How Princess Booker Built a Legacy Brand for the Next Generation

Identity is your greatest business asset. In this inspiring conversation, host Linette Cottrell sits down with Princess Booker to explore what it truly means to build a business that reflects who you are—and leaves a lasting legacy.

As the niece of Bob Marley and granddaughter of Cedella Marley Booker, Princess shares how her brand, Nine Mile Babies, grew from cherished childhood memories in Jamaica into a movement celebrating Caribbean and African culture through children's books, toys, and educational experiences. If you're a Black woman entrepreneur building with purpose, this episode will remind you that your story is your superpower.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• How embracing your identity creates an authentic and memorable brand.
• Why representation matters for the next generation of Black children.
• The journey behind Nine Mile Babies and turning heritage into a thriving business.
• How purpose-driven entrepreneurship can create both impact and legacy.
• Why being fully seen is one of the most powerful business decisions you'll ever make.

👉 Follow the podcast and share it with a sister who needs this conversation. We're on a mission to help Black women make it through the first five years in business—and thrive far beyond them.

#EmpowerHERBusinessPodcast #BlackWomenInBusiness #BlackWomenEntrepreneurs #WomenInBusiness #LegacyBuilding #PersonalBrand #AuthenticBranding #PurposeDrivenBusiness #EntrepreneurMindset #BusinessGrowth #RepresentationMatters #CaribbeanCulture #AfricanHeritage #NineMileBabies #PrincessBooker #SmallBusinessOwner #Leadership #BlackOwnedBusiness #WomenWhoLead #BuildYourLegacy

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Well, hello, beautiful people, and welcome back to the Empower Her Business Podcast. I am your host, Lynette Cottrell, the founder of Empower Her Advisory, and I guide women founders through designing business systems that bring relief and success. My calling is to free women from centuries of business structures that were not built without feminine energy in mind. And I invite women founders to go further and expand their capacity to hold increased wealth. As you know, Empower Her Business Podcast is all about delivering conversations, expertise, and solutions to black women founders figuring out how to build sustainable business and hungry for real stories that represent them. And today this conversation is special because we're not just talking about business, we're talking about identity, we're talking about being seen, and we're talking about what it means to build something that reflects who you are and gives that reflection to the next generation. Today's guest is the founder of Nine Mile Babies, a children's brand rooted in culture, storytelling, and representation, deeply inspired by her roots in 9 Mile Jamaica, a place rich in legacy. Please help me welcome Princess Booker.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Hi. Hello, that was a really lovely intro. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

You are so welcome. So, Princess, for those in our audience meeting you for the first time, tell us who Princess is behind the title of founder.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Oh, um, so I am someone who's always been um entrepreneurial. I grew up in a musical background. Um, so I kind of gravitated that way when I went to university. I studied events, music, media. Um, but I was always in culture, everything was about culture. Um, my I'm from England, obviously, my accent from London, live in London. Um, but my my mom's from Barbados, my dad is Jamaican, so I I grew with Beijing and Jamaican um grandparents. So I was always surrounded with culture. Obviously, reggae music is heavily in my family. Um, yeah, so I think where I've ended up now on my journey, it it was all I guess it was already written. Yeah, so I'm just yeah. So I'm just trying, I've just I'm just someone who always kind of followed her dream or whatever took like took her. I kind of went, okay, let me see what that is. I'm a very creative person, so I am sort of what they say. I think they like to tell us we're with the wind, we're kind of just you flow.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

And you flow, we flow, wonderful, wonderful. So I love that your um business name is Nine Mile Baby. So I want to take us to Nine Mile for a minute. So if you could flow with me in this experience, close your eyes for a minute and just think about being there in Nine Mow, there with your grandmother, there with the land, the energy and the music. So tell us what do you see, what do you hear, and what do you feel when you when you oh wow, I just got chills.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Um I see first of all, I had kids outside playing in the streets. I smell food. I know my gran just sitting there outside on her veranda, kind of just overseeing with a mango. And you yeah, and then you're kind of I'm just there up and down, just taking it, taking in the environment, the atmosphere. The thing with Nymal, um, it's so it feels surreal. I don't know how to explain it. It's like this this land which is untouched, even though it is remember when you come from the city and the hustle and bustle, what they call it, the concrete jungle, yeah, and you go, yeah, and then you go to somewhere like Nyan that's high in the mountains, it's sort of like so it's peaceful. So even when you wake up and the sun starts riding um rising and it might be a bit misty over the mountains, and then you hear the rooster, I'm not gonna do the cocka-doo doo doo, but you hear the rooster kind of go off. Yeah, it's just uh a relaxation, it's down to roots. It it's that feeling of you have to go outside barefoot and be grounded.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Yeah, got you, yeah. I can feel it, I can feel it. I hope my audience can too. You took us on a little journey there, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

No, it is. It's a definitely anyone who's been on that journey, when you're taking a drive, it's like a gully drop, but you're driving and it's like windy roads.

SPEAKER_04 5:15

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

But when you reach to the top, especially if you know what's up there, uh-huh. Yeah, it's definitely an experience.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

Wonderful. So, what did that environment give you that you're still carrying with you? So, when you leave that space, what do you still take with you?

SPEAKER_00 5:34

It's so do you know? I think, and it's so funny because obviously I created a brand around this place and my grandma, and I was just like, she had a huge impact on me for me to do this years, like she passed in 08. So I think I had so much memories, obviously, with her, and she was Jamaica for me. So she taught, and and anyone who has grandparents, especially like really lovely grandparents, you have that connection. Grandparents' love is very different to I think parents' love. Yes, it is. They love differently, it's like endless and boundless, like it's a different. So I did the roots, like if I wasn't feeling well, she would go into the garden and know what bush to pick and boil tea. If I cut myself because I was forever falling down or trying to do something, I shouldn't be talking about grandma, what's that? Um, I she would go and cut a little aloe vera and rub it on. Do you know? So I think it was just being um in the environment and living and and kind of just experiencing as I said, like picking a mango, that was something we did and being able to eat it straight off the tree. Whereas in London, you go to a supermarket, it's packaged, it's you're not you're not feeling, you're not smelling, you're not hoping when you pick it up the squirrels or the birds haven't eaten it already. Yeah, so it was it's just a different, and then she was a rustiferian, so it was very it was idle. She didn't eat chicken or nothing, so food was different, everything was very different. But it was such it obviously had such a huge impact on my life when I think about it.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Right, beautiful, beautiful. Thanks for sharing that. That's all right. So let's talk about um the birth of nine mile babies and take us through the journey of how you got from working in the music industry to now building this brand. How did that idea come to you? Like, what was the first spark that said, okay, this is what I want to do? And then how did you step into it?

SPEAKER_00 7:42

Good question. Okay, so it's so funny because I don't actually remember that clear moment of me going, I'm going to do this. It was I started a brand called Nymar Clothing, which I still do, but it took a back seat just because the babies took off. And parents who used to buy Nymar clothing wanted stuff for their kids for their children. So I was like, okay, let me let me do some kids' stuff. But I was like, it needs to have more, it can't be just a logo, it needs to have more meaning, it needs to feel something. It's for the kids, and I wanted them to understand what Nymar was. So I said, half of the time we wear things and we don't know what we're wearing, we just put it on. Yeah, so I was like, okay, I need to create characters because children's brand characters make sense. I was like, oh, but who? So the characters of Nyanmar babies are my brothers and sisters, yeah. And the whole reason for that, I was just like, well, we are babies of Nymile, that's where we're from, regardless where we're born or whatever, it's roots, right? So, and I said, What's special about us is that we're all different shades of melanin, so we're all different shades of brown. So kids can hopefully see themselves in one of them if it's not complexion, it's hair, but we're all we're all the same but different. So I was like, okay, and then the way that I got so we had Nyan clothing, obviously, you got Nyan Jamaica, but I was like, Nine mile, and then I was just like, We're babies. So nine, so instead of like we're babies off nymar, I just turned it over.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

Got it.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

So as that happened, I was like, okay, I'm gonna do these designs, and then I was like, but how do I teach them about Jamaica? And I was just like, let me share with them my grandma and how she taught me. And I was like, how okay, so then I start thinking, I was always that child, grandma. What's that? What's that?

unknown 9:33

What's that?

SPEAKER_00 9:34

What's that? Yeah, oh you were that one, huh? The annoying one, yeah, yeah. But grandparents got patience because they've always got a story and they always want to tell you, they've got patience, yeah, yeah. So when I said that, so I said, you know what? The story's gonna be called Grandma, what's that? And it's gonna be very simple, and we're gonna take a walk. So, where we are in the hills, there used to be um uh like a chicken coop, like someone who used to sell eggs. So, back then, like you know, I mean Jamaica's still you there's someone down the road from my auntie where you can buy fresh eggs, like fresh, and they look very different to what you get in the supermarket, so so I was just like, we're gonna just take a journey with grandma from from our house, and she just needs to get eggs. But on the way, we're gonna see things, and as we walk, we're singing the alphabet, so we're like A B C D. And it's like grandma, what's that? And she goes, Oh, that's an acki tree. And then she goes, You know, the Aki tree um in Jamaica's national fruit is Aki, and our national dish is Aki with saltfish. Oh, grandma, I love ackey and saltfish. And then she goes, Maybe later we'll have that with some fried dumplings. Right there, you just learn about the acki tree and you learn about Jamaica's national dish. And that's all I was trying to do was kind of take us on a journey, and all we're doing is going to get eggs. So along the way, yeah. And I was like, That will go if they buy a t-shirt. That is a nice package to say, here you go. So, not only have you got a t-shirt, you have my story and grandma's story.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Yes, so you're learning some. So, you wanted to do more than just put a logo on clothing for children, you wanted to share with them your experience of nine now, really, to give that knowledge of it and the experience of it. And and this is the background of it, right? Yeah, exactly. And you put into a book for them, right? That their level where they can understand, and I love that.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

Yeah, exactly. And I think when I wrote that, that was it. That was where it started and stopped. I had no intention of what I've created now. I just wanted to tell a simple story so they understood what Nymar was, and they understood Naimar babies and like the creation, and yeah, got it, got it.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

And that is so real because a lot of women entrepreneurs that I meet, a lot of our businesses start like that, right? Just with one idea, with one desire to do one thing, but we start. That's the key to get started, and once you start, then it unfolds to up the next level, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:18

Exactly, exactly. Yeah, it's so true.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Love that. So you you say uh um you um express a lot that um representation matters. So, what would you say that you did not see when you were growing up that is kind of your inspiration behind what you created here with all the different skin tones of your your characters?

SPEAKER_00 12:45

Yeah. So growing up, I didn't have like black dolls. I had one black doll that my godmother has sent me from America because I think America was a bit further ahead than the UK. Um, and my books, I didn't have a lot of black books that had black characters in it. So even when I started writing the book and I was like, oh, let me go out and look at all the different characters that's available on the market and see what I remember going to Oxford Street and I was like, I went into like the Disney store, I went into a store called Marks and Spencer, self just looking, and I was just like, We're not here. I did not realize like I was just like, huh? I was actually I was actually shocked because you don't you don't think about it until you really if you're not really buying like kids' clothes and stuff, you don't really think about it until you go and search. And I was just like, okay. And then I would go to bookstores, there might be a few, like, but a lot of them wasn't written by us because that's when I started looking more at the industry and I started going more to like book fairs. Even when I went to the toy fair, I think I saw one black door doll in this whole big um trade show in like the Olympia in Olympia. So anyone knows there's a big is a big space which they have like loads of different trade shows happening, one black doll. And I was just like, Oh, this is a real thing, right? And I think at that moment I was just like, you need to do more, you can't stop here. And I don't know anything about the children's market, like at this point, I was just my background's music and events, so I was like, Oh, okay. So then I was I was like, okay, I'm gonna make a toy, which random, and just went online. Yeah, I just went online. I was like, okay, how do I make a toy and what do I want it to look like? I spent so much time in the Disney store. I was like, let me look at what I like, and I knew I wanted it to be a plush style, like a plush toy and not plastic. And I spent a lot of time in a Disney store because I was like, quality, it needs to be quality. I think anything when you're producing black needs to be high quality. Yes, because unfortunately, people always want to tear it apart, right? Um, and every time people see my toys, they're always like, Oh, oh, what's this? Or is this yours? Or they're always very shocked, and I'm like, Yes, it is. Yes, but probably, yeah, it is mine. But I wanted it to be high quality, I wanted it to feel and like to be able for kids to hold it and for it to be safe, so I made sure like the face was stitched on and not like little eyes that could come off, and and that get the hairstyles correct. Like, that was the hard, one of the hardest parts, even the complexions and what materials were available for the different shades. But yeah, so that's what kept me um kind of going. It was like this lack of us.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

Got it. I can definitely connect to that. Yes, that's that's how I that was um really my journey starting this podcast because I was like, there's a lack of our stories out there authentically telling what the business journey is, yeah. So yeah, that lack will impassion you. Okay, I gotta do something.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

Yeah, I just felt I and I think that's what it was. I just felt that there was this call in. I was like, okay, you're gonna, and then I think when I wrote that one book, I literally just started popping up in different locations to you know, like um shops and um shopping centers and stuff, just with my one Jamaica book and my toys. Just hi, hey, welcome to my old babies. Hi, did that for one whole year, and then I realized that people loved it. They saw it, they was like, Oh my gosh, they haven't seen nothing like this. Oh, it's so cute. And it was like, and then it got to a point, it was like, when's your next book coming out? And I was like, next book? Uh oh gosh, I got it right.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

But you said you started popping up in stores, so you started visiting stores. Were you like setting um setting um like events to be present there and show your book? How did that work?

SPEAKER_00 16:58

Yeah, so what I did was one of my first pop-ups that I did was I did a collaboration with a store that I went into. So they stocked my book and my toys, and then I said, Do you know would you could I do my launch in your store? And like kind of be there and sort of greet people, and they agreed. So that was like my first kind of event, and then I went to a shopping, like a mall. So imagine um I'm in Miami quite a bit, so like uh a Dateland mall. Okay, so you know, yeah, yeah, and you're just standing in the actual centre with your stand. So you know where you see those kiosks, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I'll set on my kiosk and just try to bring people in. Hi, like people come up, tell them about the book, obviously, tell them about the brand story, see what tell them, and then yeah. So I started doing more of those, more um, some markets. So, you know, you've got the outdoor sort of shopping market.

SPEAKER_04 17:51

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Yeah, anywhere that I could apply and do an event. There's some events that were more catered to in England, more like a sort of black event that we um we would do. So anywhere that I could pop up to get the recognition, to get people to see the brand, so I can get pictures, and then also it was for me to know people liked it or not, to test the concepts because that's the we think it what we think is a good idea, yes, yeah, yeah. So you'd be like, I'm gonna put everything into this, right? Yeah, and then you're like, oops, no one wants this, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Right, they want something slightly different, so that's great. So you were not just showing up and showing your product, but you were showing up to get information, right? You were you were getting marketing information, you were doing market research in person in real time, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

Exactly, yeah. And then you're testing the concepts. I'm testing how people react to the toys, how they react to the books, how they react to the characters, how they react to me, how they react to just seeing. You get some people who obviously I I come out and my stands like big characters, big black characters with an afro and pigtails and uh bunchy nuts, and you know what I mean? Some people are like, oh my gosh, or some people are like, oh wow, like what is this? Like everyone's just like I remember one person came and says, Is this something new that Disney's doing? I was like, I don't know about Disney, but it's me, but you know them, people are cool, yeah. Yeah, but it was just but what I loved it was always warm, and I'd see people look from a distance and kind of go and then smile. Come closer, come closer. Yeah, and that's what that's when I was like, okay, you have something, care. People, people actually are attracted to it and they they um they connect to it. I've had like grown women come in and breaking down in tears, like literally, because they they were like, I didn't have this. What back then, I think she was one lady told me she had the cabbage batch doll. Yeah, used to say it was ugly. She bought one for herself. Like, I've had people literally break down and kind of just yeah, it's that's why I said it's like it's a it's a toy brand, it's about representation. But if you look at representation and the lack of and the pain that has been carried years through generations, it's bigger.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

There's a lot going on, and there's a lot of unpacking.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

Exactly. There's a lot of there's a lot of trauma that we have dealt with in and it and it is surprising to know that you can connect that trauma, the healing of that trauma, to be seeing yourself represented, right? To to suffering. Because I think it takes us back to our childhood to like, okay, I didn't have this, but now I can give this to a child today, and they can have a totally different experience. Like I can help them not feel the pain that I felt. Exactly. I think that's a big deal, right? Because there's a lot that we deal with, and we can't personally create the solution to everything, but to know that someone out there created a solution, yeah. Childhood pain, right? Yeah, like I can I can definitely connect with women um getting very emotional about that.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

Yeah, no, it is. I've had so many conversations just and I'm just like, wow. So, and that's and and that's what keeps you going. I always say to people, like, when you start business, you get that support really like for your family and friends, right at that beginning, when oh my gosh, oh this is great. After you do your f your second, your third, your fourth, your fifth, your tenth, no one cares. And it's not like that, right? Like they don't, some people don't, but not like that, but it's like I've already applauded you, okay. You know, and then you start growing, but you see those those strangers who some people will no longer be strangers strangers and they're become like friends or die hard brand fans, they're the ones that keep you going and they become your brand. Ambassadors and without even implying or knowing they want to push that, and that's what you got because I I hear a lot of people go, Oh, well, this person doesn't support me, or they don't. I'm like, they're not your customers, they can't keep your business going. Yeah, and it's just it's just that transition of like I went through I went through it. I'm going through it, and every layer you go through is never a surprise.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

I love that. I love that. You all do layers, right? There's layers, there's layers to this. That's an excellent point because she there do does come a time we have to realize my family is not my target market. My friends are not my target market. I need to connect to my target market and make sure they're being satisfied. So even if family and friends are not buying everything, like what business stays in business with just family and friends? That's not realistic, right?

SPEAKER_00 22:54

No, it isn't. And you gotta, you gotta, you gotta really understand that because a lot of people, when even when I speak to people, they want to do business. I always tell them don't because sometimes some people fall out or they they feel like the support. Sometimes people are a little bit envious, especially when you start climbing. Yeah, because some people support you in the fact of not thinking that you will get any further than this place. The moment you start excelling past where they thought you would stay, it gets uncomfortable, it gets uncomfortable, it does, yeah, it gets uncomfortable because you're growing and then you're excelling, and they will that's why they always say that you've changed. But and I said the other day, I made a post on my Instagram, and I said they'll say you changed, but tell them you didn't do all this work to stay the same.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

Oh, I you didn't that's fine, yeah. That can't be the goal that I'm working this hard to just be the same person I was the last year, right? I should grow, I should grow.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

You should grow, yeah, it's a problem exactly, yeah, exactly. It doesn't mean as a person, I'm not the same, like I can we can still go out and we can hang out, but my time now is used differently because you like I'm this week for me has been a lot. I've got constraints, I've got deadlines to hit. I've got I'm still in the office, right? Like, do you understand? After this, I'm still working because I've got my personal goals, but then when we do meet up, I'm pee. We're gonna enjoy, and that's it. But some people don't understand that, and and that's the that's the thing. It's so the it's business. You got the business side, and then you got the emotional side of business and your personal life, mmm, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

You've got to shift your circle a little bit, mmm, definitely, and that's a struggle for some people because they struggle with the concept of I'm changing, and so the people around me are going to have to change, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:03

Yep, one does it, yeah, yeah. It's yeah, it it's uh yeah. And when and when you're entering it, you don't you really don't know what to expect, you're just kind of going.

SPEAKER_01 25:19

Yeah, you're just taking it one step out of the next, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:22

Yeah, yeah. And you're just going and you're going, and it's lonely. Don't like it. Trust me, it is lonely. That's why your sh your circle, you kind of have to have another circle of those people who may be entrepreneurs or in your world or understand that because what happens with us, and I'm like that, we're obsessive about talking about what we do. Yes, everything is about naimar. I'm like, yo, probably so boring. Everything is about naimar babies, and other people don't want to hear that. They've they finished their job, yeah, they finished, they're relaxing, they want to go for a drink, and you want to talk about naimar babies?

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Yes, so true. So you have to find your, I say you have to find your people, you have to find your tribe, those people that understand your language because you are speaking a new language. Yeah, business is a new language. Um, the process of building a business is a new experience, and so if you're talking to people who are not within that experience and don't understand that language, yeah, they're tired of listening to you, they don't understand you can't vent to them because they that their advice is gonna be well quit and go go get a job, you know.

SPEAKER_00 26:33

That's the first thing. They're like, quit, yeah, like quit.

unknown 26:37

Uh uh.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

I don't even know how to spell that, right? And that's the thing that's the first thing that they want to say, yeah. But just quit. Oh, if you're unhappy, right? I'm just having a moment. Thank you. Oh my god, you just you know, like, I just want to then, yes, and then and then you're like, okay, sometimes you need to sleep, and then you wake up and you're good, but yeah, but they will send you back because that's their comfortable place with you. Yes, yes, yeah, because this, yeah, it's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That quit thing, people stop, stop, don't you? If your friend's trying to make it, don't tell them to quit.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

Right. Just listen. Yeah, just have just listen to them or let them get it out of the system. Because they just need to sleep on and to get up tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

Yeah, like find a solution. Exactly. A good response is probably, you know what? I know you'll figure it out because you got this far.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

Uh, that's it.

SPEAKER_00 27:36

Sometimes if you don't even know what to say, right, but that quit, because right the moment you say that, that person, if you don't know if they don't show, they got their backup going, oh, they want me to lose. Oh, that's how they feel. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

I love that alternative to saying quit is I know you figured out.

SPEAKER_00 27:55

Yeah, I know you'll figure it out. Could we do?

SPEAKER_01 27:57

All we need to hear, really, right?

SPEAKER_00 27:59

Yeah, it's just some words of comfort. Because remember, when we go to work, it's just if you haven't got your tribe yet, it's just you.

SPEAKER_04 28:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

So you're talking to you, you're having your board meeting is you, yeah. I mean, your meetings is you. It's not when you go to work and you go to, I don't know, marketing or PR or what, and then you're trying to figure out because you've got to be all these people.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

Yes, yes, yeah, yeah, there's no marketing department, it's you. Actually, there is a marketing department, it's you, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

Yeah, this part of my brain.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

Yes, there isn't a kind department, it's you, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:34

It's you. So you and you got you gotta turn up. You every time you step out, you gotta be in high spirits because you've got to talk about your brand. Remember, that's one thing, like personal branding. You you're representing you, whatever people see online of you, whatever that's what they expect to see. That's why some people get ex um upset when they meet a celebrity or someone and they didn't have they're like, Man, I wish I never met them.

SPEAKER_04 28:56

Right.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

They probably just have an off day, or maybe they're not be like they might not be that great, but you know, I mean, there's things that happen, so we're all we have all these different pressures, and then while you're sitting there, you're like, I gotta do this, I gotta do that, I gotta remember to do this, I gotta do that. I'm supposed to be here, exactly. Yeah, like exactly.

SPEAKER_01 29:17

I am there with you. So, and I know my entrepreneurs listening, they they they could they're probably like, Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

That's how I feel, yes, girl. You're good, you got this.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

Yes, you got it, and it is lonely, yes. Well, if you're feeling lonely, that is part of the natural process of building business, right?

SPEAKER_00 29:37

Yeah, you're not alone, and the greatness of it, because um I I have my my tr my tribe, right? And we're all doing our bits and we work in the office, and when I'm the way and I'm like, oh my gosh, I got this. So what do you think? But what was what was nice about it is that I have somewhat people that I can talk to where I could just vent, but they get it. Yes, yeah, they they they get it. Yeah, so when you have that sort of support, who's in that world, because only people who are in it can un fully understand what you're what you're really talking about. Like we don't work nine to five, right? We work when we work. I sometimes I wake up at two, three o'clock to say, check my phone, okay, laptop. Until I fall asleep with my laptop on me. It's the worst because I'm always worried that I'm gonna break it. But but that but and and that's what it is. So once you push through that and you find your tribe, and then the other growth, when you hit that another stage, you start meeting people in the business. This is this is where I'm entering right now, which is it's it's nice. You start entering different levels, so now you'll have you're becoming friends with business decision makers and people who can do stuff, so your conversations, people that you can reach out to is very different now. Like when I was publishing my book, I'm like, my publisher's emailing me. Do you want to check the cover? Is this okay? All right, we've done this. Oh, wait, we can change that. I'm not making the changes. I'm still a bit thing. I'll be like, maybe we can do this and I'll mock up something because I'm just like that. But I'm like, oh my gosh, they're like, so I'm like, okay, now what happens next? Because I know I do, but I'm like, I want to understand how you guys do it because I've come from self-publishing. Yeah, you guys are publishers, like traditional. So now you're having, and that's that's why I said hold tight, like everyone, hold tight, hold the line, do not give up. I tell myself this all the time. We we we can't give up because once you start reaching, you start having your conversations, your mindset, everything starts elevating. Yeah, and I'm in that space right now. I was just like, Princess, you are not where you were last year, right? Like, be and be kinder to yourself.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

Ah, very key, very key. Yes, you can say that again.

SPEAKER_00 32:01

Yeah, being kind to yourself, yes, give yourself grace, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

We can be tough on ourselves. No, we don't. We're like, we expect perfection, right? And that's not good. That's not good. I had uh I had a sister on my show, um, Christina at works, and she has a company called Black and Green, where she um curates non-toxic black-owned products. So all the products that she curates on her website are non-toxic. And she said something. She said, you have to allow yourself to fail, because failure is part of being an entrepreneur. If you don't allow failure in your journey, then you can't build a business. But if you say I'm gonna start a business, once you say that, you have to also say, I'm gonna allow failure to be part of this experience.

SPEAKER_00 33:02

Yeah, it's so true. It's so true. And it's like everything, you know what's that saying? Is it like you oh you're getting fine, like when you like you get older, you're fine and you're waiting you're aging like great wine. I don't even know what you're doing. Yes, you know that saying, Yeah, but you do get better. Now I have processes of how I do my book. I remember when I had to write my second book, I said to my friend, I can't. Do you know how long it took me to write my first book? I can't, and and just the the processing to sit there, it took and now I've got processes. This is how I do my activity process. Even I was like, I've my brain has clicked into another level. Ah now I'm looking at systems and ways to make like I'm like I'm I said princess. It's girl, like sometimes like the other day, yeah. Sometimes you have to say, like the other day I said to myself, I'm proud of you.

SPEAKER_03 33:56

Yes, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 33:59

Yeah, you have to do I think we have to like even like look at yourself in the mirror and and say it, yes, and even if you don't believe it straight away, keep saying it until you do.

SPEAKER_01 34:12

That's part of my affirmations, yes, yes, and I love something you said there. It's like we have to also, since we work along so much, we have to take the time to celebrate the small wins because nobody needs the small wins but us, right? They're not big enough for people on the outside to see, but those small wins when something clicks and you figured it out and you got it okay. And usually we just rush through to the next thing because we already have 10 things lined up that we have to do, right? Yeah, one down. Let me go to number two, but no, pause. I got one completed. I need to I need to first of all, one reason is because we need to get our nervous system used to feeling a win. Otherwise, we just stay used to feeling struggle, and we're gonna go from one to ten and get to ten and be like, well, I thought when I got to ten it would feel different, but it can't because you've trained your body to just feel stress and struggle. Yeah, but you have to do that, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:17

I don't want to be used to like stress and struggle. No, that's so true, and I'm bad at I'll be honest, I'm bad at that. My friend keeps me accountable. He's always like, We're gonna celebrate. It's like, yeah, but what? He was like, No, we're going to have drinks, we're celebrating. I'd be like, Okay, right, and I've I'm I'm like that. I'm just like, Oh yeah, okay, cool, we done that on to the next. Like, I just got over to doing a cruise. I did it for the first time last year. They invited me back this year. I'm like, P, that's a win. I remember last year, you you didn't even wait the yeah, the year before, I said you sat there working on a proposal trying to get a response. It was just, oh my gosh, what if I could do this? It was a what if. I don't even know if it's possible because what you want to do don't exist. So you've got to change the mindsets of everyone who runs this cruise for an idea that you have. And then, and then when when it said when they gave me a call, it was like, Yeah, we should have a meeting about you doing the cruise again. And I was like, Okay, we had it. Yeah, so we went. I was like, okay, I'm not even gonna like that point. I was like, Oh my gosh, I gotta finish this, I gotta do this, I've got to do and I'm like, Princess, did you not hear?

SPEAKER_01 36:25

Right, you didn't even have to go to them, they came to you.

SPEAKER_00 36:30

Last year I was chasing, yes, yeah, I was chasing.

SPEAKER_01 36:33

So successful, they came to you the second time. Wow, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

Last time, this time last year, what are we? I was the 20th, I was still in Miami. I was in Miami trying to get a meeting, trying to. I remember the last day I finally had a conversation and they were like, okay, we love this idea. Okay, speak to such and such. I was like, okay, so I'm flying back to London. I think it was like on the 28th of March. Still trying to get everyone to like respond to me, can't get response, get in a response. Finally, okay, we're getting there. Didn't now I'm like this time, this march before I was just I I I said that's why I said we can't give up.

SPEAKER_03 37:13

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 37:17

And then only people once people see the magic or whatever you do, or the the the necessity or the need of what you provide, that's it. Yeah, so you've got to keep that. You gotta, and sometimes we might feel like, oh, that didn't happen, I'm just gonna leave it. I always I I use this because now I'm getting into more into sales, and sales is not something that I enjoy. I find it very mundane, like but they said until you get a no, like until you get like a no, take it as a yes. Sometimes it's just not the right time. So until someone says, Stop emailing me, we do not want your product, uh-huh, we keep going.

SPEAKER_01 37:57

I and then I love that, love, and that's tough, right?

SPEAKER_00 38:00

Isn't it? Yeah, it's tough because if we gotta deal with rejection over and over classes rejection, yeah, yeah. For example, I I signed up to this lady's um email list, and it was like for she had this training, it was about how to get into schools. You know, the other day I was trying to find an email because I was like, what's the Facebook group? The other day I listened last night I listened to it on the way home from the office. You know, I joined her email list in 24. Never ever listened to none of her calls until last night. And I said, even I said, I said, look at that, Princess. If that does not tell you something.

SPEAKER_03 38:38

Yes, time look timing.

SPEAKER_00 38:41

Yes, when she when I saw it, it was like, oh my gosh, yes, but I wasn't in that place of oh right, I'm ready to approach school. Yes, yes now I am. So she's that she still sends, you know, when you got the emails that come out, and I said, yes, I got my alarm, coming on an eight. I'm gonna wrap up the walk home, I'm gonna listen to her. Well, I'm just gonna be able to zone out. And when I was trying to find the Facebook group, I said, 24? That's how long she's been sending you emails?

SPEAKER_01 39:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:08

Yo, if that ain't a strategy, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 39:10

It is right, right. But I love that you expressed the way we feel about that because a lot of times, like you said, it feels like we like I was sending, I've been talking to this person or sending this person emails, and not getting a response feels like rejection. Like I sent them three emails. Should I send another one? But it has to be systematic, right? Because she didn't say, well, um, Princess hasn't listened to me yet, so why are we still sending her you know messages? She just said it's it's on automatic. Yeah, it's right for her, she'll click in. When the time is right for this person, they'll click in, but I'm gonna send it to everybody, right?

SPEAKER_00 39:48

Exactly, and that's what it is, and that's why I said don't like with the crews. They've got, I'm just I say I'm just like this, I'm just a little not like that, but I'm not like a small author. You've got big headlining artists that are performing. I'm not a priority, I know that. So you need to push. Don't be upset because someone hasn't emailed you. Hey, get on, hey, I just wanted to check. Um, how we remove this. Should we make a call? Is there anything that I can do in hand to get ready for this? Because I I I even when I was on the cruise, I saw like the because the cruise goes from Miami to Jamaica. Obviously, there's a huge hurricane, hurricane Melissa. We ended up diverting going to Mexico. So there was so much, and I saw the ladies in production, bless them, all amazing. And I was just like, I'm not trying to add to you guys' stress, I just want to know what I can do because I'm gonna promote like the babies, and obviously, we've got a different direction, but and I think they just appreciated that, and I appreciated them because I felt like we were both supporting each other, and it was the first time I was on the cruise, so I was trying to figure everything out, and that's why when she called me, sent me an email, and then we spoke. I was just like, it it the energy was so different because now she knows they saw they was like, Oh my gosh, Princess, I didn't know this is what you were gonna do.

SPEAKER_01 41:06

Right, so they remembered that that interaction, and it was like, Okay.

SPEAKER_00 41:11

Yeah, yeah. I think that was that's important when you make relationships, and that's what I talked about relationships in your circle. It changes different because that person, remember, that cruises at one time who knows what someone else is doing. Now you've got relationships. Maybe they'll say, you know what, I know someone who could really do something special here, and that's why I said your circle starts changing when it starts hitting new levels and different places. You you're having you're just starting to have conversation with change makers, and those people are connected to others' things. So you've got your your your tribe who keeps you focused, and you're all in the office, and what do you think about this? And okay, I'm gonna do this, and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you've got that business tribe where you're like, I can actually make a call and email someone and say, Do you know someone whose hair that could possibly and that's where the networking comes into play, and that's why when I used to network, people say you know a lot of people, and I was like, No, I don't. They'll be like, No, you do, but you don't you don't know how to use them.

SPEAKER_01 42:10

That part right there, that's it, that part right there is it. You know them, but you're not thinking critically of how can I use this connection? Like, who do they know, right? You're thinking one-to-one, but you're not thinking who they know, the resources they're connected with. That's very key.

SPEAKER_00 42:29

That's it. The other day I was talking to my sis, and she was had a friend, and he works on a cruise shop to do distribution for for um was it seasoning. I said, Can you ask him if he knows anyone who does toys on cruise trips or books or another buyer for another like director? Because that's it, because now when you're so in your business, everything becomes an opportunity, or your mind starts opening up. My mind didn't do that. My mind did not do that.

SPEAKER_01 42:57

It's a new bit, it's a growth process, right?

SPEAKER_00 43:00

It's a growth cost, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

That's what it is.

SPEAKER_03 43:02

I love that, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 43:04

Then you start seeing it's kind of like people say, like when you buy a car a certain color, then you start seeing cars around you the same color, right? But they were already there the whole time. But they were already there, your mind is opened up, and now you see them, right? So it's not that they just popped out of nowhere, they were there. So the same thing, the connections are there, the avenues were there, but now that you've opened up, now you can see them.

SPEAKER_00 43:31

Yeah, and they always say the depending on the question is the answer you'll get. If you write, if you ask the right question, you'll get the right answer. So if you're not asking the right questions, your response.

SPEAKER_01 43:43

Like, why is this not working? Versus how what would be a couple of ways to make this work, right?

SPEAKER_00 43:50

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:52

Two different questions, you're gonna get two different types of answers.

SPEAKER_00 43:55

I'm I'm telling you, and that's it. You can speak to someone who might be in, I don't know. I don't know, owns a store or something, and you're just like, Yeah, but I was looking for like a retail space, and they could be they might not have retail, but you know what? I know someone who's got a connection, connection, and that's how we gotta start as entrepreneurs. We gotta get really creative. Even the other day I said, Oh, London be cold, and I was like, I don't always want to pop up and it's raining, I got books. I said, Princess, if you don't start popping up online and selling live, yeah, I was like, Pete, you gotta do it. So that's what I'm looking at now because I was like, TikTok, you can sell live. There's another um platform that my friend told me about. I think even the other day, this is when what how it's um I don't know if it's like when you think about stuff, even like all the internet follows you, eBay messaged me and told me that they do live selling.

SPEAKER_01 44:50

Ah, yeah, I was like, so you just attract this stuff, that's what you're doing right now. You're just attracting stuff, they just coming to you. Yeah, you are going out.

SPEAKER_00 45:03

Yeah, I was like, what is going on? I was like, we've got to think outside the box because there's so many pop-ups for us when we do pop-ups, they're not cheap, the space, and then remember, your the place could be like a hundred pounds, so you've got to sell if your books are ten, you've got to sell like ten books before you break even, before you process or whatever, right? Yeah, so now, but if you're selling then the comfort of your own home, and you obviously you've got the there's no car, there's no car, it's all it's all it's all yeah, and it's all revenue, and now you can pop up even more.

SPEAKER_03 45:40

Yes, because it's convenient, yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 45:45

Because you're waiting for your favorite pop-up to pop up, they might do it once every quarter or once every two months, and then you don't have to hustle and bustle anymore, you know. Burn it's been parking, gas, yeah, food. Because I'm a feeling, I'll be eating, I'll be in the shop. I I'd be like, Princess, you spend more money than you make, girl. I swear. Like, because I'll be eating, I'm not trying to buy breakfast and I'm lunch, now I want a snack. Now I have to remember that I need some products for the home. Yeah. So, yeah, be an entrepreneur, it's not easy.

SPEAKER_01 46:16

It is, and and it's uh definitely a growth experience, it's a journey because you just start taking one step in front of the next, you know, and I and I love what we're talking about here because it really shows that you don't have to have the whole plan figured out when you start. Because that keeps a lot of people not even getting started because they think, oh, I gotta figure out how this is gonna unfold, what I'm gonna do next, how that's and it has to be perfect, and I have to have all this stuff in place as opposed to let me just take the first step. Let me just take one little step. Let me just let me just choose my business name and file for a business license. You know, let me start let me just make business mission together and figure out who my target market is, and then let me start creating, you know, just just in what form, right? Yeah, you may you may do the creating first and then do the business filing next, but do something, don't just think about it, right?

SPEAKER_00 47:19

A lot of people stay in that thinking state for too long, and then they thought themselves out. Like they're like, oh yeah, they think about everything that they have to do, and then if I did that, I probably wouldn't have started. I just started. I didn't know how to put a book together. I was like, okay, I'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_04 47:36

You're right.

SPEAKER_00 47:37

YouTube is your best friend. Watch videos, a lot of people doing it, a lot of things that we're planning to do. No one has everyone's probably done it already, yeah. But it's just how you do it, and then it's your brand story. I didn't understand the power in a brand story. Like everyone has a brand story, I'm telling you, it's powerful when you really can create it and it it speaks to people, and people can relate to it. I didn't understand that, but I find that um we we're so bogged down with oh no, we gotta do this and we gotta do that, and we gotta do this, especially as I think a lot of entrepreneurs we're creators, we're naturally creators more than more than business. There's probably some people business, but we create products and then we're like, okay, how do we sell it? And then finances, oh my gosh, we run from that. Oh, the legal.

SPEAKER_01 48:25

Yeah, I know you run for finance.

SPEAKER_00 48:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:30

Yes, because that's what I have people with, so I know, yes.

SPEAKER_00 48:33

Yeah, it's just like oh the other day I had to do, I'm like, put it off, pull it off. It's just right, and I keep yeah, and I keep saying, like, start saying you like it. Tell your brain you like it because you've been telling your brain you don't like it for so long that now it's it's your reality. Right. Don't you like?

SPEAKER_01 48:52

Right. So what you have to do is find the benefit of it, and you have to connect to the benefit of it. I you like the result from it, right? I like yeah, this is the result this is gonna give me so, and I love that result, so I'm gonna figure out how to get this done.

SPEAKER_00 49:09

Yeah, and I think that's what I'm trying to do now. Like, as I said, like the sales and sending emails, it's so lovely. My gosh, you're just waiting, like you're just okay. Whereas when I'm doing a book, I'm like, oh my gosh, I like this. Oh my gosh, this is yeah, I gotta add that, and I've got to critique this. I like all that. The moment I'm like, okay, but you did all that work and now you've got to sell the book, but you act like you don't want to sell it. But that's why I like popping up because I get to talk to people and see their reactions and see what looks good, what you're actively selling, so you get people who naturally connect. Whereas online it's very stagnant. Do you know what I mean? People are like, maybe I I like that, put it in a basket, go away, forget.

SPEAKER_01 49:50

Whereas when you're there, yes, we chap it in the basket, then we close it, come a week later.

SPEAKER_00 49:59

Yeah, is it still there? Right. Do I need that? Yeah, exactly. But versus being outside, or you're selling live, but you've got a deal happening or a bundle, and yeah, it's just a different, but you have to feedback exactly. But I think now, and what I realized with myself, I was like, Princess, this is the next level. You have to dominate the cells and like completely embrace it. This is you you wrote books, like you got six, I've got six published books, like, and that's picture books, that's not even activity books, right? So it's just like, and you've done all this stuff, so now you really need to embrace yourself completely. Like, I put myself into a no creative work until after five. From nine to five, sell, princess.

SPEAKER_01 50:51

I love that because we often do the things that we love to do, right? So we're doing creative work 12 hours a day. Oh my gosh. That's not making the sales happen, right? So you have a lot of creativity done, but no sales. So you have to make yourself. I love the way you put that time block in.

SPEAKER_04 51:10

Yeah, time block.

SPEAKER_01 51:12

I'm gonna do this, and then I get to be creative after I've done this with so many hours.

SPEAKER_00 51:17

Yeah, yeah, because it's no longer I need uh when I first started, I was like, oh my gosh, I just have one book. I need more books, like make more money. I was like, you've done the book, you ain't swapped over, you're still in the same year, right? You're still a creator. No, you're gonna be CEO now, right?

SPEAKER_01 51:37

Yeah, ah, I love that. So now you gotta perform as the CEO. And one thing I tell women that I I work with in their business is another way to handle those tax that you don't want to do but have to get done is to research and find out what it would cost me to get someone to do this for me, right? Yeah, and now let me set my revenue goals so that I know I'm on track to add that person, right, to my team so they can take this over. So now I know I'm not doing this forever. I have a timeline that I'm doing this and I know why I'm doing it, and it's gonna get me someone that's gonna just take this off my plate, right? Yeah, gone through it, so now you understand it, so you know what that person should be doing when they come aboard. So it's like you're like, okay, so I'm in my learning process. I'm learning this stuff, I'm gonna get it down at the same time. I'm earning the money to hire that person. When I hire that person, I know who to hire. Because I know I know how this system works now. So yeah, yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:43

No, it's so true, yeah. Exactly. It's and I think it's all to do with like the mind and how we just like to, as you said, we like to do what we like to do, but that's it could be a make or break for business.

SPEAKER_01 52:57

Yes, definitely. Right, just imagine if you had you've got all these books created. Imagine if you did no sales to sell them. It'd be like you would feel like, oh, it's this is just not successful when that's not the truth, right? These are very, very valuable things that people connect to. They just need to know it's there, right?

SPEAKER_00 53:18

Yeah, when and that's the funniest thing, is because when I first started, I said, if I never did pop-ups, I probably would have stopped and said no one wants my books or toys. When I started doing pop-ups and saw my books sell, I was like, I went into a department store, like a pop-up, it was for like um a week. And because of like the commission that they take, I had to increase my books right by like three pounds. My books were selling, even the store people were like, Wow, you sell a lot of books. And it was at that time when I first popped up, it was just Jamaica, and I was doing just under like 20 a day, like just this one Jamaica book for me, and they're like, and I was just like, Okay, so when I went back, and then I had different books, and you're selling, and people like you got regulars, and like, oh, what what other books do you have? And and that's what gave me the confidence because if I was just paying attention to online, like my website, got you, yeah, got you.

SPEAKER_01 54:18

That's very key. So we have to be, I think you said it earlier, we have to be creative, right? Yeah, if we have to looking at those different avenues made a difference for you to realize this is something that people will purchase.

SPEAKER_00 54:32

Yeah, when I started out, because if I was just depending online, I probably would have been like, Oh, no one wants it, no one wants it. But when I got outside, I was like, Yeah, I and I started popping up. Like I had a website, but I was like, let me pop up. Because versus the visits that your new website is getting, versus how many people coming to a department store or a pop-up event which they know what they're gonna find there, right?

SPEAKER_01 54:57

You can't compare that, yes, it's a big difference, yeah. Because you're on the internet with billions of other um websites, exactly, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 55:08

Sometimes Amazon sells more books than my website, yes, yes. I can't compete with Amazon. Do you have on Amazon? And that's just how it is. That's why you've got to do all these different platforms. You might be on Amazon, you might be on Etsy, you might be on, yeah. It's just so it it's it's interesting. That's why I said the the wholesale now is the most for me is like the most um important step to getting the books out because you the for me, I'm like I don't always want to pop out. I want to I would like to pop up if I've got something new or to feel interaction and see what's happening and not to lose like touch with what's going on, but when now if your books are in like five other stores and they're ordering, start working on that map. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 55:55

Okay, yes, I love that. I love that, yes. So that journey that's part of your business journey, you're in that expansion, okay? Yeah, how many different ways can I expand, right? Yeah, because I'm you're beyond the startup mode, right?

SPEAKER_00 56:14

Yeah, I still feel like I'm a startup. I still feel like I'm a startup, but I guess so. Like it's been three years. I was like, how old is my business? Yeah, so I don't, yeah. I'm like, when do you switch? When is when does startup actually end?

SPEAKER_01 56:31

Well, actually, um, it ends at different stages for different people, but usually at the five-year mark, when you have your revenue growing consistently, yeah, for that five-year period. Yeah, yeah. When you kind of set your foundation, you have your system in place. Yeah, one key way to know that you're beyond the startup is when you can take a vacation and everything runs without you.

SPEAKER_00 56:57

Yeah, they said always when you're building your business, build it as if you want to sell it.

SPEAKER_01 57:03

That part right there. That's what I tell people. That's what I want to know, right now. Yeah, so that's the key. So when you get those systems in place, and like you said, when you started your second book, how you had a written process for how it should go. That's part of it. So you put all those um systems in place and processes in place so that if you're not there, someone else can follow it. And it will run smoothly. And you can have your mind just really um taking a break because we need those breaks to uh guise our creativity. We have to take breaks from it. So if when you can step away for a two-week or a four-week vacation, and you know your business is still gonna run, then you're beyond that startup phase.

SPEAKER_00 57:48

Oh, you just made me feel good.

SPEAKER_01 57:50

Yes, good.

SPEAKER_00 57:51

Yeah, no, because I started, and it's so funny because I was trying to understand systems. This is what I'm saying. Like last year I wasn't even thinking now, and I didn't realize what I was doing was systems. I was just doing my friend was like, so that's how you do, that's why I did the book. Like, I well, we'll talk about it, but I did a book, uh did how to write and publish your own children's book course. He was like, What you do, like you actually follow your own steps. I was like, Yeah, I don't make this up every time I write a book. When I speak to my illustrator, this is how I give them the information because it's clear to me, it's clear to them. And when you don't do what I'm what I'm saying, I'm like, go to image five and then look at image six, and you'll see because I've circled it in big red, like you know what I mean. But I didn't realize so for me, it was trying to understand, and I'm still trying to understand like online systems and automations, and yeah. I do the emails, like I'm I'm really bad. I'll do the work and then not implement the actual systems like like set up the the emails, but I'll do the content. I just there's something about that that mundane work, but I'm like printer, so you gotta get over it because I've done the work. Right, yeah, so now I like the other day, I was like, I'm changing my book printer, and they need to be able to facilitate orders for wholesale now. I can do it when I'm in town because I I travel too much, and then I'm away for periods of time. So I was like, I can't shut down my store. Either you have to get a packer and get a situation together or whatever, where they because unless they come to the office or whatever, but and then they pack, or you get a company that can fulfill the orders. So I finally found someone, um, and I was like, great, they got the US because I had this American woman come in and she came to London. She was like, Oh my god, I don't want to do a bad American accent. But she was like, This is like fantastic. You need to get them in America, you need to get them in all the what did she say, all the blue states, all the da-da-da, I think she was talking about, yeah. Yeah, I was like, okay, like, and I actually did it, I've actually created a list just from that conversation because I was like, No, it's true. She was like, we need that. Our kids don't know where they're from, we need we really need that. So I was like, okay. See, I meet people like that that pour into me and I'm like exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:15

I love that I love that.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:17

But yes, so the systems and everything is definitely that's me. The next before I travel, because obviously I my the the cruise is in November. I've given myself like four months to just let let's sales, okay, marketing, okay. This putting it all in order.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:38

Got it.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:39

That's me. Because I said when I travel, this needs to run with me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I can sit on a beach and just write another book.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:48

Exactly, exactly. Yeah, you won't have that heavy in your mind because a lot of times we carry weight of our business in our mind, and even though our body is somewhere, our mind is still heavy with what you know, what we need to do, what has to be done, and that's not peace, right? That's not rest. And we have to have real rest to build these businesses so that they're sustainable.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:13

Yeah, that real rest. I know I need that. Yeah, I could be real. Like, I don't think I've had real rest. Because I'm always working. Like, you know, when you just shut down, yes, yes. Yeah, I don't think I yeah, when I think about that, no, but that's why I said the systems this year. I was like, that's what and that's why I've been very hard on myself about creativity. I was like, you're not allowed to create anything. Because my cut off for working on anything creators at the end of this month. I said, if you haven't done it, Princess, that's on you. Yeah, yeah, do you understand? But now it's all about the systems, you're a business. This isn't nice to have a fun time. This is real, this is it. So all of those things now, and just being ahead of time, even like finances of what you said, and being on top of that. And like now, I've got my I just the other day, like today. Actually, I was working on an email for schools, and I was that when I was listening to the woman and how I did it, it was like a one-off sell, like an author visit. Oh, I can come into a school, read, and she was just like, No, schools don't well, she didn't tell me, but what she was saying on she was talking at you, yeah. I felt it because I didn't know. Yeah, yeah, I know she was, yeah. Exactly. So she was saying, No, what you have to do is they care about um the value and what the output is for the kids and how it fits into their curriculum and and whatever, and you want to create a partnership, not a one-off. Yeah, so you the so now when I laid out that that that next email, like I did that today, I was like, Wow, this is powerful.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:55

Yes, like you're not coming to the city. You love that feeling, yes. When you see how you've grown, you've you've taken information and how you've grown with it, right? I love that feeling, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:07

I was telling my friend that today because she was like, What do you mean? And I said, Listen, this lady was talking about I was taking all the information because you know webinars, the free webinars, they give you a little bit, but they're not really giving you a lot of it. Exactly. This is where, no, but this is where you chat GPT.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:22

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:23

Put that information in, yeah. And you say, I told her, I said, give me a strategy for Naima babies. Obviously, this is what the brand does of how and and she gave us a checklist. I said, This is a checklist of what we should do, create the strategy for me, and how how can I make this bulletproof to get into schools and make this powerful to show what I do and the different things. And then, whereas I was only concentrating on being an author, I'm like, but you created a study educational pack using your books as resources. I have one on Notting Hill Carnival that talks about how it started and the culture behind it in Rinrush, and then one on Jamaica. So it's a resource that teachers can buy, but they can use the book and how they interact with the students and stuff, so it's all about cultural education and stuff like that. Literacy, yeah. I do, I told you, I'm a creative and I don't tell no one, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:20

Yes, just I'm just seeing visions of how that will work in school systems over here, too, right? Because my um my husband is a um retired principal, he worked in the from a teacher all the way up to principalship and work at the district, also. So, yes, I'm see.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:39

You see, we gotta told you about that before. Yes, when you ask the right, you have the right conversations. Look what you just said. Yeah, I never knew that. Look at that.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:50

Yes, yes. That's how it happens. That's how it happens, audience. You gotta just talk to the right people, you gotta share what your dreams and your goals are with the right people, and just keep taking one step after the other. So, what's the next big thing for um nine mile babies that you have?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:10

Oh so well the next well, the next big thing, I've got a lot of things coming, but the biggest thing, the next big thing is my book. So I've got a children's book. Um, I signed with uh New York publisher. Okay, Cassidy Books. Yeah, and they're releasing my Christmas book. It's called Grandma What's That? Count Down to Christmas. Um, you can pre-order it. It's already, I've got a link on my website on the My Mar Babies website. It's on Walmart, it's on um, I'm trying to think of another American. What's that bookstore? You've got uh Barnes and Noble. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's that bookstore? Yeah, so it's online already, it's on Amazon, so it's coming out. So obviously, we're getting ready to start pushing um the book. I'm really excited about that. It's my first. non-self published book. Okay. So yeah, so I'm excited about that. And it's it's about Christmas. Um obviously babies grow and and they they're looking to buy presents. I don't want to say too much. Oh but there's a different character in it that represents Christmas for us. Okay. Um yeah so it's for like the mothers the women in our family that hold it all together. But yeah I'm gonna yeah I'm gonna leave it there for that but that's coming out on the 6th of October.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:33

Wonderful and a great time for uh Christmas gifts right yeah yeah yeah wonderful wonderful and then I have um as I said I have I have launched uh I soft launch because I haven't fully put it out there but I've launched a course on how to sell how to write and self-publish a book. So I took my process of how I did it and kind of laid it out. It's like got 10 modules um voice like I voiced all of it talking about I've created so like loads of downloads to help people even down to visiting a bookstore people want to write but we I feel like we don't really look at what's already in the market understand what what we love about books. If you've got a child what they love about books down to the feeling of the paper gloss matte big size drawing what type of like carto yeah um right because part of your process was you you taught yourself about self-publishing right yeah you did it all yourself so you're taking all those lessons that you had to learn to put out your first book and now you're helping the next person so they don't have to learn it the same hard way that you did right exactly because it took me ages to to go I remember one day just walking for like a whole day trying to get my books in bookstores and there was just like one lady said it's gonna be really hard for you to get your books into like bookstores because we buy from a a certain distributor if you can get with this juice um distributor who's big then it's easier and then you just tell them I was like the moment she said that I tried a couple bookstores it was the same I went home I said okay that was all I needed I was like yep I'm gonna get my books you're gonna be my distributor and I figured it out when I and then that's how I learn about ISBN numbers and registering your books because it depends how far you want to go with your books. If you want to just put it on Amazon you can get a free ISBN number and for those who don't know it's the barcode it's the registered barcode for your product. So um Amazon will give you a free one so if you want to just write a book on like if you wanted to write a book on how to become a podcaster right um you can write a book and just put it on Amazon and then buy uh like your copies and sell them. If you want to get it into books and get it registered then you need your own ISBN number where you have to register. So I learned how to um make 9 Mile Babies a book publisher. So I do publish books. I publish my I am a publisher okay so I went through that whole process of becoming a publisher buying all my ISBN numbers registering it to 9 Mar Babies publishing and doing that route and I did that very early on after I released my first book and just had it sitting on Amazon. I was like but what do you what I was like I want more right I didn't know exactly what but and then that lady just confirmed everything that I thought and then when she said there's a big there's a big distributor called gardeners in here and she was just like if you can get in with them you're good because that's where a lot of bookstores buy their books for because people don't want to deal with individuals too right they want to order from one place. Yes yes they want to get multiple books from one place instead of dealing with multiple different people that's a good point because I know a lot of people that publish direct to Amazon I even have a journal for um black women in business on Amazon so you like that yeah yeah yeah wonderful yeah so it's it's that so I did that and then I have a webinar coming up so it's it's the webinars about for parents um carers any it could be auntie uncle anyone it's just how to increase your child's confidence but using culture and I've created um different things that you can't buy on my website but still using my books and stuff so colouring books and activity books literacy numeracy but it's all about how kids learning by seeing themselves because a lot of the time they're not seeing themselves so they don't even down to media so they don't know what is possible. Right. We didn't know we well American but he's still we didn't know we could have a black president until we had one right right you exactly that's why even like Michael um b was it Michael B. Jordan yeah it's going crazy because there's not many yes when you think about it after all the there's not many yes you're right so when we see that it inspires young ones I want to be just like him I can do it because he did it yes exactly it's that's another level of possibility right exactly that is very powerful very powerful so yeah everything feeds into the brand I'm all about culture I'm all about representation building our children up like making them feel comfortable with who they are understanding where they're from even though you might be born in America or I don't know Asia or wherever you you are but your bloodline is what it is right and you learn more about you. Yeah and then yeah because travel's not always fortunate for everyone right but with grandma and the baby they can travel to Jamaica I'm telling you to Nymouth yeah I've got Jamaica Barbados Saint Lucia um Nigeria which I based on my trips to Nigeria that's like my first Africa book I'm hoping next year I'll write Ghana and I did a book on Nottinghill Carnival because I felt like a lot of children don't understand why carnival actually exists in London yeah so that's good I'm gonna read that one very interesting stuff so tell me something what does success feel like for this version of you versus the version that had just started with that first book oh I'm definitely I'm pretty confident in myself but I'm definitely more confident within myself and what I do like before when I first wrote and someone says oh you write books oh you're an author or yeah I write books I didn't want to give myself oh I'm an author and I think that was partially why I wanted a book deal. At first I didn't know I wanted a book deal and then I was like do I want that because I kind of wanted that tick of verification from the industry and it's like now you've you've got that right um I I think coming from like working for people so you're working in industries but you're working for people I showed myself that I'm very capable of doing for myself too and stepping out sometimes we fear being alone or what we can do or sometimes we think yeah I can do that I do that I can do it for someone else and sometimes we can't sometimes we can but I looked at me and my growth because I've tried different businesses and I was like oh you you know after a while you're like oh I don't want to do that no more or this didn't work out this way and all those things that I tried actually brought me to where I am today and those skills because I remember when I built my first website to the website that I built now for Nine Mar Babies. Oh my gosh yes yes yeah I know about those website deal and stuff when you oh my gosh goodness painful yeah but when you start out and you don't have funds to to pay everyone for everything yeah figure it out you okay how do I do this yes yeah you're figuring it out I'm telling you even when they see me pop up and they're like oh you're by yourself yeah who else like it's my business yeah you can't get help I said there's help and then there's you're no longer they're no longer helping like there's not and I said I would rather I'm an Aries as well so we're we don't really like to ask for help I would yeah I don't know anyone out there who's an Aries but we're we tend to be like that but I was just like I can handle it and it's easy I've had someone help me and I just felt like it was more hassle for me because I got told you what to do I can sell I can talk to someone else I can take an interview I could take a testimonial I could take pictures and do all of it myself and I'll pack unpack put up get down like the way that I pack my stand I guess I got I got a system so even when someone's like do you want to help no I'm good because I know what I'm saying yeah yeah yeah I'm like I've got the same setup that I have so success is definitely I don't I don't feel successful as like oh my gosh yeah I made it but I'm I feel very close and I'm very grateful and I'm a believer in God and I believe what is for you won't pass you and what I'm doing was already written because it's my family it's my life so I take my my um my experiences and I've turned it into something which I believe is beautiful and it's may it stand long after me. Do you understand? And that's why I'm trying to build it as a business and it doesn't depend on me. But yeah I yeah I think there's people that'd be like yeah I'll and I used to always say this I don't know if you did this or anyone else I'll be like yeah I've got small business I don't know why we put that small business I've had a few friends that's gone princess there's nothing small about what you do stop saying that yeah you say that and then you're on a cruise or you're on the news then you sign a publishing deal then you then like what's so small but the thing is in the vision I guess that made for me I have in my head it's so huge. Got it got it and I yeah and I'm like but as you said sometimes you gotta appreciate this moment because there has been movement yes yes yeah yeah it is so we can we we do sometimes say I well I got a small business or you I'm doing something aside but it's more than small right it's it's a full fledged fit I have a business yeah you have a business and look at it I have a business exact I have a business but I think we downplay it so maybe we feel more comfortable yeah we don't want questions or no one definitely yeah don't ask me what my numbers are don't ask me you know don't ask me details right so let me just say it's small so I don't have to answer questions that's fear yeah yeah and then my friends my friends do I've got a friend in particular she was like I never forget she goes there's nothing small about what you she goes I don't know what you think small is yeah I'm like me yes and then even even my other friend my friend said you're no you're successful and I was like no I'm not and he was like no you are he goes if you can take care of yourself you're successful I said there's levels of taking care but I'm just so thankful that I'm able to do this and I keep pushing and even through the hard times when I'm just like and I'm just you know you get upset sometimes you've got to cry it out sometimes you've got to take a minute and be by yourself. Definitely yeah like all that all that is okay yeah you can cry you can you can take a day off you can vent you can do whatever you need to do do whatever you need to do and get back out because no one can't take your business away from you unless you give it away or you say and you close the door to it.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:30

We watched lockdown not nothing's safe a job isn't safe right yeah we saw people losing their jobs yes that's why they started that's why they started side hustles and started doing stuff and started doing bits so yeah I was just like it's I always say and my friend always says this to me he was like P it's coming they you know like Steve Jobson he was telling he was telling me Facebook they had like ten dollars in their account to buy pizza before they like it gets hard before yes it's coming that what that breakthrough comes yes yes and then what happens is which is very important why again why it's very important to get our nervous system used to wins what happens is it starts rolling really fast right so it starts getting really good really fast so you have to really be ready to accept that because I work with a lot of women and when wealth starts coming if you're not ready to accept it you would stop it you would do something to make it stop this is too much this is too much self-sabotage and you won't see it until after the fact right you're self-sabotaging but in the moment that's not what you think you're doing but two or three months down the line you'd be like you know what I could have had that contract I could have made that deal I could figure out how to handle it you know instead of thinking oh this is too big I can't handle it I could have figured out how to manage that well why was I afraid right instead of you know like you said we say small business if someone comes to you no I'm not I'm not ready for that yet right as opposed to how can I get ready for this opportunity yeah yeah so we so if we're not if we don't have that capacity open and ready when it comes we're so afraid of it we would self-sabotage yeah no i i i had um this guy last year say to me I hope you're ready for success and I didn't know what he was talking about I was like huh I was like yeah like I didn't really and then someone said Pete it's gonna happen so fast yes I remember last last year I was talking to a friend and we were just talking about and they were like yeah so when I get like my my my record deal when I do this and they're talking about all these things and they were like yeah and then you'll do you'll do this and then you'll do that my thing like when I signed my book deals and then everything happened it was like book deal cruise this and I was just like yes oh okay so see so much so what yes you're stepping into another stage so you have you are graduating from the struggle struggle stage which is basically you planted the seed you watered it you pulled the weeds you took care of it you fertilized it right and now it's growing and when the starts growing you don't have to do a whole lot more stuff to it right you just make sure it stays healthy so that's the stage you're at where you need to just make sure all those different parts stay healthy. It's not gonna be the same grind of um tending and pulling weeds and water and hoping that the sun comes out you're moving to that so it's the next level of comfort that you have to get used to right you got to get used to things coming to you and things showing up and doors opening and okay how do I want to step into this door yeah yeah it's so yeah but I felt that because right now I'm sitting on something and I'm like I'm listening to you going why are you sitting on this yeah I'm gonna do that tonight.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:17

Yeah because I was just like why and it's huge and I was like why are you sitting on this? Yeah get your nervous system prepared for it so what you want to do is envision it happening and envision who else would benefit from it happening right like who else will be blessed when this happens yeah wow because it has to be bigger than you right from what you're saying it's bigger than you and it it and it is yes and so who else is gonna be blessed so this is going to bless these people in this way and get your nervous system comfortable with that right yeah oh my gosh yes yes yes because you know like I'm sitting and it and it and it's uh it's gonna take the brand to a whole nother level like I remember sitting at my auntie's table in Jamaica going I need to I turned down this job and I just said they they don't want to pay me my worth forget it I was like yeah but I got make aunt money and auntie my auntie was like it's fine pre pee is gonna have to happen like just I used to sit at her table every morning but it just felt like it felt beautiful in it because it's nice outside it's it's a different relaxation I was happy sending emails and I remember when this woman was like yeah it was a Montego Bay airport she was like yeah we'll take you like we'll love we love your books and then as I was traveling back I took I had like books on me and I was I gave her books and and all the rest of it and I was like I'll send you an invoice don't worry but I just wanted to make sure and I took and I was just like you just got into Montego Bay Airport you spoke about that before lockdown and then after that I got into um um the the Tuffgong store which is like the Mali store in in in Montego Bay and Kingston Airport which I never thought I would have got into and I was just like and then I got into the Bob Mali Museum and I was just like and it's normally the Bob Mali Museum is just like um sort of uh Mali stuff and I was just like this if this isn't like a 360 or whatever because and I was just I was like what is going on you know like things things and and nothing before it's time but I was in a space where I was able to talk about what I did I felt confident about what I had and I understood even now when I the brand has grown so much with what I do because I'm a natural creative which I have to pull myself back and I'm like this next thing that I have that I'm I'm sitting on I'm gonna be real with you we gotta be real one thing I'm real with myself but it's like why and then someone said to me a couple years ago when I when I questioned when I started doing all these other business why am I not successful why have I not hit and it said trauma they spoke about trauma in that I tied success with pain because something that I had gone through right yeah every time I did something and I shined too bright they kind of did that to me so I kind of was doing but I didn't want to it's like you're shouting but you're yeah but you're you're not shouting right the moment that I I listened to this lady right she doesn't understand how what she did for me that day I listened to this lady and I said I'm gonna do something that scares me this weekend that's why I told her I'm gonna do something that scares me and I did it and I kid you not that was the first breakthrough that I had that is why I'm sitting with you today and why nine babies exist.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:03

So so this next breakthrough yes tonight yeah yes tonight because it's sitting on me yes yeah and that's why we you a lot of a lot of our things it's not our capabilities it's mental yes it's mental and it's that trauma you spoke about I tell my entrepreneurs you need three things for a successful business you need a therapist you need a business coach yeah and you need to have um a level of self-care gotta take care of yourself right so you need a therapist because any trauma that you've experienced is going to come up because you're branching out to do something great. And when you are working on doing letting your greatness come out it has to move through all that furniture you have in there that's pain and trauma right like it can't come out you're gonna keep pushing it down because that's too much. So it's a thing you have to release so that that greatness can come out and shine right so I love that you said you you you're doing something uncomfortable because that's where a lot of us get stuck. Instead we would say oh that must be a sign that I'm not supposed to do that just doesn't it doesn't feel right when it really just doesn't feel familiar. Yeah there's a difference yeah there's a difference between you know feeling a vibe or energy that doesn't feel right and feeling a vibe or energy that just doesn't feel familiar. Yeah and that familiarity is your comfort level exactly because being able go ahead no no no no no you go so being able to break through that uh to to really tap in because I've heard people say um you gotta tap into Whatever feels dark to you, like your dark side, and that's basically your fear, right? It's like I want to avoid it. Let me just go do something else with but why am I afraid of this? Yeah, let me tap into why this has me feeling somewhere, and where do I feel it in my body, and why am I afraid of this? Yeah, and even if I can't figure out why I'm afraid of it, acknowledge I am afraid of it, but I'm gonna do it anyway. Because I tell fear, you know, we're going on a journey, you and me.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:28

Yeah, to not be out here.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:30

And if you're gonna hang around, you're just gonna get there with me. You're not stopping me from getting there. We're just gonna get there together. I I'm willing to take you with me, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:40

I love that. No, it's it's so true because we have these things that block us and we don't know why. And when we and when someone shines a light on it, it's like, oh my gosh. And and just listening to you just then, I was just like, P, you've been, I think from last week or the week before, I was and I'm just like, you just gotta do a few things and that's it, and send it. So why? And I was like, no, no, no, everything happens for a reason. That's what I believe. And if you listen, and I was like, today we push through that barrier because yeah, it it yeah, and that's what I've been slowly doing with everything that I've been doing, and I think I know because the moment I do that, we're on a next level, yeah. It's different expectations, yeah, and different, you know what I mean? And you you gotta show up differently, right? There's no this comfortable working or no, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:34

Yeah, it's time to move to a next level, and that could be challenging, right? It could be challenging. How's it gonna feel up there? Am I gonna like it up there? Am I going to as capable as I am where I am now, right? Yeah. But it's if it comes to you and you know that you're worthy of it, right? You know that you can do good with it, then it's just that unfamiliarity that you're fighting. So you have to you have to choose to move through it, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:30:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:10

And get through it and be like, okay, when you get there, you know, you'll be like, okay, I can handle this because so much more. You know, we're like, I always say, I I say this to myself internally, I'm at least 10 times better than I think I am, right? So if I think I'm just good enough for this, I'm really 10 times good enough for this. So that's what I say to fear. I'm really 10 times better than this. So, you know, I know I will succeed at this. Because it only requires to be one or two times, you know. So I got so you got it, you got it, Prince.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:46

Yeah, I'm like, you got it. The thing is, I done if you know I've done the hard work already, that's why I'm like, I'm just gonna add two more. And I'm like, Princess, why are you stalling? No, this, no, no, we're not, we're not doing that. Okay. That was powerful, but yeah, yeah, because it's so and no, what I realized is well, we're just figuring it out every stage, everything we do, because no one tells you what to expect. No one is thinking you hear that about Hollywood, no one told you what Hollywood's gonna be like and what to prepare it.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:20

We're just stepping and walking and trying to figure it out, yeah, because you just see it from the outside in, right? And there's so many nuances that you learn once you step into it, and that's that's why I I love what I'm doing on this podcast because stepping into entrepreneurship is it's like that. There's so many little things that you're not aware of until you start experiencing them. Yep, and then you need to try to discuss what you're experiencing. Like, look, I went through this, so someone can tell you, oh yeah, girl, it's gonna be all right. That's right. Yeah, no, it's normal to want to self-self-tax sabotage. That's a very usual feeling in building something great.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:03

Yeah, that's a normal true, yeah, yeah. It's so true, and then what we gotta also remember is that when opportunities come, they don't last forever, like things change. Yeah, so if you take too long on stuff, people change. People might think, oh, you know what? When I thought, mm, now, yeah, do you know what I mean? That moment, it's like improves bias. Oh, yeah, I wanted that. Oh, but now it's just in the cut, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:28

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:29

Yeah, now it's sold out, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:32:32

We gotta, you gotta get it. I'm telling myself that. Like, let's go. Anything, you know what? Anything that anyone who's watching this has or they want to go for it, go for it now. Like this moment right now, whatever you're doing, if you're scrolling through TikTok, scrolling through Instagram, put that away, yeah, and go for what you've been putting off right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:52

Yes, I'm telling you. Yes, yes. Take that in, guys.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:57

That's it.

unknown 1:32:58

That's it.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:58

That's important stuff. So we're gonna wrap this up with the little um rapid fire questions, fun questions for you. Because we've got to know a lot about you as a businesswoman, as this great CEO you're becoming. So the first question is what's your favorite childhood memory of Jamaica? I know you've got a lot, but what's the oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:26

Um, it's the older what with just of me or of my grandma?

SPEAKER_01 1:33:31

Of you, for you.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:32

For me, it can include anyone. It has to be when I probably one of my trips when I went to Sun Splash, with with well, I went with my grandma, and then but she allowed me to go back out, and I was with my godmother, and I met Snoop, and that year I met Alicia Keys. It was like that's like a an old like an older kind of moment, you know, when you get to go out and you're you're yeah, you can you're big girl now. Alicia Keyes singing Falling at like City, yeah, uh, because I've yeah, and that was and then Snoop, and I remember meeting Snoop's uncle, and I was just like, I always remember that because I was like, who goes to uh a reggae um show with their grandmother? But she was about that life, but that was one of that was one of my favorite moments in Jamaica, kind of I've got so many, but that's what popped in my head right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:32

Got you. That's neat, that's neat. What's a cultural tradition that you will always carry forward?

SPEAKER_04 1:34:42

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:53

Because I've got it's it's all mixed, but um, and it's something it's something that I'm I I want to start carrying. Okay, my Bayesian grandmother used to always make bread or pudding, like sweet bread or pudding. And I was just talking to my niece about this two days ago, going my my auntie gave me the recipe. My mum doesn't really bake anymore, but I was like, we need to at least do this, like at least every two weeks or every month we bake. Because when I used to go to my grand, she had this tin, and she would give us us, but we would always try to take a little slice, and she'll cuss us because she'll be like, Who ate down the sweetbread? Like, you know what I mean? And I was just like, we need to bring some of that back, and that's what I mean. When you lost grandparents, like Christmas used to be at my granny's, my granddad's, so I I'm like, We we need some of that, yeah. I was just talking about that about baking.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:53

So they keep that tradition in the family where you guys stopped baking.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:58

Yeah, everyone stopped baking. I just remember about that. That's weird because I just spoke about it like two days ago. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:08

What's one word that describes your brand? If you had described it in one word, uh family.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:22

I like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:23

I'm about to give you another one, but I was like, let me not. But it's like, yeah, family. We're families togetherness.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:29

I love it.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:30

But it's it's family, and family doesn't have to be blood related, it's who we choose to be our family.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:39

Love that. And the last question: if you could spend a day with anyone from any time in history, who would you choose to spend a day with and why?

SPEAKER_00 1:36:52

Do you know what's so funny? And I I wrote about her, Nanny of the Maroons. I want to know how where she found that strength to take the slaves and run into the mountains. Like, like where as a woman, because you know it's always like men, as a woman, like, where did you find that inner strength? And kind of just and fight and take them to freedom into like the mountains. I I would yeah, I would I uh if I'll go back, I'm talking to change like people who bought change, like women that bought change, right? Right, but to really yeah, because that's a different type of strength.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:37

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:39

I don't know if that's uh I have nothing to lose. It's either we stay here and die, or we go and we die, right? But either way, we're gonna fight for freedom. Yeah, do you understand? Um, yeah, it's that because I feel that's that that fierceness that we have to have as women when we push our business, especially as black women. Yes, definitely. Kind of regardless, we could be knocked down, but we're always gonna keep getting up and we're always gonna push. So, yeah, I would love to she's actually I she's actually in one of my Discover Jamaica activity book I write about.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:11

Okay, wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:12

So I would, yeah, that's why I put her in there because I was just like, that's actually right.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:16

Yeah, yeah. But this has been such a beautiful experience having you on the podcast. You dropped a lot of games for my audience. I love your your authenticity. Authenticity.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:33

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:36

Yes, I love how authentic you are, sharing your story, sharing your real experience, because that's what we need to hear. What's the real experience of being a business person, of being a woman CEO, and ultimately a black woman CEO because we have a different experience. So thank you so much for joining us today.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:55

Oh, thank you. I'm telling you, amazing, so so amazing. You're so lovely. I you're doing I don't know if anyone's told you, but you're so comfortable to speak with, and it's just like it just flows. And thank you for creating this podcast and and a platform for us to speak and to like you taught me stuff, like you've inspired me to do something after this.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:19

Wonderful, wonderful. I love that, love that. So before we close out, is there anything else on your mind you want to share with our audience? Anything that maybe we didn't cover?

SPEAKER_00 1:39:30

Um, no, you can just check out the the so nine babies, it's n-in-e, so it's the word nine mile, m-i-l-e babies, so um with the IESO Pural. Um I'm on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube is coming, but the platform is there. Do check us out, see what you think, feel out. If you ever want to reach out, obviously, this is a community, feel free to do so. Um, but keep going. And um, if you ever wanted to know how to write a book, you've got someone who can teach you, which I will start offering coaching, but just keep going, keep pushing. Like we're all we're even though we don't know each other, we're all secretly rooting for each other because we see each other in each other.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:19

Yes, exactly, exactly. Beautiful. And we're gonna put all the great contact information for Princess in the show notes so you'll be able to just click and connect to her, her website, and keep this conversation going. So, again, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:37

Thank you, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:45

You've been listening to the Empower Her Business Podcast. And before you go, I want to thank you for being here. If this episode supported you, please pay it forward. You can do that by hitting the follow button, rating us five stars, leaving a comment, and sharing us with others. This is how we ensure the podcast reaches more sisters and business. Until next time, I wish you the very best of joy, health, and wealth.

unknown 1:41:20

Anyway.