Speaker 1: But I was scared. I was twenty five. I was fearful.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I don't I don't want anyone to
Speaker 1: think about this ever again. But that is when you
Speaker 1: fail as an entrepreneur, when you don't pick yourself back
Speaker 1: up and you don't keep going.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Money Moves powered by Greenwood, a finance
Speaker 2: podcast dedicated to dropping all the knowledge and gems from
Speaker 2: the world's leading celebrities, entrepreneurs and experts, and tech, business
Speaker 2: and more. I'm your host, angel investor, technology enthusiast, and
Speaker 2: media personality Tanya Sam. Each week, we talk with guests
Speaker 2: who are making significant strides in their fields and learn
Speaker 2: how they are making their money move. If you're someone
Speaker 2: who's looking to make your money move, you're in the
Speaker 2: right place. So open up your notes app and lock
Speaker 2: us in, because this podcast will give you the keys
Speaker 2: to the kingdom of financial stability, wealth and abundance you
Speaker 2: so rightly deserve. Before we start the episode, I'd like
Speaker 2: to remind you to check us out at gogreenwood dot
Speaker 2: com and follow us on social media at Greenwood and
Speaker 2: me on all Things social at It's Tanya. Time to
Speaker 2: stay locked into new episode. I want to touch on
Speaker 2: motherhood too, because I think it's always something special when
Speaker 2: you just have these incredible mothers that are inspiring their
Speaker 2: kids by being entrepreneurs and building all sorts of things.
Speaker 2: But let's go back a little bit more into your
Speaker 2: entrepreneurship journey, because this is something that I think is
Speaker 2: really beautiful. And you also founded a health and wellness
Speaker 2: brand that sort of came out of the pandemic. So
Speaker 2: tell us a little bit about euphoria. Euphoria Did I
Speaker 2: say it right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Area, Yeah, no, Yeah, it's it's pronounced euphoria, but it's
Speaker 1: you four. I a you know, like I said, I
Speaker 1: am a big imagination and wanting to have fun with
Speaker 1: you know, my marketing always, and so Euphoria was definitely birth.
Speaker 1: During the twenty twenty lockdown, I feel like there was
Speaker 1: a lot of fear floating around, and we learned that
Speaker 1: health is the biggest currency that there was, and I
Speaker 1: started doing a lot of research. I started gathering tips
Speaker 1: of how I could live my best life while we're
Speaker 1: locked down because we didn't know what was next, we
Speaker 1: didn't know what was going on, and I started I
Speaker 1: started gathering all this information that I was sharing with
Speaker 1: my close family and friends of things we can do
Speaker 1: to just be extra healthy, extra in a good mindset,
Speaker 1: mental space, all of that. During the time, and as
Speaker 1: I was gathering this stuff, I was just felt like,
Speaker 1: you know, I have a huge platform, and I wanted
Speaker 1: to really highlight wellness and bring this type of information
Speaker 1: to the forefront kind of lending resources and these different
Speaker 1: techniques and information I was finding and putting a highlight
Speaker 1: on it. I wanted to really create a community for
Speaker 1: people to be able to come and make wellness accessible,
Speaker 1: not just some sort of like fag, but truly accessible,
Speaker 1: and that is what euphoria is built on. And I
Speaker 1: just want to create a community where I can share tips, tricks, products,
Speaker 1: resources for mental health and therapy and different things we
Speaker 1: can do to live our most euphoric life. So I'm
Speaker 1: excited about it. I plan on touring and you know,
Speaker 1: really highlighting maybe in each city the best wellness places
Speaker 1: and practices and businesses that each city has to offer,
Speaker 1: and really making wellness cool, because I mean, living longer
Speaker 1: is definitely cool.
Speaker 2: So living longer is definitely cool. And you know, I
Speaker 2: feel like that certainly resonates with me because the pandemic
Speaker 2: was crazy. I mean, you know, sometimes we look back
Speaker 2: and we were watching our groceries, like watching the news
Speaker 2: and numbers of death, like it was a really heavy
Speaker 2: time for people. Like it was really crazy, and you know,
Speaker 2: I look back at it now, probably similar to you
Speaker 2: and some of the platforms that you're on. That the
Speaker 2: silver lining is I think a lot of us got
Speaker 2: to had to were forced to really unplug and really
Speaker 2: look at how everything from wellness, mental health, and mindset,
Speaker 2: all the little tips and tricks that we could get
Speaker 2: to live our best lives in this really crazy time.
Speaker 2: So what are some of the things that you really
Speaker 2: used or dived into techniques that were really helpful to
Speaker 2: in your wellness journey.
Speaker 1: Well, the important there's so many important things, but I
Speaker 1: think the importance of keeping a good mindset. I had
Speaker 1: some friends who didn't have families to quarantine with and
Speaker 1: they were on their own, and so you know, I'd
Speaker 1: have to lend the best advice I feel like I
Speaker 1: could give them, and you know, take the time to
Speaker 1: talk to them. Definitely, meditation, prayer, journaling, you name it.
Speaker 1: Deep breathing, actual breathing. Most of the time we're shallow
Speaker 1: breathing is what people don't realize. And if you really
Speaker 1: take the time to belly breathe, you can rejuvenate your
Speaker 1: nervous system. And the nervous system is what's running us
Speaker 1: every single day, and if it's overworked, it's stressed out,
Speaker 1: we cannot function in a proper way. So I really
Speaker 1: learned the importance of what true meditation look like, not
Speaker 1: just to get like, oh, manifesting you know, money or
Speaker 1: material things, but manifesting actual peace. And I was really
Speaker 1: able to share that with a lot of my friends.
Speaker 1: Like I said, friends, I didn't have family to be
Speaker 1: quarantined with, and the importance of having a solid community
Speaker 1: and you may not there may be people out there
Speaker 1: that don't have actual families, but really creating your own
Speaker 1: family through people that you can trust. It's important to
Speaker 1: have people you can trust, you can vent to and
Speaker 1: know it's not going to go anywhere else. So like,
Speaker 1: just really honing in on finding the peace within is
Speaker 1: a really good important part of you know, lowering your
Speaker 1: cortosol levels, which is working with your nervous system to
Speaker 1: create your best possible existence. So these are all I
Speaker 1: really want to share and above and beyond, like you know,
Speaker 1: teas and and massages and things you can do at
Speaker 1: home for yourself that could, you know, lead to a
Speaker 1: better life every day.
Speaker 2: And I mean this is what I love about euphoria
Speaker 2: as well, because I feel like, you know, we everyone's
Speaker 2: already had this baseline of self care. Oh I'm gonna
Speaker 2: have a glass of wine at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: or maybe I'll go for a massage, but like actually
Speaker 2: doing the work to get to that next level where
Speaker 2: you're where you're focused on, like regulating your nervous system,
Speaker 2: deep breathing, the breath work, and just meditation. It is.
Speaker 2: Those have been some like really life changing tools for
Speaker 2: me that I credit to the pandemic. And it's funny,
Speaker 2: I think, you know, the more and more we talk
Speaker 2: about these as just everyday measures of life, you know,
Speaker 2: through your community or the platform, I just think, like
Speaker 2: we are, it's just life changing for so many people.
Speaker 2: But oftentimes I think people shy away from it. They're like, oh,
Speaker 2: that's so woo woo, I'm not into that stuff. And
Speaker 2: I was like, give it a chance, Like.
Speaker 1: It's so life life like the importance of your gut
Speaker 1: and your mental Like your gut health is connected to
Speaker 1: your mental health. And it's just our body is meant
Speaker 1: to work all together, and people really need to understand
Speaker 1: the importance of that. It's not just speaking, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's actual science behind it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I'm definitely gonna look forward if you take
Speaker 2: this on the road. I think there's you know, please
Speaker 2: come to Atlanta. There's a lot of people who would
Speaker 2: really benefit from this from the community you're building and
Speaker 2: just love to attend some of you know, the seminars
Speaker 2: or whatever you're whatever you're offering, we're there, so definitely
Speaker 2: keep us abreast of that for sure.
Speaker 1: I would love to visit Atlanta definitely.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Okay, so let's move on because now you know,
Speaker 2: you've started shoe companies, you're into the health and wellness
Speaker 2: space that all, but you're also like a very positive
Speaker 2: social influencer, and I think a lot of people in
Speaker 2: our community are also looking for, you know, ways they
Speaker 2: can engage with brands. They've seen some of you know,
Speaker 2: your hair partnerships and collaborations. You recently did a collaboration
Speaker 2: with butter Skin for a very big campaign for sacks.
Speaker 2: How do you approach these partnerships and collaborations so that
Speaker 2: they align with you know you, Vanessa Simmons and your
Speaker 2: brand and your values.
Speaker 1: I'd say that whenever I'm getting involved with a brand,
Speaker 1: I make sure that the brand is representing in an
Speaker 1: alignment with things that I want to represent. And with Butta,
Speaker 1: it was a no brainer. You know, I actually use
Speaker 1: the products. Number one, they are amazing. And I've been
Speaker 1: a skincare girly for a very long time and you
Speaker 1: don't see things on the shelves that are made for
Speaker 1: melanated skin. And I've been I've been on these shelves
Speaker 1: for a long times, and the Saphores and the Ultas
Speaker 1: and all those places and buying things, and you don't
Speaker 1: see things that are made for melanated skin. So when
Speaker 1: Dorian came to me, who also happens to be a
Speaker 1: really good friend of mine, he's the founder of Butta,
Speaker 1: and said hey, could you do this for me?
Speaker 2: Was like honored.
Speaker 1: I was like yes, First of all, your products work.
Speaker 1: Second of all, everything that Butter stands for I want
Speaker 1: to represent and it's making people feel good, and it's
Speaker 1: targeted for skin for people that look like me, girls
Speaker 1: and men who look like me that are melanated and
Speaker 1: actually for everyone. But to know that the products are
Speaker 1: targeted towards us and they're going to do our skin
Speaker 1: good and make us feel good. That is something that
Speaker 1: I want to be behind. And with any brand I
Speaker 1: work with, I try to make sure that I align
Speaker 1: with their values and what they represents as much as
Speaker 1: I can. So it's a blessing to be able to
Speaker 1: have a platform that I do and to be able
Speaker 1: to work with brands. So it's important for me to
Speaker 1: make sure that I align with exactly what they're representing.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I am a huge fan of butter skincare actually,
Speaker 2: and Duran isn't so credible. And I do think there's
Speaker 2: something very you know, special about that. You're right, like
Speaker 2: you've been on shelves, you've been in this business. So
Speaker 2: now that you know, you have all these brands that
Speaker 2: are dedicated to black skin, that are dedicated to melanated pigment,
Speaker 2: blackground whatever. And of course when we say this, anybody
Speaker 2: can use the products, but it's just it is really
Speaker 2: a special thing that it's like actually looking at our
Speaker 2: tissue structure on a molecular level and making sure that
Speaker 2: we can have the best glow because I need this
Speaker 2: block to.
Speaker 1: Not crack don't need it to crack.
Speaker 3: Exactly, exactly absolutely, I'm going to move a little bit
Speaker 3: away from skincare right now and we're going to go
Speaker 3: on the tech side because you've seen sort of an
Speaker 3: evolution of like you've been making products.
Speaker 2: We talked a little bit about how you had all
Speaker 2: this marketing success that was really you know, grassroots, and
Speaker 2: now we're in the a little bit of a world
Speaker 2: where it's very social media forward, very influent, influencer driven.
Speaker 2: How have you seen technology sort of like play a
Speaker 2: role in the evolution of your businesses? And do you
Speaker 2: like this or do you you know, do you really
Speaker 2: want to go back to the old days of like marketing?
Speaker 1: Know what, I love the old days. I love the
Speaker 1: gorilla style marketing we were able to do. But as
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur, you have to be able to move with
Speaker 1: the times, even if it's a little bit scary. And
Speaker 1: so technology is something that we can avoid. It is
Speaker 1: growing at a rapid pace. We have the introduction of
Speaker 1: AI and all of these other crazy things. Yes, and
Speaker 1: so we have to be able to move with the
Speaker 1: flow of what is going on. So that's a part
Speaker 1: of being an entrepreneur. So you've got to make it
Speaker 1: work for you. You know, social media is a blessing
Speaker 1: and a curse. You know, there are a lot of
Speaker 1: cons to it, but there are also a lot of
Speaker 1: pros to being able to have direct access to your
Speaker 1: consumer at the snap of a press send on a post,
Speaker 1: and so you have to make it work for you. You
Speaker 1: got to do the research to stay relevant and know
Speaker 1: exactly what your customer wants. And it's a blessing to
Speaker 1: be able to do that through technology and to be
Speaker 1: able to research so many different things so quickly. So
Speaker 1: you have to be able to make it work for you.
Speaker 1: And you know what, I'm not mad at it. It's
Speaker 1: amazing that I'm able to exist in this time where
Speaker 1: I've seen the evolution of having to do gorilla style
Speaker 1: marketing to having the access to my customer, you know,
Speaker 1: within seconds. It's incredible, and you got to evolve with it.
Speaker 1: That's all A part about of being an entrepreneur is
Speaker 1: moving with the waves, moving with how everything is changing,
Speaker 1: no matter how challenging it may be. You got to
Speaker 1: stay on the pulse of what's hot and what's going on.
Speaker 1: And so it's a blessing and a curse, you know,
Speaker 1: there's a sound side.
Speaker 2: Really a blessing and a curse.
Speaker 1: But I love that you said that.
Speaker 2: It's like entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is absolutely about being able to
Speaker 2: like be agile, move with the waves, and it's you know,
Speaker 2: oftentimes people look and they'll be like, oh, well they
Speaker 2: had it easy. They just built this business, and we
Speaker 2: forget like there are days being an entrepreneur, you know,
Speaker 2: you're a mom as well, where you're just like, I
Speaker 2: like the expression it's either I'm killing it or it's
Speaker 2: killing me. I'm killing it, or it's me right about
Speaker 2: some of those Like I hate to dig up the
Speaker 2: top memory some of those times where you were just
Speaker 2: incredibly challenged about entrepreneurship. Can you remember some of those
Speaker 2: like significant obstacles or have you just buried them away
Speaker 2: and you're like, I.
Speaker 1: Can't, Yeah, them both both. I bury them away, but
Speaker 1: I have to. I have to kind of keep them
Speaker 1: at the top of my mind so that I don't
Speaker 1: make the same mistakes. Challenges are the name of the
Speaker 1: game when you are an entrepreneur. And as Pastry was
Speaker 1: growing and we were coming to a time where me
Speaker 1: and my sister were really starting to pivot and grow up.
Speaker 1: I wanted to start a lingerie business. There was a
Speaker 1: lot of money to be made in lingerie, billion dollar business,
Speaker 1: and I was like, okay, I want to get involved.
Speaker 1: I want to do this. So I went head in.
Speaker 1: You know, I've been successful in fashion. I can do this.
Speaker 1: This is this is going to be so easy. I'm
Speaker 1: going to be making millions of dollars in matter of
Speaker 1: a few years. So I went head first into building
Speaker 1: this business. And the problem with my structure is when
Speaker 1: you don't have a team who was knowledgeable of the
Speaker 1: field you're going into or has had previous success in it,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be bound to maybe fail. And so got involved.
Speaker 1: I had some people on your team. Your team is
Speaker 1: so important. It's so important when you're building something. It's everything.
Speaker 1: And that's what happened. It failed, and you know, instead
Speaker 1: of picking up the pieces off the floor after it
Speaker 1: didn't do so well, I dropped it all and I
Speaker 1: ran and I did not look back, And looking back
Speaker 1: in retrospect, I feel like that's one of my biggest
Speaker 1: regrets because as an entrepreneur, you have to be able
Speaker 1: to pick yourself up and reconstruct the pieces, no matter
Speaker 1: how hard, no matter how embarrassing because this was incredibly embarrassing.
Speaker 1: I had this huge, successful brand and now I started
Speaker 1: this company. I had press going on around it, and
Speaker 1: it wasn't the Z I had a fast show. It
Speaker 1: just all the pieces were busting at the seam and
Speaker 1: I wanted nothing to do with it. So I left
Speaker 1: it on the ground and I never looked back. And
Speaker 1: looking back, I now know, as an older woman and
Speaker 1: a more seasoned entrepreneur, I should have picked up those pieces.
Speaker 1: I should have kept going.
Speaker 2: I should have.
Speaker 1: Brought more people onto the team, and I should have
Speaker 1: kept rocking with it. And instead I left it there
Speaker 1: and I never looked back. And that's one of my
Speaker 1: biggest regrets looking back, like I really could have made something.
Speaker 1: I see so many people, you know, throwing right now
Speaker 1: in the lingerie business, you know the skims and the
Speaker 1: you know, the fency and all that stuff, and I
Speaker 1: was like, you know what, that could have been me
Speaker 1: if I just got over the embarrassment of the initial fall,
Speaker 1: picked the right team and kept going. But I was scared.
Speaker 1: I was twenty five. I was fearful. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I don't want anyone to think about this ever again.
Speaker 1: But that is when you fail as an entrepreneur when
Speaker 1: you don't pick yourself back up and you don't keep going,
Speaker 1: And that will always serve as a lesson to me
Speaker 1: if you don't. No, no, we don't just drop stuff
Speaker 1: and leave it.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I pee is valuable. I had an LLC. Yeah, everything going,
Speaker 1: you know, and I just left it there. And I
Speaker 1: should have picked the pieces up and kept going. And
Speaker 1: so any up and coming entrepreneur, if you come up
Speaker 1: against a challenge like this, I would just suggest pick
Speaker 1: yourself back up, maybe take a week or two to
Speaker 1: like cry it out or do whatever you got to
Speaker 1: do to release that energy. But you keep yourself back up,
Speaker 1: you keep going and you never know where it could
Speaker 1: take you. But it won't take you anywhere if you
Speaker 1: leave it there. And that's what happened to you, Limail.
Speaker 1: That is one of my most painful memories. But but
Speaker 1: at least I can share the experience. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: would want to come up.
Speaker 2: It's so hard to and I like, I honest, I
Speaker 2: feel your pain. I know that it's hard to like
Speaker 2: look back at those things and have regret or maybe
Speaker 2: I would have done it. But it's also my heart
Speaker 2: goes after you as like a young twenty and you were,
Speaker 2: you know, twenty five at the time, but also like
Speaker 2: a very grown twenty five because you've done a lot
Speaker 2: and I understand, Like, I think a lot of the
Speaker 2: biggest challenges that entrepreneurs have is like fear, right, this
Speaker 2: fear mindset, fear failure, and I think oftentimes that holds
Speaker 2: people back all the time. I always said that for me,
Speaker 2: you know, it was it's like done is better than perfect,
Speaker 2: and my biggest achilles heels, I want everything to be perfect,
Speaker 2: and you know it delays you because oftentimes, like, yes,
Speaker 2: the things are bursting at the seams, but you'll get
Speaker 2: it right the next time, right. And I think maybe
Speaker 2: it was like Steve Jobs that talked about that, like
Speaker 2: when he first released his first product, it was horrible,
Speaker 2: it was buggy, you know, the you know, your boob's
Speaker 2: falling out of your bra, but you know that you'll
Speaker 2: fix it better the next time.
Speaker 1: Imagine if Steve Job stopped, you know, like right, yeah, imagine,
Speaker 1: so you got to you gotta keep going, You got
Speaker 1: to improve the structure, and you got to keep going.
Speaker 1: That there's a better story in that when you do
Speaker 1: have the challenges and you do have to failures is
Speaker 1: a better story in the long run when you look
Speaker 1: at it that way.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and thank you for sharing that, because oftentimes people
Speaker 2: look at you know, successful people and they're be like, well,
Speaker 2: they didn't have any problems, or you know, they every hit,
Speaker 2: they every big hit they took was a home run,
Speaker 2: and that's just never the case. It's just sometimes it's
Speaker 2: harder to share those things. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, we want everyone to see how highlight real exactly.
Speaker 1: That's the thing we want all our successes, but that's
Speaker 1: not what makes a full success story. You got to
Speaker 1: have some of the failures.
Speaker 2: Very true. Okay, So, Vanessa, in addition to being an entrepreneur,
Speaker 2: you're also a devoted mother. And you know, I love
Speaker 2: when we have women on the podcast because I think,
Speaker 2: you know, these are stories that are also a lot
Speaker 2: of our money movers are mothers, right, and they're figuring
Speaker 2: out how to balance everything. The quintessential question, you know,
Speaker 2: how do you balance everything as a mom? And I
Speaker 2: stopped asking that because I was like, I don't even
Speaker 2: know what balance looks like half the time. But I
Speaker 2: want to talk about your journey through motherhood and entrepreneurship
Speaker 2: because I think there's something in it that's always motivating
Speaker 2: to people that are listening on the other on the
Speaker 2: other side of the waves here. So, what advice would
Speaker 2: you give to mothers who are looking to start their
Speaker 2: own business, that want to branch out and sort of
Speaker 2: start working on their dream businesses and building something big
Speaker 2: for their families.
Speaker 1: Don't be intimidated by it. A lot of women they
Speaker 1: start families, they start having babies, and they feel like
Speaker 1: their goals and dreams have to be put aside, and
Speaker 1: you know that they had to get it done before
Speaker 1: they started their family. This isn't true. You know, moving
Speaker 1: into motherhood is a whole other way to be inspired.
Speaker 1: It's a whole new chapter in life. And it's it's doable.
Speaker 1: You know, we're in a time right now where women
Speaker 1: we are learning that our superpowers. We are truly super humans.
Speaker 1: We can have babies, we can have businesses, we can
Speaker 1: be successful partners, we can manage the household. We can
Speaker 1: do it all. But we can only do it all
Speaker 1: if we manage our time proper.
Speaker 2: Lead.
Speaker 1: Okay, I really want to express the importance of creating
Speaker 1: a schedule for yourself. If you're gonna balance so many things,
Speaker 1: make sure that you're creating a schedule, you're staying organized.
Speaker 1: I find on days when I don't journal the night
Speaker 1: before and I don't create a schedule for myself, my
Speaker 1: day is chaotic because it's all over the place. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to keep it all in my mind, and there's
Speaker 1: no one in the world who can keep all that
Speaker 1: information in your mind. You need to jot it down.
Speaker 1: You need to create a schedule. You need to create boundaries.
Speaker 1: I'm coming out of a people pleasing season right now
Speaker 1: where I have to really create boundaries and stick to
Speaker 1: them and not be afraid to say no. Sometimes the
Speaker 1: answer is just no, it's not going to serve me
Speaker 1: at this time. I can't do it. I'm gonna overwhelm myself.
Speaker 1: And if I'm an overwhelmed mommy, my life's going to
Speaker 1: be overwhelmed. Everything's gonna feel chaotic, and everything's just going
Speaker 1: to feel like it's not working out. So the biggest
Speaker 1: piece of ice I can do it is you can
Speaker 1: do it, but just make sure you are staying organized.
Speaker 1: You are creating a schedule for yourself, a small to
Speaker 1: do list. You know, Rome was not built in a day.
Speaker 1: You have to just take and be comfortable with taking
Speaker 1: the small steps every single day to achieve your goals
Speaker 1: literature reading, Making sure that you have a blueprint of
Speaker 1: some sort to follow for your day to day, and
Speaker 1: you will see success. It may take a little longer
Speaker 1: because your plate is a little bit more full, but
Speaker 1: it is not a deterring factor of whether or not
Speaker 1: you can be successful in it. You know, you just
Speaker 1: have to build it day by day. Build that schedule
Speaker 1: every single day before you go to bed. It's good
Speaker 1: for your mind too. It's one of those things that
Speaker 1: build a healthy mindset.
Speaker 2: So much in that like and you know, sometimes just
Speaker 2: recognize it. It might take you longer, but you will
Speaker 2: still get there. And the scheduling thing for me, I
Speaker 2: don't have kids. I'm a very active auntie, but the
Speaker 2: scheduling piece is everything, and I like that, just like
Speaker 2: a journal, you put your schedule so that by the
Speaker 2: time you wake up up and hit the ground money,
Speaker 2: as moms do, you're like, I know what I have
Speaker 2: to get done today.
Speaker 1: And you can just go check check and you stay
Speaker 1: on course. Got to start dinner by six, okay, so
Speaker 1: I got to be wrapped up by this time with
Speaker 1: this fat and the third like keep yourself organized. It
Speaker 1: plays a big part in success, for sure.
Speaker 2: I want to also, you know, hearing you say like, hey,
Speaker 2: I'm ending, I'm leaving a people pleasing season and no
Speaker 2: means no, and I think you know that encompasses so
Speaker 2: much like can you bake fifty cupcakes for daycare? And
Speaker 2: the answer just might be no, I cannot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you have that little bit of guilt because
Speaker 1: you want to. You want to be like Jill's mommy,
Speaker 1: who brings everything and she's perfect, but she's dealing with
Speaker 1: her own stuff that you don't even know what she's
Speaker 1: dealing with, and that's her thing that she's doing. But
Speaker 1: I cannot make fifty cupcakes on the drop of a dime.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I'll be able to buy them, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe not. But sometimes the answer is just I
Speaker 1: can't make it happen. And you can't feel naughty about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: And I'm getting so much better at that too, because
Speaker 2: I feel like it was an evolution because for me,
Speaker 2: the biggest thing would be actually to say no, and
Speaker 2: then I'd spend five minutes explaining why I couldn't do
Speaker 2: it because I felt so bad. Now, like new Tan,
Speaker 2: you will be like no, and inside I still feel bad,
Speaker 2: but I'm like, Okay, it's okay. You were allowed to
Speaker 2: say no.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't have to run down your excuse list
Speaker 1: and it just adds too much. No, I'm sorry, Yes.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: So you talked a little bit about this with euphoria,
Speaker 2: But what are some of the resources or support systems
Speaker 2: that you've had that have really helped you to sort
Speaker 2: of balance motherhood and entrepreneurship, Like who are the is
Speaker 2: it people? Is it you know, business people, lawyers? Like
Speaker 2: who is it that makes your team really work?
Speaker 1: Honestly, because I do so many different things. There's motherhood,
Speaker 1: there's entrepreneurship, there's the acting and all of that. My
Speaker 1: mom's I'm very blessed that I come from a blended
Speaker 1: fan family and you know, my mom is incredible. And
Speaker 1: then I also have a stepmother, Justine, who you guys
Speaker 1: were introduced to on Runs House, and I'm able to
Speaker 1: go to them for anything. I think the importance of
Speaker 1: a solid community is really important. And then also picking
Speaker 1: a mentor in the field that you're in is also
Speaker 1: an important thing. Having someone you can run to that
Speaker 1: may have been to where you envision yourself being with
Speaker 1: just anything, someone that you can truly trust, who you
Speaker 1: don't feel like you're you know, inconvenience and coming to
Speaker 1: with your problem. So you discuss if they're interested in
Speaker 1: being your mentor having a mentor very very important to
Speaker 1: help you stay on track and you know, bounce your
Speaker 1: ideas off of. And then also for resources reading. Right now,
Speaker 1: I'm reading a book called One Audible. It's called The
Speaker 1: Emotional Emotional well Being for Black Women, and it's just
Speaker 1: helping me to manage my well being daily so I'm
Speaker 1: not overwhelmed, so that I can show up my best self.
Speaker 1: So picking some piece of literature that will really help you.
Speaker 1: It's amazing to me now that I've gotten older, how
Speaker 1: much the self care section of the store and when
Speaker 1: I do go to a bookstore or the audible section
Speaker 1: is my best friend. Like there'll always be something that
Speaker 1: can just help me, even if it's before I remember,
Speaker 1: I was reading a book called Mastering the Art of
Speaker 1: Small Talk because I was having a hard time with
Speaker 1: just like a small talk, like feeling like every conversation
Speaker 1: had to be this big, drawn out, you know, intellectual conversation.
Speaker 1: It doesn't. Sometimes we can just pick each other up
Speaker 1: through small talk. So the resources are definitely my community
Speaker 1: and then being able to fill myself up with some
Speaker 1: sort of like book or something that's going to make
Speaker 1: me better mentally.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I have always been a big book geek and
Speaker 2: have a really lit book club, as I like to say, so,
Speaker 2: I'm always looking for good books. And you know, it's funny.
Speaker 2: I yeah, I tell people like audible, it's it's audible
Speaker 2: is reading. Oftentimes people will be like, yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: kind of quietly go it's inaudible. But this is how
Speaker 2: you fit, you know, thirty six hours into a twenty
Speaker 2: four hour day, you're driving, you're listening to an audible,
Speaker 2: you're filling your cup up. You know, whether it's like
Speaker 2: something fun that allows you to escape, or you're getting
Speaker 2: something really tangible for your soul. I love that, So
Speaker 2: I will certainly check out that book. Okay, well, Vanessa,
Speaker 2: you've been so so inspiring. I want to know what's
Speaker 2: coming up next for you. What can you tease us with?
Speaker 2: What should we pay attention that's coming out for you soon?
Speaker 1: Building euphoria. I'm really excited about building the community and
Speaker 1: just making wellness interesting and impactful as I can get
Speaker 1: people talking and interested in how they could, you know,
Speaker 1: improve their lives in some sort of way. And acting.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be a age play coming up. You know,
Speaker 1: with the strikes and things, we have to find other
Speaker 1: ways to really get into our crafts. And I am
Speaker 1: gonna be doing a stage play called Rotten Apple about
Speaker 1: the struggle of African Americans in the sixties to you know,
Speaker 1: strive for the American dream. So I'm really really excited.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be in September in Maryland, one weekend in
Speaker 1: Maryland and one weekend in North Carolina. So I'm extremely
Speaker 1: excited about that. And you know, just gonna do my
Speaker 1: best and forget the rest like my dad said, and
Speaker 1: do the best I can to show up every day
Speaker 1: and hope and dream that I could just empower and
Speaker 1: inspire people. So that is the goal and the dream
Speaker 1: for the next what's next for me?
Speaker 2: First of all, I love that do your best and
Speaker 2: forget the rest. And wow, I love that you're getting
Speaker 2: back to stage. That's super exciting and we will definitely
Speaker 2: check out for any time you it comes to your
Speaker 2: town or wherever people are so they make sure that
Speaker 2: they can tune in can you tell us where they
Speaker 2: can follow you on social media so they can stay
Speaker 2: abreast of all these amazing developments.
Speaker 1: Yes, you can follow me on Instagram at Vanessa Jasimmons
Speaker 1: and you can follow Euphoria at you four ia now
Speaker 1: and we have our website dropping pretty soon, so I
Speaker 1: am excited about that. It is also euphorianow dot com.
Speaker 1: So I'm really excited about all of that. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for the support today, and I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to empowering people. That's the goal.
Speaker 2: Vanessa, you are such a gem. Thank you so much
Speaker 2: for sharing your light with so many of us and
Speaker 2: helping us be well find alignment all of those things
Speaker 2: money movers. That is all the time we have for today,
Speaker 2: but make sure you follow Vanessa on her social media
Speaker 2: platforms so that you can stay abreast of all her
Speaker 2: incredible developments. Yes, thank you, tune in next time, Siah.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to today's episode. If we helped you
Speaker 2: make your money move, please share it with your community,
Speaker 2: Subscribe and leave us a review on iHeartRadio and Apple podcasts.
Speaker 2: Follow us on social media at Greenwood and visit us
Speaker 2: at Gogreenwood dot com for more financial tips and remember
Speaker 2: money movers. If this were easy, everyone would do it.
Speaker 2: So take the lessons you've learned from this episode and
Speaker 2: apply it to your life. Here's a sneak peak of
Speaker 2: next week's episode.
Speaker 4: And so I tell people a lot when they ask me,
Speaker 4: what's that one piece of advice that I would give?
Speaker 4: And that is to not believe that failure exists. Because
Speaker 4: failure is not failure unless you give up before you succeed.
Speaker 4: So I could look at my first PR business and
Speaker 4: say that failed, but that's not true. I've built this
Speaker 4: entire company on PR.
Speaker 2: Money Moves is an iHeartRadio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive
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Speaker 2: keys to financial freedom you so rightly deserve. Until next time,