September 23, 2022 • 22 mins
Alquincia is an app developer, an entrepreneur, an infopreneur, and the founder of the first black virtual mall.
Alquincia talks about confronting imposter syndrome, making an assessment of yourself, the marketing classes and free educational resources she used to start her business, and all amenities offered in the black virtual mall.
Host IG:@itstanyatime
Guest IG: @akanundrum
Black Virtual Mall IG: @theblackvirtualmall
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, money movers, welcome back to money moves, the daily Podcast,
determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom of
financial stability, wealth and abundance. Innovation and entrepreneurship go hand
(00:21):
in hand, but it can be just as simple as saying, hey,
here's something that is needed, here's something that people want,
here's something that I can grow and build into something
of value and excellence, something that I love and many
others will. Sure it exists somewhere else, but I'm going
to create it here. For most of us, entrepreneurship seems
(00:43):
out of reach. Most of us don't know where to start,
much less how to find success and grow it into
something big. But there are people out there who are
dedicated to the idea of black and Brown success through
entrepreneurship and wealth building, and our expert today is one
of those people. She is an APP developer and entrepreneur
and Infopreneur and the founder of the black virtual mall
(01:06):
a Quincy, a Sella Wanni Al Quincy, and welcome to
the show. I'm so excited to have you here and
to tell your story. Thank you. I'm so absolutely honored
to be here. Thank you so very much for having
me can you start by telling us a little bit
about how you got into entrepreneurship and talk about your journey? Sure. Thanks.
(01:27):
To be honest, Um, I had entrepreneur endeavors. I thought
about things and since I was a kid like most people,
and quite honestly, I didn't consider myself a business person
per se. Um. Math wasn't my strong soup, and so
I just felt that I was more of a creative
and I always thought that if I had an idea,
I would have to find someone to, you know, execute
(01:49):
that idea. And a best friend of mine, Um, after
I left college, graduated, she winds up purchasing a fortune,
five hundred company, a franchise, and so she ended up
needing help with that, and so I came on actually
just to kind of do some business, to business selves,
and I ended up having to manage it. And when
(02:09):
that happened, I had to jump in with both the
no formal training, nothing. So this being my best friend,
my daughter's out whether I took to the task. I
love that I wind up. She wind up trusting me
and we took her store from number sixty one in California.
I'm I'm sorry, I'm sixty one stores in California. We
(02:29):
were technically forty three to number two out of twelve
hundred stores nationwhy you end up being from number two
sixty five to number eleven. So that's kind of two
years of working with her and her trusting me and
really getting the behind the scenes, and so I started
to trust myself a little bit more with my ideas
(02:50):
and I thought, okay, I can do this, you know,
I can actually execute, and so I started that journey
and what I wanted to do was make sure this
time around I share the process. Oh, I love that.
And you know what this really fascinating about? That is
for a lot of women, you know, people have heard
this term of imposter syndrome, like I don't know if
(03:11):
I can do it, I'm not qualified, you know. Should
I go to school for this? How much do I
have to learn before I can really, you know, make
this happen? But telling stories like yours really put a
roadmap down for like you just went in and this
is the idea of like bake it till you make it.
You just did all the steps that you had to
do every day to move the needle to get to
the next level, and here you are like yeah, it's
(03:34):
you're testimony to so many women and you know, in
terms of imposter syndrome, was being very honest with myself
about my Swat, my strengths, my weaknesses, you know, writ
opportunities and what was it? I would be a bit
to my business, and so I immediately took an assessment
of myself to say, okay, what do I do will
and what do I not do? Well, yeah, at the time,
(03:55):
of course, I'm completely broke, so I cannot hire a
tea to do these things. So I decided, let me
try to fill in as many coals as I could. Um.
One of the things I did was I did take
marketing classes that you steel. So I think that's gonna be,
you know, something that I really want to get my
bearings around. And then I found out that there was
(04:15):
an APP on itunes called an apple called ituned university,
and ituned university is an amazing platform. It will be
ending in December, but what they've done is they've curated
prerecorded classes from some of the top institutions, Stanford, Berkeley, Cambridge,
and you just search for your subject and then you
(04:38):
get to listen to these are real college courses that
were recorded for free. I love that you're sharing like
these tangible tips, because the Internet has is literally been
such a Revolutionary Gateway for education and it's free and
there's so many different access points to where you can
find all these, you know, incredible resources to teach your self.
(05:00):
So like this is great. Thank you so much. Yeah,
and definitely I mean, and I know what it feels
like to have to buddle through. We're going to Google,
but then there's no really vetting process, so you don't
know what is authentic. You know what it's real, what
it's genuine. So I tuned university for me. You know,
I've been in college. It was it was a very
helpful tool because I didn't have to do any of
(05:22):
the guests work about is this legitimate is it not?
You know, so the information and it's compacted. You know,
as most people know, a semester sixteen hours. So I
wouldn't wake up doing hour. You know, in my in
my earbuds, you're listening to the coursework. Sometimes they give
you the PF files and everything. So an hour I
wake up on lunch, there's an hour that I do too.
(05:42):
So I was literally knocking back at college course in
four days. You know. Yeah, so sixteen hours, right. But
so I'm doing that and I'm taking everything that I
could get my hands on. If I wanted to know
about copyright, trade marking, I took that, entrepreneurship, I took that,
anything that I could get my hands on, and so
that helped out tremendously and what I decided to do
(06:05):
was share that journey. So when I went to create
my llc, I gave everyone of the information. Okay, I'm
going here. When I went to West far go to
do my bank account, okay, they're gonna ask you for
this form and this form and this form. Okay, wait,
we paused right there because I want to ask the question.
And it wind up being my most my first like
viral me. It was the UT least little meme ever,
(06:26):
but it wind up going viral and it was the
seven steps to start my business. Wait a second, I
want to pause right there, so just so that people
can get their bearings. So you had started Um, coming
to actively manage a franchise with your friend and now
you fast forward. You kind of had the you know,
school of hard knocks, self taught business education and you're
(06:48):
launching your own business. What was the business that you
were working on and then take us through, Um sort
of how you put this out to the world on
the instagram at conundrum. Yes, okay, so it's undone. Was
Just my personal page. The business that I was going
to launch just calls fits by design. WHAT FITS BY DESIGN? Um?
And so the concept was to mirror Um, say an shop, barbershop.
(07:11):
We have boots, but there would be fashion designers who
recently graduated from fashion school and you will be able
to come in and, uh, let them know what it
is that you wanted, have it professionally sketched, and then
the other side of the building was going to be
fabric so you will be able to meet with them,
choose your fabrics, your buttons, all your notions and then
have what you wanted. Me And I self talk Ser
(07:36):
uh and going to work and I'd make my outfits
and they were like where did you get that? And
I'm like, I made it, and they were like you
have to make me one, you have to make me one,
and I'm self talk. So I was like you really
don't want me. Okay, I'M gonna mess this up for you.
So I thought like wow, here's a problem. I see
it they would like to create a freedom that I had,
(07:57):
but they don't have cand of sewing. So I thought,
what if I hear these people together? And that's what
the concept was for fits. And this is, you know,
the Genesis of entrepreneurship for so many people. They're like,
wait a second, if I really like this and other
people are coming to me saying they like this, maybe
there's a bigger market. How do I create a business
around this? And Brilliant and solve a problem for more
(08:17):
and more people. Yes, and now, most recently, you've developed
the black virtual mall. Can you tell us about that
as well or sure? And so from that I did Um,
I wouldn't I've inventured into APP development, because the idea
for fits Um in two thousand and sixteen. I decided
to pivot from a breaking mortar concept to an APP concept.
(08:40):
So I started that journey and that journey of course,
introduces you into a lot of terms of tech and
different just just looking at things differently, your reach and
what abs and everything are able to do. So I
had kind of tinkered in a few little platforms. I
created something called Mellon and minds meet and it was
a meeting place for us to kind of get to
the core of relationship and ships. And I had created
(09:01):
a marketplace there Um for a nationwide reached for black businesses.
And then, as a conundrum grew. UH, John Henry, someone
who I look up to a lot. He told me,
you know, I like fits, but I really think you
should focus on econydrm and I was like, what are
you talking about, John, like, I've been doing this or
trying to get this thing launched forever. And I listened
(09:24):
to him and I respected him and I respect him
so I took his advice and I did. I started
to really kind of brand aconyndrum. I was on it
from twelve. I didn't even have the domain until I
didn't buy ECONYMS DOT com. So it was never supposed
to be a brand and I did. And when I
did that, Um, of course I started doing interviews and
I was like, okay, I got all this stuff going on,
(09:46):
I don't want to create a website. So I created
an APP, a personal APP for Aconundrum, a business community APP,
and so you keep going into that and I have
a business directory on that APP. So it just was
a logical step. After I get the Black Business Expo
in the virtual environment which I had vendors there. So
it's always been that creating this marketplace concept. And then
(10:08):
I did came up with the black virtual mall. This
will be the first ever of its kind. So the
interface looks more like the Sims, so it's not like
a typical directory or just a website with products. When
you come it has a custom designed mall that I've
been asking for input from everybody to help me design it.
(10:30):
And then there's animation, so people don't walk around. You
get into the lobby, it's the same setup and so
there will be chaos and those are for the you know,
newer entry artists in type businesses, stores and premium stores.
And when you interface with the store, the user, that
the customer, I mean the store owner, has a welcome
(10:52):
video if they choose to welcome you to their store,
so they can say hey, welcome to money moves. This
is our stores about it. And then when you click
and you interact, you interact directly with their website. So
there is they don't cut off their own web traffic
by being in the personal mall. We don't handle any
(11:13):
of their point of sale. Everything goes directly through them.
So there's no transaction fees, there's no involved money. Um,
if you make a million dollars, you're gonna still a hundred.
So okay, this is incredible to me because I think
you know I'm really passionate about looking at how, you know,
our world is changing with cryptocurrencies, with these you know,
(11:34):
the metaverse, sort of, you were creating sort of a
black virtual metaverse of its own where we're gonna be
able to virtually walk in interact with stores, and this
is a long time coming. Let's talk a bit about
the pivot, because I think for any entrepreneur, and you've
mentioned it a couple of times today, you have actually
been able to pivot your business numerous times and reiterated,
to land here. And what I think is super fascinating
(11:56):
about this is you're already thinking, you know, five and
ten years from now, into these vert rule and digital world,
how important has it been for you to be able
to take advice and see your business change throughout you
know the past couple of years that it's been absolutely instrumental,
because you hear this concept a lot. My business is
(12:17):
my baby and we're so emotionally attached to our businesses
and if it's not working, we kind of take that
as a personal failure and so we actually kind of
hold onto things sometimes longer. Um, I've learned that there
are three different types of entrepreneurs. There's the entrepreneur who
sees something in real time with you and then they
(12:40):
just rushed to solve the problem. There's the one who
sees it ahead of time, before everyone else sees and
then they jump on it. We kind of look at
them like the crazy at first. Absolutely the entrepreneur who
creates the demand and the problem and then gives you
the solution. And so knowing that sometimes, UM, your business
may not work because of timing. Timing is actually the
(13:04):
most critical component to why a start up bills or succeed.
If you're too early, absolutely you can't sustain Your Business.
Until the market catches up with the need, you're out.
If you're too late, you're out. So fits by design
is a concept. It still is a great concept. It's
not even a business is a business model, because you
can do this for several different industries. But I looked
(13:28):
around at the landscape and I knew, okay, one I
need to change this from retail to digital, a larger reach,
and then I understood the people that I was servicing
because of Instagram, a lot of the designers and nail texts,
because I stretched it to cosmtology. They have an abundance
of customers and an abundance of acts and I knew, okay,
(13:50):
when a recession comes around, if you're paying forty dollars
for a platform, a lot of women are not going
to utilize those two hundred dollar face beats. That money
is going to go down. That's I'm charging two dollars
a month. So I knew that they would come around.
So I said, okay, if I can sustain this business
until it comes and then you have something like covid
(14:10):
and I said, okay, now I have to re grand
it because the interface of coming in your home. So
you have to pay attention and then you have to
be okay with saying I'M gonna put a pause here
and focus on something else while, you know, until the
market catches up and you don't have to kill it completely.
But it is okay to shel fit, but it is
(14:32):
okay to shout things, it is okay to change. And
what I love here is, like, you're you are, you
have you've already mentioned people that are, let's just say,
more experienced in you, that you're using as mentors and
you're listening to them, you know. So these are some
of the key tips that I think you know come
through and interviews like this, and I'm so grateful for
you to sharing those things because they're small nuances but
(14:52):
they really go far and helping you grow and scale
a business. Um, I have another question for you. Talk
a little bit more about the black virtual mall and
how vendors can get involved with it. There are so
many entrepreneurs and small businesses, medium sized businesses, that tune
into the money means podcast. How can they get involved
with the Black Virtual Mall? That's okay, awesome. So of course,
(15:16):
the Black Virtual Mall Dot Com. That's where you say
it again and say it again. So that's pretty simple.
And one of the things that I'm doing differently too,
that I think is going to be very beneficial, is
a lot of people ask about traffic. So I said, okay,
you know, we we do what we do, pay and
they're get it for traffic. But the mall has two
components too that are very interesting. One is the movie theater,
(15:37):
and in the movie theater we will have two tracks.
So there's education and there's entertainment. In the entertainment sector,
black indie artists to showcase their work, poets, Comedians to
book it out. But on the educational track, we will
be providing, like I have workshops that I do charge for.
Those will be free for all of the users to come.
(15:59):
There's no loggingry fired or anything and you'll be able
to consume that content. So some people who may not
find because it's limited space, they may not find their
way in and they want to promote their business. I'M
NOT gonna wait. Sorry, let me just say you said, Um,
it's the black virtual mall. Has Limited space for vendors or, yeah,
(16:19):
for stores, because I have to maximize visibility for my
store owners. Got It, and I don't want people to
get fatigue scrolling through a thousand store. That's actually of
the bonus for customers, because I understand shopping fatigue. I'm like,
I don't know where to go, there's too many products.
So that's great. That's great for both vendors and customers. Yeah,
(16:40):
it'll be limited. So on the kiosk will only be
forty on the floor. There'll only be thirty stores on
the floor. There only be twenty on the premium stores.
So I want them to have high visibility and high traffic.
So we're not doing ads either. We're fatigued on ads,
all of us, right, like every time we have a platform,
they just bombard us. So the way to advertise is
(17:02):
if you have a product or service, you give me
fifteen minutes to two hours of content that's teaching my
customers and then give me, give me an example, give
me an example of a business and like what they
might do, because I love this. This is this is
like marketing, one, O, one. This is unless we're giving
away the secret sauce. So say you're a tax professional
(17:24):
and you say, okay, I'm gonna give you guys some
business tax information, you know, some fundamentals, and you give
us fifteen minutes to two hours of teaching us about
taxes or whatever it is that you want to teach us.
At the end of that, you're completely free to tell
us how to reach you, how to content. So it's
like an infomercial, just more INFO than mercial. So you
(17:48):
give us this amazing content. Right, my customers didn't get
to consume that. They get to know you like you,
trust you, and then they can partake and find in
your business, and so it's free. You don't have to
pay to have that video place. We're doing restaprocity, so
you give me great content, you get feature placement on there.
(18:10):
So that's one way. We're also really, really actively looking
for restaurants. We need black owned restaurants because we have
a food for it. So and then food court. It's
restaurants that are all associated with the door dash. Uber eats.
You have to be on a delivery platform. So there
the whole day night. Uh, this is a whole date night.
(18:32):
I can go eat, have some smart information. I love that.
I want you to be able to come in, go
to the food court, order your food at home, your
food is being delivered. Then you are either, you know,
consuming the information or your browsing, and now your food
is there with you. And so you're at them all
and customers can actually create chat rooms and chat with
(18:55):
each other. So you can meet someone at the mall
and engage. And now it is my video screen on.
Am I wearing my bonnet or my like dressed up here? No,
you can do you're at home, so you are completely
comfortable and you're able to do yeah, and there is
a private lounge. So one of the things that I
really like that I think for us as entrepreneurs, especially
(19:16):
small business owners, we never get to take advantage of
a focus group. So I would like for the owners
to also showcase their products in the movie theater and
then you can go into the private lounge and it's
a fifty, fifty person zoom set up and you don't
say hey, you guys, here's my product. If you could
(19:37):
meet me, I love your input and your feedback in
the private lounge and then you can have a focus group. Oh,
this is excellent, excellent, I really really love this. Um. Okay,
so tell us again. How do the small business owners,
or even those wanting to get onto the platform, reach
out to you and what are the initial steps to
(19:57):
how they can sort of create and your rate, the
information that you think drives the most sales and success?
Two questions. So they can definitely apply. Like I said,
that the blackbirds to a mall. When it comes to
the content, I really just want you to whatever your
subject matter, what you teach, if you already have that
a lot of people do, just submit that content and
(20:19):
there'll be a spot at the mall to submit content.
So if you want to submit content for the movie theater,
there'll be a form there for you to submit that.
I'm trying to make everything as easy and as seamless
as possible, so they'll just create that, you know, submit
the content where we view the content, and I'm very
open to giving feedback. So if you're denied, I will
(20:39):
let you know. That's how people learn what we're looking for. Yeah, definitely, Quincia.
Your story is incredible and I thank you so much
for being able to educate and provide knowledge to so
many people who are trying to build businesses and take
their lives to the next step in terms of entrepreneurship
and business ownership. Can you tell us again where they
(21:02):
can find you on social media? Tell us where they
can sign up for the Black Virtual Mall, and we'd
love to speak with you again, but just take us
out on where to find you. ECONUM DOT COM. See Consistency, e.
You have ecum dot com, there's an APP in the
APP store, Econosum DOT COM, there's my instagram, econondrum and,
(21:23):
of course, ECONUUM DOT COM, econosum. So that's since you'll
find everything you need in that one website. Chrissie, thank
you so much for joining us once again. It has
been a delight in a pleasure. You guys know where
to find her a conundrum dot com or on social media.
Thank you so much, and money movers stay tuned. Thank
you so much for tuning in money moves audience. If
you want more or a recap of this episode, please
(21:46):
go to thank Greenwood Dot Com and check out the
money moves podcast blogs. Stay tuned tomorrow and every day
this week for very special money versus moves. Well, this
US sound really tricky and interesting because I'm very huckles,
but mothers, sons or from our expert I was I
was like wait, you know, I don't have funny I'm
(22:07):
broke right. You know, oftentimes we look at success as
having a monetary number. You know you're successful if you've
got bling or this, that and the other. Yes, and
I guess you won't want to Miss Team USA's own
Olympian Rye. Benjamin a silver from the WHOA. How heavy
(22:29):
is it? It's extremely edgy like. Honestly, money moves is
an I heeart radio podcast powered by Greenwood executive produced
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Hey, money movers, welcome back to money moves, the daily Podcast,
determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom of
financial stability, wealth and abundance. Innovation and entrepreneurship go hand
(00:21):
in hand, but it can be just as simple as saying, hey,
here's something that is needed, here's something that people want,
here's something that I can grow and build into something
of value and excellence, something that I love and many
others will. Sure it exists somewhere else, but I'm going
to create it here. For most of us, entrepreneurship seems
(00:43):
out of reach. Most of us don't know where to start,
much less how to find success and grow it into
something big. But there are people out there who are
dedicated to the idea of black and Brown success through
entrepreneurship and wealth building, and our expert today is one
of those people. She is an APP developer and entrepreneur
and Infopreneur and the founder of the black virtual mall
(01:06):
a Quincy, a Sella Wanni Al Quincy, and welcome to
the show. I'm so excited to have you here and
to tell your story. Thank you. I'm so absolutely honored
to be here. Thank you so very much for having
me can you start by telling us a little bit
about how you got into entrepreneurship and talk about your journey? Sure. Thanks.
(01:27):
To be honest, Um, I had entrepreneur endeavors. I thought
about things and since I was a kid like most people,
and quite honestly, I didn't consider myself a business person
per se. Um. Math wasn't my strong soup, and so
I just felt that I was more of a creative
and I always thought that if I had an idea,
I would have to find someone to, you know, execute
(01:49):
that idea. And a best friend of mine, Um, after
I left college, graduated, she winds up purchasing a fortune,
five hundred company, a franchise, and so she ended up
needing help with that, and so I came on actually
just to kind of do some business, to business selves,
and I ended up having to manage it. And when
(02:09):
that happened, I had to jump in with both the
no formal training, nothing. So this being my best friend,
my daughter's out whether I took to the task. I
love that I wind up. She wind up trusting me
and we took her store from number sixty one in California.
I'm I'm sorry, I'm sixty one stores in California. We
(02:29):
were technically forty three to number two out of twelve
hundred stores nationwhy you end up being from number two
sixty five to number eleven. So that's kind of two
years of working with her and her trusting me and
really getting the behind the scenes, and so I started
to trust myself a little bit more with my ideas
(02:50):
and I thought, okay, I can do this, you know,
I can actually execute, and so I started that journey
and what I wanted to do was make sure this
time around I share the process. Oh, I love that.
And you know what this really fascinating about? That is
for a lot of women, you know, people have heard
this term of imposter syndrome, like I don't know if
(03:11):
I can do it, I'm not qualified, you know. Should
I go to school for this? How much do I
have to learn before I can really, you know, make
this happen? But telling stories like yours really put a
roadmap down for like you just went in and this
is the idea of like bake it till you make it.
You just did all the steps that you had to
do every day to move the needle to get to
the next level, and here you are like yeah, it's
(03:34):
you're testimony to so many women and you know, in
terms of imposter syndrome, was being very honest with myself
about my Swat, my strengths, my weaknesses, you know, writ
opportunities and what was it? I would be a bit
to my business, and so I immediately took an assessment
of myself to say, okay, what do I do will
and what do I not do? Well, yeah, at the time,
(03:55):
of course, I'm completely broke, so I cannot hire a
tea to do these things. So I decided, let me
try to fill in as many coals as I could. Um.
One of the things I did was I did take
marketing classes that you steel. So I think that's gonna be,
you know, something that I really want to get my
bearings around. And then I found out that there was
(04:15):
an APP on itunes called an apple called ituned university,
and ituned university is an amazing platform. It will be
ending in December, but what they've done is they've curated
prerecorded classes from some of the top institutions, Stanford, Berkeley, Cambridge,
and you just search for your subject and then you
(04:38):
get to listen to these are real college courses that
were recorded for free. I love that you're sharing like
these tangible tips, because the Internet has is literally been
such a Revolutionary Gateway for education and it's free and
there's so many different access points to where you can
find all these, you know, incredible resources to teach your self.
(05:00):
So like this is great. Thank you so much. Yeah,
and definitely I mean, and I know what it feels
like to have to buddle through. We're going to Google,
but then there's no really vetting process, so you don't
know what is authentic. You know what it's real, what
it's genuine. So I tuned university for me. You know,
I've been in college. It was it was a very
helpful tool because I didn't have to do any of
(05:22):
the guests work about is this legitimate is it not?
You know, so the information and it's compacted. You know,
as most people know, a semester sixteen hours. So I
wouldn't wake up doing hour. You know, in my in
my earbuds, you're listening to the coursework. Sometimes they give
you the PF files and everything. So an hour I
wake up on lunch, there's an hour that I do too.
(05:42):
So I was literally knocking back at college course in
four days. You know. Yeah, so sixteen hours, right. But
so I'm doing that and I'm taking everything that I
could get my hands on. If I wanted to know
about copyright, trade marking, I took that, entrepreneurship, I took that,
anything that I could get my hands on, and so
that helped out tremendously and what I decided to do
(06:05):
was share that journey. So when I went to create
my llc, I gave everyone of the information. Okay, I'm
going here. When I went to West far go to
do my bank account, okay, they're gonna ask you for
this form and this form and this form. Okay, wait,
we paused right there because I want to ask the question.
And it wind up being my most my first like
viral me. It was the UT least little meme ever,
(06:26):
but it wind up going viral and it was the
seven steps to start my business. Wait a second, I
want to pause right there, so just so that people
can get their bearings. So you had started Um, coming
to actively manage a franchise with your friend and now
you fast forward. You kind of had the you know,
school of hard knocks, self taught business education and you're
(06:48):
launching your own business. What was the business that you
were working on and then take us through, Um sort
of how you put this out to the world on
the instagram at conundrum. Yes, okay, so it's undone. Was
Just my personal page. The business that I was going
to launch just calls fits by design. WHAT FITS BY DESIGN? Um?
And so the concept was to mirror Um, say an shop, barbershop.
(07:11):
We have boots, but there would be fashion designers who
recently graduated from fashion school and you will be able
to come in and, uh, let them know what it
is that you wanted, have it professionally sketched, and then
the other side of the building was going to be
fabric so you will be able to meet with them,
choose your fabrics, your buttons, all your notions and then
have what you wanted. Me And I self talk Ser
(07:36):
uh and going to work and I'd make my outfits
and they were like where did you get that? And
I'm like, I made it, and they were like you
have to make me one, you have to make me one,
and I'm self talk. So I was like you really
don't want me. Okay, I'M gonna mess this up for you.
So I thought like wow, here's a problem. I see
it they would like to create a freedom that I had,
(07:57):
but they don't have cand of sewing. So I thought,
what if I hear these people together? And that's what
the concept was for fits. And this is, you know,
the Genesis of entrepreneurship for so many people. They're like,
wait a second, if I really like this and other
people are coming to me saying they like this, maybe
there's a bigger market. How do I create a business
around this? And Brilliant and solve a problem for more
(08:17):
and more people. Yes, and now, most recently, you've developed
the black virtual mall. Can you tell us about that
as well or sure? And so from that I did Um,
I wouldn't I've inventured into APP development, because the idea
for fits Um in two thousand and sixteen. I decided
to pivot from a breaking mortar concept to an APP concept.
(08:40):
So I started that journey and that journey of course,
introduces you into a lot of terms of tech and
different just just looking at things differently, your reach and
what abs and everything are able to do. So I
had kind of tinkered in a few little platforms. I
created something called Mellon and minds meet and it was
a meeting place for us to kind of get to
the core of relationship and ships. And I had created
(09:01):
a marketplace there Um for a nationwide reached for black businesses.
And then, as a conundrum grew. UH, John Henry, someone
who I look up to a lot. He told me,
you know, I like fits, but I really think you
should focus on econydrm and I was like, what are
you talking about, John, like, I've been doing this or
trying to get this thing launched forever. And I listened
(09:24):
to him and I respected him and I respect him
so I took his advice and I did. I started
to really kind of brand aconyndrum. I was on it
from twelve. I didn't even have the domain until I
didn't buy ECONYMS DOT com. So it was never supposed
to be a brand and I did. And when I
did that, Um, of course I started doing interviews and
I was like, okay, I got all this stuff going on,
(09:46):
I don't want to create a website. So I created
an APP, a personal APP for Aconundrum, a business community APP,
and so you keep going into that and I have
a business directory on that APP. So it just was
a logical step. After I get the Black Business Expo
in the virtual environment which I had vendors there. So
it's always been that creating this marketplace concept. And then
(10:08):
I did came up with the black virtual mall. This
will be the first ever of its kind. So the
interface looks more like the Sims, so it's not like
a typical directory or just a website with products. When
you come it has a custom designed mall that I've
been asking for input from everybody to help me design it.
(10:30):
And then there's animation, so people don't walk around. You
get into the lobby, it's the same setup and so
there will be chaos and those are for the you know,
newer entry artists in type businesses, stores and premium stores.
And when you interface with the store, the user, that
the customer, I mean the store owner, has a welcome
(10:52):
video if they choose to welcome you to their store,
so they can say hey, welcome to money moves. This
is our stores about it. And then when you click
and you interact, you interact directly with their website. So
there is they don't cut off their own web traffic
by being in the personal mall. We don't handle any
(11:13):
of their point of sale. Everything goes directly through them.
So there's no transaction fees, there's no involved money. Um,
if you make a million dollars, you're gonna still a hundred.
So okay, this is incredible to me because I think
you know I'm really passionate about looking at how, you know,
our world is changing with cryptocurrencies, with these you know,
(11:34):
the metaverse, sort of, you were creating sort of a
black virtual metaverse of its own where we're gonna be
able to virtually walk in interact with stores, and this
is a long time coming. Let's talk a bit about
the pivot, because I think for any entrepreneur, and you've
mentioned it a couple of times today, you have actually
been able to pivot your business numerous times and reiterated,
to land here. And what I think is super fascinating
(11:56):
about this is you're already thinking, you know, five and
ten years from now, into these vert rule and digital world,
how important has it been for you to be able
to take advice and see your business change throughout you
know the past couple of years that it's been absolutely instrumental,
because you hear this concept a lot. My business is
(12:17):
my baby and we're so emotionally attached to our businesses
and if it's not working, we kind of take that
as a personal failure and so we actually kind of
hold onto things sometimes longer. Um, I've learned that there
are three different types of entrepreneurs. There's the entrepreneur who
sees something in real time with you and then they
(12:40):
just rushed to solve the problem. There's the one who
sees it ahead of time, before everyone else sees and
then they jump on it. We kind of look at
them like the crazy at first. Absolutely the entrepreneur who
creates the demand and the problem and then gives you
the solution. And so knowing that sometimes, UM, your business
may not work because of timing. Timing is actually the
(13:04):
most critical component to why a start up bills or succeed.
If you're too early, absolutely you can't sustain Your Business.
Until the market catches up with the need, you're out.
If you're too late, you're out. So fits by design
is a concept. It still is a great concept. It's
not even a business is a business model, because you
can do this for several different industries. But I looked
(13:28):
around at the landscape and I knew, okay, one I
need to change this from retail to digital, a larger reach,
and then I understood the people that I was servicing
because of Instagram, a lot of the designers and nail texts,
because I stretched it to cosmtology. They have an abundance
of customers and an abundance of acts and I knew, okay,
(13:50):
when a recession comes around, if you're paying forty dollars
for a platform, a lot of women are not going
to utilize those two hundred dollar face beats. That money
is going to go down. That's I'm charging two dollars
a month. So I knew that they would come around.
So I said, okay, if I can sustain this business
until it comes and then you have something like covid
(14:10):
and I said, okay, now I have to re grand
it because the interface of coming in your home. So
you have to pay attention and then you have to
be okay with saying I'M gonna put a pause here
and focus on something else while, you know, until the
market catches up and you don't have to kill it completely.
But it is okay to shel fit, but it is
(14:32):
okay to shout things, it is okay to change. And
what I love here is, like, you're you are, you
have you've already mentioned people that are, let's just say,
more experienced in you, that you're using as mentors and
you're listening to them, you know. So these are some
of the key tips that I think you know come
through and interviews like this, and I'm so grateful for
you to sharing those things because they're small nuances but
(14:52):
they really go far and helping you grow and scale
a business. Um, I have another question for you. Talk
a little bit more about the black virtual mall and
how vendors can get involved with it. There are so
many entrepreneurs and small businesses, medium sized businesses, that tune
into the money means podcast. How can they get involved
with the Black Virtual Mall? That's okay, awesome. So of course,
(15:16):
the Black Virtual Mall Dot Com. That's where you say
it again and say it again. So that's pretty simple.
And one of the things that I'm doing differently too,
that I think is going to be very beneficial, is
a lot of people ask about traffic. So I said, okay,
you know, we we do what we do, pay and
they're get it for traffic. But the mall has two
components too that are very interesting. One is the movie theater,
(15:37):
and in the movie theater we will have two tracks.
So there's education and there's entertainment. In the entertainment sector,
black indie artists to showcase their work, poets, Comedians to
book it out. But on the educational track, we will
be providing, like I have workshops that I do charge for.
Those will be free for all of the users to come.
(15:59):
There's no loggingry fired or anything and you'll be able
to consume that content. So some people who may not
find because it's limited space, they may not find their
way in and they want to promote their business. I'M
NOT gonna wait. Sorry, let me just say you said, Um,
it's the black virtual mall. Has Limited space for vendors or, yeah,
(16:19):
for stores, because I have to maximize visibility for my
store owners. Got It, and I don't want people to
get fatigue scrolling through a thousand store. That's actually of
the bonus for customers, because I understand shopping fatigue. I'm like,
I don't know where to go, there's too many products.
So that's great. That's great for both vendors and customers. Yeah,
(16:40):
it'll be limited. So on the kiosk will only be
forty on the floor. There'll only be thirty stores on
the floor. There only be twenty on the premium stores.
So I want them to have high visibility and high traffic.
So we're not doing ads either. We're fatigued on ads,
all of us, right, like every time we have a platform,
they just bombard us. So the way to advertise is
(17:02):
if you have a product or service, you give me
fifteen minutes to two hours of content that's teaching my
customers and then give me, give me an example, give
me an example of a business and like what they
might do, because I love this. This is this is
like marketing, one, O, one. This is unless we're giving
away the secret sauce. So say you're a tax professional
(17:24):
and you say, okay, I'm gonna give you guys some
business tax information, you know, some fundamentals, and you give
us fifteen minutes to two hours of teaching us about
taxes or whatever it is that you want to teach us.
At the end of that, you're completely free to tell
us how to reach you, how to content. So it's
like an infomercial, just more INFO than mercial. So you
(17:48):
give us this amazing content. Right, my customers didn't get
to consume that. They get to know you like you,
trust you, and then they can partake and find in
your business, and so it's free. You don't have to
pay to have that video place. We're doing restaprocity, so
you give me great content, you get feature placement on there.
(18:10):
So that's one way. We're also really, really actively looking
for restaurants. We need black owned restaurants because we have
a food for it. So and then food court. It's
restaurants that are all associated with the door dash. Uber eats.
You have to be on a delivery platform. So there
the whole day night. Uh, this is a whole date night.
(18:32):
I can go eat, have some smart information. I love that.
I want you to be able to come in, go
to the food court, order your food at home, your
food is being delivered. Then you are either, you know,
consuming the information or your browsing, and now your food
is there with you. And so you're at them all
and customers can actually create chat rooms and chat with
(18:55):
each other. So you can meet someone at the mall
and engage. And now it is my video screen on.
Am I wearing my bonnet or my like dressed up here? No,
you can do you're at home, so you are completely
comfortable and you're able to do yeah, and there is
a private lounge. So one of the things that I
really like that I think for us as entrepreneurs, especially
(19:16):
small business owners, we never get to take advantage of
a focus group. So I would like for the owners
to also showcase their products in the movie theater and
then you can go into the private lounge and it's
a fifty, fifty person zoom set up and you don't
say hey, you guys, here's my product. If you could
(19:37):
meet me, I love your input and your feedback in
the private lounge and then you can have a focus group. Oh,
this is excellent, excellent, I really really love this. Um. Okay,
so tell us again. How do the small business owners,
or even those wanting to get onto the platform, reach
out to you and what are the initial steps to
(19:57):
how they can sort of create and your rate, the
information that you think drives the most sales and success?
Two questions. So they can definitely apply. Like I said,
that the blackbirds to a mall. When it comes to
the content, I really just want you to whatever your
subject matter, what you teach, if you already have that
a lot of people do, just submit that content and
(20:19):
there'll be a spot at the mall to submit content.
So if you want to submit content for the movie theater,
there'll be a form there for you to submit that.
I'm trying to make everything as easy and as seamless
as possible, so they'll just create that, you know, submit
the content where we view the content, and I'm very
open to giving feedback. So if you're denied, I will
(20:39):
let you know. That's how people learn what we're looking for. Yeah, definitely, Quincia.
Your story is incredible and I thank you so much
for being able to educate and provide knowledge to so
many people who are trying to build businesses and take
their lives to the next step in terms of entrepreneurship
and business ownership. Can you tell us again where they
(21:02):
can find you on social media? Tell us where they
can sign up for the Black Virtual Mall, and we'd
love to speak with you again, but just take us
out on where to find you. ECONUM DOT COM. See Consistency, e.
You have ecum dot com, there's an APP in the
APP store, Econosum DOT COM, there's my instagram, econondrum and,
(21:23):
of course, ECONUUM DOT COM, econosum. So that's since you'll
find everything you need in that one website. Chrissie, thank
you so much for joining us once again. It has
been a delight in a pleasure. You guys know where
to find her a conundrum dot com or on social media.
Thank you so much, and money movers stay tuned. Thank
you so much for tuning in money moves audience. If
you want more or a recap of this episode, please
(21:46):
go to thank Greenwood Dot Com and check out the
money moves podcast blogs. Stay tuned tomorrow and every day
this week for very special money versus moves. Well, this
US sound really tricky and interesting because I'm very huckles,
but mothers, sons or from our expert I was I
was like wait, you know, I don't have funny I'm
(22:07):
broke right. You know, oftentimes we look at success as
having a monetary number. You know you're successful if you've
got bling or this, that and the other. Yes, and
I guess you won't want to Miss Team USA's own
Olympian Rye. Benjamin a silver from the WHOA. How heavy
(22:29):
is it? It's extremely edgy like. Honestly, money moves is
an I heeart radio podcast powered by Greenwood executive produced
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