The Invisible Mentor

Archive for the ‘Entrepreneur’ Category

This month is Black History Month and we will start off with Madam C J Walker, and follow up with other profiles of people who contributed to black history.

Image via Wikipedia

“Surely you are not going to shut the door in my face. I have been trying to tell you what I am doing. I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. I was promoted from there to the washtub. Then I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations. I know how to grow hair as well as I know how to grow cotton. I have built my own factory on my own ground.” Madam C J Walker at Booker T Washington’s National Negro Business League Conference (1912)

At that time, Black men discounted Black women’s entrepreneurial ventures even when they were successful. Madam CJ Walker had been trying to get the attention of Booker T Washington at his convention for three days and he ignored her efforts. She was forced to stand during the event and say what she had to say. As quoted above, immediately after she explained how she took her $1.50 in savings and turned it into a $117,000 business in eight short years – the next year she was a featured speaker at the National Negro Business League Conference. It is worthy to note that Madam Walker was able to send her daughter to college from the money she made as a laundress.

Name: Madam C J Walker (Sarah Breedlove McWilliams Walker)

Birth Date: December 1867 – May 1919

Job Functions: Entrepreneur, Hair-care Industry Pioneer, Philanthropist and Political Activist

Fields: Hair care

Known For: First female self-made millionaire in the United States

Born Sarah Breedlove to freed slaves on a cotton plantation, Madam CJ Walker was orphaned at age seven. She and her older sister survived by working in the cotton fields of Delta and Vicksburg, Mississippi.  At age 14 Madam Walker married Moses McWilliams, and in 1887, at age 20 she was widowed with a 2-year old daughter. It is believed that her husband was lynched during a race riot. With an infant, little formal education and unskilled, Madam Walker had to find a way to take care of herself and her child.

That same year, she left the Mississippi for St. Louis where her four brothers were and established herself as a laundress. She did this for the next 18 years. Every day while she laundered her customers’ clothes, hands immersed in steaming water in the wash tub, her hands, face, and hair experienced the full impact of the steaming vapors of the chemicals and fumes from the strong detergents.

At the time, a common health problem among African American women was baldness, which was caused by poor diet, stressful working condition, illness, damaging hair care products and scalp disease. With all the difficulties in her life, and the rigors of her work, Madam Walker started to lose her hair – she had split ends and patches of bald spots. She used various beauty products that were touted to promote hair growth. She experimented with various chemicals to find the correct formulation that would aid in the care and grooming of the hair and skin of African American women.

To promote her laundry business, Madam Walker always wore freshly laundered, starched, and pressed clothes to highlight her skills. Immaculately dressed, in 1904, she attended an event hosted by the National Association of Colored Women at the St. Louis World’s Fair, where Booker T. Washington’s wife, Margaret Murray Washington was speaking.

Margaret Murray Washington was also elegantly dressed in silk with her hair pulled back from her face. This inspired Madam Walker to work harder to improve her looks because she was very conscious of the bald spots and broken hair. To supplement her income, Madam Walker registered as a sales agent for Annie M. Turnbo Malone’s Poro Company which sold hair mixes door-to-door. Walker was disappointed with the products and experimented with them in an effort to improve them.

She came up with a formula which she says she received in a dream. Madam Walker had some success selling her products in St. Louis, but she decided to move to Denver. Shortly after moving there, she met Charles J. Walker, who was a skilled publicist and newspaperman. He gave her tips on how to market and advertise her products. It is suggested that he told her to use the name Madam CJ Walker. The Walker business took off in Denver and the two married shortly after (1906).

Madam Walker created the Walker system which comprised of a broad offering of cosmetics, hair care products that removed the curls from African American women; licensed Walker Agents; and Walker Schools offered meaningful employment and personal growth to thousands of Black women.

Madam C J Walker in the National Archives

If you cannot view this YouTube video, please click here.

Madam C. J. Walker’s Journey to Success

• She targeted an untapped base of American consumers and workers – African American women.
• Mobilized a network of African American women as sales agents for her line of hair care products.
• She developed the system, which comprised of Madam C J Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower.
• Her husband Charles Walker handled promotions and other administrative functions at the home office while Madam Walker went door-to-door marketing her hair care products. In their ads, they used before and after shots which are now common today.
• From 1906 to 1916, Madam Walker traveled throughout the United States, West Indies and Central America to promote her business.
• As sales increased, Walker began training “agent-operators.”
• Gave lectures and demonstrations at black clubs, homes, and churches in the Southern and Eastern states.
• Established a training centre for her salespeople, along with research and production laboratories and another beauty school.
• Organized agents into a series of “Walker Clubs” that gave cash prizes to the clubs doing the largest amount of philanthropic work.
• Had annual national convention to bring together the agents to learn new techniques, share business experiences and to talk about personal success stories.
• Became a member of associations: National Association of Colored Women.
• Gave financial support to organizations in the community like the YMCA, NACCP, Bethune-Cookman College in Florida.
• In 1910, she built manufacturing facilities in Indianapolis, a city with multiple train lines to facilitate a streamlined mail order business.

Business Philosophy

Madam Walker’s business philosophy stressed economic independence for the 20,000 former maids, farm labourers, housewives, and schoolteachers she employed as agents, factory and office workers.

Philanthropy

• In 1911, she contributed $1,000 to the building fund of the Indianapolis YMCA.
• Made donations to homes for the aged and the needy.
• Donated money to Palmer Memorial Institute.
• Maintained scholarships for young women at Tuskegee
• She became a benefactor of Bethune-Cookman College in Florida leaving it $5,000 in her will.
• In 1919, in her will, she left $5,000 to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Political Activism/Advocacy

• During World War I, Madam Walker was among the people who supported the government’s black recruitment efforts and war bond drives.
• After the bloody 1917 East St. Louis riot, she joined the Negro Silent Protest Parade planning committee to petition President Woodrow to support legislation to make lynching a federal crime.
• She joined a group of blacks who advocated an alternative peace conference at Versailles after the war to monitor proceedings affecting the world’s people of color.
• Madam Walker advocated for black women’s economic independence and she did her part by hiring and training them to work for her company. This is significant because many of these women had worked as maids and sharecroppers.

Madam C J Walker worked incredibly hard, and the demands she placed on herself ultimately undermined her health. On May 25, 1919, at age fifty-one, Madam C J Walker died. At the time, she was considered the wealthiest black woman in America, and is said to have been the first African American woman millionaire.

Why Madam C J Walker’s Contribution Matters

Madam C J Walker’s contribution matters because she had a significant impact on the lives of many. She advocated for black women’s economic empowerment, creating business opportunities for them at a time when most black women worked as servants and sharecroppers. Madam C J Walker was a trailblazer, and used her business acumen to propel her to affluence.

Further Reading

Timeline: The Life of Madam C. J. Walker (http://www.madamcjwalker.com/)
Madam C.J. Walker: “I got my start by giving myself a start.”
Happy 144th Birthday, Madam C. J. Walker!
Black History: Madam C.J. Walker, America’s First Female Millionaire. What is Black Beauty?
Madam C. J. Walker
Madam C. J. Walker – A Pioneering Black American Woman

Sources Cited/Referenced

Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History, p 2259 -2260

Inc. Magazine, The Great Leaders Series: Madam CJ Walker, Founder of Madame CJ Walker Enterprises

About.com Inventors: Madame C. J. Walker, http://inventors.about.com/od/wstartinventors/a/MadameWalker.htm

Women in History, Volume Sixteen, p134-p138

Video Credit: Madam C J Walker in the National Archives Uploaded by usnationalarchives on Feb 18, 2011

Interviewee Name: Delane Cooper, Goldsmith

Company Name: Delane

Website: http://www.delane.ca

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Delane Cooper: I am a goldsmith and jewellery designer. I used to be in technology for a couple of decades helping build datacentres. I started off in California, lived in New York, got married and moved here to Toronto.

Avil Beckford: What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

Delane Cooper:

1. Have a focus.
2. Just do it.
3. Find meaning.
4. Think differently.
5. Stay on target.

Avil Beckford: When you have some down time, how do you spend it?

Delane Cooper: I spend it meditating and reading

Avil Beckford: What process do you use to generate great ideas?

Delane Cooper: I sit, pull out a design journal that I have, and I put these words down and actually work on them: Focus, Act, Connect, Deviate and Evaluate and I go through that process on a regular basis for all designs when I am sitting at my bench.

Avil Beckford: What’s your favourite quotation and why?

Delane Cooper: My favourite quote is by Mary Anne Radmacher, and it goes like this, “Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Appreciate your friends. Continue to learn. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is.” And I love this quotation because a very good friend of mine shared it with me while we were having a cup of tea. And it was one of those bad, entrepreneurial days, and I asked her, “How does one stay motivated? How does one have life balance?” because I felt I was putting so much work into my business but not spending enough time with my husband. This quote just seems to summarize what I was experiencing, what I was feeling in these short couple of sentences. I basically read this quote out of my calendar every second day.

Avil Beckford: How do you define success?

Delane Cooper: I will use the quote from Albert Einstein, “If A is success in life, then A = X + Y + Z. Work is X, Y is play and Z is keeping your mouth shut.

Avil Beckford: In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Delane Cooper: Once again, I will use the quote from Albert Einstein, “If A is success in life, then A = X + Y + Z. Work is X, Y is play and Z is keeping your mouth shut.

Avil Beckford: What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?

Delane Cooper: I made the hard decision and went back to school, which took about three years. I went online and learned from others. I continue to seek out other entrepreneurs from other fields and learn from them as well. There is a great website http://www.sprouter.com and what’s fantastic about it is it connected me with a lot of entrepreneurs from all over the world. Each entrepreneur may have a different type of business whether it be technology, selling some sort of widget, to someone like myself being creative creating jewellery. As entrepreneurs, we all experience the same ups and downs and hurdles. It’s a great place to seek resources and that’s been quite helpful.

Avil Beckford: What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?

Delane Cooper: Identify what you have fun doing and make sure you enjoy the ride. The ride’s going to have a lot of ups and downs, but know that if you are in it for the ride, the benefits are going to be fantastic in the end.

Avil Beckford: If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

Delane Cooper:

1. John Lennon: Thank you for giving us words through music when words could not be said.
2. Georgia O’Keeffe: Thank you for bringing colour into our lives.
3. Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Thank you for sharing the story of your life and for being brave.
4. Albert Einstein: I would like to know what kept him motivated every morning. I read a lot of his quotes, and he must have been a fantastic individual, not only intellectually, but very self-motivated to get up and continually do experiments on a regular basis, whether they failed or were met with success. I would say, “Thank you for failing your way to success.”
5. Gandhi: Wanting to know how to put people first, and just groups of people, their lives, their livelihood, calling governments when they are doing wrong. Gandhi was very inspirational. “Thank you for sharing your fears and insecurities.”

Avil Beckford: Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?

Delane Cooper: The book is called Illusions: The Adventures of the Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach. What I got out of this book is that life is an illusion and it’s all about how we choose to take part in it. This book was given to me when I was 20 years old and I have read it probably eight times since, and I’m 41 now.

Avil Beckford: If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why?

Delane Cooper:

1. Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, Richard Bach
2. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand (Ayn Rand Box Set)
3. The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran
4. Pride And Prejudice, Jane Austen
5. Love, Illustrated and designed by Gian Berto Vanni, Story by Lowell A. Siff

I would say the books were all suggested by my mother, very close friends or my husband. When I read these books, I feel like I’m experiencing what my husband or my mom or my friends experienced, and that they are there with me reading these books.

Avil Beckford: What one music CD and movie would you like to have with you (on the deserted island) and why?

Delane Cooper: The CD would be All The Seasons of George Winston Piano Solo. I find that the piano is a very unique instrument and this compilation reminds me that life is all about the seasons. There is always a winter, followed by spring, which then is followed by summer and fall. The movie would be Cinema Paradiso, which reminds me to never forget where I came from and always know where I’m going.

If you cannot view this George Winston Thanksgiving (Piano Solo) 1998YouTube video click here.

If you cannot view the Cinema Paradiso YouTube video click here.

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Delane Cooper: Not to be simple, but life itself. There is just so much going on when one wakes up. You never know what’s going on, from the joy of my husband telling me, “I love you,” to getting an amazing email from a client, and then sometimes you have some of the tragedies that we have recently witnessed like in Japan.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Delane Cooper: Through meditation and enjoying the company of friends, my husband and my lovely dog Pelasso.

Avil Beckford: If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for?

Delane Cooper: I would wish or at least hope that my mother who adopted me knows that she saved a child who has blossomed to be a participating adult in this world. That’s what I would wish for.

Avil Beckford: Complete the following, I am happy when…..

Delane Cooper: When I’m with my friends enjoying a great meal, and sitting at my jewellery bench creating a beautiful piece of jewellery to be part of someone’s life.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

Interviewee Name: Delane Cooper, Goldsmith

Company Name: Delane

Website: http://www.delane.ca

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Delane Cooper: I am a goldsmith and jewellery designer. I used to be in technology for a couple of decades helping build datacentres. I started off in California, lived in New York, got married and moved here to Toronto.

Avil Beckford: What’s a typical day like for you?

Delane Cooper: Workout, meditate when I can, have a great breakfast, then prepare for client meetings or work at my jewellery bench.

Avil Beckford: How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?

Delane Cooper: I have a dream of being a philanthropist and in doing so it drives me to do well at my business so I may be able to contribute to society and help other children. That keeps me motivated.

Avil Beckford: If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

Delane Cooper: I’m going to interpret this question regarding my career change. So it would be having the courage to do it sooner.

Avil Beckford: What’s the most important business or other discovery you’ve made in the past year?

Delane Cooper: It is a discovery about myself. There used to be a disconnect between my age and the sound of my voice. I sounded like I was 16 years old apparently, and what it took was going on a climb on Mt. Kilimanjaro, and at the top, one of the ladies I climbed with said, “Delane, why is it that you’re 39 years old, but you sound like a little girl?” And that gave me pause to reflect. So when I returned home to Toronto, I sought out a voice coach, and as a result, my life has changed immensely. There is a better connection between my voice and my age, which has resulted in acceptance and the development of new friends.

Avil Beckford: What’s one of the biggest advances in your industry over the past five years?

Delane Cooper: I would have to say the use of computers especially with computer aided design, being able to take away some of the design aspect from drawing on paper to putting it on to computers.

Avil Beckford: What are the three threats to your business, your success, and how are you handling them?

Delane Cooper:

1. Being boring: It’s about making time to be creative.
2. Complacency: Making sure that every day is a new day and reinterpreting myself and asking myself every day, “What will I do to reinvent Delane today?”
3. Paying attention to running my business: I sought out a business coach that I meet with once a month and we discuss all facets of my business – from financial to marketing, and she keeps me on track and makes sure that I am running my business and not forgetting that this is a business and not just a creative venture.

Avil Beckford: What’s unique about the service that you provide?

Delane Cooper: Listening to a client’s dream or aspiration, and sometimes the symbolism of what a piece of jewellery is supposed to mean to them, and then taking that story and interpreting it into a visual piece of wearable art.

Avil Beckford: What do you observe most people in your field doing badly that you think you do well?

Delane Cooper: Listen….Listen…..and…Listen!

Avil Beckford: Describe a major business or other challenge you had and how you resolved it. What kind of lessons did you learn in the process?

Delane Cooper: Financing my business without a full-time job, which meant that I had to find clients. And fortunately, finding clients I did. What was holding me back was my fear, and it was taking that leap in believing in myself and being able to say, “I’m going to take on this career as being a jewellery designer and goldsmith full-time, accepting it and owning it.

My fear was holding me back, and that was the lesson, knowing everybody has fear, but being able to face it, say it’s okay and moving forward with it.

Avil Beckford: Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

Delane Cooper: A friend’s husband commissioned me to make their 42^nd wedding anniversary ring and this was the biggest compliment, especially since this gentleman is known amongst a group of friends to have excellent taste in jewellery. This to me was the ultimate compliment to be asked to make a ring for his wife. His name is Bruce Vachon and I will always be eternally grateful for the opportunity, and Mary wears this ring every day. It’s such a joy to know that friends wanted me to make something to be part of their lives for the rest of their lives.

Avil Beckford: Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?

Delane Cooper: I will go back to the fear of being an entrepreneur. The lesson is that everyone who is an entrepreneur experiences fear. It’s about how one deals with it. Feeling the fear is acceptable, and living behind it is not acceptable. I feel the fear every day, but it’s that joy of waking up and saying, “Hey, it’s okay. I’m doing what I love though.”

Avil Beckford: What has been your biggest disappointment in your life – and what are you doing to prevent its reoccurrence?

Delane Cooper: Letting the fear of being an entrepreneur hold me back, recognizing that failure is possible but it’s not inevitable. What I do is have a lot of positive quotations in my designing journal, and my studio that remind me that fear is okay, failure is okay because sometime in order to get the design I was looking for it’s failing many times at the same design to have the right design.

Avil Beckford: What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?

Delane Cooper: Letting go of the full-time job which had the full-time paycheque, and how it impacted me is that I was not able to go out and buy the cute shoes that I wanted. There is something to be said about drive and being driven to be in a position to get back to what a paycheque could have been like. But this time it is a business that I am running and I can make those types of purchases because I earned it and did it on my own.

Avil Beckford: What are three events that helped to shape your life?

Delane Cooper:

Delane Cooper:

1. Being adopted when I was 15 ½ years old.
2. Getting married
3. Being a jewellery designer/goldsmith.

Avil Beckford: What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

Delane Cooper: Running my business Delane.

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

Delane Cooper: There are so many mentors. I would say there are two key lessons. One is listen, listen and listen again, and the second is always to ask both of these questions – ask why and why not?

Avil Beckford: What’s one core message you received from your mentors?

Delane Cooper: Teach yourself to see what others do not see so you will know what others do not know.

Avil Beckford: An invisible mentor is a unique leader you can learn things from by observing them from afar, in the capacity of an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?

Delane Cooper: Everyone experiences fear, just go out and live your passion, just do it.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Unless a professor works in industry, many times course participants do not get actionable information that they can immediately use. After conducting hundreds of interviews, it recently dawned on me that my interviews are actually workshops because they are so in-depth. Though the interviews featured in this post have an entrepreneurial twist, there are many life lessons to learn because of the nature of the questions.

You have a snapshot, which takes you into the lives of Doreen Conrad, Laurel Touby, Jacoline Loewen, Christina Ioannidis and Marnie Walker at a moment in time. After studying the interviews, you’ll learn what the typical day is like for regular people who have attained success, what success means to them, who mentors them, as mentors what advice they give, who gave them their big break, and a whole lot more. They share their wisdom with you, and that’s why the interviews are similar to a workshop. You connect to them because they are ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Many people aspire to be an entrepreneur but do not know what steps to take. In the following interviews, there are many lessons for you to learn. Learn how Doreen Conrad moved from employment to entrepreneurship. Laurel Touby, founder of mediabistro shares how she built a membership site, and explains how she got private equity funding. Jacoline Loewen, member of a family business talks about some of the issues unique to a family business, and shares information about the private equity funding that is available for mid-sized companies.

Like success, failure is a part of life, but we are conditioned not to talk about it. Christina Ioannidis openly talks about her failed business and the lessons learned that allowed her to achieve success in her next business. Marnie Walker got an offer too good to ignore so she sold her “baby”. After a short time, because she is infected with the entrepreneur’s bug, she started over.

Doreen Conrad: Part One, Part Two

Laurel Touby: Part One, Part Two

Jacoline Loewen: Part One, Part Two

Christina Ioannidis: Part One, Part Two

Marnie Walker: Part One, Part Two

After you have read and studied the interviews you get a sense of what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Photo Credit: Yahoo Image Search via Apture

Two weeks ago I interviewed Roy Thomas, the shoe repair person I have been using for over 10 years. Roy is extremely successful at what he does, and has been in business for over 30 years. I firmly believe that we can learn from each other. Here are 20 lessons I distilled from the interview.

1. Always do what needs to be done
2. Be likable
3. Be understanding toward others
4. Take care of the customers: treat them with respect and provide quality work
5. Don’t take people or things at face value. Always delve deeper because there is always more going on
6. It’s about people and relationships
7. Be patient
8. Persevere
9. Think carefully about what you are doing
10. Know your business inside and out
11. Always listen
12. Each day take one step at a time
13. Know what you want out of life and go for it
14. Success is never about money
15. Always put your best foot forward and even if you stumble you will always be okay
16. Walk in a clear path that makes you feel free
17. Be forgiving
18. Do not dwell on the past. You may not be able to visualize the future but it is there and tomorrow will provide for itself
19. Be attuned to what is going on around you
20. Make both your personal and professional life work in harmony

Most Influential Book: Our God is Awesome, Tony Evans

This book talks about how people should live in this world.

Major Regret: “In 1965, I bought 18 lots of land in Montreal, Canada. I was burdened and overwhelmed by all the taxes that I had to pay so I decided to sell. If I was patient, and waited I would have earned more on my investment.”

When I asked Roy what excites him about life, he responded with this quote “Life is a mirror: if you frown at it, it frowns back; if you smile, it returns the greeting.” William Makepeace Thackery