidence especially in the program. Cause I noticed there would be times like if I'm working on a problem set or like having to partner with like, yes, I had, it was like, it was a crazy decision, but it was the best decision I will say I made for myself and for my career. But even when like having to partner with other men in the program, you know, sometimes they would just like. Wouldn't want to hear like, what my thoughts or suggestions were on something or they just felt like they knew how to do it when sometimes encoding there's like multiple ways to get to the end of a solution or something. But they would feel like, oh, their way makes the most sense. They're like, okay, that's cool. But, you know, or sometimes there's a stereotype that like most. The women in tech are just like designers and only can do creative work and can't really build anything functional. And I was, you know, learning how to do full stack development at the time. So I think a lot of people were surprised that they're like, Oh, you can actually code or like, you don't only know HTML. Like so yeah, it's a lot of like battling those. You know, that stereotype, that kind of energy to get through the program. I will definitely say there are a few times that. I thought about quitting because it was just one like doing the work is like hard, but then also you're just like, sometimes you get in your head about like, Am I really going to get it? Like, is anyone going to hire me after this? These are the type of people I'm already around, like, these are the people that are in the workforce, like, there's no way. This is going to work. But I'm glad I stuck with it. Cause like now I'm doing my own thing and I can focus on the type of clients that I like to focus on, which are like other female entrepreneurs really support, you know, what I do and get it. So it's, it's, it's been an interesting journey. Yeah.
Hyatt Howard:And you know, when you were at that moment, considering kind of the precipice, do I stay, do I go? Were there a particular word of encouragement or person or kind of like circumstance that kind of said, Hey, look, you are actually immensely talented. You deserve to be here. This is what you're doing this for. Because, you know, we all deal with those types of those moments in life that like adversity. And then we're like, what do we do? How do we respond? And I'm just curious what kind of grounded
Liane:you in those moments. Yeah, I will really say I would say it's like my mentor that was in the coding bootcamp. She was a female developer and she worked at FedEx at the time. And so, you know, sometimes I express not event necessarily, but just express like some of the challenges I was having, but she was really, really encouraging about like sticking to it or even sharing some of her past experiences. And you know, there's certain things about the industry that you have to accept. But there are things that, you know, you have to realize that make you unique and make you exceptional to what's the norm. And so I'm just reminding myself of that, that, you know I'm here for a reason. I have talent. I have a skill. I am capable of learning this and I'm learning, you know, some of the, the things that I had around being like a creative person trying to learn to code. Because for me, like, stem was never that wasn't my thing. Like, if you knew how much I tried to avoid like the math. science requirement at Yale. Like I tried to take astronomy and I don't know if you heard about astronomy without, yeah. So anyways yeah, I will say that having that mentor really helped to like encourage me to, to, to keep going and not, not give up in those moments.
Hyatt Howard:And that's a word though, for real, because, and I hope people really, you know, hear this and they think about the people in their like spheres of influence that When we share and open up about our own struggles, difficulties, successes, or failures, that that can like really be fodder for someone else who's going, who's going through it. And so like, I love that she was there for you in a moment and that she shared candidly with what had been going on in her life. And I mean, the fact that she worked at FedEx, I can only imagine how Like complex and crazy upside.
Liane:Yeah. Yeah. Like they're not doing pretty pony projects there. No, no, no. Serious
Hyatt Howard:stuff. Yeah. All, all about that. So you finished the coding bootcamp, you graduate, you got your degree, and then you said you worked for an. Actual company. So this is where the shift you went from like you said you were at L'Oreal before, right?
Liane:No, so I was actually at I was working at samsung at the time. So like working in their media Yeah, no worries media marketing department so i'm, you know, and that job was also like pretty intense. There was a lot of travel involved and then I was doing the coding boot camp on the side of that and then once I finished I ended up like, you know started like applying while still trying to do my job. And then I ended up getting a role at L'Oreal as a web developer there. So that was more like focused on e commerce development for a lot of their major beauty brands, which was really a dope role. I really loved my job there.
Hyatt Howard:Yeah. So you walk in first day and you're like, I'm here. Like I'm And how does, I mean, just in terms of what you had been doing before and like what, you know, doing marketing and like doing like web page design, like what is it like, you know, as a web page designer, like, because, you know, they have these websites up and from our consumers perspective, you just go type it in, you assume everybody has a website today, but like you guys are actually working on it. So like, yeah, first day your boss gives you like you're in charge of X.
Liane:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I would say my experience there was. Pretty dope. But also interesting because I left a company that was very like, obviously like tech centric, like tech forward you know, constantly competing with apple to go to a company. That's definitely like a legacy, like global beauty brand, but they're not necessarily known for the tech aspect. And so a lot of the beauty brands again, they have their own websites and things like that. But there was definitely a lot of managing up or like educating I had to do to my organization. Just because like being at L'Oreal, they're definitely more marketing focused. So they're really great at like campaigns and like getting, selling you like makeup and skincare and all this type of stuff. But when it came to the digital side of the business, there was a lot of like growth happening at the time. So that made it pretty exciting. But a lot of times I was the one like trying to explain like. What a landing pages or what's the conversion rate or all these things and why they're important to my digital team. And so definitely coming on, there was like a lot to grasp and learn and train people on like, you know, how to create a roadmap and how to test. Sites like, I mean, basically what you all see today on the internet, you know, seems very like it's there. I can go shop and buy but we're constantly like testing stuff and like adding new features, like to make sure the sites are always up and running building out new landing pages. Whenever there's a new product, I did a lot of that. And
a
Hyatt Howard:lot of pages where you go. When you click on something, and that's, yeah,
Liane:so essentially, so you'll, you'll realize, like, yeah, there's a lot of ads on the Internet. And so whenever a user, like, clicks on an ad, you usually want to drive them somewhere where your goal is for to get them to purchase, or at least to consider you as a place to return when they're Thinking about, you know, whatever type of product they're trying to purchase. So a lot of times the strategy would be like, let's develop this, you know, really splashy and educational landing page. That's going to get you excited about this product and help you learn more. So through those experiences that I was creating you know, it's, it's a lot of it is to like, you know, The end goal is to, yes, help the, the brand get a sale. But it's also an opportunity to really educate your user about what it, whatever it is you're, you're promoting. So usually landing pages are like dedicated pages for specific piece of content where you have a specific action going on. So I did a lot of those while I was there, but it was really fun because a lot of the content. And products, they're all about like uplifting women, empowering women. And that's kind of been a part of my ethos for a very long time. And you know, the type of person that I am. So that's why I said, I really, really loved working there. Like I wasn't just doing like boring stuff. I was like, this is fun and it's consumer facing and it's cool. So, so yeah, so I did a lot of that work before, like fully Becoming like an entrepreneur full
Hyatt Howard:time. I don't know. And yeah, so I, I want to get to the, like the, like big moment where you're like, I'm staking my flag in the ground and doing my own thing, but talking about your experience at L'Oreal, like the thought occurred to me, like a lot of what you're doing, you know, as you're creating these, like. Websites and like making them attractive for consumers like involves like a lot of philosophy and like attraction like I mean, not attraction. I mean, the psychology, you know that you're, you're implementing. So I'm just curious, like, are you guys just sitting around? And is it like some like a seminar table at Yale saying, All right, guys. Our, our, you know, team is what we should be thinking about to like model and like create this website. All these details that, you know, we kind of take for granted, but make the website super appealing. When I pop on, I gotta get this
Liane:product now. Yeah, yeah, no, there's definitely a lot of, like, user research that goes into play. And I will say, like, from that role, I realized how much I was, like, in love with site experience and just, like, how all these little details, like, just from the placement of a button, or the colors on the screen, or, like, what the copy says, or just all these different things, A, B testing oops. How much they can play a role in, you know, getting a consumer to do something that you, you know, want them to do. But yeah, a lot of our work was, you know, a landing page, like there was so much behind the scenes work before that page comes up or for the website gets spent up. You know, where we're working with. Cross functionally with different teams or like the marketing team is doing research, we're doing user testing. We're kind of looking at stuff we've done before, what worked, what didn't work we're using software to map out like where people are clicking on the page, running through analytics, running through numbers, making sure the page performance is up doing work around SEO. Like there's just like so many different components that really make up like these, you know. Of highly effective websites. So yeah, there was a lot of psychology involved. And like, even today, when I work with clients, it's like, I really do get into the weeds of like this stuff. So it's funny enough. I never thought I'd be using that in my, in my job, but like, it's a, it's definitely a core part of it.
Hyatt Howard:Okay, cool. The moment kind of during the pandemic, I know there was a lot going on. It was like for many people, I mean, no doubt a very challenging and traumatic time, but also for some a time to like reflect and gain clarity about, you know, different aspects of life. And for you, it seems like you kind of use this to launch into a new venture. So was this similar to kind of your transition from Samsung where you're like, okay, like I got to. I got this itch and I'm feeling like now's the time to strike or was it kind of more, not abrupt, but like just like sudden.
Liane:I will say that it was kind of so the former where I was still working at L'Oreal. Obviously the pandemic had hit and Everyone's just trying to figure out, like, when is this going to end? How long are we going to do this? So we're working remotely. I'm working from home projects are kind of like going on pause. Like things are, you know, there's like a hiring freeze. Like, you know, I think the organization at large was just like trying to figure out what they were going to do. So with my extra time I also started noticing during the pandemic. And I think Maybe this was in the midst of a lot of people thinking about what they wanted to do. I started getting inquiries like on LinkedIn and like through my, my magazine from people that are like, Hey, do you build sites for people? Like, do you build, can you build me a site? Can you build me an e commerce site? Can you do this? And I'm like, Oh, I never really, like I'd done it a couple of times before for friends, but I never, ever thought about. Seriously doing it as my own business. So I just kind of said yes, cause I was like, Oh, well I got this free time. Like, you know, I'm still employed, but like might as well, like fill the time. And like, plus we're not going anywhere. So it was kind of like a way for me to fill the time. And so I started like doing some side projects and then the inquiries just kept increasing and increasing and increasing to the point where I was like, I'd already booked, I think like. 40k in projects and over and like in as little as like three to four months and I was like, oh shoot Like this is like a business like I could do something with this and so I started so I continued like working on projects for on the side So this is like 2020 I would say around the summer of 2020 when I first started like getting some side projects and then by Spring 2021, like April 2021 is when I ended up leaving my job and like deciding, okay, I'm going to bet on myself and like do this agency thing full time. And so essentially that transition also concurrently happened because there was a role that I was trying to like get hired for at work that the hiring manager had reached out to me about. But then I didn't end up getting the role and I was like asked to train the new person that got the role and like the new person didn't have digital experience. So that was a little bit. Yeah, it was. Yeah, it was a little, it was a little challenging. But ultimately, I just felt in that moment, like, you know what, like, maybe. This corporate thing isn't for me right now. And you know, I'm getting all this opportunity over here. The main job I have isn't trying to like, you know, I'm not able to climb the ladder here. So I'm going to just take this leap. I'm going to do it. And so I, you know, ran through my numbers, talked to my husband. So he didn't think I was crazy and just like quitting my job with no plan. And then I ended up taking the leap. And since. April 2021. I've been full time, like running my agency and I'm still working on the magazine. So, wow. Wow.
Hyatt Howard:I want to underscore the point because you hear all these stories about people on YouTube, how I quit my job and I made six figures in a year. They don't really focus on it's like you said. You had a plan and your business was taken off. And you had kind of carefully considered the options. It seems like the reality is much more, much more planning that goes actually into it. I've always. I wondered about is like, what was like the day after tomorrow, you know, after you have that dramatic like exit and you're like, all right, guys, I'm out. Peace. Yeah. You woke up the next day. Did your heart flutter at all? Were you thinking, Oh my gosh, what did I do? Or like, I'm here now. And you know, what were some of the emotions that you're feeling?
Liane:I think the biggest emotion I had was like, why didn't I do this sooner? That was really like the biggest thing that hit me. And it was funny because when I did tell my manager I was leaving, like she actually wasn't upset. She was like, super excited for me and was like, Oh, I feel like you're going to be great at this. And she actually made like a custom notebook with my name on it and founder and all stuff. And I was like, Oh my God, like I was not expecting this. So I think the support that I had from like my team to go after this stream was pretty cool. And I think the fact that. When I made that decision, I, I, like, I think that's when I finally felt a sense of peace again. It wasn't something I was ever expecting. And like, even though I took that seminar at my senior year so long ago, I never really thought like, that could be me. But I think like, once I made that decision and I woke up the next day, I was like, Oh, yeah, like. Girl, you should have did this sooner. Like you're always even wasted time, but I guess it was really right on time because I knew personally, I had to explore a lot of the different opportunities. Like, obviously there's like my parents telling me, go to college, go to grad school, do all this. And essentially I turned down business school because I wrote in my essay that I wanted to go to business school to work at a tech company and do like marketing there. And then I ended up getting a job. Doing that before, like, having to decide if I was going to go or not. And so I think I needed to live out all these different, like, ideas in my head of what I wanted to do to ultimately arrive at that place. So, yeah, I wasn't, like, nervous or freaking out. And I think I also, again, I planned. So I had, like, Business coming in. I knew like how long my runway was financially. Like I was like, okay, I'm good. Like I just got to keep getting clients, but I'll be good. So yeah, I felt pretty like positive and confident and I was just like, okay, this is where I need to be. And it's still the way I feel today. Like, you know, I haven't been like itching to go back to, you know, corporate quite yet. But I'm, I'm pretty grateful that like, You know, I've been able to sustain and keep paying my rent. So that is success.
Hyatt Howard:That is success. That is success for real. And what does your day to day look like now? People always talk about, Oh man, one of the greatest things about entrepreneurship is guess what? I'm the boss now. And so I set my hours and you kind of have these like really romantic notions sometimes, like. I'm just at the beach kicking it or, I mean, that's like my preferred destination. So that's where I went in my head. Love it. But like what, you know, like what does your schedule look like? I'm just like a day to day.
Liane:Yeah. So I will say day to day. It's, it's definitely evolved since I first started as an entrepreneur to where I am now. Because when I first started, and again, I think maybe that's like the type, a like yelly person in me is like, I'm going to do everything myself and I'm going to handle all this stuff. And then you realize like, girl, you cannot, that's not going to work or you're going to be burnt out. And so I definitely went through that phase of like trying to accelerate and get as much done and like keep as much profit margin without hiring people to the point where I was like, you know, my time is so much more valuable. So now my. Day to day is a lot smoother, a lot more balanced where I, you know, kind of wake up. I tend to, I used to like really wake up and like go through my emails. I was like the first thing and I'm like a morning person. So I'd get up at like 5 AM, like sometimes 4. 30 to do that.
Hyatt Howard:Like I've seen those hours now because I have kids, but I can tell you, yeah,
Liane:you're like, why would anyone be up at that time? But yeah, I don't know. I'm just like, that's like when I have the most energy in the day. These days, though, I tend to wake up. I will check emails, but I try to be like. Light and I tell myself like things can wait. Like I know I'm running a business, but I'm definitely not like, you know, curing cancer, saving lives with what I do to a degree. So I'm like that email can wait. I'll get to it when I get into the office. Like I've gotten better at setting personal boundaries for myself in order to have like the entrepreneurial freedom that I crave. But yeah, so now these days I'll, I'll get up, I'll check a few emails. I'll do a little bit like Prayer meditation for the day. I try to like start my days out with exercise. So whether it's like taking a walk or like doing some, you know like weightlifting type stuff at home, and then I'll go into my office. So I have an office that I, I work out of, out of a coworking space. And literally I had to start doing that because working from home was starting to like mess with my personal function. It's just like. When you work from, I don't know, work from home works for some people but for me, it started to become a situation where I'm like working till late in the night or like there's no balance. It's just bleeding over. Just
Hyatt Howard:a brief note on this. Yeah. I was in college. I remembered. I'm thinking like there are some people who just study in their room all the time. I'm like, no, no, no, do that either. No, like, no. There's no way I could do that. And like, yeah, I needed to have a space. College is great. Tons of places you can study.
Liane:Tons of places. Tons of places. Yeah, no, I, I couldn't have done that. I don't think I did that. The only time I was at home was like, I think in my room if I was like, working on a paper maybe. But like studying, like I needed to be in a place of study.
Hyatt Howard:Yeah. And I mean, I say I was studying. I mean, I'm sure there are countless people can say, I saw you talking in the library.
Liane:Right. Were you doing work? Was anybody actually doing work? Yeah,
Hyatt Howard:was anybody actually doing work? And I mean, I joke, but like, I'm like, man, college really ruined my expectations for years of life. You know, just like, man, you know, my schedule, I'll come in at like 11am. Work for an
Liane:hour. Right, right. Exactly, exactly. So yeah.
Hyatt Howard:So, since you've been on this journey, you're like about a year and some change in, what has been the most meaningful part of it to you? Has it been the dollar signs? Has it been the clients?
Liane:Yeah, I would definitely say the most meaningful part has just been being able to be of service to other people. And I think you know, I've always kind of been service minded at heart. And and maybe that's why I struggled a bit with corporate America, not saying like, you Some corporate companies aren't helping people, but a lot of times it's like, you know, your manager's just breathing down your neck and it's like, well, you got to hit this, you know, goal or this quota or this blah, blah, blah. And like, yes, when you're running a business, you know, you have like goals to reach or financial goals to reach. But really for me, it's like the fact that I get to really, like, I feel like I'm really helping like people and other entrepreneurs and like. Not only just educating them, but like, these are active things that help them in their businesses and help them reach their goals. And that just means so much more to me. And so I think it's just like, being able to live in your purpose is like, something that's really been the, the best thing about this journey for me so far.
Hyatt Howard:That's really beautiful. That's so, that's so beautiful. And, you know, kind of as we're like looking at closing it out, I want to just spend a little bit of time talking about BOSS and kind of the content that you're doing there, where people can find it. Yeah, you know, people who might be good to be featured how we can. Yeah, yeah, no, for sure.
Liane:Yes. Yeah. And I would love to feature them. Boss has always been my, my first entrepreneurial baby. And so I, like I said earlier, we feature content around self made women of color. So we're constantly sharing stories about both women that have Made a million or more. And then also women that are coming up and, you know, on their rise to the top we believe in really capturing stories of like women that are going from rags to riches that, you know, overcome struggles or challenges to get to where they are in hopes of leveraging those insights to help other women. On their, on their journey. And it's really kind of honestly, in essence of like who I am because I was born and like, you know, an immigrant family, like low income and kind of had to take a lot of steps to get to where I am. And I'm still on my journey. That's really like the goal of the platform. And so anyone who wants to like, check it out or even like. Submit a submit a person or pitch a person that they think should be featured. You can go to boss mag. com. So it's boss, like sauce, B A U C E mag, M A G. com. Yeah.
Hyatt Howard:That's super dope. Leanne. I'm just so thankful for having you on the Bevy podcast. I know our listeners have learned and taken so much from your, your journey, and we look forward to having again soon.
Liane:Thank you so much again for this awesome opportunity.
Well, that wraps us up for today's episode of the bevy podcast. The big thank you to Leanne for coming on the pod today, you can learn more about her entrepreneur ventures in the show notes below. Until next time, take it easy. Peace.
