The Best Business Lesson I Ever Learned
Life is always full of changes. Some are radical and some are barely noticeable. Nevertheless change comes. Just when we get our minds made up, overcome fear and brace ourselves to take the leap–new ideas and upgraded plans come and take their place–and that can be frightening, but it also runs the risk of making us stagnant. My Mom taught me plenty of lessons that I can use in business. I talk about it a bit in this vid, but one of the best lessons I’ve ever learned in business is: INCUBATION.
When I think of incubation I think of an egg and how the incubation period is critical to its hatching. This past summer for instance, I watched the geese lay dozens of eggs and “wait” for them to become living, breathing birds. They didn’t lay the eggs and expect a baby goose to spontaneously appear. It was necessary for the baby goose embryo to fully mature before it was ready to peck its way out of the shell and be seen by the world.
Incubation also means to maintain (something, such as an embryo or a chemically active system) under conditions favorable for hatching, development, or reaction–according to Merriam Webster. When I was young in business I would just jump on an idea, buy the domain and start building it without the incubation period. What I normally ended up with was a string of half completed ideas that weren’t launched because I had eagerly moved on to the next shiny object without creating a solid plan for the former ones. Incubation is necessary, but it should be mandatory so that it can help you flesh it all out and produce the best extension of you possible.
During the incubation period you’ll find that sometimes you can combine multiple ideas into one single venture and sometimes during that same incubation period you will find that you have a product that stands alone and can eventually create spin off products or services down the line. You won’t know until you wait. Give the idea time to come together, add a little research and when you do you’ll discover that you have something AMAZING with your name all over it.
Midwife Tip: If you have an idea for a product or service–sit on it, pray on it and add a little research too.Â
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An Ode to My Mom And Her Dreams
When I was a little girl I remember my strong West Indian Mom working hard. I remember her strict values and striving to provide for the four of us all by herself. She taught me many lessons. There were moments where the government stepped in, but she climbed the civil service ladder and landed a well paying position with the city. As the oldest I watched her go from her 8 hour day job at the city hospital to a part time job at Macy’s that had her coming home after 10 o’clock sometimes 11 at night. Her goal was to get us out of the South Bronx. Her dream was to buy us a house that we could call our own. That was her dream. She came here for that and was determined to get it.
I stepped in to cook, clean and supervise and the valuable lesson that my Mom always shared with us was, “If you want something you’ve got to work hard for it.” She never waited for handouts. That’s probably why even as a dreamer, I never despise hard work. I did what I needed to do until my dreams could take flight. I remember plugging away at my day job as I was raising my son and seeing him through school and trying to balance night school so that I could earn my degree. Sometimes my fast track classes would last all day Saturday and I regretted the time it took away from him and tried to make it up the best I could.
More. That’s what I wanted. And that’s what my Mom wanted for us too. She wanted us to have it easier. She wanted us to learn from her so that life wasn’t as rough for us as it was for her. I remember trying to sell aromatherapy, I sold Amway and I tried lots of other things too. It was a journey trying to find my way to my own dream. But here I am finally, being a midwife to other dreamers and helping them give birth to their dreams and ideas. I’m thankful for the opportunity to have a dream. I’m honored for the chance through trial and error to learn what worked for me, what didn’t and why. I’m thankful to my Mom who instilled in me the desire to want more, to crave more and to never give up. I’m thankful that her dream of owning a home has grown into having owned three. She has taught and continues to teach me one simple lesson: nothing is impossible and I still love that about her.
Edit:
On September 6, 2014 our light and head dreamer Gloria Anita Grosvenor made her transition to be with the Lord. She will be greatly missed and our prayer is to leave a legacy that is a fraction as great as the one she left behind. She is already sorely missed by her children, grandchildren, family, friends and all who were fortunate to know her!
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My Business Bucket List
I was right in the middle of creating the Six Figure Challenge and the idea of a Business Bucket List just hit me like a bolt of lightening. It wasn’t painful, it was rather exciting if I must say so myself. I couldn’t wait to get started on my list. Okay, so here we go . . .
1. Host $10,000 worth of business awards.Â
2. A tropical week long retreat with “my team”. I’m thinking Aruba, Tahiti or even San Tropez.
3. Create a Jones Soda custom label to incorporate in some kind of campaign.
4. Film a documentary titled Get Midwifed (or something similar) to chronicle my journey in business.
5. Meet Daymond John, Mark Lemonis, Rachel Zoe, and Gordon Ramsey.
6. Design GetMidwifed.com tees and send to all of my current coaching clients.
7. Manufacture a tangible product in the USA to save jobs.
8. I’d really love for my #GetMidwifed hashtag to TREND on social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and wherever else is applicable).
9. I look forward to selling one of my streams of income for a HUGE cash payout.
10. I really like the idea of taking a month long cruise with hubby once I hit the 1 Million Dollar mark.
11. Get a Wikipedia page.
This is a GOOD START. I can’t wait to add to it.
Want to join my 30 Day 6 Figure Challenge? Click here.
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How Shoes Became a Full Time Blogging Business
I love shoes. All right, truth is I borderline covet them. In 2004, I started my blog PrincessDominique.com. The platform of blogging was new to me and was basically a way to just journal and vent about all the things I hated, from people who refused to return shopping carts to the stalls and instead leave them next to your car in the supermarket parking lots to why people drive so slow in the fast lane instead of moving over and keeping the traffic moving. However, I realized that it quickly became a vehicle by which I could share the things I loved most–namely shoes. Little did I know that I was starting an international shoe movement though.
Readers flocked to the website because they said they could relate to my down to earth posts. Advertisers weren’t far behind. They were interested in what I did because I took my time and wrote meaningful content and that increased my ranking in search engines like Google and Alexa.com. Shoe lovers continued to follow along and started inquiring about where to find all kinds of brands, and I assisted them with links and features of their favorite brands and it created an unintentional shoe buzz on the website. This increased my popularity and the number of people who subscribed to my daily feed.
The idea of The Weekly Shoe Giveawayâ„¢ was born one year when I did my annual downsizing of my closet. I normally give excess clothing and shoes to The Salvation Army every year, and I still do, but that particular year I decided to give away a pair of shoes I had never worn on the website. The response was phenomenal! I thought a giveaway was an genius way to introduce hoards of shoe lovers to brands they may not have heard of or come across otherwise. Awesome brands. Cutting edge products. Designers that fit right into the scheme, style and price point of what my readers were already buying–It was an instant hit!
The visitors to PrincessDominique.com loved and continue to love the selections. The weekly sponsors enjoy the attention their brands are getting too. The only downfall was that because there were only 52 weeks in a year there is never room for every designer out there to be a part of what the website is doing. Because of the overwhelming popularity, I’ve had to start booking slots for The Weekly Shoe Giveawayâ„¢ on a first come first served basis and even today the most popular weeks are Valentine’s Day, Earth Day and Mother’s Day.
I did a segment on the Today Show in early February, 2011 about “Why Women Love Shoes” and the traffic to the website tripled after that. Advertising from blog owners, fashion websites and shoe brands have been clamoring to be a part of what’s going on at PrincessDominique.com. It’s been amazing to get be able to do something you love, have it pay bills and express your creativity all at the same time.
Fast forward to  2017, I ceased with the blog but kept the domain. I slowed down on buying shoes too, but people keep asking me what my next step is as a former shoe blogger, right now I’d have to say I’m working on a luxury line. We’ll see how how that goes. I’m full of ideas, but right now many of them are in incubation mode. But  I can say without a doubt that I truly enjoy what I do and if I can do it, anyone can.
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