This week Nicole brought Lupita Santana her online buddy for a friendly jam on the way we experience being Latinas. 

The idea for this conversation came when Nicole learned that like her, Lupita was married to someone from a different Latino culture, and was now living in her husband's native country.  Having spent time living abroad in a Latin country Nicole was curious about Lupita's experience being an 'Latina expat' in a Latino country. Nicole shares about her experience moving to Chile for a year and her challenges with in fitting in and the hard chats with folks who saw her as simply American vs what she was used to in the states being seen as a Latin American.

Please note, there may be some points of views expressed that some people may not agree with as we are speaking from our POV and perspective.  As always, all feedback is welcomed.  Email [email protected]

This week Nicole welcomed Aycee Brown to the podcast to talk to us about the launch of Good Night Darling Co. her company dedicated to helping us get better sleep. 

In this episode we talk about:

• Why is sleep so important that she would start a company around it? 
• The moment when she knew you this idea had to be birthed.
• The journey and process of creating a product based business.
• Being a serial entrepreneur (Aycee started her first biz at age 8!!)
• How the micro-agressions and the hustle of WOC that affect us during the day affects our sleep e.g., being the only person of color in office 

Aycee is so awesome she even created a special promo code just for Black Sheep Podcast listeners. Enter BLACKSHEEP to score 15% off any product in the store.

We agree that sleep is so important to any Black Sheep Lady that this winter we featured her fade to black. herbal tea & tincture combo in our Holiday Buy Brown Guide and since then she has added more products and soon will be launching a sleep consultation practice. Sign up to be notified when it launches and to purchase visit www.goodnightdarling.co/collections/all and connect with her on Facebook and Instagram @goodnightdarlingco and Twitter @GNDarlingCo

In this week's episode we jam about money.

How we manage our money, tools/apps/systems and general thoughts on money.

Want help finding awesome women of color owned business? Get on our list to access our latest Buy Brown Guide is coming out soon. Don't miss out on these amazing products by women of color owned businesses. Sign up here http://bit.ly/buybrownguide to be notified when the new guide is released.

We would love your feedback! Email us or leave a review at iTunes. 

And join us in the FB group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/iamblacksheep/ to get support on your Black Sheep journey.

This week we break the news - we are breaking up! Jes is going to be stepping down from the Black Sheep Podcast and the Live Black Sheep brand. 

We know, we know...shocking!  But it's all love and all good. Tune in to hear our candid conversation where we process this decision together for the first time since we made the decision with love and grace. 

Upmost was our commitment to maintaining our friendship and staying in integrity.

We came to this decision in late January as it became clear that at this point Jes doesn't have the time to devote to the podcast. We then went through the process of working through the logistics mainly over email. This chat is our first time we got on the phone since that call to discuss and process the end of our partnership.

This episode is a great one for anyone curious about what it is like to partner with grace and integrity even when it doesn't work out. 

• We cover lessons learned...partnership agreement early on. Hello...yeah that would be very helpful to have had early on. Especially if money is being paid out and/or shared assets are being created.

• We talk about getting clear...are you partnering on a business or a project? Our lack of clarity created a space for uncertainty and resentment to build.

Although it is sad - we are filled with gratitude for the journey and time together and the ability to end this part of our relationship and maintaining our friendship.

 

Past Episodes referenced in episode:

Episode 21: Maintaining Motivation and Momentum


Episode 15: Live From Toronto: Schedules and Workaholism


Episode 14: 3 Keys to Success: Risk Taking, Failure + Being Vulnerable

In this week's episode we explore decision making.

How do we make decisions, how do we prioritize? Each and every day there are a lot of decisions that need to be made. Join Jes and Nicole in a candid chat about how we approach decision making in our lives and catch up with each other on the decisions we are weighing in our lives. 

Some of what we heard in the Black Sheep Society our free online community we've heard women are making decisions about:

• When starting a coaching practice how do you niche down?
• Do you take a full time gig for the income to support your side hustle as it grow?
• How do you refer to yourself when you are a multi passionate entrepreneur?
• How do you brand yourself when you have multiple hustles?

Want help finding awesome women of color owned business? Get on our list to access our latest Buy Brown Guide is coming out soon. Don't miss out on these amazing products by women of color owned businesses. Sign up here http://bit.ly/buybrownguide to be notified when the new guide is released.

Join the tribe online in the Black Sheep Society our free online community.

We don't know about y'all but it has been really intense in these parts! Things have been so busy and intense here at Black Sheep HQ that we paused the podcast release and took two weeks off to get healthy and caught up on the insane amount of everything February threw at us! Anyone else? 

We would love your feedback! Email us or leave a review at iTunes.

And join us in the FB group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/iamblacksheep/to get support on your Black Sheep journey.

Are you on the list? Our latest Buy Brown Guide is coming out soon. Don't miss out on these amazing products by women of color owned businesses. Sign up here http://bit.ly/buybrownguide to be notified when the new guide is released.

This week Nicole and Jes keep it light in a fun discussion on ways we can take care of our external selves that serve to support our internal workings (you know feelings, emotions etc :) and yes we talk about money!!

Topics discussed:

• The use of color to support us to feel different
• Smartly, financially investing in ourselves even when times are lean
• Our personal brand is a part of what we are selling and what we communicate externally has implications
• The power of owning the energy you want for the day - both negative and positive through our personal branding
• Becoming aware of the things we have surrounded ourselves with and around how they are impacting how we feel inside
• Making smart purchases

What do you love to invest in? Let us know @liveblacksheep or in the Black Sheep Society our community FB. 

Full show notes can be found at http://bit.ly/liveblacksheep24

This week's episode is all about giving back in a way that is sustainable to your life and maximizes impact around your cause.

This episode has a freebie - The Ready, Set , Do (Good) mini course is designed to help embed giving into your biz or life. It outlines seven ways to give back, get it for FREE at www.liveblacksheep.com/findyourcause

A hallmark of every client Nicole has even coached is that they are values-driven women. And whether through their work or personal lives they seek ways to give back. 

Many of them are also multi-passionate and have a ton of ideas and projects they are trying to juggle. Sound like you? 

This week Nicole uses Jes as a case study of how she works with clients to launch social good projects. Make sure you grab your freebie to get access to Nicole's coaching process that helped Jes maximize her social impact through the social impact initiative she birthed called www.poweredbyher.com

This week we are Black Sheep because....

"I am Black Sheep because I am taking risks to talk more about the things I am passionate about." - Nicole

"I am Black Sheep because I make unreasonable asks." - Jes

The BlackSheepAsk Challenge is live! 

For 30 Days we are making small and large asks to get out of our comfort zone. When you make your ask tag us #blacksheepask 

Terms mentioned in this episode: 

DoGoodLiving.com [link to www.dogoodliving.com]- Spectrum of Social Change

There is a pipeline of change, where along a change journey to affect this wrong is your intervention going to be placed?

Social Entrepreneurship - Mission driven for-profit entity that from it's start is intended to do social good for world. Or non profits that create revenue generating streams. 

One-for-One Model - Buy a product, company donates one. 

Examples:

• Warby Parker - https://www.warbyparker.com
• TOMS - http://www.toms.com/

B-Corps - "B Corp is to business what Fair Trade certification is to coffee or USDA Organic certification is to milk. B Corps are for-profit companies certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency." 

Source: https://www.bcorporation.net/what-are-b-corps

Example: SustyParty - http://www.sustyparty.com/

Non Profit with Revenue Generating Streams - These organizations are supported by both donations and "incorporate some form of revenue generation through commercial means into their operations. Income-generating activities are not conducted as a separate business, but rather are integrated into the organization's other activities." 

Source: http://www.4lenses.org/Setypology/iga

Examples include: 
SHE Health Enterprises - http://sheinnovates.com/
DC Central Kitchen - https://dccentralkitchen.org/our-social-ventures/

Social return on investment (SROI) - "is a principles-based method for measuring extra-financial value (i.e., environmental and social value not currently reflected in conventional financial accounts) relative to resources invested." 

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_return_on_investment

Organization mentioned in this episode:

Unreasonable Institute - https://unreasonableinstitute.org/

ThoughtWorks - https://www.thoughtworks.com/

Ashoka - https://www.ashoka.org/
AshokaU - http://ashokau.org/
The New School Social Innovation Initiative - http://www.newschool.edu/social-innovation/

To learn more about Nicole's coaching work with clients around social impact visit www.DoGoodLiving.com 

Have a cause or effort you support - tell us so we can support and share with the community.

This week Nicole and Jes are jamming about Creating Content for Social Media. This episode is a training for those of you new and seasoned entrepreneurs who want to re-examine and re-commit to your online presence.

Other episodes that would be good to listen alongside are Episode #: 12 Launching a Website in 5 Steps and Episode 20: Being Seen.

This week's episode picks up where we left off last week talking about motivation and momentum. For #liveblacksheep, 2017 is the year of striving for consistent communication across our channels and maintaining that momentum.

Topics we explore include:

• Choosing a platform the best services your voice + style
• Understanding how you best produce content
• Choosing your content focus areas

Coaching Corner: The Black Sheep Ask Challenge is here!

In last week's episode we introduced you to a TED Talk: What I Learned from 100 Days of Rejection. This week we are officially kicking off our #BlackSheepAsk Challenge. Until Feb 15th we can use #blacksheepask to share our about our asks, no matter how big or small. From Jes, "I plan to start with smaller asks and build from there. I feel both exhilarated and scared! All the more reason to do this!"

Will you join?

Follow us #blacksheepask and join the tribe in the Black Sheep Society our free FB group where we will share behind the scenes from our asks!

Tools + Tech + Programs we love!

As this week we are focused on social media we are featuring CoSchedule our all-in-one content marketing editorial calendar solution. Why we love it?

• Create one social media campaign across all your channels at one time?!
• Month a glance to visually see the communication with your audience
• One step connecting to all our social channels for the non techy black sheep

Try it out for free for 14 days. 

Other social media planning software we mentioned in this episode - 

Edgar

Buffer

Grum

Social Oomph

and...design related apps:

SnapSeed

PhotoGrid

Font Candy

This week we talk about motivation and momentum and what we each need to maintain both. 

Topics we explore include:

• What is the difference between motivation and momentum?

• The important of values-based motivation + doing work that is meaningful
• The importance of growth and education + learning in maintaining momentum

Coaching Corner
In this episode we asked you consider the following questions to help with motivation and momentum, especially when either (or both!) are stalled: 

• What am I learning from this process? (as easy or hard as the task or project at hand is)

• How I am growing? (personally or professionally)

• What can I say I now know that I can apply to a future project or endeavor? 

What motivates you or enables you to keep up momentum? Reply to this email and we will feature your response in an upcoming episode!

Part of maintaining momentum for Nicole was finding tools and software that can support her to maintain the flow of work. When she gets bogged down doing work that doesn't inspire her she can loose motivation which in turn affects the momentum of her projects. Sound like you?  

One of the biggest hurdles you might have heard her discuss in Episode 20: "Being Seen"- was maintaining a presence on social media. Doing it manually was causing a bottleneck.

Enter one of her new favorite tools - Coschedule, an all-in-one content marketing editorial calendar solution that lets her plan out all her social media ahead of time.

"Getting out of the day to day of writing posts and uploading and instead sitting down and at one time writing and then scheduling posts for the next week (or three!) freed up so much room to focus on other aspects of the project. Most important though, was it allowed me to get excited about content marketing and having a consistent dialogue with our followers and friends online!." - Nicole

They have a free 14 day trial we suggest you try out: http://coschedule.com/r/81100

Have you downloaded our Buy Brown Buy Guide yet?  Each much we curate a list five women of color owned businesses to feature in a free guide. Leverage your purchase power and sign up today at http://liveblacksheep.com/buy-brown-guide/

Look for community, inspiration and accountability on your Black Sheep journey? Join our free online community at https://www.facebook.com/groups/iamblacksheep/