Episode 257: Faith Meets Tech: How She Built a Business on Purpose | Shennice Cleckley | Tech CEO & Coach
What if the key to success in business wasn’t just strategy or hustle, but joy? Speaker, podcaster, and author Shennice Cleckley joins Kara to share how she went from baking desserts to feeding people with love, purpose, and business acumen. They talk about embracing self-worth, making bold pivots, and the mindset shifts that help entrepreneurs turn setbacks into stepping stones. From building a bakery that catered to Beyoncé’s tour to coaching others on pricing, faith, and being enough, Shennice’s story is full of practical lessons and soulful sparks.This is an episode for anyone chasing meaning in their work, especially those who’ve wondered if they’re “too much” or “not enough.”
“Regardless of the situation, regardless of what was going on, I was created to be enough to help this world. Once I realized I was enough, then the joy really started coming in.”
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Chapters:
Chapters:
(00:00:01) Embracing Sparkle and Joy in Life and Business
(00:04:00) Discovering Purpose Through Faith After Trauma
(00:07:00) Starting a Bakery and Serving Beyoncé’s Team
(00:11:00) Pricing, Profit, and Paying Yourself as a Founder
(00:15:00) Shifting from Solopreneur to CEO Thinking
(00:18:00) Success Anxiety and the Fear of Growth
(00:22:00) Trust, Faith, and Letting Go of Scarcity
(00:25:00) Why $250 Can Change a Life (and a Business)
(00:29:00) Nonprofit Myths, Charity, and Economic Empowerment
(00:33:00) Dismantling Barriers: Hiring and Access to Capital
(00:36:00) Family Legacy, Entrepreneurship, and Generational Impact
(00:39:00) Building The Shennice Show and Season Two Plans
(00:41:00) Final Reflections on Community, Purpose, and Support
Follow along using the Transcript
And then I got to think that's the same amount of people of a dorm room in a small college. So we really could house and have ho no homelessness. If they would open up a dorm and allow all these people to sleep there, and for one night we can say This city has no homeless.
That's Shennice Cleckley. I'm Kara Duffy and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast.
Welcome to the Powerful Ladies Podcast. Hello. Thank you so much for having me. Let's jump right in and tell everyone your name, where you are in the world, and what you're up to. Sure. I am Shanice Ley. I am in Lexington, South Carolina, and I am up to spreading sparkles and joy everywhere that I go.
Sparkles and joy everywhere you go. Has that always been your mission? It has been, I didn't necessarily do it all the time, but now whenever I do something, that is the way I want people to feel. Just sparkles and joy every time I do that, whether it's a book that I'm writing or a talk show, whatever I'm doing, just feeling sparkles and joy.
And I love that you have a quote on your website that says, embrace being enough is necessary for true happiness. Yes. I wanna hear the journey of why that quote, it matters to you so much that it is a clear statement on your website, but what does that mean to you and how did you get to embracing that?
It's something that you don't really realize, that you don't understand. It's enough. I had a regular childhood where mother, father upper middle class, family, military, all that good stuff like that. Then I had a sexual assault and I got raped. I'm so sorry. Thank you. That resulted in me being pregnant at 14 and in doing that it made me numb.
In, in, in many ways it would make lot people act out and it did, but the acting out was numb. So for years I was parenting and going through life because this is what I had to do, and I still felt like a piece of me was gone. So then. I said, you know something, it's just life has gotta be better than this.
There's something, and it was probably right after I had went through college and those kind of things, and I decided that I wanted to live a life of joy and enough. But for me, my background is Christianity. And I said how do you become enough if humans are not telling you that? What do you do for enough?
And I really got steeped into my faith. And my faith helped me understand that regardless of the situations that were happening, regardless of what was going on, that I was created with everything I needed inside of me to be enough to spread this world and to help this world. And so when I realized that I was enough and that my sheer existence of birth is enough.
Then the joy really started coming in. We remember the love aspect and the empathy. Then many of the problems that we have will be not as dramatic as they are.
Yeah, there's so much. We have plenty of abundance, especially in the United States to take care of everyone.
Yes, I realized that in my own town, there was a few years ago, several years ago, we were able to count the number of homeless that were in our city.
And when they counted like one by one, they took 24 to 48 hours and counted in the downtown area. The amount that they counted of people was like 2,400 people, something like that. It wasn't a large number in a particular block radius. And then I got to thinking. That's the same amount of people of a dorm room in a small college, in a midsize college.
So we really could house and have ho no homelessness. If they would open up a dorm and allow all these people to sleep there and for one night we can say This city has no homeless. That's how I knew we had abundance.
Yeah. Yeah. Really. And that's the part that makes me and many of the women who have been on this podcast crazy, is that we have answers.
We do, we have answers. If you let in the love and empathy, if you understand that your little piece is the part to the bigger puzzle, I love to use the mosaic. Example that when you look at a piece in a puzzle of Mosaic and you look at it. You think that one little thing is ugly and it just have nothing, but when you put it on the picture and you step back, you realize that one little piece creates an entire picture.
That if that one piece was missing, it would not complete the picture. You just gotta step back a minute and realize that your little bit does help. Yeah, it really does.
Speaking of feeding people. You made a pivot in your life from working in corporate to being a food entrepreneur for a very long time.
Thanks. So let's tell everyone, what was your food entrepreneurship like, and how was that experience for you?
I was a baker. Did not know. Let's not say I didn't know. At four years old, my mom told me that I came home and wanted to be a cookery. I didn't know that was a chef. I called it a cookery.
And I got laid off from, a huge company when I lived in Atlanta. And I was pissed. I was really mad. I was like, how the hell y'all gonna leave me off and then make me train my replacement? And then want me to be okay to try to find another job in the corporation. No. We'll not be doing that.
So I took my oh, I took my job or what I was doing on the side of baking and wrapping candy wrappers, and decided to make a living out of it. And it started small because I'm not a pastry chef. I just know my grandmama's recipes and what my daddy taught me. That's all I know. That's it. And so I took that and started self-training myself to make it professional, but I still remained who I was.
So I said, lemme see how much this costs and let me see how much that cause. And quite honestly, with my business method. I learned that if I treated it like the, IT guys treated their business, but still kept the down home of feeding people, I had a great business and that's exactly what I did.
Yeah. And you had a couple businesses in the food space.
Yes, and it all still stemmed around eating desserts. It just evolved. So my very first one was candy wrappers, and then the second one went to Literary Sweets. It was a bookstore and chocolate stock. I still love that. I was just on, oh, it was so amazing.
But then came the internet bubble and people were trying to have a mortgage and not buy my little bit of chocolates. I even had to go back to work. So then I bit the gusto and I did full-time work and full-time bakery, and I opened my dessert bar and with my dessert bar, it became custom desserts. That I made in this beautiful, exposed brick location.
But then I had to pivot again because it was hard getting people in the door. And so I became Uber before, DoorDash, before DoorDash was popular, and I delivered desserts and I made 'em bitesize. So as you're in business. You'll learn to make different iterations and to figure out which one is going to be the best that's successful for your own lang.
But all of it still had to do with feeding people and eating in belly and using butter. My tagline used to be made with love and butter. That was it. What else matters after that? What else matters? If you got that buttery feeling and you feel good, I was like, it feels like a warm hug for your grandma.
And even if you didn't have a grandma, this is what you want it to feel like. A warm hug from grandma. So I loved, love, loved baking, but then I got burnt out after 15 years up at three in the morning. Four in the morning and doing it for such a long time as a solopreneur, it really did burn me out.
Yeah it's every good idea can be exhausting, right?
It really speaks to how much we need the systems and we need the team and. Yeah. Anything great we cannot do by ourselves. At least not long term. No. And I waited to form the team too late. Scared that I was gonna do too much money, not have enough work, those kind of things. And then as a solopreneur, I really pushed myself in order to have the big clients like the On the Run tour for Beyonce and Jay-Z, they came to Columbia and I did their suites. The basketball team for USC, the Olympic team. I did big things, but it was still just me and when I hired outside people occasionally, so I really could have. Spread that out. Mind you, I still had four kids and a husband and a dog, and parents and everything else too.
It's amazing how fast the, where the revenue goes
yes.
Even when you don't have all the pressure from the family and the dogs and everything else. People think that, oh, I made a thousand dollars. I get to keep a thousand. It's you probably get to keep 300 because Exactly. Taxes, website marketing.
And whether it's a product or service, it's still gonna have some overhead. You're still going to be, have to make sure you carve out enough. So as I coach people and I help them with their businesses, I always say did you pay yourself? And when they say, I'll do that later, I was like, no.
I need you to configure this price now because you are going to need to live on your own. You're gonna need to feel like you're making something. It's one thing for your business to profit. It's another thing for you to pay yourself because you are an employee of your business, even though you are the CEO of your business,
and you're the most important one.
If you are. Sustaining yourself. The business can't sustain at all. Exactly. I'm so glad you brought this up because like pricing is something I work with clients on so much. And I think this speaks to the quote that we opened with of so many people have these money stories and so much of the fear and hesitation of no, I can't pay myself 'cause I'd have to charge too much.
And in my mind I'm like that's just the price.
But that's also like, why are we showing up? That's also a woman thing. That's also a woman thing. We wanna make sure that we're good for everyone. And I had a sales problem. I knew I did, so I hired a sales coach and the biggest thing that she said to me that helped me the most is, why are you counting everyone else's money in their pocket?
Why are you counting your client's pockets? I was like I don't know. Did you spend the time to do this? Yes. Did you learn how to do this? Yeah. She was drilling it in me. Yes. So why don't you think that you are worth enough? In order to be paid. And so that got me to thinking as I evolved into another step is don't charge.
I hate when people say, I really do charge what you're worth. No charge with your expertise is worth because your words is far above rubies. So I can't have your personal growth. I cannot compare your business growth and worth to your business growth and worth, but what you will charge. Is how long it takes you, how long you've learned, and the fact that you're the best doggone person in this Dogg on business.
Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Even for people like you and I like, we're bringing decades of experience to every conversation, every table we sit at. So yeah do you wanna pay me for school and for career and all that's decades of brain power coming to the table. It's not about the one hour I'm in front of you.
Talk, solving whatever x, y, Z problem is. Plus the whole reason people bring you and I in is because we can help you get to numbers that you never thought were possible of wise or teams. And like I just, I sometimes I have to coach people on how they should hire a coach before they can even. Think about hiring me because they're just doing this math and I'm like, hold on, let's really look at the ROI of just hiring an expert in general.
Like I, yeah. Yeah. I paid good money for coaches like you. I really have, because I knew that I was deficient in certain things. I knew that while I appear confident. In business, I was not confident because I had this back of my mind thing of I didn't go to business school. I learned it on my own, so I thought that I wasn't.
Ready to do it. When I was sales, I was like, I didn't wanna be too pushy. I don't wanna be too this or do that, childhood things. I allowed that to come and as my career started going, I realized that I was really not necessarily the strategist I had trained to be then I'm really a mindset kind of coach, even though I didn't wanna say the words.
But I'm like, I gotta to change all these people's mindset before they could even go
sell. Yes. And I think that's the secret that so many service providers in general, forget, like if you wanna excel at your business, if you're providing pr, marketing, website, whatever it is, like you have to be 10% minimum coach for them.
Because we have to change their mindset and their listening for even to hear. What we're selling and why it's gonna help them. Because like I, I have a friend who's writing a book all about money stories and how they hold us back and how many there are. And for anyone who's tackling those and expanding and doing all their growth work, nothing is more annoying than thinking you've dealt with something and been like, oh.
That was hidden where I didn't know that was back there. And then one day it shows up, but at least then you can notice it. But like we are never. Done, evolving outta these areas that have minimized our power.
Yes. Yes. I'm going through that now. I wrote a new book and I was going through some things and I realized that I stopped dreaming.
After I had got to the pinnacle of my last career, and then I was like, oh, shoot. I just did exactly what I tell people not to do. Stop imagining and stop dreaming. What the heck is going on, SICE? Why are you not doing this? And then I said, okay. Okay. Okay. How do I get back to dreaming? How do I get back to, looking ahead and visualization?
What is limiting me at this particular mo time? Even with the money issues, it's like I got used to making good money that when I had a setback, I reverted back to that person who kept thinking. You are never gonna make money again, or you're not good enough, or you're charging too less and chasing the money instead of staying steadfast in what I was doing.
So you fall back into those, but when you do that, you really just got to brush yourself off, like riding a bike and get back on what you had.
And there's that philosophy that when we're challenged, we fall back. To the firmest step we've built before. And so it's looking, it's really looking at is are these steps firm?
Is this, am I growing and is it cementing or is it still not dry because whenever there's pressure or you get triggered or, that's what life and entrepreneurship are both rollercoasters, so like where's your most sturdy step? And for some people they don't realize that it's 10 steps down.
Other people, Ooh, just one step this time. Okay, we're making progress.
I think people get it's that survival mode. Survival mode becomes a constant where you get. When the bad things are happening. So I actually had a success problem as I started getting better in my bakery business.
And then when I transitioned to being a strategy coach, I, and I had a success problem. I kept fearing the fact that the things that I was doing was going to stop. That I was not going to make the money or the clients were not going to come, or that I had reached the pinnacle, and then now there's no way else but down.
And that success problem came to a limited belief of don't be too much, don't take up so much space. Don't do this, and don't tell people, because if you tell people, then they're going to pray against you. I don't know why Christians believe that either, but that one got gets on my last nerve is so you think that I don't believe in God so big that I could pray for it, but their God is bigger to pray against me.
That one irritates the crap outta me. I don't foolish. This is this. So I had to break all of those bad cycles off when I was transitioning and understand that it is. I am not perfect and I have to exercise that mental muscle all the time.
It's interesting how when you start going out on the skinny branches and being brave and really creating the life you want all your superstitions bubble up to the surface of ooh, I'm not supposed to have it this easy. Ooh. Like I'm not supposed to have this much money. Ooh. This is too going too well. I'm just waiting for the shoe to drop. And you're like, why does the shoe have to drop? Exactly.
And honestly, that is when I have to lean into my faith the most. I believe in myself.
I would not. Progress. So even when I speak or do things, I have to tell people, now I prescribe the Christianity. I don't know who you prescribe to, but you gotta be something higher than you. 'cause you cannot be the end all, be all. You cannot.
I think that's the biggest theme between everyone who's been on this podcast is whether they no matter what religion they are, if they believe in the universe or whatever it is that is.
Their thing. Everyone is talking to something bigger than themselves. Everyone is celebrating. The signs they're getting the golden nuggets, the confirmation that you're on the right path. And sometimes it shows up in something completely insane that you cannot describe. And sometimes it shows up in really small gestures just having people be a yes to you.
That you were afraid wouldn't be a yes. Yes. And there's, and I think there's so much in the gratitude of the small acknowledgements, like just anyone saying yes to you in your business is a holy cow moment because there's a version of that story where nobody says yes. I'm in that go back in that position right now.
You are giving me confirmation just to let you know. Thank you so much for giving me the confirmation. So because I am in that miss now, I did not expect to have this transitional life. I just left a career in business where I was at my dream job. I was a nonprofit executive and the thing I wanted to do the most, which would be give money to people, I just wanted to give money to people to start their business.
I think that in, in, in my state, in South Carolina. It is, if you have about $250, you can formalize your business and do it well. That's getting the LLC or incorporation papers that's getting your business license, that's putting $20 in the bank account. But you are a formal business by $250.
But the amount of people, especially women who don't have the $250 to say, I feel legitimate is. Amazing. So I'm like, I want to give that, but I was able to give $10,000, $20,000, 30. I'm like, shit, it was amazing all around the world. But then I don't have that job anymore. I had to, I pivoted the Lord was like, okay, it's time for you, you, I'm shutting this down.
And I was like, are you sure? And he said, you shutting it down and he's got me doing something else. And I'm like. Podcaster.
He's yep, I want you to go do it. And you know all that public speaking I had you doing around the world, I want you to do that full time. I said, say what? I didn't have you get your passport for nothing. I said, listen, I don't wanna do that. And in this now I'm like waiting for the new yes.
Come speak on my stage. Yes. I will pick up your podcast. Yes, I will be on your show. Those yeses, when people say yes, I'm like, for real? And you don't know how that little bit of Yes. Just really pushes you forward. Really
does well, and what I just really hear is that you weren't playing big enough.
You thought you were and you're like, oh, there's another level that I wasn't going to even try to go after because I was good.
And you are exactly right. That is the message I got, and I was like. I was good. He was like, no you were. You were complacent and you did things, but now I need your sparkle and joy to go a little bigger.
And I'm like how much bigger?
Yeah. This
is getting real bright. Are we sure?
Are we sure?
Are you sure I got the green hair, Lord. I dunno how much you want me to do. Really? It's nope. I need you to get bigger. There's people out there, especially women. Who need to understand the gifts that are inside of them, whether it's going back to school, whether it's having the business, whatever, it's someone has got to tell them to go forth and do it.
Somebody's gotta tell them. Be able to model, mentor and model those people. And I was like, but me like, yes, you,
I guess so when you were talking about the micro loans that people need. There is a great book, of course there's places like Kiva that are doing it at a global level, but there's a great book called Good Morning, beautiful Business.
By Judy Wicks, and I've had her on the podcast actually, 'cause this book was just so interesting. Her life is like this crazy journey. But she and other people in Philadelphia came together to put together a pot of money to start a local microloan business. And the return on investment that they're getting is extraordinary.
It's beating all stock market records. It's just that's such a tangible local investment. We believe in you. And it's just such a fascinating idea that I always have to stop myself. 'cause I know theoretically that all great things happen in community. Like with the team, with the village.
And so often I'll have an idea and start running with it and I'll get stuck because I'm like, how do I do this by myself? And I'm like you're asking the wrong question.
And
sometimes as simple as getting. 10 people together who can all give $250 and start changing one person's life at a time.
Like that ripple effect. It feels small, but you know what $250 can do in South Carolina.
Exactly. And being able to see another goal forth in South Carolina, we were number four in the nation of women starting businesses and I'm like, okay, we're finally at the top of something. Yeah. Okay.
Pun but nevertheless. Although we were fourth in the nation of women starting businesses, we also were like last or close to the bottom of women getting to a hundred thousand dollars. So all these women are starting businesses, but they're not even making a decent salary or sales in their business. And so it's oh, okay.
So they're starting it, but they can't live off of it. Even if you're making a hundred thousand dollars in sales, that's not your profit and that's not what you're paying you. That's sales. So if we can't get them to a hundred thousand dollars in sales, what are we doing? And most of them were sole proprietors.
And I'm like, okay, so they can't even structurally do this. As a growing business that's viable to, whether it's an investor or someone who wants to a bank or anybody because they're taking all the liability. At the simplest form, let's get them a single, and we allow single members LLCs, let's at least get a single member LLC, so we can show you that you do have a business at the least of it.
And then I know that once you get that you feel legitimate. You think of it differently, and then when women get to a certain point in business too, I have said, you gotta change your focus. You're not a business owner. You're A CEO. That is a different verbiage of how you're going to operate within your business.
Yep. I say a very similar thing. You gotta stop doing and start cing.
It's so different. And when you're cing, you're looking at. The strategy of it. You are looking where you're gonna grow within the next two years, not just day-to-day operations. You understand your time is so much more valuable than the fact that you're getting something done.
You know those things is hard, and in essence you are dreaming, but that forecasting is so important if you're going to be doing this as a business that sustains you and your family.
And you said this earlier in a slightly different way about how people, you stop dreaming, people aren't dreaming.
The fastest way for me to help someone double their business is skipping all the questions they have about what should my Instagram strategy be? And I'm like no. What are the things that you really wanna do that you didn't put in this business Now. Because we're building businesses we think we can do versus the one we really want.
And it's the alignment that allows your business to take off like wildfire. It's the fact that you are playing small and we're thinking like, oh, I'll just, if I just do this and get sales, it'll be fine. And I'm like, I'm not here to play fine with anybody. Ridiculous and extraordinary.
That's a part of our trademark. Like it can be so much easier than we make businesses be. And I'm so glad that you are telling everyone that because, one of the most cr, the craziest stats about small businesses one is that in the US. $40 million and under is a small business. Have yet to talk to someone with a $40 million small business.
Exactly. In quotes, the average small business is making $43,000 a year. Yes. If we remove taxes, that is poverty line, like Exactly. That's poverty line in certain cities and states anyway. Exactly. Like we have a huge issue in how the US is incentivizing and supporting small businesses. If we say we're encouraging the American dream.
When we're not giving people the tools and resources. In a functional way, to your point, to make a living. Like how do we get businesses to $10,000 a month in revenue as soon as possible. Exactly. Because then you can feed yourself, pay taxes, and start to have someone help you. I don't like, it's just math.
If $40 million is the small what's the B? Yeah. If $40 million is small, what's b? I remember going to score and different places on the SBA. It was like, does your business make $2 million a yes. Yeah, I wouldn't be here joker if it didn't make 2 million, $2 million or less.
Know that's duh. And then it's oh, you're a micro business. Call it what you want. Nanny it been, and anyway, I don't care. You have what I need as a gatekeeper to get me where I need to go. And then backwards. It was like, what do, what you were saying about what do you want to do in your business?
Of course, yes. Your listeners are gonna be like, oh Lord, here you go again. Talking about the Jesus aspect of it. Because business is hard for people who are Christians because we want, Christians wanna give business away. I'm gonna start a nonprofit. I said, girl, that ain't nonprofit. That's a for profit.
What the heck? You are not serving this. The community with some social aspect. You need to make some money. Oh, I don't wanna make too much. Jesus didn't tell you not to make no money. What is the heck? What's
wrong with you? To do good work, we have to give to charity. Oh, and here's my little rant, so hold on.
But. The idea that the only way to be a good person is to be giving to charity or starting a nonprofit actually speaks to so many repressive cultural colonialistic ideas that there are people who are less than. So there're always going to need a handout. Yes. When it's screw that. Give people a job.
Give people like, so the idea, like I used to coach nonprofits. I still do sometimes, but I quickly went to for-profit because the idea that a nonprofit is going to save the world is. Unlikely. Whereas a business gives you so much more freedom to train, empower, develop, like the ripple effect in a business can be so much bigger than the ripple effect in a charity.
And those. I would love to get to a place where we don't need the charity anymore. Because we're giving people the o, the others, everything else they need. Now I know that there are always going to be people in society who need more help than others. But the idea that is the only good work to do.
I don't think we realize how. Frankly, like racist. That logic can be. It is, and it's makes me crazy. So I'm glad you said it. Thank you for my rant. You can now speak
to that. You No you're absolutely right. In my business when I did have employees, I hired people who were the least likely to be hireable.
And that was on purpose. I would hire the person without the high school diploma. I would hire the person who had three kids and needed to be off in the middle of the day. The college student that wanted to just use their skills, the L-G-B-T-Q kid who couldn't come to school or come to Word dress the way that they wanted to dress, and it wasn't because I was being passionate of I'm gonna help everybody.
It was because. These employees were my teammates who were good at their job, and I, they needed a job. So I'm doing economic stability to help someone to be able to do it on their own. Now, I did have to make modifications. I did have to see it differently, but I would rather do that. Help them preserve the dignity of themselves than I would be to just give them something.
Now there, like you said, there will be people who you have to give to, and there are some social services that will always be out there yet if we weren't so strenuous of incarcerated. You have people coming out who are incarcerated all these times, and you won't hire them because they have a record. If they went to jail for a little bit of weed, I do not mind hiring them to be behind my cash register.
What I will not have them is in my weed dispensary.
If I had somebody going in for embezzlement. But they could come out and work in my warehouse. They just will not touch any money. It's okay. Look at what it's, look at what's happening. If one of the social things that I don't really like as well is the. Education. You must have this type of degree.
You must have that type of degree in order to do the work. No, I do not have a business degree. I have two degrees, one in political science and one in public affairs. That has nothing to do with business. That just means that I talk about politics and I can research really well and that I can be out in the public.
That's all that does. But if I went by that, which is why I didn't think I was enough, then I never would've started my business. I never would've baked, I never would've had Google come after me and say, you started your business with our tools. Can you help me? And start and stayed with that rhetoric of you don't have enough education to do it, and we really have to get past that.
Really well. We really need to get past it when we're not giving people access to free education and this goes back to what we were saying a second ago, like I am all for taking care of people to give them what they need to be independent, great people. Give them the food, give them the healthcare, give them the education. There's no reason why we're not giving people these tools that are equalizers.
Even if we're gonna pay for education, I still don't see why one year needs to cost $40,000. Okay? I'm speaking that for myself. 'cause my daughter went to a private college and that and those, I was like $40,000. Oh Lord have mercy. That's a salary for one person, $40,000 that you have. And I am I know a lot of people think it's controversial, but thank you so much president Biden for helping me with my student loans, because I never would've paid those jokers off if it was, I, I graduated 1995 and I still had student loans.
It's crazy. And it's just that wait, it's just that, it just depends on. I was lucky to graduate when the interest rates were super low and I could consolidate them. I think it was like 0.25, like I was paying a quarter of a percent on my like, so completely different scenario than 8% siblings of mine that got out and it was like 12, 15.
I have people who have hundreds of thousands of dollars in. Yes, and when you're starting to live anywhere that you can try to pay that. Loan off is gonna be so expensive. So you're like, here's my $20 that I'll just give you for the rest of my life. So it's that.
That was me. Yeah.
So it's crazy.
And you go back a hundred years, most people weren't working for a corporation.
No. Don't work mom and pop.
Yeah, they had their own business. They were seamstress, cobblers. They did, like most people knew, they had to have a trade or skill, or their own business of some kind. That's how they made their money.
But due to racism, that was my grandmother she worked in she was a housekeeper, in, in a fam a white. Family. But then once she decided I don't want to do this anymore, she became a cosmetologist. She went to the only black cosmetology school and then she opened her own beauty salon.
And when she did that, it took me years to realize. My grandmother was an entrepreneur. I didn't, I just know she owned a hair salon, but she was an entrepreneur, but she also was chemist 'cause she had to learn chemicals, she had to learn hair follicles. She had to do all these things with science, which then her children went to college.
Because of all of this. But then it passed on to two of my aunts who were cosmetologists and then to a cousin who's a cosmetologist. So now we have a long line of people who picked up the family business, who are all entrepreneurs who were doing this trade because my grandmother took a chance and bet on herself in order to do something that was out of the norm in the 1960s.
Yeah. And you spoke to how that's still existing today where women are starting businesses, but they're not thinking that they're an entrepreneur. Exactly. And there's so much power in that. So much power. We could talk about this for hours, but I wanna go to your podcast. Yes.
Let's tell everyone about your podcast and why you love it and how's it going?
It is going amazing. Originally, of course, that transfer it was the ish called Dear Forties 'cause I was getting out my forties. But I transitioned it to the Shani Show because I needed to have a bigger light and I was determined to do it like a regular talk show.
So I have segments on there, interviews, which somebody hint, hint will be coming on there. Look for your invitation. So I have interviews, we have segments just like you would watch a on your regular talk show. It is amazing. Season two is coming. I did eight episodes in season one. Season two we're go, going from talking head to, I'm actually building a studio in my garage, so I love that.
Full studio in the garage with guests and segments and even taking people on the road. So I'm very excited. So I love that the TV show is on YouTube and we're picking up I am pitching now to have it on a streaming channel, so preferably that will be happening. And then you can also hear the audio version on wherever you listen to podcasts.
I love that. So we have a few rapid fire questions to wrap up today. Okay. So the first is when you hear the words powerful and ladies, what do those words mean to you? And does their definition change when they're next to each other?
They do, they change when they meet with each other because powerful helps me describe the ladies, right?
But when I hear powerful, I think of, I actually get a visual. And the visual I get is of someone with fire all around them that is blazing bright, that with their hands up in that. Stance of a strong woman kind of stance who has their chest out and a just really emanating that type of I can't say power for powerful energy who's emanating that energy.
So that's what I hear and see when I think of it's
a care bear stare. We ask everyone where you put yourself on the powerful Lady scale, if zero is average everyday human and 10 is the most powerful lady you can imagine. Where would you put yourself on that scale today and on an average day? On
an average day, I'm a six and a half on the average day today, I feel eight-ish kind of today.
'cause I was really cute today and when I put on cute clothes, I feel more powerful and so six and a half because I know that I need to grow. Yeah. All
right. Love that. We've also been asking everybody what do you need? What's on your to manifest? To what To make happen list. This is a big, powerful community, and I really believe you never know has, who has the next key that you're looking for.
So how can we help you? What do you want? What do you need? I need exposure. Quite frankly, for the book that I just made or that I just wrote called Soulful Sparkles for my podcast I need the exposure and the community to build around spreading joy sparkles every day, what she needs.
That type of energy is what I really need.
All right, love that. I think we can help with that a little bit. Thank you. It has been such a pleasure to talk to you today, for you to give us your time and share your wisdom and all your sparkle and energy that is clear and apparent.
One of my words is always to dazzle, so my dazzle sees your sparkle. So thank you. But really thank you for what you're doing. It is, we're on opposite coasts as our home bases, but knowing that you're out there. Creating that space. Like I do a practice sometimes when I'm not feeling connected to the bigger community, the bigger group, I'll just stand up and put my hands out to the side as if I'm holding hands with people.
And meeting people like you. And knowing when I do that, I can be like, Nope, I'm holding our hands like we are on similar paths to make all this stuff happen. So it's a relief because then we know we're not just doing it by ourselves. So thank you for standing next to me and sharing your light.
Oh, thank you. That
is just amazing. I love that. So now, now I'm gonna be standing up and holding my hands like this, to know that I'm gonna be doing that. Yeah. I love that. Thank you so much. I love that. So tell me anytime you want me to come visit and we, I'm just a plane ride away, but thank you for having me on the podcast, on the show.
This is wonderful. Thank you to all the powerful women. I cannot wait to connect and hold hands with you guys in person one day. And where can everyone find and follow you? So they can do that. The biggest way is go to my website, which is sice ley.com and if you can't spell it and you'd be like, okay, that's weird.
Just always remember she in Nice. And that's how you spell Sice. So sice ly.com. And that will lead you to all things Sice from the podcast to Instagram at I Am. She needs C everywhere that you wanna go, but I hang out a lot on Instagram 'cause it's very perky. Yeah.
Perfect. Thank you so much. Thank you.
I appreciate you
all. The links connect with chinny. To hire her as a coach to speak, get her book, or to follow her show are all in our show notes@thepowerfulladies.com. Subscribe to this podcast wherever you're listening and come join us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies and to connect directly with me. Head over to at kara duffy on Instagram or visit kara duffy.com.
I'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Until then, I hope you're taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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