She changed the Boardroom and more!

“We have to teach our girls that they can reach as high as humanly possible.”
— Beyonce Knowles Carter

Happy International Women’s Day!

In recent years women have gone to the moon, served as Supreme Court Justice, run for President, and we even now have a women as part of the coaching staff of the Washington Redskins NFL football team. Beyonce was right, we have to teach our girls they can do anything humanly possible, and indeed they can and truly they are.

It’s been a long time coming for women to take their seat at the table. This past weekend, I watched the documentary about Hilary Rodham Clinton. She’s been an activist for women’s rights since the 70s. Having grown up in a town where the only working women she saw were teachers and librarians, it’s amazing, encouraging and fascinating to me to see how she’s moved through the ranks to become a Presidential candidate and serve as the Secretary of State. Yes! Women can be all they set out to be.

But, as we know it hasn’t always been easy. In fact, when we look at history, it hasn’t been too long since we’ve held certain rights.

• It’s only been 100 years since we’ve had the right to vote.
• We’ve only been able to control when or if we want to have children for 60 years.
• It’s only been 57 years since we’ve legally held the right to equal pay in the workplace.
• It’s only been 50 years since we’ve been able to have a bank account.
• It’s only been 7 years since women have been able to serve in combat.

If you don’t like something, change it!

I believe this is the reason there is 13 million women owned businesses today. We were kept from the Boardroom, so we created our own. As a result, today women owned businesses remain the fastest growing business segment in the US.

In its 2019 State Of Women Owned Businesses Report, American Express reports the following statistics:

Women are creating jobs and increasing and improving economics in our communities faster than other business. But it saddens me to know the average female business owner only earns an average of $142,000 annually. In fact only 4.2% of all women owned businesses earn $1 million or more in annual revenues.

While it excites me to be one of the 4.2%, I truly want to see more achieve that status. That’s the exact reason I started Anavo Transformation Solutions. My mission is to help more get across that income line.

In my quest to help more rise, I’ve witnessed and helped women beat a few barriers to growth. Here’s the thing, those barriers all exist within.

• Not knowing how to be a CEO. This is the number one reason women tell me they’ve decided to work with me as their Business Coach and Strategist. They know their technical skills and expertise well and deliver their genius daily but operating as CEO is something they feel uncomfortable with.
• Feeling like an imposter. They don’t feel they’ve earned the right to run a business. In their words, they are struggling to run a household let alone run a business. But this is far from the truth. In my own personal experience, I know we can run a business very well BECAUSE we run our households.
• Feeling very uncomfortable managing money. This barrier is deep rooted. It’s unfortunately a remnant of how women were raised and treated. Being bashful about money is paralyzing their mobility.
• Feeling as though they need a man in the room to make deals happen. I remember the days when I felt like that. I wouldn’t enter certain rooms without a man joining me. But I watched and observed and learned that my greatest qualities as a woman gave me negotiating power.

At the root of all these issues is confidence and at the root of confidence is clarity. Gaining clarity in each of these areas has given both me and my clients the power to run the world! It’s given us the power to be million dollar earners.
So today, I am teaching my girls (daughters, nieces, friends, clients) to stand strong in their truths, to unapologetically be CEO, to use money as the tool it is and to run million dollar businesses as the experts they are, before I wrap up, I want to shout out a few of the phenomenal women in my community.

• My daughter Kayla who launches her new blog, ViKtorious Momma, this week
• My daughter Krista who is adding new products to her T-Shirt and paraphernalia company, RoyalTNT
• My mom, Joan, who continues to keep my house a home so I can keep my business a business
• All of the phenomenal She-E-Os that I serve.

You are all powerfully changing our communities, changing the world and changing the statistics of women in business.