Networking is not optional, it is the missing piece

After almost talking myself out of going, showing up late, and even ending up at the wrong building, I still chose to show up for myself and it changed everything.

In this episode, I share my experience attending an  entrepreneurship panel and the powerful lessons I learned about networking, collaboration, confidence, charging your worth, and finally stepping into the rooms I’ve always dreamed about being in.

We talk about:
 • Building a network from scratch
 • Women supporting women in business
 • Collaboration over competition
 • Why your 9-to-5 shouldn’t drain your purpose
 • Charging for your gifts and respecting your time
 • The importance of showing up before you feel “ready”
 • Entrepreneurship, abundance, authenticity, and divine timing

This episode is raw, unfiltered, and recorded directly after the event while I was still feeling inspired, energized, and aligned. If you’ve been waiting for a sign to start putting yourself out there, this is it.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey y'all, how we doing? Okay. So about to start driving. I just finished my second event at the Cube in Baltimore City. Absolutely phenomenal. And guys, I've got to give you an update. It's working. Straight up, it is working. I got personally invited to a conference by the lady who actually hosts the panel. Okay. So let me backtrack to give everybody a little, you know, background of what I'm talking about. Because you may or may not know about what I'm here doing and what my podcast talks about, or what this specific episode will be about. So my name is Keanu Hughes. This is my podcast for the Kiana Hughes show. And I talk all things leveling up. And recently on my last episode, I talked about needing to expand my network. Like that was like one of the major things that my soul told me that I was not doing. And I don't I'm not saying that in like a they're not on the same level as me as in like they're not good enough. No, they just genuinely aren't interested in entrepreneurship, and that's fine. Everyone has their purpose in life, and that's I respect that 100%. And I love them for who they are, and they bring so much beauty and love and joy into my life. However, the necessity for a network is just absolutely dire, and I realize that. But I didn't even really know if that was true or not. Like I was like, I think I need a network. Like I think that's the thing that I'm missing. I didn't know if I was just using this as another excuse to explain why my business was not just up, running, and thriving or just years of success under my belt. But as I have begun, and I think I think I've only actually started this journey to increase and obtain a network for at least I want to say just a month. Like let me let me see. Oh, let's see, April, May. Actually, less than a month. So in just less than a month, I've already been to multiple events, and I've already learned and gained so much from it, and the network has already started. So I kind of just want to give you like straight off the bat, just kind of explain to you. I'm I'm doing all of this like right after the event because after the event is when I feel most energized, most alive, most inspired, most connected, and like I just genuinely feel like wow, this is exactly why I did this. I worked a nine to five today. I woke up at 6 30 in the morning. My job is very, very demanding. I work in the mental health field. It is very, very demanding. I work in the director, the like the directing side of the mental health field as well as direct care for the clients as well. So I actually have two roles within my position, and it is extremely, extremely taxing, mentally and even physically. And after work, most people pretty much before I say most people, but it's most people before they find their passion. When you allow yourself to get drained and overworked at your nine to five or your day job or with your children or everything, um, which will have to be a whole different episode for another day where we talk about protecting yourselves and boundaries and you know, making sure that we're not getting into jobs that are draining or toxic and preventing that kind of thing. But my point is, most people, or some people, I shouldn't even say most, I shouldn't speak for everybody. Some people, when they have their nine to five, by the time they're finished working, they're absolutely exhausted and have no energy left for themselves. I'm not gonna lie to you. I just got a new job, like a new role at my job today. I got a promotion, yay! Very excited, and with this promotion comes a lot of new responsibilities, and I'm actually overhauling one of the programs I'm running and just revamping it and improving it, and it just takes a lot of brain power. It's it's very tiring. And after I finished getting off of work, I got off of work around 5:30 p.m. I'm like, I am tired. I really, I'm not really sure like I know I have that event tonight, but I'm hungry, I have to go see my grandma after that. I'm already tired now. I also could just go to the library and return my book and get my new book. I felt the excuses like coming. I felt all these excuses like rolling in. And thank God, by the divine work of God, he's amazing. I'm currently also reading the book by Wayne Dyer called Excuses Be Gone. And all I could hear in my head was another excuse, another excuse, another excuse. And I said, Yeah, I'm not gonna why would I go to a nine to five and show up for a business, but not show up for myself? When I leave these entrepreneurship events and these meetings, I feel more alive, more energized, and more my purpose than I do with anything else that I do. So why would I not take the time out of my life, my life, to go to the event that I know is gonna do exactly what I need it to do? So a little funny story. I I know I have the event. I thought I saw the address correctly. I did it. I show up to Morgan State University, which is not where I need to be. I need to be at the Cube. But when I show up to the building and I meet with I I go to knock at the door, I'm like, oh wow, I guess nobody showed up for the the event. I wasn't even upset for a moment, a quick moment, I had a thought to pass in my head that said, Yay, I can leave. And then I heard myself say again, another excuse, and I caught myself. And I knocked on the door, and the lady opened the door, and she said, Hi, I may help you, and I said, I'm here for the event. And she said, Oh, sweetie, that's at the cube. Are you talking about the growth beyond? I'm like, I I think so. I just I knew there was an event tonight. She goes, Yeah, that's at the cube. I said, Oh my gosh. I mean, mind you, I'm already late. So another excuse, right? Well, I'm already late. I might as well not even go. I'm already late to Morgan State, which is not even where it's at. I'm already late thinking I'm gonna be late there. I'm not even at the right building. She says, Honey, don't even worry about it. Do not even worry about it. You go right now, there's plenty of time. And you know what happened? She goes, Come here, give me some love. I don't even know this woman. She said, Come here and give me some love. Gave me a ginormous hug, and she said, I can't wait to see you again. I'm so glad to see you. I'm so glad you came. And guess what? She was the director of the program. She's the director of one of the business entrepreneurship programs at Morgan State, which is the actual headquarters for Women's Entrepreneurship Small Business Center. She is the director, and God is so divine that I got to meet her one-on-one, and I just got a hug from the director of the small business entrepreneurship edak director, all these titles. I just got a hug from her and the confidence to go on and to not miss the next event and not go and miss this event tonight just because I'm a little late and I showed up to the wrong event. It's like the most divine timing in the world. Because also, not only is it divine timing, but that's the beautiful thing about this whole experience and this thing that I'm doing with networking is that that right there was a part of networking. I'm not even at the right event, I'm not even in the right building. This isn't even the person that I'm supposed to be meeting, but guess what? I just networked. Wow. Right? It just gets better, okay? I show up to the meeting, absolutely have no idea what I'm about to walk into, and today we're having another panel. Now, if you listen to my first episode, that was my first panel, okay? This panel was absolutely fantastic. They talked a lot about actual business tools and advice that we could actually apply when we have our businesses and things. The last time that we had a panel was very much on my alley. It was about mental health and you know, protecting your mental health and working on your mental health as a businesswoman. This panel was very much about actual entrepreneurship tools and tactics, and it was amazing. We heard from a woman that was a nonprofit. She, I believe that she's the owner of the nonprofit. We heard from a now lady who owns her own now business. We heard from a young woman who is owns a real estate company. By the way, all of these women were absolutely stunning and look absolutely young. Like, these are these are successful businesswomen. Sometimes I think that we get an idea of what a successful businesswoman looks like. And I know obviously we have ideas of successful businesswoman or head, like we think about Glorilla or the YouTube girl, like you know, um, my favorite girl, Alexis. Like, these are young women and they're content creators or they're musicians, and but we don't always see young women that have like storefronts or like a nonprofit or a vending machine business or these kinds of businesses that you don't really know that young women own or would even know to own or would even be interested in owning. They might not seem as glamorous. A real estate agency business might not seem as glamorous, or the one lady was a construction a construction worker consultant. I don't even know what that means. Another woman was a charcuterie board um like catering business. They might not seem as luxurious or as fun or something to some people as oh, I'm a famous musician or I'm a content creator. Okay, so that in itself was super inspirational just to see these women up here. But this this channel was so different, and it was really amazing to be able to talk to these women, hear from these women, and this time around the women were actually like the the actual uh what would you call it? The women in the audience were actually engaging a lot more than the first one. The first one was very much like panel focused, but this one was very much like the women in the audience were asking the questions and providing advice too. Like it was so amazing, inspirational, just phenomenal. So there were so many things that stuck out to me. A lot, a lot of good advice. When I actually park my car and I can look at my notes, I'll actually go through and review some of that with you. However, I just want to point out the biggest takeaways for me today, besides the woman that gave me the hug. A second thing happened, and then a third thing happened that was really, really important to me. The second thing that happened that was extremely important to me was that a woman that I seen at the last panel, who was actually a woman who was a part of the pitch competition, who was showing up, and she does sound baths, and her name is Ooh, don't let me forget. Let me see while I'm at this red light. Let me see if I can pull it up. I want to say it's healing by hold on. It is I want to say healing by Rooting. I'm sorry, not healing, rooting by Nina, and she does sound baths and breath work and yoga, and her voice itself is just like so peaceful, like she is totally doing what she's called to do because just speaking with her in a in a like a casual conversation is just so peaceful, like her spirit is so good, she's just beautiful inside and out, and you just feel really nice talking to her, right? So the last time I went to the panel, I introduced myself to her, and I just went around and spoke to a couple different people, introduced myself to them, heard about their businesses, let them explain their pitch to me, and I was more so like I was open ears because the new thing that I really want to do is listen more, talk less. I've always been a person that I give a lot of advice as part of my job. I'm a very confident woman, I'm a very like strong woman, so I often give my opinion without even being asked it, I give advice without being asked it, I lead rooms, I've lead teams, I've been a the captain of the teams, I've been the supervisor at the building, you know, like I love leadership roles, and that's a great thing that I love about myself, but I also realize that because I identify so closely with that leadership identity, that it's hard for me sometimes to be the one that gets led, and to be able to open my ears and open my heart and open my mind to actually learn. Like all the time, I will be in rooms with people, and I'm oftentimes just collaborating rather than sucking it all up like a sponge, because I just didn't realize how much value there is, and I always heard it, I always heard the sayings of about how important it is to you know close your mouth, open your ears, and learn and learn and learn. And of course, there's a time and place for you to open your mouth. That's what I do all day. That sounds a little freaky, but you know what I'm saying. Like I spend a majority of my day leading and speaking and helping and communicating and inspiring, and that's amazing, and that's what I do all the time. But there is a time and a place to learn, and even when I found myself wanting to step in and take up space in the room, something else called to me to just listen and just hear what's around me. And I'm sure eventually, after a few of these panels, maybe it will be my time, or maybe I wait till I'm in the panel to speak up. But as of right now, I just feel this calling to really just listen and tap in. So to get back to the woman Nina, who does Nina uh rooting by Nina, who does the sound bath, breath work, and yoga. The last time I was here at the panel, she was there and she was doing her pitch, and I was asking about her business, and she was one of the only women that I felt drawn to and felt comfortable with connecting on a deeper level. We exchanged information, and it was really amazing because our work overlaps, and that's a beautiful thing, and that's something that we talk about in these panels, is uh is the is the positive like factor of communicating, sharing, and collaborating. Like it's not all competitive, it's it's really not competitive. I mean, honestly, like if you know you and your business is niche and you are being unique and authentic, like nobody can replicate that. So there is no worries of, oh, that's my competition. Not really, actually. Because if everyone's on their own path and doing their own things, it doesn't even matter if they're the same thing. And my business isn't even specifically breathwork, yoga, or sound baths. And I'm not even talking about my own personal business, I'm talking about my nine to five. We work, we have a like I've talked about this before. We have a rehab for individuals with drug use disorders, substance use disorders, which includes drug and alcohol. We have a psychiatric rehabilitation program, which my mom and I run, and we also have the outpatient mental health clinic, which provides therapy and medication management. Okay, so this woman, I have uh I feel like we have a great opportunity to collaborate together within my nine to five. I feel like, you know, we could collaborate. And I I all I did when I met her was just inform her that I feel like her services would be such a beautiful thing to offer at a place like where I work. I wasn't even personally recommending that she try to create and establish a business deal with the company that I work for because at that moment I just didn't really know if it was appropriate for me to like, you know, false falsely assert that I could even make that kind of connection, which I will try to, which we'll get to. But you know, I was just really offering advice woman to woman and something that could be beneficial to her because there are multiple SUD clinics around and multiple PRPs and multiple outpatient mental health clinics around that she could utilize, not just mine. I wasn't selling her my business, I wasn't trying to promote my business per se, but just offering a piece of advice that could benefit her, right? Okay, wonderful. We connected, we exchanged information. Today, I go up to her again. I didn't know she would remember me. She said, Oh my god, hi. We hug, we connect, boom. This is what I'm getting to. This was that full moment circle, seeing a familiar face, seeing a woman that I already connected with previously, right? At the end of the panel, which was absolutely phenomenal, and I will get to some of the points that were shared tonight, and it was just amazing. After the panel, she walks up to me and she's like, Oh my gosh, please remind me of your name. I really want to connect with you. Guess what happened today? Today, we actually have a set date and time when we're gonna do an in-person meeting to discuss how our two businesses can collaborate. So, in the meantime, prior to this date, I've inspired her to actually get her pricing, her numbers together, figure that out, what it will look like, you know, how she's gonna structure this. And on my end, I'm gonna speak with the owners of the business and you know, get them, talk to them, see what their schedule's like, see if they're able to meet with her on that day. If they're not, get the go-ahead, see if they're able to, you know, let me meet with her, etc. Really, really amazing. This is that full moment circle. Secondly, I also now have enough confidence to say, look, I do, I wanted to put you in the room with the people that I think can compensate you now. You know, I want to set you up and connect you with the business that I I work for by nine to five, because they have capital, they can invest in you, and they look for things like the type of things that you're doing. However, I also want to connect on a personal level for my own business because I do podcasts about leveling up, and I do life coaching and things of that nature, so it also it overlaps in that way. And I don't believe that this that this like it's competitive for anybody. I think that this benefits her in all ways. Think I can benefit my business, I think I can benefit the clients, I think I can benefit the nine to five that I work for. I think that everybody can win, and that's the beautiful part about it, right? The third most amazing thing that happened today, which was just like wow, this is crazy. So I know I told you this is only my second panel, but I've actually been attending multiple other events. So I attended another event at Morgan State, which was a really cool event. I actually invited my best friends, so that's a part of networking too. Hey Tao, uh, is actually inviting people. You're not just in networking, isn't just about meeting new people, but also about bringing the people that you do have. You know, I said not many people around me are very business oriented, but this is the one girl, this is one of the few people in my life that are entrepreneurship, women, feminist, spiritual, just amazing on so many levels. Paloma Essence is her business, and it's it ties in her Dominican roots, and she's very much about hair care, skin care, but from the inside out, so it's really, really beautiful. And I had her, I invited her to come with me to the event at Morgan State with the small business, the the Women's Entrepreneurship Center over there, and we met there was a couple other girls there, it's very intimate, but it's just about getting yourself out there and making this time for yourself. This is what I like to express is that all the events are different. Like tonight's panel was just absolutely phenomenal. Like, I learned so much from the actual panel, and like I told you, three things really special happened, and I'm about to get to the third thing that was really special. But everything is different, so yes, you might actually learn something in a panel or an entrepreneurship event or a networking event, and you might actually meet somebody or make a business connection, or you might even get a sale, or you might do that. And sometimes the only thing you'll get is inspiration. Because sometimes you walk in a room and you're like, hold up, these people are doing this, I can do this. Sometimes you don't learn anything, sometimes the people that you're in the room with, you feel like, damn, I'm more knowledgeable than them. And that's not to be rude, but that's to be honest with yourself, right? So when we went to that entrepreneurship event together, I had recognized the woman from my first panel. She was at the first panel, okay? She was at Morgan State for the event that I went. She was also at the panel tonight. So this is my big third thing. My big this is probably the most important thing, and was such like a a reassurance that I'm exactly where I need to be. She gives me a finger, like, come here, girl, what's up? She's like, she's like, come here. She's like, um, you've been showing up. I'm like, I've been trying. She's like, you have been showing up. Like, this is I've I've been seeing you, and you have been showing up. I'm like, yeah, I'm really trying. And just to be recognized on that level, and to once again, this is a part of networking. We never even really gave, like, hi, this is my name's this, nice to meet you, anything like that. It was more so just seeing her face, familiar face, familiar face, right? That is a part of networking. You might not get that initial connection on the first day, might not even be the second day, but that third day, and guess what? She personally invited me to a conference, a small business conference, a personal invitation by the panel's host, who is absolutely amazing, and she's just amazing. I don't want to mistake her name, but I am pretty sure it is I I believe her. I don't want to mistake this, so let me make sure because she deserves the respect to have her name correct. Um, let me just see here. Let me see here. When was this last? So the last one was April 28th. So let's see here. Where is it? It's April. Okay, sorry guys. I don't have the okay. I'm sorry if this is not your name, but I believe it is Danielle Frisbee. I want to say that's correct. I'm so sorry if it's not, but for some reason my soul is saying that that's the name. If there's not, who knows what the divine purpose of that is. If it is correct, cool. If not, I apologize. However, personally invited by the panel host, that is absolutely just amazing. I adore her, she's an inspiration. The questions that she asked on the panels are so thought-provoking, so beautiful, so gorgeous. Like, I just I adore her. So, that was the three amazing things that happened to me today, and it was just very pivotal for me. I wanna share some of these notes. I'm not actually gonna be able to do too long of a podcast today because I am at my grandma's and I actually have to pee really bad, and I don't know if I'll be able to pause this and start it again later. So yeah, I actually we'll see here. So some of the businesses that they had were non-profit, a non-profit for mentorship, somebody had a wine subscription business that was specifically for black, not specifically for, but the wines were curated um and supported. The wines were from black-owned businesses, so that was really cool. And 26 in Leonard, that's a real estate business. NWC is a construction consulting business, a charcuterie board business, real estate, enterprise, which is rental cars, vending machine business. So we talked about the importance of systems and workplaces. So a big theme was hating their job, and that's what inspired them to actually step into entrepreneurship. They quit, they had savings, they talked about the importance of CRM, social media, relationships, authenticity, and following up and being a good person. They talked about moving from leads to sales, finding a niche, for example, doing now care and gel, not pedicures. They talked about the importance of following up and asking how things are going, any issues. For example, the lady who was doing the who does the who has the nail business, she messaged her clients afterwards and asked if there's any issues. And then she even suggests things for the next appointment. Oh, next time we're gonna try this when you're nails. They talked about knowing what you don't want to do. They talked about the importance of surveying your customers. What do they want? What's nearby? What are other people doing? What are other stores already offering? So knowing your competition. For nonprofits specifically, they talked about starting a pilot program, picking one. So, for example, for the nonprofit, they started with one middle school, and then they used that as the pilot program, and then they expanded from there. They talked about the importance of word of mouth, and word of mouth being something you can't pay for. They talked about the importance of surveying your audience, getting referrals, and the importance of fulfilling your orders. So they talked about the importance of organization, what that looks like internally and externally. The woman with the charcuterie business was really inspirational, and she talked about the the facets of doing business with your friends, right? Because, you know, uh just with anything, sometimes with your time and energy, things get mixed up when it's your friends or family. They expect you to do things for free if it's your friends or family, and we talked a lot about that during the panel today: the importance of respecting yourself and your business and your time. So the they talked about the importance of separating business, and that what that specifically looked like was separating and creating a separate business email. And they talked about understanding your worth, knowing that your price needs to make sense. You don't you don't change your price for your friends or your family, you don't change your price just because other people ask you to. You need to have a set price and stick to that. It should be based off of the materials, your worth, the work that you put into it, the time, the energy, and what the competition is doing. And they talked about the importance of spreadsheets, the importance of connections. They talked about QuickBooks, they talked about keeping prices consistent, they talked about insurance, business insurance. That was another person that was at the panel today, was a woman who actually does business insurance, and the lady who does the charcuterie boards, who actually works with like really large entities such as uh the Ravens, which is our football team here in Baltimore, and the Orioles, which is our our baseball team here in Baltimore, that certain places and like wedding venues, they need insurance. You need like a million dollars or something crazy protection on the business before you could even come into their place and serve your shaker reports. Okay, another thing that they talked about was the importance of you don't learn everything immediately. Your clients will tell you. So that was specifically about the business insurance. So she's like, I didn't know immediately I need a business insurance. As you start, you start to learn more. So you start and then you grow, and as you grow, you learn. Okay, they talked about word of mouth being the best, one of the best strategies. Um, let's see here. So they say, okay, you might got clients, you might got your price, but now you need to actually back up that price. So they also talked about adding value. So they said adding to the value that you already know that you have. So for example, I know I'm smart, I know I have confidence, I know I'm intelligent. What else can I do? The one girl, the one woman who owns her entrepreneur owns her real estate business, was saying, Okay, I got my business, I got my real estate business. Now what else can I do to expand? So she got her master's, and now she also teaches how to do real estate. So that's like, yeah, she knows her value. She's an amazing real estate agent. Now she's an amazing businesswoman, owns her own real estate company. How does she continue to add value? Now she's becoming a teacher, okay? So the charcuterie lady was talking about how to get your business out there. She was making small charcuterie boards for certain events. So when she showed up to the daycare, she passed out small charcuterie boards out to them, and that got her multiple clients that way. It wasn't an expensive thing to do, but it ended up bringing a lot of revenue to her. They talked about the importance of online promotions, the importance of pop-ups, the one woman who does the real estate business, she was just amazing. That's the 26th in Liner girl that you can find on on Instagram, and then I believe her other Instagram is called Let me see Bubbly TV. So she said, if I'm not posting, I'm not selling. That is just phenomenal. She says uh another business, uh, another important thing they talked about was keeping business IG separate, um, just creating general content, creating about your topic. So a lot of them are talking about how the fact that they have nine to fives, and they talked about the importance of using their nine-to-fives and using their everyday life and using the education that they're pursuing to tie that into their business, use the things that they're learning to create content, tie it in somehow. They talked again about keeping friendship and business separate, and they talked about the importance of let me see here, they were sharing ideas, it was just amazing. They had really, really great ideas that I'm not gonna share here because I hope that that woman is able to profit off of the ideas that we shared today, and that was a safe space, so I'm not gonna share that because I have a feeling that she's gonna do really well with that. Um, they really emphasize the point of do it and worry about perfecting it along the way. You're not going to be able to start off perfect. They clearly emphasize the importance of getting started regardless of perfection because there is room to perfect along the way, which is really reassuring to me as I create this podcast. I'm creating this podcast in my car. I know the sound quality is not perfect. I had nothing planned for this podcast. I didn't even plan to do a podcast after this event. Nothing. No. This came naturally, this came all organically after the event, because every time I leave one of these events, it just inspires me to another level, which is why my soul calls me to go to these things, right? By the way, remember I said earlier, oh, I'm so exhausted, I'm so exhausted. Didn't even know if I was really actually gonna show up or if I should show up to this event, right? Girl, when I tell you I'm so energized, I'm yapping. You hear me yapping. If I actually slowed down, this will probably be about an hour or two of me talking, but I'm so excited that I can't. I'm just yapping away because I just feel so amazing. One of the really coolest things that I think they emphasize, and this is something that I've actually implemented in my own life recently, and I'm trying to get my mom to utilize as well, is give your day job the bare minimum. I had to give a moment of silence for that. Because I want to make this clear. When I say bare minimum, I'm not saying don't do your job. Obviously, do your job, do your job description, and like you do everything, do it well, but no more are we absolutely exerting every last piece of energy, passion, everything into a nine to five to the point where oh, let me not go to that networking event tonight, let me not promote my own business tonight because I'm so tired, I'm so exhausted. Absolutely not. They said, give your job the bare minimum. They said use the systems and use the knowledge that they're giving you, use those moments. She was talking specifically about the fact that she used and leveraged the nine to five to obtain further education, which now she uses in her own business. Pay attention to ways in which you can leverage your nine to five to then invest in yourself. Now, one thing that is really important that they really emphasize as well is the importance of reading your employee contract to make sure that you're not breaking any laws because you can actually get jail time, serious fines, and even get fired if you overstep and somehow have a conflict of interest. For example, the woman who does the vending machines, she also works for the state of Maryland, so she personally cannot have a vending machine in one of the state of Maryland buildings. However, genius loophole, her husband can. So they're not saying that you can't do business, they're saying read your employee handbook and make sure you're protecting yourself, protecting yourself in order to prevent a conflict of interest which can come back later and hurt you. So they talk about having a business that solves a problem. The host, who I talked about earlier, she talked about being honest on your resumes and being honest in general. She talked about the importance of being real and being yourself and being real about your your your future endeavors. She came in to a job description that she had no experience in. Guess what happened? She was actually able to negotiate herself into a business deal with her boss. Yes, clap it up because we were going off in that panel room when we were listening to her, okay. She said another emphasis was placed on negotiations and promoting yourself, okay? They talked about the importance of shooting your shot. Nobody's gonna beg you to get a raise, nobody's gonna beg you to step above the nine to five or step above the the job that they have with you on an hourly rate and ask ask you to step out and become your own business and just establish a contract with them. Nobody's asking you to do that. That's your job. It's a lot easier to pay you $15 an hour, right, than it is to pay you a thousand dollars just for a consultation. So it's really important that you shoot your shot, right? They also talked about the importance of a niche. This one really stuck out to me because I'm a life coach and there was another woman in the room that's a life coach, and sometimes I feel I get that imposter syndrome of well, who am I to life coach somebody else? You know, they could just go to a therapist. But my thing is different, right? So her niche is specifically for black women over 40. I'm a white woman under 40. That is not my niche. Now, do I want my niche to be white women under 40? Respectfully, no. But this is inspirational. The fact that your niche can be so niche. I love that, right? Another beautiful thing that really stuck out during this was the now tech, who I really I didn't get to catch her name, unfortunately, but it was she was amazing, and she stated she re recently retired from people pleasing. I thought that that was just so beautiful. I really did. I thought that that was so beautiful because I think that as women, that is just something that we have unfortunately inherited a lot of the time, either culturally or just systematically. I don't believe it's genetically. I know some women out here that do not people please, and like she is a retired people pleaser. I claim today to retire people pleasing, and I really have. I mean, just in my I know sometimes old habits creep up, but I affirm myself right now, I retire people pleasing. And she talked about that, and I felt that that was really important. We're almost getting to the end here, and I'm just really grateful for everybody just tuning in and just listening to this. If you're still listening, I just genuinely really, really appreciate you, and I'm just so grateful for this time and this moment, and you inspire me, and I pray that that this flow of this podcast was helpful. I know it was kind of just a lot of information at once. Um, completely winging it and freestyling it. Um, so hopefully it's functional, and hopefully, you're able to gain something from it. I do plan on having you know more organized podcasts as well, where we actually talk about planned things, but I didn't even know tonight. You know, I look at my notes and it says tonight I make content. I manifested this and I didn't even remember that I wrote that down until right now. So I pray that you know, if you are listening, that this is my Motivational for you and that it inspires you to just start building your network because in the past I thought the knowledge was the most important thing, and I thought that the pro the passion and the fire was the most important thing. But now I know why it's so easy for people who grew up with money to continue to have the money, and why people whose parents are doctors, why the kids become doctors. It's because of the network. It really, really is. That you have the right and the duty to create a network right now, and it's at your fingertips. If Baltimore City can have this much of an influential, impactful, by the way, free, free. Everything that I've started so far on my networking journey has been free. That is like my whole thing. I don't want to pay for anything because I think that I want to see and I want to challenge myself, and I think that could be a a really great benefit and a really good thing that I'm actually just now that I'm saying it out loud, that might be something that becomes a part of my podcast is the use of free resources in your community in order to establish these networks and on this journey, right? So, anyway, let me get back to what I was talking about, but I did just want to say that and just thank you for being here. So, the other woman who I believe the woman who was stating this, I want to say this is the woman with the nonprofit, talked about the importance of a daily practice, getting quiet, the soul knows, stillness. She said, God whispers to you in this stillness. I thought that that was so important because this kind of goes back full circle to what I was talking about. You give everybody else all this time and energy, whether it be your nine to five, your kids, your children, your husband, your friends, everybody but you. Everybody but God. And that is where we're most mistaken. When we put God above everybody else, He will put you in the places you need to be. When you put yourself first, you show up to everybody else at a different level, an elevated level that you could never do. I know mothers who show up a million percent to their nine to five, and when they get to their children, they are so exhausted, they don't get to show up as the mother that they want to show up as. And they don't even realize what kind of mother they are showing up as. One that's abusive, one that brings their child down, one that hurts their children. They think that they're doing the best that they can because they show up to their nine to five and they put food on the table, and that is amazing, and that's great, but when you're constantly putting your child down to the point where your child doesn't even want a relationship with you, and you don't even know that, you're not showing up as the mother that you truly want to be, because you want to show up as that the amazing mother that you're trying hard to be. So my point is that if we don't get this daily practice, this time where we meditate or we do yoga or we show up for ourselves in one way or another, whether it just be a walk or showing up to a networking event. My networking events have officially become my meditation, my safe space, and my true, true safe place for me to just feel alive, and you need to find what feels right for you. That's what yoga for Adrian always says. Find what feels good for you, and this feels really good for me. So let's continue on. They talked about the importance of coming from a place of abundance and not scarcity, and a lot of the the speakers and people that I am inspired by, whether it be Louise Hay or Alexis on YouTube or Wayne Dyer or any of the women that were talking the panel today, coming from a place of abundance is so purposeful, and that's another, you know, we expand on that another day in another podcast. But you know, coming from a place of abundance looks like I'm God's favorite. I know everything's gonna work out for me. Uh, knowing that you have the right to set your prices, knowing that we have infinite potential, and knowing that you can share your ideas and network without feeling scared that someone's gonna steal your idea, those are all places of abundance. They talked about the importance of having systems and having plans. One woman said the quote, it's always and and not or, and I love that, and I think that you should meditate on that on your own to kind of see what comes up for you when you think about that. She said, always and not or. Moving forward, let's see here, getting to the end of my notes here. They talked about the importance of knowing your clientele and realizing that everybody isn't gonna be a right fit for you, right? So, this specifically was the woman that was a real estate agent, and she stated that when she connects with some of her potential clients, she says, I might not be the best for you, but I have someone who might be. And they talked about and emphasize, and a lot of the women on the panel agreed about this. When you give, you receive back at least times two, and that's not that doesn't have to be the basis of why you give, but just feel comfort in knowing that when you give and when you share, you receive so much, and that that emphasizes and re reiterates the importance of coming from a place of abundance, right? So she actually will refer a potential client out to somebody else, and she said, and guess what? Now I have a a better relationship with that person that I referred them to. I have a you know, I shave myself that time in peace because I knew I wouldn't work well with that person. Now I could focus my energy on somebody that I can. Moving forward, we talked about not doing things for free and the easy trap that it is to do things for free when you're passionate, like, oh, I love to do this, so I'm just gonna do it. And the the um the easy trap it is to fall in that when you want to do things for free for people that you know or love. But uh one of the ladies on the panel who I'm trying to remember, I think she's the one, oh, she's the one with the vending machine business, and she had a few other businesses, but she has a vending machine business that she's starting on her own, and she has a few other businesses with her husband. She said, She said, even if she's at dinner with her husband and she asks a question about business, he immediately tells her, Oh, since we're talking about business, now I'm gonna be charging your business account for a consultation. I thought that that was absolutely phenomenal and beautiful because he is respecting himself, but he's also teaching his wife how to respect herself as well. And then both of their businesses win in this way. And you're respecting yourself and your time and and you're acknowledging the importance of separating business from pleasure. We're at dinner, so if you wanted to have a second or a separate meeting about business, that's what we're gonna do. But now that we're at dinner and you want to talk about business, okay, all of a sudden it's a business meeting, and you will compensate me for my time. And I think that was so important for her to share with us because at the end of the day, if a woman's husband can bill this woman for his consultation, then you can bill your friend, your mother, your husband, your anybody. And you know what? Did she find that that repulsive? No, she loved that, and that gave her permission to do that as well. When you respect others and you respect yourself, it's easy. Okay, so let's keep going. Alright, so about this, right? So this is the part where I actually really wanted to raise my hand and talk about something. And guess what? How God works so mysteriously, right? Because I didn't feel in that moment that it was my platform or my time to speak. But guess what? Here I am on my platform, and it's my turn to speak, right? So I was actually thinking, this thought came to my mind, is that you know when you invest in something and it just it means more to you, right? Like you might have had a pair, you might have got a pair of shoes donated, or maybe you got a pair of shoes from the Goodwill for a dollar, or you know, you just got some hand-me-downs from your sister or something. They you're grateful. You're I know if you're listening to this, you're a great person, and you're grateful. And I'm not the most materialistic person in the world, but I also do value very nice things. And if I I work very hard for the money that I earn, and if I put my money into something and I invest in it, I care about it deeply, right? So when I invested in my nice Tesla, I take very good, nice care of my Tesla. My point is when things have value and they have a price, you respect it more. Alexis talks about this in her YouTube channel. You don't go into Michael Coors or Louis Vuitton and ask them to bring their prices down. You know what you're expecting. You know that when you walk in Michael Coors, you're gonna be spending a couple hundred dollars for a bag. When you walk in Louis Vuitton, it's a couple thousand dollars. And it might not be the couple, it might be a lot of thousands of dollars, okay? And we set those prices based on our standards, based on the products that we're selling, and based on the quality of those products and the price point that you're trying to do. Every program and every business has their own business model. And I wanted to make the point that when I pay for something, it matters more to me because I'm investing in it. Whether I'm paying my time, like a relationship, or I'm paying money, like my car, I care about it more. So the reason that any of this got brought up about doing things for free and valuing and whatever was because a woman was asking, you know, I feel like it's I want to give things, I want to give my consultation out for free because I'm so passionate about it. And something that came to my mind was I think that the people who maybe ask her for a consultation would actually value the consultation that she's giving more if she charged for it. And I think that if they weren't willing to pay for the consultation, then they're not ready for the consultation. And that the consultation that she would have given to them, but they're not ready for it because they're not willing to pay. Now that same advice that she would have given to them, she'll give to the person that's actually ready to invest in them, actually ready to invest in herself, is actually ready to invest in themselves as well. And now that person who's actually ready is actually gonna take that advice and run with it and create a successful business with the advice rather than the person that's just oh walking around. And I know I talked about I want to see how much I can get for free for these networking events. Yes, I want to see how many networking events and how much I can do for free. That doesn't mean I didn't walk in today and purchase something. I absolutely did. They're also we're doing a a business pitch, and I I purchased a I purchased an item from one of the businesses. I'm not saying I'm cheap. I invest in the things I want to, and I will eventually invest in networking if I feel like I need to. But I want to experience networking because I truly want to experience it for free because I think that it actually is, and I think that that's the place that I've been mistaken for and from this entire time, is that I have this idea that I need to pay to be in these rooms when I don't. Okay, back to what I was saying. Um the other thing that I wanted to say was I think we're assuming, I think that that woman, because I'm speaking from my own experience, we're assuming that they don't want to pay for it. You're giving consultation out for free because you never even informed them that you're charging for it. Girl, if I ask you a question and you give it to me for free, how would I know you're charging for it? Whereas if I say, hey, can you give me advice on that? And you come back and say, Of course, babe, schedule yourself a consultation appointment right here through my link, it will cost this much money. You think that I don't value your opinion? Of course I do. I've asked you for a reason. So if I value your opinion, I'm asking you something. Of course I would want to invest in this. What? Absolutely. Click that link, purchase right here, pay for that. Baby, but you never asked me, so how am I supposed to know? And that goes for me too. I'm speaking from my own experience on that. How can I I I'm doing things for free because I never put a fucking price on it. Sorry, excuse my language, but that's the truth. Okay, um, moving forward, and we're really, really getting to the end here, and it's just perfect timing because we're about an hour, and I just love that it just flowed. I I love it because last time had no idea. Uh, I did a podcast with my best friend, it was the best bud gelato, which is a sub-series of my podcast where me and my bre my best friend uh we do really cool talk. She's my sole sister, and she's just absolutely amazing. You guys gotta tap in and tune in. We are very similar in that way, but extremely different in many other ways, and we just flow. And our last topic was amazing. We talked a lot about relationships and things of that nature, but uh my point was that sometimes it's just easy, and it just flowed to an hour, and I just didn't even know I had that much to talk about. And when I got on this podcast today, I had no idea I would have uh an hour when I got to the 20-minute mark, it was about the 17-minute mark, and I said, I don't know if I'm gonna really do this podcast or how long this is gonna last, and maybe I'll just keep it brief. And here I am, I could probably go on for hours and hours, but that's the beauty of it, because we could just make more episodes. So yeah, uh they continue to emphasize the importance of um just keep sharing. The woman who owns a real estate business, uh Bubbly TV, she talked about the fact that sharing is its own currency, and I thought that that was really beautiful. Uh, the other woman, which I am blanking on her business, I think that was the woman with the construction consultation company. She talked about even creating a bartering system in the sense that, okay, maybe one day you do give a free consultation, but guess what? Later, that other person where you give them a free consultation, maybe they give you a free charcuterie board, and vice versa. You that's that part of the networking as well. So I guess the fourth amazing thing that's coming up, the fourth amazing point that came from this networking event, is the fact that I learned about the next networking event. I didn't even, we don't even none of the um information has even come out yet about this networking event, but because I was actually there, I got to learn about it. So their next networking event is called Headshots and Happy Hour. It's in June. They said Todd Dorsey's gonna be the photographer. It's in June 30th, 2026, probably about the same time at 6 p.m. And this is at theCUBE in Baltimore City. So I just want to end this by um from the beautiful ladies that were at that panel today. I want to give them their props, at least try to. I wrote down some of their Instagrams and names. Um, I just wrote them down, so I don't really know if these are correct, but I wanted to give flowers where they're due. So one lady's name was Allure underscore boards. That is the Chakuterie board lady, I believe. We have the one lady at Kira Ashley, we have Charm Charm Chic Vending, we have 26 and Leonard, who also goes by Bubbly TV. Those are two different social medias. We had Claws by, and I really missed her name, and I'm so sorry. I really am sorry, and I I hope to connect with you again soon so I can you know give you your flowers. We have Chantel Dockett, who was the woman who ran the nonprofits, and she actually has a tutu run coming up at Lake Montebello. So I wanted to give those flowers to the ladies and give the flowers to the Cube for having that event. It was absolutely amazing, and for Morgan State for partnering with them and helping making that all possible, and all the other women that were there and were representing their businesses. We had multiple people, we had Devoured Treats, we had Auntie and Onk, which have a mentorship business. We had so many other amazing things, Allstate, all these amazing businesses that were there today, and it was just really powerful. So thank you all so very much for inspiring me. This is not promoting them in any way, shape, or form. This is not paying advertising, this is genuine inspiration, and I pray that even if you're not in Baltimore City, I pray that you take this as your inspiration to find your network in your community because there is just something about it that is just just there's nothing that compares, especially for like I said, I don't specifically just uh cater to women entrepreneurs, however, that is you know what really motivates me is getting in the room of women and especially entrepreneurship women and motivating them. So if you're a woman and you're an entrepreneur, please take this as your sign to connect with your community and to get in these rooms with the women, okay? Love you guys so very much. I can't wait to share my next journey with you, and I just really appreciate y'all tapping in and listening. And I hope you enjoyed this today. God bless you. Have a great day.