It's no secret, I'm a HUGE podcast junkie!Β I've got a great list of some of my favorites that I want to share with you.
BANK THE FIRE!Β β Started by one of my Goldman 10kSB sisters, Bob Gallagher, this podcast features intimate interviews with an eclectic mix of CEO's and entrepreneurs.Β Yours truly was interviewed recently, you can hear my episode when you clickΒ here.
UP FIRSTΒ β I am an NPR nerd; I get my daily dose of news with this podcast all in 10 minutes with the three biggest stories of the day.
THROUGHLINEΒ βΒ The past is never past. Every headline has a history. Join us every week as we go back in time to understand the present. These are stories you can feel and sounds you can see from the moments that shaped our world.Β Sounds intriguing, right?
PLANET MONEYΒ βΒ The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, "Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy." Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.Β And get this, I listen to this podcast so much that I was in an ice cream shop in NYC's Chinatown and I heard someone talking and I immediately knew it was Stacey Vanek Smith, now the co-host of Planet Money's sister showΒ THE INDICATOR.Β Yes, I did have a fan-girl moment!
UNDER THEΒ INFLUENCEΒ βΒ Under the Influence is a deep dive into the influencer world of social media.Β I binged this one!Β
THE BARON OF BOTOXΒ β This one is fascinating! It's aboutΒ Dr. Fredric Brandt, whoΒ went from a small dermatology practice in Miami to being Madonna's personal skincare consultant and the go-to for public figures desperate to stave off aging.Β βββββββ
We popped up at New York's Bryant ParkΒ two weekends in a row!Β It felt like a herculean feat, but my Girl Gang really is FAB and Oh SO FIERCE.Β I had to share some photos of life behind the scenes.Β Let me set the stageΒ for you ... If you follow us onΒ Instagram, you may have seen a few posts about our booth and overall experience ... BUT, girlfriend, let me tell you!Β These ladies made it happen.Β My worst fears about doing an event like this in Manhattan all came true on DAY 1.Β If you live in NYC, you know what I mean, if you don't the short version of the story is logistics.Β Setting up for an event like this is challenging anywhere, but then add in all that is NYC βΒ the good, the bad and the ugly β and it takes things to another level.
No, your eyes do not deceive you, that photo in the top right-hand corner isΒ me with a bottle of Maker's Mark and it might have been before the normal cocktail hour. (Effie believed in celery water, but I needed something stronger to calm my nerves in the first few hours of this adventure).
DAY 1
Load in to the park was slated to startΒ at 7am.Β We hired movers to take our inventory, tent, furniture, etc to the park. They wereΒ to meet us at our Brooklyn studio at 6 am.Β Promptly at 6 am, the mover we signed a contract with and paid a deposit to, canceled.Β Supposedly his truck over heated.
My jaw would still be on the ground if it weren't for Aubrie's resourcefulnessΒ (Aubrie is our Director of Operations, pictured middle photo bottom row helping a customer).Β She scrambled and had another moving truck and crew there by 7:30 am.
But, we'd hired an "assembly guy" to put our tent and bookshelves together who was arriving at the park at 7 and had a hard stop at 9 am.Β So, at 6:30 am, I called and woke up our amazing Production Assistant, April (pictured 2nd row with the bucket hat), to see if she could swing by the office, pick up said bookshelves and tent to meet the assembly guy. She didn't miss a beat and hightailed it to the office.
Aubrie and I arrived at the park around 8:45 am - the tent was up and the bookshelves were almost completed.Β And at 9am, just as the movers arrived, it started to rain.Β Β Please remember, that although we sell a variety of items,Β we sell paper.
Suffice it to say at this point, the Makers was pulled out and poured into coffee cups.Β Dane, our stylist extraordinare, arrived and by 11:30ish we were ready to open for business.Β At that point, I excused myself, employedΒ some deep breathing exercises and did a costume change to get my head straight.
Despite all of the above, we made it through the day and no one was none the wiser. However, as we were shutting down, one of the night security guards stopped by to check in on us and kindly informed us that our sandbags were not heavy enough to keep the tent from blowing away overnight. (A few tents that had not been properly weighted down the week prior blew away and contents were destroyed due to heavy wind and rain).Β It was 7:30 in the middle of NYC ... local hardware stores were closed, the Manhattan Home Depot doesn't cater to the camping set which meant they had no tent weights in stock ... so we trekked over to the CVS in Times Square and bought 16 one gallon jugs of water (Aubrie's brain child).Β Yes, there is a photo of me pulling a CVS cart down the street filled with jugs of water.
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DAY 2
The next morning, the tent was still standing; honestly, everything after that was a piece of cake!
We made it through the rest of the weekend and the following one with flying colors. I share this with you today because I want to shout out my team and how awesome they are β I'm truly lucky to work with such a lovely group of womxn.Β And I'd be remiss, if I didn't thank those of you who came out to shop and say hello despite the rain and sweltering temps.Β Entrepreneurship is not easy, but having a great team certainly makes it so much more do-able!
A few months ago I was chosen byBuy From A Black Woman, an organization I belong to that helps bring awareness to Black Women business owners and the people who support them, to be part of a documentary series called The LivingExamples.Β The episodes featureΒ Black female entrepreneurs across a variety of industries. MyΒ full episode is available nowand I can't wait for you to watch it - simply click here.
And if you have a minute, pleaseΒ bookmark the series and go back toΒ watch all of the episodes.Β Nikki PorcherΒ and her team have been to over 20 different cities talking to, listening to and learning what it takes to be a Black Woman Business Owner from folks like me, what community support looks like and of course why it's important for our stories to be told. The stories are powerful, the women incredible and their business are ones you should know about.
I am a podcast junkie!Β I like all genres - Self-Help, Entrepreneurship, Anything NPR related, Murder Mysteries and the list goes on ... I was delighted and surprised with Alisa Gumbs from Black Enterprise's Sister's Inc. PodcastΒ reached out to me a few weeks ago about an interview.Β Ya'll, she's interviewed some heavy hitters!Β Let me be honest, I was a little bit intimidated, but of course I said yes.Β In addition to audio, our conversation was also video taped ... I know, it's been 2+ years and I still haven't perfected my Zoom set up ... but, once I got it together, our conversation just flowed!Β We talked about the art of the pop-up shop.Β If you're a business owner on the fence about including popups as part of your business model, I encourage you to watch/listen to this interview this weekend.Β If you're curious about how these opportunities have come about and what they've led to for Effie's Paper, watch/listen to this interview this weekend.Β Simply click hereΒ to listen.Β
