As a female entrepreneur, how do you define success? More importantly, how do you define self-care in a successful business?
On this episode of the Wellness and Wealth podcast, Ana'Neicia Williams of Momology Maternal Wellness addresses remembering to take a step back to see if the business is not only following your business plan, but your business mission. She also shares how self-care looks different based on outside biases and classicism.
In this episode, Ana'Necia Williams answers the following questions:
Connect with Wendy Manganaro:
As a female entrepreneur, how do you define success? More importantly, how do you define self-care in a successful business?
On this episode of the Wellness and Wealth podcast, Ana'Neicia Williams of Momology Maternal Wellness addresses remembering to take a step back to see if the business is not only following your business plan, but your business mission. She also shares how self-care looks different based on outside biases and classicism.
In this episode, Ana'Necia Williams answers the following questions:
Connect with Wendy Manganaro:
Hi everyone. My name's Wendy Manganaro and I am the Host of the Wellness and Wealth podcast. I'm so happy to have you find us. And if you could take a moment and hit that subscribe button, I'd really appreciate it. This is the podcast where we believe when you show up better for yourself as a woman business owner, you show up better for your business. So sit back, relax. And learn from the practical to the woo-hoo, how to best take care of you. Have a great day. Stay blessed. And leave a review when you're done listening to the show, thanks so much. Hi everyone. Today our topic is defining your success in entrepreneurship. I am joined by Ana'Necia. I'm gonna read her bio and then we'll get right into it. Ana'Necia Williams is the founder of Momology Maternal Wellness Club. MMW Club supports the social and emotional care of mothers during preconception, pregnancy, postpartum, and parenting. As a licensed clinical social worker in Kentucky, Ana'Necia is committed to holding moms as they heal their wounds in a safe and supportive space. She is certified by postpartum support International to assess and treat perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and trauma associated with maternal mental health. Ana'Necia is currently in her last year of as a doctoral student within the school of Social work at Fullman University in the leadership and administration track her area focused in research informed practices, race related psychological stressors amongst black mothers and culturally relevant methodology to support their healing. When an Ana'Necia is not showing up as a student, you may find her teaching as an adjunct professor at Spalding or U of L in their social work programs. You may also find an Ana'Necia in the community organizing work centered around reproductive and birth justice as birth justice consultant for the state of Kentucky on behalf of Sister Song Women of Color, reproductive Collective. She truly values collective and power and practicing from a lens of reproductive justice and their tenants. Welcome to the show. Thanks for joining me.
Ana'Necia Williams:Yes, thanks for having me. Excited to be here.
Wendy Manganaro:Yes. And I have to say, when we did our pre-call, it took me after the fact to realize that you're from louisville where I had just moved from two years ago that I was there, and somehow we have mutual friends, but we never met during that time. But, we'll get started into questions, what does defining your success in entrepreneurship mean to you?
Ana'Necia Williams:First of all, I think it's individualized. So what success looks like for me is gonna look different for you. And this is something I've been learning along the way. I think when you are stepping into entrepreneurship, you do try to look at, Individuals that may be within your, scope of practice or your field for ideas and inspiration. But what I've learned is that you can get caught up in comparison. And so for me, success is sometimes on a day-to-day it looks like successes that I was able to get up that day and actually show up for work. Our success may be I was able to surpass a goal of mine financially that, oh, I hit that goal, I was able to have revenue that feels good and I can pay the bills and keep the business open. So it's constantly just reflecting on success is different day to day and entrepreneurship cuz it's so up and down.
Wendy Manganaro:It is up and down. And I like that you're talking about this because one of the things that I know, that I have dealt with when I had my marketing agency is everybody looks at those gurus and they're like, I'm supposed to make six figures. And then they try to do what they're doing in order to do that and they don't understand why it doesn't work for them. And they get frustrated then they go, well, maybe if I buy this course and maybe if I buy this course, and maybe, and actually you can make yourself broke in entrepreneurship, trying to emulate too much of what somebody else has done.
Ana'Necia Williams:Absolutely.
Wendy Manganaro:So I definitely understand that. I like that you say, I think entrepreneurship is one of those things that have so many uPS and down in it. And so while you were going along that journey what would you say is probably some of the highs that you've gone through in entrepreneurship and some of the lows that you've been able to reflect on your own entrepreneurship, and understand?
Ana'Necia Williams:Absolutely. So the beginning you filed with the state, Hey, I filed with the state, I have a business and I wanna tell everybody about it. That was the big success. I took a leap of faith and I jumped out there and I put myself out there. The other big one is my business has been going on three years in june of 2023. And so to see where we started, to where we are now, where I feel like at first I was knocking on people's doors and like asking them, are you interested in my services? And now people are finding me. So for me, every time someone reaches in, I count that as success and it feels really good that I'm not having to hustle, to find clients that want my services.
Wendy Manganaro:Yeah, I love that switch over because I'm anti-hustle and due to burnout for years and I was like, I'm over this. So it is this wonderful transition when you're go, oh look, I been able to do something successful and people refer me and people know who I am and they trust me in the community. So what's been your journey to defining success though, as you're talking about that and not comparison, what would you say your journey has been?
Ana'Necia Williams:It's again, up and down. Social media can make you feel as if you're not doing enough sometimes. Content is something I struggle with because it's like you gotta produce content. Everyone wants you to have the perfect hashtags, or now you know, you have to do the TikTok, you have to do the real, your graphics have to look immaculate. But then that's another expense to me. And so I'm gonna figure out how to do Canva. And I'm gonna do my own graphics. And sometimes they're a hit, sometimes they're not. But I think success is I'm getting more in tune with my brand, and what works for me and then what communicates to the audience that I'm trying to reach as well.
Wendy Manganaro:Yes. And as somebody who used to do that you are so right. And I think that's what happens. And I've learned. And that's why I don't have an agency. Part of the reason why lots of reason, but one of the reasons why I don't do agency work anymore is because if people don't buy in and understand their own brand, marketing agency is never gonna do it for you. Although getting help is always good when the time is right, but, It's so important for a brand to understand who they are and what really reflects with their audience before they go here. Let me hand it over to you and hopefully you make something up that's gonna work for me. And it really helps the owner. And I think that's part of the self-care process too, because then you get to be authentic and who you are.
Ana'Necia Williams:That's a success too, because I created this, I get to reinvent myself too. As I learn more about the business, I'm noticing, okay, we can probably eliminate that service, or let's get rid of this and shift here. And so having that autonomy to say, I get to make that decision. I don't have to go vote on it, go to board members, or go talk to hr. I'm making that decision, and that feels really empowering to me too.
Wendy:And this show is a lot about self-care too, cuz I think being able to make those decisions and know what works for you and what doesn't. I think that's a big component of self-care, especially in your own business because you're not waiting to get permission from somebody else. You can say, yeah, I tried that. That's great. Yeah. And now I'm gonna try something else, or I'm gonna be as consistent as I can be. But that's all part of that learning, that's self-care, especially as an entrepreneur. I'd love for you to share a little bit of your journey of why you are in the business that you are in though, because that would be really awesome because you essentially help mothers self care. Especially after they have their babies and going through all of that. So I'd love for you to share what drew you to doing that in the first place.
Ana'Necia Williams:Yeah, so it didn't hit me till later that my own story connects to the work that I do, but I had already been working with women and families and so I've done a substance use population, but I've also done women who have unstable housing. And so the more, I interacted with them, I'm doing assessments, really diving in treatment plans, figuring out what works for them. It allowed me to see some gaps. And services. And so oftentimes when you think about community health, with insurances involved, of course sometimes access is not so easy. And so I was thinking, I wanna create a practice that focuses solely on moms. We always talk about baby, but, what about if we truly hold mom, do we still get to hold baby? So really offering her that space where she can process, did I want a child? Or was this something that I was planning for or unexpected or like what are my feelings in regards to. It's no longer just about me. And that can be some loss and grief for them. And now when I thought about that and I was seeing some things come up with women as far as challenges and conceiving our challenges with their birthing plan, it made me go back to when I was pregnant. And I didn't realize at the time I was depressed, but everyone just thought, oh, you're just struggling. You need protein. We're gonna put you on bedrest. But there were some external things going on that I didn't talk about, and no one ever asked about that. I felt went undiagnosed. And so sometimes I'll tell people there's quite possibility I had postpartum depression, but teaching practitioners, how do you assess for the needs that individuals have? And so it's twofold. Not only do I do direct care, I also go into the community and then the systems and educate them on here's some signs and symptoms that may be coming up with this mother are as a system and you wanna have the best care. What are things that we can do differently to really engage individuals to report like, Hey, this is really what I'm struggling with right now.
Wendy:I love that you're doing that. And part of what we did there for eight years was we had actually did homeless outreach. And anytime you deal with the community, I don't care what city you're in and what state you are, if you are the ones doing the access and meeting the client, you will figure out quickly that there's usually a gap somewhere in the system by far. And thankfully we worked with some other great organizations and there are some phenomenal organizations in general in Louisville that try to fill in gaps because there are gaps in quite a few of the services there. And it changed a lot in the course of the eight years that we were doing it. In a positive way. And actually I was doing a show on menopause on the reverse, is that 75% of the women, don't feel like their doctors hear them when they go through menopause. So I think it's so important for providers to learn how to listen because usually that's not the things that they're taught. They're learning how to do their jobs in school, but not how do I actively listen and see the scope of what's going on and with no judgments? That's the other part of that too. And so I'd love for you to talk about that and like I said, I worked in the Louisville community for a long time, so I'd love for you to talk about a little bit of the for lack of better word, prejudices that you see. Especially when you're talking about the, community that don't have the best healthcare, might not have insurance. Those underserved communities of some of the prejudice that they may deal with that make it hard for them to self care because they're not getting what they need.
Ana'Necia Williams:Absolutely. So when you were sharing my bio, if individuals were listening, my research is centered around black maternal health. And so what the research is telling us is that black women are dying at three to four times more likely than their white counterparts. And so you may think why is this significant to them? And so what the research is telling us is that there's bias, there's more training that is needed in regards to providers understanding, like you said, listening and understanding when a woman is saying, Hey, something doesn't feel right, or, do you mind checking this, or, I would like it a second opinion. But it's also related to classism too. We see that too. And so individuals coming from poor communities, and there's lack of access. And so here in Kentucky there's certain rural areas where we have hospital deserts so people don't have access to care. And so then that's contributing to them getting, a great delivery in regards to the standards that are needed to have a positive birth outcome to ensure that baby is safe and sound. So there's a lot of things happening in healthcare that we need to address. Insurance providers, I don't get access to certain things based off of the insurance that I receive that shouldn't happen. Everyone should get the same standard of care no matter what type of insurance you have. Really, we need universal healthcare, but that's a whole nother story. So. I enjoy teaching individuals how to advocate for themself in patient rights. So no matter where you are, that system is supposed to have patient rights. When you're signing all that paperwork, please review that so you can hold them accountable.
Wendy:Yes, and that's the thing, and I have seen that when I was working with the individuals, even within the state, in every state, again, goes through the same thing. I don't know many states that don't, if you're getting state insurance, you can pick your provider. And I remember a time when we were, this was the great provider to be on and people didn't know to go on it. And so half of their stuff wasn't covered. And again, if you're going on a state insurance, it should be even whether you pro if you pick one provider or another, you would think everybody would get their same benefits. And it does not happen. And I don't think that a lot of people realize that, again, unless you're working with those individuals and you say, what do you mean this isn't covered? We've literally worked with somebody last week and they had similar insurance, a different name, and it's not covered. Or the wait is much longer depending on the insurance that you're getting. And my whole thing with that is that's why self-care looks so different to different people because depending on what Society has allowed you to do, or what you think society is allowing you to do self-care. I talk about self-care, but a lot of people are talking about, how am I gonna survive? It's a very different conversation. And what you're talking about being an advocate for themselves. Many people just don't know how to do that. They haven't gotten the education or there, there's a myriad of reasons why that happened. And classism is definitely one of them. So I'd love for you to talk about self-caring if you can't get your everyday needs worth met because you don't know how to, it's not even that you don't have to ask. Sometimes you get frustrated with the process of getting, because it's not always an easy process to get what you need.
Ana'Necia Williams:Absolutely. So I am someone who is diving more into also community care and so we have a responsibility to each other and so encouraging individuals to think of my self-care plan also includes, someone that can help me accountable and assist me and remind me of ways to take care of myself, but then maybe I need support. And so that's where that community comes into. And so if I am struggling to advocate, who can I identify that may attend that appointment with me or who may be able to connect me to that resource? Also when I am struggling through going and navigating these systems, And it's overwhelming. It's exhausting, or I have endured harm. I need my people, to take care of me and build me back up. And so I want people to understand self-care doesn't have to be done alone. The pandemic really opened up my eyes in regards to that isolation and wanting to connect more with individuals. And so encouraging people that self-care is also a part of community.
Wendy:Yes it is. Yes it is. So we'll move on from that because we could have a whole show on that because eight years and it's just so important and I don't know if everybody realizes for lack of a better word, that if you are able to self-care on certain levels, how fortunate you are, because they don't always know the other side of it unless, again, I've worked in nonprofits for years before we even did that, I've said this very kindly on other shows, I don't know how it'll be taken, but sometimes it's individuals making decisions for individuals who don't know any better to ask and they haven't met. Cuz every case is different and everybody needs that. Community needs that, that sometimes that help everybody does at some point in time. And to what level is really what we should be asking? So that People get the help they need. So, we'll go back to entrepreneurship, but what are the warning signs of a female entrepreneur is allowing others to define success for them because that's the other thing, as we were talking about before.
Ana'Necia Williams:So I think about, as a woman who is an entrepreneur now we have this brand that has been created of Boss woman or she's a boss entrepreneurship. So the language is also creating, I think, this pressure that I have to achieve this magnitude to feel as if this is success. Now and everybody likes to talk about, we hit this amount in our business, and so that means we're successful, but people aren't really thinking about, you really didn't profit off of that. You may have hit that in sales, but because it's branded in a way to make people think that they're a millionaire. It's perceived as like that success, and it's not always monetary. Sometimes it's, I increase my clientele. I was able to add another contract onto this business. I was able to sustain my business and keep the doors open. And so you really have to sometimes take time away from viewing social media or what people are saying and go back to your why. Why did you start this? What are you trying to offer? Because that's what it's about. Entrepreneurship. I'm trying to offer something. I created something with the hopes that it will be perceived because it's a need. And so if you get stuck up on what everyone else is doing and what they're saying is success, you're gonna lose yourself for sure.
Wendy:I absolutely agree with that. And you're right, a lot of people go, I have six figures. But there's expenses to that and there's nothing wrong with that if that really is what you think success is which leads me to the next question what's the first step to defining like success? Like for an entrepreneur who's caught up maybe in the, I need to follow this person, that person and the other. What's the kind of take the power back to themselves and define their own success?
Ana'Necia Williams:When you are about to start a business, they're like, where's your business plan? So for me, I think it's also you need to have your business mission. So your not typically you'll see in nonprofits they have a mission statement. But go back to what's your mission statement for you with this business. So if you ever vent venture off, can you go back and reflect and check in with yourself and say, am I staying to the mission and what I said I was going to do? And maybe you didn't start off that way, but you need to go back and think about. What is it that I was actually trying to achieve here? And if that's not what's happening and you find yourself drifting off and doing things that I'm trying to keep up with what's happening around me, or you're exhausting yourself, because that's the other thing with success. When you're operating and your true gift and your true passion, it flows. Anytime where you're feeling like this is too much, or I'm being pulled in so many directions, it's probably time to reflect and think about, okay, what's happening here?
Wendy:I absolutely agree with you. And this has been a great, I'm so happy to talk to somebody from Louisville. I'll make sure that all of my friends out there listen to this. I'm so glad that we connected and I am got to know you a little bit and had this conversation. Would you let people know how to get in touch with you if they had questions, especially in the areas of self-care and motherhood and some of the things they may be seeing in their community and how to get the right help.
Ana'Necia Williams:Yeah, absolutely. And so my website is www.mommologymwclub.com and then you can find me on Instagram at the womb therapist as well. And then of course, I could be emailed at ana@mommologymwclub.com.
Wendy Manganaro:Fantastic, and I'll make sure all of those links are in the show notes. Thank you so much for being here with me today. I really enjoyed our conversation.
Ana'Necia Williams:Thank you for having me.
Wendy:If you love what you heard today, please make sure you subscribe and leave a review. In the meantime, I hope you have an abundant and blessed day.