This intense self-development period saved me and the journey never ends. I tried to use a mix of science and spirituality to figure out why I was the way I was. I sought all kinds of healing through philosophy, coaching, religion and reading. During my time living in Wolverhampton, I was essentially depressed. In fact, I would say that I was extremely oppressed. I’ve been there.Įven though I finally had some resources to maintain some physical independence, I did not have mental independence. I hear often about how women choose to stay in relationships because they simply don’t have the finances to leave. Our son was born in 2011, and when wanting a separation, my finances were a big factor. Being an entrepreneur is not only lonely, but those early bootstrapped days meant that all my savings would go on the business. ![]() ![]() WAH Nails was built for the people, but it completely took me by surprise how hard it was and how poor I would be. This was my third lesson in business - women aren’t always welcome.īut I persevered. I felt like I was being told - work was good for women, but business is for the big boys thank you. While business was empowering for me, it also shone a light on the gulf between the opportunities and respect and funding between men and women. I even sabotaged myself, not believing I was good enough. And even other women tried to sabotage me as the patriarchy made them feel as though they could be the only successful ones in the industry. No one at the top levels took my business seriously. (This was 2009, pre Beauty startup trends) I made bad deals with men who appeared so supportive and just took my money and talent. The business world was harsh and did not care for “women’s work” or “beauty”. Up to this point, I had never ever felt that I was “less than”.īut while it was all amazing for the customers, behind the scenes, all it did was further exasperate my feeling of gender inequality. I grew up with a big Jamaican family of 8 aunties, all strong, funny and intelligent women. At school, I played football and basketball without prejudice. And it was only when I moved to London that I became acutely aware of my race and gender. In my hometown of Wolverhampton, I lived a happy and loving childhood. I worked my way through school and college and had big plans to go to London to study at Central St Martin’s. This was my first lesson at work and I loved it. The feeling of choice was momentous for me and for better or worse, the seed was planted early: work is fun, you meet people from all walks of life, you get paid and then you can do and buy what you want. I had my first job aged 14 as a Sunday lunch waitress in a wonderful family-run hotel (best job ever!) Folding a crisp £20 note in my Hello Kitty purse meant that I could buy books and stationery for school as well as subsidising my free school meal with more snacks for my sports sessions. I didn’t want to continue my life in this way, so as soon as I could, I worked. ![]() Growing up as the eldest daughter in a single-parent family meant that times were often hard and because of this scarcity, I equated “not working” with our hand to mouth existence. Let me share some of those lessons with you… Why is this important to me? At every juncture in my life, work, business and money have been the vehicles by which I’ve found my purpose and my autonomy. Whether it’s through coaching, workshops, entertainment or advice, our goal is to give our members the tools to earn more. Our path to doing that is by creating a platform for the Women's creator economy to buy and sell from each other. The Stack World works to move the needle on gender equality by increasing the global GDP of the women’s economy.
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