Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: I am so excited that you all are here today. Today's episode is all about how to turn your hustle into a sustainable and profitable business.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: Welcome to Coaching Cocktails and Conversations with Lolita E. Walker, the podcast that coaches you up while meeting you exactly where you are. Grab your water teeth or something stronger and allow this podcast to help you feel the power in your paw on in and join the conversation. Let's go.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: Listen. Now is the time. And I'm so excited with our guest today, we have April Wallace. She is an HR expert and CEO of AW Squared Advisors, and I am so excited to bring her to the table, you guys. Hey, April. Hey, Lolita.
[00:00:56] Speaker C: Thank you for having me. Hello, everyone.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: Hi.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Hi.
[00:01:00] Speaker C: Hi.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: I am so excited to have you. I haven't told the audience yet, but I met April when we lived in Boston, Massachusetts, and she's a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated. Just like me. We were just doing amazing things there. And now she has relocated to Maryland, to Prince George's County. And I am so excited to have her bring her expertise here because not only where we in the same organization doing things out in the community, but we also work professionally in different capacities as well. So, April, why don't you tell everyone who you are, what brought you here, and then we'll get into the episode.
[00:01:42] Speaker C: Absolutely. And thank you for the fabulous introduction. I'm really excited to be here in Maryland and here with you today. I call myself a human resources reformed practitioner. And what that means is that I've been in human resources for a very, very long time. And with that, I got into human resources because I loved the difference and the combination of the law and helping people, how you get into these spaces in the world and you decide that you're going to conquer the world and in these different organizations and had a very, very amazing career and opportunity to work in for profits and nonprofits. And we was able to work with you in your capacity as well in coaching and in doing so. What I that I was getting away from the people part of it because as you become an executive in these corporations, it's a lot about the business and you lose sight of sometimes and touch with the people. I remember being in an international organization with multiple countries and multiple thousands of employees and knowing probably about 90% of the names, and I prided myself in that. Now it was getting to a point where that wasn't the case. So I had an opportunity to refresh, relax, renew, reread one of your books and really took the time to determine what was best for me in this moment. And with this move, it allowed me to transition into something that I find joy. So I started AW Squared Advisors so that I can help more than one company, particularly small to mid size organizations, anything under 1,000 employees who may not have the in house expertise that they need from a strategy perspective or they need some training and don't have anyone in house or they need just some projects done, someone to come in, do something and leave. I fulfill all of those needs and then some. So I adhere with you today because part of me as a person and as a practitioner and also as part of my business is always finding ways to give back. And one of the things that I'm seeing literally in my front yard is how much the impact on the residents of the DMV with the federal restructuring as I'm calling it, and how it's being done and what's being done. This is my new home and wanted to find a way to help those that I live with in the community. So that's what brings me here today with you.
[00:04:12] Speaker A: Oh my goodness. You know, as you mentioned, the federal government, as you mentioned where we live in a proximity to Washington D.C. right now, in the world, especially here, there is just this feeling of chaos altogether. So this topic today that we're talking about, how to turn your hustle into a sustainable and profitable business. One thing that I was always taught is that your gifts will make room for you. As we talk about that today, you know, the world right now with all the chaos, it could really feel like a storm that's happening. We have exhaustion and uncertainty and pressure from every single direction. In the middle of that storm is where we stand. In the middle of that storm is where you stand. In the middle of that storm is where AW Squared Advisors I think can really help us to kind of get rooted in exactly what we feel and the full potential of ourselves. So today I want to delve in by asking you a couple of questions and then I want to also bring in your own personal experience, what you would recommend based on your HR expertise. And the goal here is everybody is really trying to figure out how do I have a different stream of income right now because I don't know what new executive order is going to come out. I don't know if my job is going to be here and I'm feeling uncertain. So I want to give people that opportunity today. So are you ready to get into it?
[00:05:35] Speaker C: I'm ready. Let's go.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: All right. All right. Why don't you take us back to one of the biggest storms that you faced and what did it look like and feel like to you?
[00:05:45] Speaker C: My biggest storm is probably a big storm for everyone else, just in a different capacity. And that was the pandemic. During the pandemic, I was working for a food bank. As you can imagine, just in normal times when there's just little itty bitty storms, the need is great. With the pandemic, it was about how do we get food to folks who we already have been providing food to? How do we get food to folks who are newly needing food because of their circumstances, Losing their jobs, losing daycare, and oh, by the way, how do we keep our employees safe and healthy and their families safe and healthy? And then, oh, by the way, how do I keep myself and my family safe and healthy? All of that happening at the same time. As an HR practitioner, or at least very seasoned, what tends to happen is you worry about everybody else. So the three plus years of the pandemic and just when the world started opening up, I went to work every day. I went to an office every single day. That is very rare. But I felt that I needed to be there for a bunch of reasons, including the fact that we had employees who, who were risking their lives to distribute food in the building. So I did not have the quote, unquote break that everyone else or most folks that I knew did in terms of being able to work remotely. And in a way, what that brought for your mental health so didn't have that put our myself at risk because of the work that we were doing. Sometimes I was helping to distribute food and then, oh, by the way, worried about my husband who was a physician, worried about my children who are out in the world trying to live, and my family and my really, really dear and far friends. That was a perfect storm of just everything coming down on you and you carrying weight. And oh, by the way, when the world opened up, there was no reprieve. It was just business, not as usual, but business as usual for myself as well as a lot of HR practitioners. That was something that I never experienced in my career, even as an HR practitioner and hope to never experience again. This is a different kind of storm. But the COVID 19 crisis was one that you couldn't have trained for. It required me, and this is where some of the lessons learned came in. It required me to do things that are outside of the scope of an HR practitioner. I all of a sudden became a crisis manager. I became a communications manager, I became a health manager in a different way. Learning and talking to members of the CDC and the state and local disease experts and medical experts, all of the hospitals. I was a partner with our chief operations officer as well, because we kept everyone else out of the building and out of the business, and I was forced to make decisions for the organization that's normally not there. So the lesson for me was, is lean into the new, lean into the different, and also continue the lifelong learning, because that learning there helped to put me in a really great position in starting my business.
[00:09:02] Speaker A: Oh, that's so good. Because what I. What I heard you also say is that you leaned into your own strengths. You know, I think when we talk about turning your hustle into a business, I think the first thing to realize, and I wonder what your thoughts are, is as you talk about leaning into your gifts and your strengths and where the work is and how it flows is we're naturally working in our strengths every day. We just don't realize it. It's the things people for. It's the things that people come to you and say, oh, can you help me with this? So I guess my next question is, how did you find your grounding? How did you get grounded and find your. Your strength that you wanted to work in, your hustle?
[00:09:39] Speaker C: Yeah. I had to learn to trust and to celebrate my own talent. Right. So to your point, we're always working in our strengths and with our strengths. And while other people would mention things or highlight things that I did, I did not own that. It was always a we mentality and not an I did this, I did that. It is okay to say, I did this and I can do this, and, oh, by the way, let's celebrate it. So one of the. I sort of have a three prongs to how I manage my life, let alone my professional life, is trust and celebrate your own talent. Because it was not Lolita until I started doing that for myself, that I said, oh, wait a minute. Not only can I do it, I am doing it, I did do it, and I will do it. Right. And so you have to have that conversation with yourself. You have to get comfortable with doing this. This is not about marketing. This is about recognizing that you are a gem and a talent and what you bring to the world and how you impact. It's not about how you build your resume or how you put things on link, you know, things on LinkedIn. It's saying, yes, I believe that I'm fabulous. I believe that I'm talented. And, oh, by the way, I am more than just what my job titles have been, I'm all of these different things because when you look at my resume, you're not going to see some of the things that I shared with you. Because from an HR perspective, that's not necessarily what HR folks do. But in my seats at the table and when I'm trying to get to the table and have conversations with non HR people, I can speak the language because I trust my talent and my experiences and I celebrate them on a regular basis now.
[00:11:26] Speaker A: No, I love that. So let's say that somebody's looking on right now and they're like, listen, I feel like I know my talents. I haven't really started articulating them out yet. I'm a little nervous. But how do you really. How would you say that? You really start to lean into that. So let's give some folks some steps or some principles that they can really delve into from your perspective. Perspective.
[00:11:47] Speaker C: Many years ago, someone, I was in a networking event and someone talked about having their own personal board of directors. And this is like 10 years ago. And I thought that that was an interesting phrase and didn't really understand it. And I spent some time talking with a few people and then easily got it. We talk to folks every day who could be members of our own personal board of directors. And this I have found most successfully have been a combination of your friends. But those friends who are not those are people who are really going to tell you the good, the bad and the ugly, even when you don't want to hear it. So these are not your Facebook friends. These are not people that you occasionally see. These are people who you. They are extent. They could be extended members of your family, but they're not your family and can help you to think through things. Right. So your, your friends, a few people then people that you've worked with, a combination of people that might have been more senior than you and people that might have reported into you or you've worked as peers. Again, just a handful of people because those people are going to identify your professional strengths as well and help to give you some guidance. And then you have people who've worked with you as part of a project or volunteering or in an organization that you're a member of. You might be a board or might not. You might be, oh, I have someone who I've known since my kids were little. We were on a baseball team together, part of my personal board of directors. Because you need a 360 degree view of who you are and that helps talking to those people and Asking them when you think about me or you, when you think about how we work together, Lolita, on that project, what things come to mind? What three things do you think about, my friend, when you remember that problem I helped you out with? Because I don't know about you, Lolita, but I get calls, people. Like, I have this people manager problem. Can you help me walk through it? What are those? Some of those things. So ask the people that you trust and that you know and create a personal board of directors. And I did so probably took me about two years to really hone in who the right members are, because you. You list a bunch of people and then you have conversations. But my personal board of directors has been key in getting me to this point.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: Oh, so good. I am such a fan of having the right support network around you. Not somebody that is always telling you yes, but those people that challenge you. One of the things that you did say is, you've got to ask the questions. I love that you said that. Ask the questions and be ready for the answers. If you're asking someone what are a couple of things that popped out when we worked on that project together. I love that. Or to your board of directors, what's something that if you, you know, in my line of coaching or in your line of HR that you really see that I'm doing that I should really. I don't realize it, but I really might want to shift if this is where I want to go. All of those are such good questions. So now that somebody is starting to ask those questions of their network, they're starting to see who are the people that's going to be around me. They know now what their hustle is and they're ready to bring it to life, what would you say? Because I know that you have these three principles that you believe in. So why don't you tell us about the three principles and then tell us what next?
[00:15:06] Speaker C: Yeah. So the first, we've been talking about the trust and celebrate your own talent. And part of that personal board of directors is understanding where your talents are. So we all are our own worst critics. And so having these conversations with folks that you trust will help you to understand truly how fabulous you are and then how you can hone in on your. How fabulous you are to create that additional stream of income to celebrate you. So trust and celebrate your own talent and have others help you do that. Invest in time and take the time. And that is really important. It is not just about investing the time in you, but it might be investing the time in others and taking time, because especially as you're starting off your own business is so easy to fall back into your old habits. Right. So you need to sort of set your own boundaries, and we'll talk a little bit about that. And then there's your treasure. So these three have come from my nonprofit world where resources are based around talent, time, and treasure. It's the same thing for someone running their business, right? It is the exact same thing. It looks a little bit differently depending upon who you are and how you do it and what you do. But it's your talent, your time, and your treasure. And with your treasure, it's a combination of saving and cherishing and conserving and also spending. So happy to go into more about the time and the treasure when it makes sense.
[00:16:34] Speaker A: Oh, no, I love it. We can just go ahead and delve right into it now. I think, you know, you did a great job at talking about, you know, the trust and celebrating your. Your talents and your board of directors and managing this time and. Yeah, talk to us about the time, talent and treasure.
[00:16:49] Speaker C: Yeah. So the. The time. And I am learning this.
This is probably not a surprise. Being an executive, a mom, starting a business, being a wife. All these crowns, people say hats. All these crowns that we wear, right? Sometimes they're tipped to the side, sometimes they're straight up, sometimes they're back, right? All these crowns that we wear. First and foremost, it was important to me in this time of reflection to set my boundaries before I even started doing anything. Because I know for myself, it's very easy for me to start packing things in, and next thing you know, it's just like one of the things and the goals for me was to work a certain amount of hours, have one day. Often I'm not doing anything, but I call it me Mondays. So that means nothing. That is, for anybody else to the extent that I can control the family. So I had to set my own boundaries, and it was so hard to do. But investing in your me time is critical because your business is going to ramp up. I believe that for everyone who's seeing that your business is going to. And if you don't see set your structure now for yourself, you'll be finding yourself in a not so great place and something reminiscent of where you were when you were in, you know, the corporate world or the nonprofit, working for someone else. You also not you. I find that you have to be critical in how you invest your time in networking. I'm learning in terms of not. This is a Little bit about treasure, too. Not everything, not every free networking opportunity is the right networking opportunity. So there needs to be a combination of what is offered for free and there are lots of resources and what you may have to pay a little bit more. So invest the time in determining what your strategy about your business development is going to be. And take the time also to continue your learning, to take the time to invest in yourself, and then also that will impact and invest in your future customers and clients because you are continuing to learn and invest in yourself. And there's always an impact there. So as it relates to time, you will be more successful when you do the work up front to determine what that looks like for you. And that's what I did. Hard. So hard. Literally hard. And I'm still fumbling over that. And fumbling is my word. You know, I do a reset at the end of each month, literally the last day of the month, if it's on a work day, a work weekday. And I looked at how much time did I spend doing business development, writing all of those different things that are part of my business, and how much did that time did I spend for me, what worked well, what do I want to start, stop and continue? And I build that time. It takes me about an hour. I built that time into my schedule. So it's really important to set those boundaries, to invest in yourself, which is time to take the time to invest in yourself, which is more time, and then also the impact that you're going to have on your clients, your consumers, your customers later on.
[00:20:05] Speaker A: I think when I first started my business, and then it translates into whether it's work, home or life as well. But was the struggle with time, time management, because you have all of these things, you know what the end goal is. But there's all these things that now become priority. Should I work on my website? What about my logo? What about this? What about, what about the newsletter? How am I going to get that out? And it's all of these things, but it also is how am I going to leverage the talent. I had that now I remembered now my strength to really help so that this treasure, I'm pulling in some money and making it profitable and sustainable. So I love this time, talent and treasure because it all goes together, it's intertwined. And I think to your point of what you just said as well is the timepiece you're always going to come back to. It doesn't matter how long you've had your business, it doesn't matter how long you've been in a corporate space. The reality is there's so many different things that pop in and out of your life. Always have to go back to that. Time management.
[00:21:04] Speaker C: Yeah. And time is finite. The one thing we don't get a chance to do is to get more time back. Right. And it doesn't matter if you start with 40 hours a week, 80 hours, 50, 10. And build in time for yourself and for your family, it will all work out. If you know how much time you are dedicating to your business, you'll chop that up and determine what makes sense in terms of the different business activities. But one thing we know is time is finite. And so we want to be able to cherish the time that we have. But there is some investment. And you do have to sort of, whatever version of pound the pavement is, do have to invest the time in doing that.
[00:21:44] Speaker A: Yeah. And getting your systems in order. I think that's the biggest thing as well that I found is making sure, as you said, setting those boundaries. But what does that look like in your business, how when you think about sustainability, when you think about having a business account versus your personal account, those type of things. And I think that, you know, when people decide to contact you and look at from the perspective of consulting for human resources, how do you maintain your human resources in your business, but also you as a human resource as well to get it done. So we're going to go into a lightning round.
[00:22:18] Speaker C: Sure.
[00:22:19] Speaker A: And I have some things that I have going to throw these questions at you and just give me the quick answer. So what's one word to describe you.
[00:22:28] Speaker C: During your storm dynamic?
[00:22:31] Speaker A: One word to describe you now. Being rooted.
[00:22:34] Speaker C: Flourishing.
[00:22:35] Speaker A: Oh, I love that. A practice you swear by to stay grounded.
[00:22:40] Speaker C: Reading.
[00:22:42] Speaker A: Okay. And then a quote or mantra that you return to whenever chaos comes.
[00:22:49] Speaker C: I'm probably gonna make mess this up in the moment, but it's the. The end of Invictus.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: I love that. Okay, so we're gonna give a cheers. We're gonna give a cheers. Cheers. Cheers to the people here. So no matter if you are drinking water, tea, or something stronger, we do not judge over here. But the toast is to the boldness of each and every one of you all. To recognizing your talents, to leaping into the storm, but recognizing that even in the midst of the storm, you're staying rooted. I love what April left you with today, which is the time, the talent and the treasure, and how to leverage each one of those. So what would you give a cheers to for the people that's listening in.
[00:23:28] Speaker C: Right now, I would give a cheers to resilience. I think the difficulty and the challenge right now is we thought we were resilient during a global pandemic that was historical. And this one is also going to be a very difficult test.
And I think we will all rise to the occasion.
I will cheers to resiliency. And if I may just. The quote has come to me now in that question. I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul. And that is going to help us all be resilient.
[00:24:06] Speaker A: You know, when I first learned that poem, it's so funny because I was talking to somebody the other day and they said that their child in middle school came home and they had to learn Invictus. And I said it wasn't until college when I learned Invictus, actually. But the fact that Invictus is coming up in schools where scholars are learning it so easy, I think not easy, but so early. I think it's so important because it just gives you so much power. It does. You know, when you start off with out of the, out of the Night, it just is like, wow. And I, I, I love that you brought that up. I didn't add in. I said, okay, anyway, listen, I love.
[00:24:45] Speaker C: That I would have been fine. The audience would have been like, what's happening? But I would have been fine. My boys, they weren't teaching that.
[00:24:53] Speaker A: I did.
[00:24:53] Speaker C: I taught them when they were 6 and 7.
[00:24:57] Speaker A: Oh, really? Yeah. You know, I have not taught Walker that, but I really, I will take that. Look at me learning and growing. I will take that because the memories that I have of it when I learned it, I think are so important. And there was some tears sometimes. And I think that the poem itself is so powerful. And quite frankly, it helps you to recognize, I think, your talents. It starts to have you think about you being that master and then you treasuring all of the things. And I mean, the buildup of, of confidence that it, it has now. You know, when in a fail clutch of circumstance, I have not win snow cried aloud. Like all of those things are. Don't you dare. You will walk into this thing with your head held high at all times.
[00:25:43] Speaker C: So finds and shall find me unafraid. Yes, all of that. So for the audience, if you don't know Invictus and you're looking for a lift me up and something that can carry you through this storm, that is it for me.
[00:25:56] Speaker A: Oh, that is so good. No, I absolutely love that. As we look to close this episode right here, I want to thank you. And let's see, how can folks get in touch with you, April, when they're ready to dig right in and turn their hustle into a sustainable and profitable business?
[00:26:12] Speaker C: The best way is to go on my website, aw squared advisors allone word.com and there that that's my website.
Then my email address is awallace. So a w a l l a c e at awsquared advisors.com awallacew squared.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: Advisors.Com so listen, you all make sure you get in touch with April today. If you are just joining us, we have talked about time, we talked about talent, we talked about treasure. April gave us some things we can really just start considering as we move forward. What are your strengths? She talked about leveraging those. The board of directors. She talked about creating boundaries, getting your system set up. And those are some tangible next steps for everybody looking in. But also get in touch with April. Make sure you connect. Make sure you connect and ask questions. I challenge everybody as we look to close is one. Where are you spending your time? Where are you spending your time right now? Does it make sense for where you're going? Are you celebrating your talent or are you hiding it? April talked about that as well. Are you articulating it? Are you saying it out loud? And are you protecting your treasure like the true resource that it is? So today that's coaching cocktails and conversations, everybody. April, did you have anything else you wanted to leave with the people?
[00:27:42] Speaker C: Amen. Good luck to everyone. I know you'll do it.
[00:27:45] Speaker A: Absolutely. All right, thanks you guys and we'll see you next time.
[00:27:50] Speaker B: We have concluded yet another episode of Coaching cocktails and conversations, the podcast with Lolita E. Walker. Connect with me@lolita walker.com for speaking coaching and my books, the intersection of you and change. And can we talk letters and poems to recognize claim a boulder. You listen. Have you already grabbed your CCNC garb?
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