March 6, 2025 • 34 mins
In this episode of Peace Luv Biz, hosts Steve, the business growth guy, and Mary, the accounting guru, sit down with special guest Josei Harris, owner and founder of Black Bella Spa in Lanham, MD. Josei shares her inspiring journey from launching her beauty business to realizing she needed an accountant to truly level up her finances.
She opens up about the moment she recognized that handling the numbers alone wasn’t sustainable and how finding Mary helped her gain financial clarity, streamline her operations, and set her business up for long-term success. Whether you're a small business owner or thinking about hiring an accountant, Josei’s story is proof that the right financial guidance can make all the difference.
Key takeaways:
✅ The turning point when Josei realized she needed an accountant.
✅ How working with Mary transformed her business finances.
✅ Why financial clarity is essential for business growth.
✅ The importance of investing in the right experts to avoid costly mistakes.
If you’re in the Lanham, MD area and looking for top-tier beauty and wellness services, visit Josei’s spa, Black Bella Spa, at www.blackbellaspa.com. Specializing in skincare, body treatments, and luxurious self-care experiences, Black Bella Spa is dedicated to helping clients look and feel their best.
Be sure to subscribe and visit www.peaceluvbiz.com to schedule a free consultation and get expert guidance on taking your business finances to the next level. Until next time, grow your business with peace and love! 💜💼
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hey guys, is Steve Higgins, your Chief Head Banger and host for most of Peace Love Bizz.
Welcome to the episode.
It's going to be a good one.
We've got our first guest that we're bringing on.
We're excited to introduce Josie, but first off, Mary, are you surviving tax season?
Are you doing okay?
I am.
(00:23):
My name this week is Miss JFDI.
Just blink and do it.
Just fucking do it.
I'm great.
so, I have tons of energy, really amped up.
We're ass, names.
Yeah, tech seasons, you tech season, but we're doing it.
(00:43):
We're making it happen.
I'm happy.
And I'm super excited because we have Josie here today.
Yeah.
so Josie, Josie Harris, owner and founder of Black Bella Spa.
Welcome, we're really excited to have you.
are the OG with us, so how are you doing?
I am amazing.
Thank you guys for having me today, Stephen and Mary.
(01:05):
And I'm excited to be the inaugural guest.
So I'm really, really stoked about that.
So I can't believe I'm this excited about like financials anyway.
It's something that used to terrify me.
So I'm great here in Washington, DC.
Just going through the Doge, Agent Orange, whatever is next.
coming off the heels of that presidential address the other night.
(01:28):
Very charismatic, very interesting, very scary.
So yeah.
Yeah, there's a lot.
I think we're gonna be doing another episode about what that all means.
Like, cause there's a lot to break down.
absolutely, we're gonna do a bonus episode so that we can approach it.
You know, it was charismatic, always over the top.
(01:50):
That's what people like and how he sells himself, but we're gonna break it down and takeout the emotion of it and break down the financials on a bonus episode that will have come
out soon.
But yeah, once you get past all the drama and just take the words that he said, the actualwords.
(02:11):
You know, except for the transgender mice.
There are no transgender mice, by the way.
And then I've never seen so many children paraded before.
I was like, this is borderline abuse.
Like what's happening right now?
I was so confused.
But okay, at any rate, yeah, that's happened.
okay, so silver lining.
(02:32):
We have a bunch of buildings that are for sale.
So I don't know, maybe we'll have a Blackfella Spa compound soon.
I don't know.
So yeah.
one!
Another one, yes!
The way that you're growing I wouldn't be surprised, so...
Yeah.
much stuff happening here.
There's a company that came in from, I don't even know where these people came from.
(02:53):
Some weird country, it starts with a B and they build these mega bath houses.
They have them all over the world and they were like looking for me.
So I'm looking for them.
So let's see what happens, right?
So I don't know.
Sounds like a Bahrainian thing or something like that Bahrain has money or belly
don't know.
(03:13):
It's so crazy because we don't have anything like that in DC in terms of like truetherapeutic bathhouse culture.
We're talking something, the last I heard they were talking about like 50,000 square feet.
So like really like this is a compound where you'll take your family and do your holisticstuff.
enough about them.
(03:34):
it's a lot of everything, but
already like, let's do it.
Let's do this.
I'm already excited about it.
Let me...
excited about, do you all know that literally, I mean with God's grace, let me knock onsome wood here.
I know it's perforated, but it'll do.
Every month, we get an offer to partner.
(03:56):
Like every month someone writes me and asks me to open a spa in their community.
This month is the arts district in Hyattsville, Maryland.
Last month it was Columbia, Maryland.
I'm so confused, like, wait, Columbia the country or Columbia the city?
Like, I don't even know what's going on.
What's scary is I've got connections to Columbia that would be able to set that up if youwanted to go to Columbia and do that.
(04:21):
So it's like...
world has gotten small, like, so I love it.
Yeah, no it's awesome.
So, I wanna go, not necessarily chronologically, but you didn't, you weren't always as bigas you are.
Cause you've grown your own little empire, like you said, you've got people coming to youleft and right, so what was some of your inspiration behind starting Black Bella and what,
(04:49):
how did you do it?
So I did not realize I was starting an actual business.
I had no desire to own a spa.
I'd never even imagined that I would have like a spa.
Like who does that?
I literally was selling ballistic armor to the local SWAT team and UNIVENTs to the schooldistrict.
And I was just like baits, boots, steel toes with my, it was cute though.
(05:13):
I had like a hot pink jacket and really snazzy, but it was.
I never thought this would be my space.
So a friend of mine introduced me to non-invasive vacuum, buttock lifting.
And at that time, it was 2014.
There was this crazy trend where women were having illicit polymers and industrial graysilicone and all these other things injected in their bottoms to get a voluptuous bump.
(05:44):
Women were literally dying.
Like you had people who would
booked them in a seedy hotel room in Brooklyn, lay them down prone and literally put likefix a flat in their butt.
there are people in jail right now because of this, like attempted murder.
There were women getting limbs amputated.
was like just unreal stuff.
(06:04):
Women were dying to get a big butt.
And a friend of mine told me in Atlanta they're doing this thing where there's no surgery.
And I was like.
I don't know about it and proof of concept, right?
I'm like a process driven person.
So I was like, let's see how this stuff works.
And when I saw the non-invasive buttock lifting, we literally were like, my God, we cansave lives with this.
(06:29):
It sounds so stupid now, but like I can save a life with a butt lift.
We were like, we can save because girls were dying.
Like these are like mothers and it was even women that you would say, why would she dothat?
Like she's like a grandma.
So through that journey, proof of concept, I ordered this first little machine.
No one was doing cash app.
(06:50):
There was no Zelle.
You could Western Union money.
That's how you exchange money globally back then.
Or somebody put it in their wallet and flew it now to the country.
So I met some girls at Book of Ramunga.
I just prayed on it and threw it into the wind and said, I don't know about this.
It's like $6,000.
I'm gonna just send the machine and I'm gonna see.
(07:11):
What happens?
had to settle with it and say, okay, you're in debt.
You're stressed out.
You're struggling.
The guy you're with is so dumb, he won't pivot.
His business is failing.
So nothing that you're doing is working.
It's not like you're like razzle dazzle.
No one's winning here.
And you spent more money on less.
(07:32):
You know what mean?
At that point, I would spend like five, 6,000 on a vacation to Mexico, to Jamaica.
Just no ROI, right?
So I did it.
I said,
I'm just going to wire the money to these girls in the mountains of Bucaramanga, Columbiaand hope it works.
And they actually sent me the machine.
So I was like, they didn't rob me.
That was great.
(07:52):
Then this machine gets here and I'm in my living room and I'm like, what the hell am I?
I am literally about to smell somebody's butt.
Like it just never, the concept is here.
But when you have a booty in your face, you're like, did this, did I just?
So off like a bandaid, I just went on Craigslist, bought a bunch of used massage tablesand implements, set up my iPad on Skype, because that was how we talked back then.
(08:20):
I don't think Zoom was really like a novice thing.
And that was like, it was like I cracked open a can of worms because number one, itworked.
And number two, the people that I was practicing on became addicted.
They were like, holy cow, this works.
So then now I have my trial person bringing her sister.
(08:41):
bringing her cousin, bring, and it was to a point where I said, my, I'm still doing mycorporate job, mind you, I'm still broke.
I'm still running around stressed out, waking up at three in the morning to get to a baseand just stupid stuff, right?
Waking up realizing I have a mismatched boots, the wrong socks, just crazy stuff, juststressed out.
So I, that was it, it was like I peeled the little thing off and I saw the trajectorygoing and I did know enough about business to know that once you get that rhythm, once you
(09:09):
get that pulse going,
You don't stop.
A lot of us will try things and then we'll put up a coming soon sign.
Guess what?
Nobody cares.
If you have interest and you have something going and there's a thread of hope in there,you gotta ride that pony, baby.
You gotta jump on it and keep going because if you let it fizzle, you may never get itback.
So that's what I did.
(09:30):
When I told you guys I was in this like hundred and something year old cottage, this islike an old house.
I love that house.
I renovated it.
It was all cute.
But it was an old house with a little vestibule.
in the living room, know, do you guys have vestibules and stuff, Steven?
And it's like when you walk, you have them when you walk in the house, there's a littlearea with a door that closes, like the mud room or something, right?
(09:52):
Like it cuts off the main room.
By the time I put the table in there and all my little setup, I literally could not openthe door to the living room anymore.
That's how tight this space was.
And this is my living room.
This is not a dedicated room.
This is crazy, so I have strangers just laying here half-naked, letting me try stuff ontheir butt.
(10:14):
It was just a whirlwind.
So then I just scaled it and said, I don't want to keep cleaning my restroom.
I don't know these people now.
Let me get a little tiny inexpensive room and practice there.
But it was tumultuous.
I attempted to do it with a partner.
It's just a lot with this story.
So that's how I started.
(10:34):
Proof of concept.
let me get this stuff out of my house and the people want what I'm putting down and I wastrying to figure out how to give them more.
That was literally the trajectory of Black Bella.
It was weird.
Well, so, like you said, it's a bit of a crazy story.
(10:55):
Something that I recently talked about in a networking group was the Four Seas.
And it's about the stage of how you get into business.
The first one is the commitment.
You dove in head first, jumped in both feet, sending money to Columbia, that's crazy.
(11:15):
I know.
had the courage to kind of jump in and keep developing and truly start growing it.
And it's only until you really got to grips with it and everybody really kept going withit that you found that you had the capability to do this and keep working with it.
So at what point did you have the confidence to take that leap of faith and make thetransition between doing your regular, you know,
(11:45):
say government job or whatever to full time.
so I would say the numbers, the number, so I knew it was working.
I knew at this point, this is when like the dance clubs, the strip clubs were all trendy.
Everybody had, I go to the strip club, men, women, children, puppies, everybody's at thestrip club.
So like all the dancers were there.
(12:07):
All of like the hot nightclub girls were there.
It was just so much traction.
And by this time I knew enough to know I needed
to know more about anatomy and the body and everything else.
So I was, it was the numbers and said, okay, I need to learn more.
What's the lowest barrier of entry where I can learn anatomy and safety.
(12:28):
And it was massage therapy.
So I said, I'm making enough money here to pay for massage therapy school.
And that's another thing I could sell.
So now I'm working the corporate job, trying out this business in the middle and going toschool at night.
It just got stupider.
The numbers, one day I looked up and I realized I was actually making money.
(12:51):
And then I was like, no, that's not right.
And I remember it was a Monday night because it was about midnight.
And I said, this can't be right.
I'm just sleepy.
I'll wake up tomorrow morning and look at the numbers again.
And when I looked, the numbers were numbering.
I literally had made like 60,000 and a couple, 60 some thousand in a couple of months.
And I was like, I'm really not making 60,000 in a couple of months over here with thisjob.
(13:14):
So I was like, oh my God.
And also my number one customer complaint was that I didn't have enough appointments.
People weren't even giving me Google reviews back then.
I didn't even know if I had a Google My Business page.
I had Groupon.
They were going on Groupon and complaining that I didn't have enough appointments.
And this is one thing that I know about people.
(13:36):
When you tell people that you have a side business, they treat you differently.
I like to observe humans.
They treat you like,
it's not important.
She's not really serious about it.
So I lied by omission and I never told people that I had a job.
For their knowledge, I was just here in this studio working in these scrubs every day.
(13:58):
So I was just, had, was like monkey bars where I had three rungs and I was just, and allthe while I was like breaking up from a 20 year relationship with my best friend and my
ex.
Like it was a year of exodus, but then like a
year of like entry of like this new thing.
So long story short, the numbers were numbering that Tuesday morning.
(14:19):
I saw the numbers and I said, my God.
And by then I had left the big company that I worked for and went with a smallerconstruction company and all these negative things were going on with that company.
So it was like, was set up in a divine situation where they deserved for somebody to quiton them.
And like I'd never left the job.
(14:40):
You know how your mom says you never leave in a manner in which you could
could never come back.
So you always give them a proper three week notice and help them transition the newperson.
On that Tuesday morning, I called those people and said, we have an emergency with myfamily business.
And I wasn't lying.
Forgive me.
You know when they say, yeah, it's a lie because you're really omission.
(15:03):
I was like, when my dad died, he did die.
And I got to take care of my family.
I did need to take care of my family business.
He just didn't die Monday night, so...
didn't die.
I mean, sorry guys.
You know, was a little...
So that was it.
And I said, I'll send you your laptop back.
And then I sat in that suite and said, my God, now I need me a husband.
(15:26):
I have no healthcare, dental-o-vision.
So I was sitting there like, what did I do?
Literally, I could taste metal in my mouth.
I was so scared.
Well, to your point, I had a conversation this morning with a realtor and she made areally good point.
If you set your availability, it's none of anybody's business why there is no otheravailability.
(15:55):
New clients, people that you're trying to get into the door, it's definitely not any oftheir business because the impression that you kind of need to give off is that you're too
busy at that time so you can't meet with them.
Yes.
where as in reality, you've got a dots appointment, you've got to drop kids off at school,you're taking time for yourself!
You've got focus time, catch up time, whatever it is, like...
(16:18):
You need to have that time.
it.
And I think that's one of the things that I'm learning in mastering business anyway, isyour business should run like a faucet or a tap, where you should open it and close it
when you want.
If it's dragging you along, because then I did that.
I dived all the way in, Steven, and I was like, I'm in this studio now, let me just takethe appointments.
I created an eighth day.
(16:38):
That's how hard I was working.
Like I literally created an eighth day of the calendar.
I told you guys, the dance girls would come to me from the major strip club.
was Stadium Nightclub back then.
high-end place, steakhouse.
That's where I met this person that connected me with Mary.
That's another story.
Okay, so.
So I would work to the bone all day and night.
(17:02):
And then the dancers would fly in from around the country and a lot of their flights werecoming into our Baltimore airport, which was like 20 minutes from my studio.
So I was so silly that I would nap.
in the studio sometimes and get myself back together and create this eighth day where Iwould do another round of services and treatments.
(17:25):
I'm in there at midnight.
I'm in there at one.
Like they're coming to me on their way to the strip club and they're like, touch me up,get my stuff done.
I'm ready to hit the stage.
And then it was so dangerous because I'm in this class C office building.
No one is here.
No security is here.
And then it dawned on me, these girls actually have security.
Like, okay, this is dangerous.
(17:46):
And then also they want to pay you in cash.
So now I'm sitting here with like hundreds and hundreds of dollars and I'm watching thesecurity guy count the money.
So then my brain start all these things just organically happen.
I'm watching people when they're watching me and I'm like, he is thinking I have a lot ofmoney in here.
He's probably going to murder me.
(18:07):
So then it was like new policy, no cash.
Put your money on a card instead of put your money in the bank.
do something else but we don't accept cash so I had to do a big performance in front ofthis guy like no money's here I can't take the cash crazy stuff
And I imagine it wasn't long between then and finding Mary.
(18:31):
Tell us a little bit about when you realised you needed an accountant.
I need a book.
Okay.
So I had this Excel spreadsheet and I was just excelling it down.
Like I just knew that, I just knew that everything that I did needed to be on saidspreadsheet.
It was color coded.
(18:52):
It was kind of cute.
but a lot of pink, a lot of fuchsia, a lot of it was so good.
But so, the challenge is
I was so afraid of accounting.
I knew that it was a thing that was out there for big businesses.
I didn't think that I could afford accounting.
But what I didn't know is that I couldn't afford to not have accounting.
(19:14):
I literally was...
I couldn't afford to not have, because I was stuck.
So if I thought 60 something thousand was a lot of money, I'm like, holy come on.
So I meet this guy.
It was just spicy.
He's chasing me around the strip club and I'm like, but the women are naked.
(19:35):
Why is this man chasing me?
This is so weird.
So lo and behold, he was what I needed at the time.
I'm intuitive.
I try to be intentional.
And I really, really believe that God sends me everything I need.
Somebody's sending it to me.
Buddha, somebody's sending me what I need.
So this guy who wouldn't stop, when I say chasing, I've run up into VIP with my friend andI'm like, let's just go.
(19:59):
She's like, he's gonna murder you.
He's gonna kill you.
I'm like, don't drink the drinks.
Like he's, we go this way, he comes this way.
So we dip up and going around in the back and we look down there and he's just standingthere like, and I'm like, we just need to go.
We try to run out.
He's talking to me.
(20:20):
The dancers are like talking over me.
It was mass pandemonium confusion.
I'm just like, I just want to leave.
He's yelling at the dancers, no, I'm not coming back there.
They're like, bring them back here, has money.
And I'm like, I don't care.
My friend is like swirling her drink, he's gonna kill you.
And I'm just like, why am I alone in this journey?
Give this guy my card, just hoping he goes away.
(20:43):
He starts calling me, I'm like, I am working.
Like I have no time, I don't even know what you want.
do you, long story short, you know, he appeals for my time.
It works out, we have a conversation.
And then I'm like.
you're actually a real person.
didn't know.
just thought you, okay, great.
And we became kind of fast friends and he knew things about business that I needed toknow.
(21:07):
And excuse me, one thing I say about him, he was obsessed with what I was doing.
He was like, I want to see, I want to get in there.
And he's like, my God, the way you maximize the space.
He literally put the fire under my butt and was like, you need a bigger space.
And I'm like, I can't afford it.
He's like,
Yes, you can.
This is how much it costs.
You're already paying him.
And I'm like, really?
I didn't know this how much it's of course.
(21:28):
Then he's like, you got to meet Mary.
Mary's gonna come in here.
She's gonna get all this crap done to her.
She's gonna do, oh, she gonna love you.
And I was like, I don't even know who he's talking about.
Is this his other girlfriend?
This man, I was like, I knew he was strange.
He's like, I love me some Mary.
She gonna do.
And I was like, is this man trying to put me in a harem?
(21:49):
Like what's about to happen?
Make you an oiran,
I mean, he just keeps going.
you were the, have to this day, well, no, now I think he's sent me like two or threepeople.
He did, he, I was his, like, he does not like to refer me to anybody because I'm his.
mean, I've known him for what, like 15 years or something.
(22:12):
And when he said, I have somebody for you.
And I was like, what?
I almost fell out of my seat.
Like, what?
And then.
an accountant.
then.
about it, but remember my first reaction was, child, I do not need any one of your littlegirlfriends as a client.
And he was like, Mary, please.
(22:34):
And I was like, okay.
And I met with you and boom.
It was insane.
I was like, I cannot afford this.
I don't have any money for her.
How am I supposed to pay her?
Like I'm in here now.
My head is like underwater.
I'm thinking I actually have to figure out how to pay my mortgage.
I have to figure out how to pay my carpet.
Like I was still paying regular bills and sitting here now in this suite, like, oh mygosh, what have I done?
(23:02):
So the accounting, account.
So by bringing an actual,
public accountant, someone who this is what they do, they know how to look at the moneyand teach me to look at the money differently.
Number one, it took a crap load of pressure, stress, just when you know how you fear theunknown.
So now I had someone who had that part covered and we developed a relationship veryquickly.
(23:28):
Mary's like, you actually are, you do have a brain.
Okay, great.
You
got.
I don't know.
I don't know.
It's like when you see two bulls in the thing and they're walking around each other andthey're like, and in the circle.
I don't know.
(23:49):
Little what a side I go in like yeah
was like, girl, I don't know.
And so then it was like, yes, she's going to help me.
Yes, she's going to make it affordable, which is like the biggest thing.
Like I'm literally like, I can't afford any of this.
And so that was my big, big, big scaling moment from that, from the moment where he metme, I had scaled from my house to a tiny room, to a tiny, tiny, tiny room, to a medium
(24:14):
room.
And guys, one thing about entrepreneurship, really, I always tell people, forget what youdo.
It really has a really almost nothing to do with the thing that you actually do.
Entrepreneurship is really about problem solving and finding the right people who canmaster the different, I call it the bail team.
(24:35):
You you got your banker, your accountant, your insurance and your lawyer.
That's the infrastructure, the foundation.
Those are the pillars of business.
If you're missing one of those cogs, just the bottom could fall out on you, right?
Banking, accounting, insurance and legal.
You gotta have a resource for each of them.
And they don't all have to cost a crap load.
(24:55):
You know, I tell people go to the colleges around you, the legal colleges.
They have clinics every month where they're supervised visits, yada yada.
But the money, the money, the money.
By partnering with Mary, she just changed my lenses.
She let me see and understand I was actually making more money than I thought I wasmaking.
And then the biggest thing is she helped me with transacting.
(25:16):
Like, what should I do next?
How should I do it next?
And then I'm...
talking to her and I'm like, now I know that I can actually afford this, you know, thatwas my first triple net lease.
I didn't know anything about triple net.
I was renting suites from Africans.
You know, I'm in here trying to do massages and people were next door microwavingstockfish.
I'm like, great.
(25:37):
That's not the ambiance you want to give off as a medspar, is it?
But okay, so back then I still wasn't at a spa level I was still just doing my bodysculpting doing a little butt lifts doing a little stomach stuff doing a couple detoxes I
never aspired to have a spa it was super super organic when you go through I thinkdifferent steps and businesses and you're scaling your resources and then your team and it
(26:02):
my god Mary How long did it take me to even pay myself for the first time?
like four years So hard
four years.
Four years.
like, how are you in debt and not paying yourself?
Like, the dots.
What are we supposed to do?
So just learning all these different things about financials was a lifesaver.
(26:27):
And I just, can't say enough about it because that was the catalyst and that, Mary was thetool that helped me to get to the next spot.
I would have never gotten my first real space, that triple net lease where I actually had.
for respectable treatment spaces and a retail and lobby area.
(26:49):
I don't know if you've ever seen the picture of my first space, Steven, but my firstspace, when I say it was a room and I had went, see when I say problem solving, I found
this company called Room Divider now and they made these freestanding, like big, thick,almost like theater drapes.
And I went and ordered a set of room divider curtain.
(27:13):
That's just called it is.
I ordered some curtain jaw and the curtains.
I put them in this one room shaped like the letter T and created two treatment stalls anda reception area.
What in the hood?
What?
You're in one tiny less than 500 square foot room.
You got an audacity to have a desk.
(27:34):
You have lateral files.
You have a sette.
You got aromatherapy, music.
Women, the place was so tight that they were in there holding each other's purses.
One day I, and I would have one client going and beside this curtain, then I come out thecurtain and one is sitting here waiting, hi.
And I go on the other side and there's another client on the table in there.
And they're actually busting down the door to get in this space.
(27:57):
Can you believe it?
So that's when I tell people, don't discount yourself.
Don't overthink it.
You just have to do it because you can create whatever feels, atmosphere, vibe, and theydon't buy it.
They were, I remember I had this woman come to my door and it was just me.
(28:20):
So I'm running between clients, greeting clients.
I had to lock the door.
For me, I'm going to go in a place and get almost half naked.
I'd be kind of skeeved out if you started locking the doors.
I'd be like, well damn, is it safe in here?
They were like, okay girl, go ahead, get the door.
And I'm like, oh my God.
The lady knocks on my door and I'm like, she's like, I'm here for my appointment.
And I'm like, oh my God, I can't find that.
(28:41):
I'm panicking.
She bursts out laughing and shaking her head.
she, lady's a high school principal.
She says, you know what, I'm just pressed.
I'm lying.
I was like, what?
She said, I just wanted to be in here.
My husband told me I was pressed too.
I just wanted to be in here.
I don't have no appointment.
That's, I was like, what?
That's when I knew, I said, oh, this is crazy.
(29:02):
This like high educated, I said, child.
She was like, take my money.
So when I tell you guys, you can, I always get emotional, I'm the town crier.
But when I tell you, you can create from a grain of rice something that people are gonnawant, people are gonna pay you for, people are gonna put it in your budget.
(29:23):
It's just such a blessing and an honor because all you have to do is be authentic and yougive them what you're gonna give them, the way you're gonna give it to them.
Don't lie, don't try to be someone else.
sell the damn thing because what I know about business is I don't beg people to patronizemy business.
(29:44):
I connect with people who are already looking for me.
That's how you market and you get the path of least resistance in a higher value clientand relationship like that.
that was the beginning of everything, moved into my space, hired my first person.
That was...
Terrifying no systems.
No processes.
(30:05):
No training manuals I just had a person and I'm like Lord.
I hope she doesn't do something and I get blamed for it This was pre-law suit.
So that's another story.
So, okay
So I think here, we definitely gonna have to have you every month and just make this aseries because there's so much we could go on for hours.
(30:28):
So I think here's a good point that we kind of pause, but I will say this.
We have worked together now for like eight or nine years.
We have partnered together, which is super important.
And when was the first time we actually met face to face?
Because this is important.
We have...
worked together, partnered together, built her business, like she said, from a tiny roomto you have three locations, a retail, a spa.
(30:55):
And the first time we met each other was a year and a half ago, face to face.
So, and that's the thing, the world has gotten smaller with technology.
And a lot of people have this thing where they're like, I need to go and talk to myaccount for what?
What you're taking a box of receipts over there?
No one's doing that.
That was circa 1962.
Like everything that you need should be digitized at this point and encrypted andprotected somewhere.
(31:20):
But the relationship is the, I feel like it's the work.
And it's something about the way that
we were both able to curate our partnership, right?
Because yes, it was the fields and yes, it was like, girl, hey, but the work was the workwas the work first for many, many, many years.
(31:41):
And every time, it's just so much with this.
Okay, so I tell people you have accounting, you have bookkeeping, and then you havebusiness development.
Not all CPAs are in those different rungs of business and development.
Some people just want to do your taxes.
That's called H &R Block.
Right?
(32:01):
And then I'm telling them people, you're going to H &R Block and they work at the postoffice for real.
So that's not necessarily where you want to entrust your financials because there's somany changes and F's and flows and different laws and forget write-offs, just rules and
regulations.
You need somebody who knows that stuff.
So by having Mary, I know that she knows that.
(32:24):
Go ahead, I'm sorry.
I was just gonna say that's why you need a Mary.
I say that to everybody.
you gotta have someone who this is what they do.
And I know we're at time and I know we're wrapping up, but I will say this and it's, mean,I love myself.
Everybody knows how much I'm in love with myself, but I am a unicorn when it comes to whatI do.
(32:44):
I am a unicorn in the sense that we partner.
know every aspect of accounting and I like what I like.
I specialize in what I specialize.
We do what we do, but so that's work.
Yeah.
And we love it.
another thing because small business, need it.
We can't afford to not have it, but we can't afford, like I've had someone approach mebefore, I do your fractional.
(33:06):
I'm going to charge you this quarterly fee and X amount of percentage of your revenue.
Who can afford that?
Like, who do you think I am?
Elon Musk?
I don't have money for that.
You know, so to scale it and grow with me.
is exceptional.
And as you said, to be a unicorn and live and breathe and eat in this space and be able tohelp me head off those problems and challenges has saved me on so many levels.
(33:31):
I don't know.
So yeah, it's just so much.
my God.
Well, we're excited to keep diving into this and we're definitely gonna keep revisitingand we want to go through the whole story because you have a massive story.
You do need a book, I might have to find a copyrighted for you or something.
(33:51):
But we'll definitely get you back on.
Where can people find you, Josie?
Everything is BlackBellaSpa.
Keep it simple.
BlackBellaSpa.com, BlackBellaSpa on Instagram, BlackBellaSpa on TikTok.
BlackBellaSpa, that's it.
Well, the great thing is, Josie teaches people how to do this.
(34:11):
And she's become a master at her craft, so we're definitely gonna get into that on thenext one, maybe two down the line.
But, we'll figure it out.
to cover before we get to that one, but we definitely need to talk about that.
Definitely.
Yeah.
yeah.
well now thanks for joining everybody.
(34:31):
I hope you enjoyed this first special episode with Josie and until then have a peacefulday.
Thank you.
Thank you, Josie, we love you.
Love you guys, see ya!
Hey guys, is Steve Higgins, your Chief Head Banger and host for most of Peace Love Bizz.
Welcome to the episode.
It's going to be a good one.
We've got our first guest that we're bringing on.
We're excited to introduce Josie, but first off, Mary, are you surviving tax season?
Are you doing okay?
I am.
(00:23):
My name this week is Miss JFDI.
Just blink and do it.
Just fucking do it.
I'm great.
so, I have tons of energy, really amped up.
We're ass, names.
Yeah, tech seasons, you tech season, but we're doing it.
(00:43):
We're making it happen.
I'm happy.
And I'm super excited because we have Josie here today.
Yeah.
so Josie, Josie Harris, owner and founder of Black Bella Spa.
Welcome, we're really excited to have you.
are the OG with us, so how are you doing?
I am amazing.
Thank you guys for having me today, Stephen and Mary.
(01:05):
And I'm excited to be the inaugural guest.
So I'm really, really stoked about that.
So I can't believe I'm this excited about like financials anyway.
It's something that used to terrify me.
So I'm great here in Washington, DC.
Just going through the Doge, Agent Orange, whatever is next.
coming off the heels of that presidential address the other night.
(01:28):
Very charismatic, very interesting, very scary.
So yeah.
Yeah, there's a lot.
I think we're gonna be doing another episode about what that all means.
Like, cause there's a lot to break down.
absolutely, we're gonna do a bonus episode so that we can approach it.
You know, it was charismatic, always over the top.
(01:50):
That's what people like and how he sells himself, but we're gonna break it down and takeout the emotion of it and break down the financials on a bonus episode that will have come
out soon.
But yeah, once you get past all the drama and just take the words that he said, the actualwords.
(02:11):
You know, except for the transgender mice.
There are no transgender mice, by the way.
And then I've never seen so many children paraded before.
I was like, this is borderline abuse.
Like what's happening right now?
I was so confused.
But okay, at any rate, yeah, that's happened.
okay, so silver lining.
(02:32):
We have a bunch of buildings that are for sale.
So I don't know, maybe we'll have a Blackfella Spa compound soon.
I don't know.
So yeah.
one!
Another one, yes!
The way that you're growing I wouldn't be surprised, so...
Yeah.
much stuff happening here.
There's a company that came in from, I don't even know where these people came from.
(02:53):
Some weird country, it starts with a B and they build these mega bath houses.
They have them all over the world and they were like looking for me.
So I'm looking for them.
So let's see what happens, right?
So I don't know.
Sounds like a Bahrainian thing or something like that Bahrain has money or belly
don't know.
(03:13):
It's so crazy because we don't have anything like that in DC in terms of like truetherapeutic bathhouse culture.
We're talking something, the last I heard they were talking about like 50,000 square feet.
So like really like this is a compound where you'll take your family and do your holisticstuff.
enough about them.
(03:34):
it's a lot of everything, but
already like, let's do it.
Let's do this.
I'm already excited about it.
Let me...
excited about, do you all know that literally, I mean with God's grace, let me knock onsome wood here.
I know it's perforated, but it'll do.
Every month, we get an offer to partner.
(03:56):
Like every month someone writes me and asks me to open a spa in their community.
This month is the arts district in Hyattsville, Maryland.
Last month it was Columbia, Maryland.
I'm so confused, like, wait, Columbia the country or Columbia the city?
Like, I don't even know what's going on.
What's scary is I've got connections to Columbia that would be able to set that up if youwanted to go to Columbia and do that.
(04:21):
So it's like...
world has gotten small, like, so I love it.
Yeah, no it's awesome.
So, I wanna go, not necessarily chronologically, but you didn't, you weren't always as bigas you are.
Cause you've grown your own little empire, like you said, you've got people coming to youleft and right, so what was some of your inspiration behind starting Black Bella and what,
(04:49):
how did you do it?
So I did not realize I was starting an actual business.
I had no desire to own a spa.
I'd never even imagined that I would have like a spa.
Like who does that?
I literally was selling ballistic armor to the local SWAT team and UNIVENTs to the schooldistrict.
And I was just like baits, boots, steel toes with my, it was cute though.
(05:13):
I had like a hot pink jacket and really snazzy, but it was.
I never thought this would be my space.
So a friend of mine introduced me to non-invasive vacuum, buttock lifting.
And at that time, it was 2014.
There was this crazy trend where women were having illicit polymers and industrial graysilicone and all these other things injected in their bottoms to get a voluptuous bump.
(05:44):
Women were literally dying.
Like you had people who would
booked them in a seedy hotel room in Brooklyn, lay them down prone and literally put likefix a flat in their butt.
there are people in jail right now because of this, like attempted murder.
There were women getting limbs amputated.
was like just unreal stuff.
(06:04):
Women were dying to get a big butt.
And a friend of mine told me in Atlanta they're doing this thing where there's no surgery.
And I was like.
I don't know about it and proof of concept, right?
I'm like a process driven person.
So I was like, let's see how this stuff works.
And when I saw the non-invasive buttock lifting, we literally were like, my God, we cansave lives with this.
(06:29):
It sounds so stupid now, but like I can save a life with a butt lift.
We were like, we can save because girls were dying.
Like these are like mothers and it was even women that you would say, why would she dothat?
Like she's like a grandma.
So through that journey, proof of concept, I ordered this first little machine.
No one was doing cash app.
(06:50):
There was no Zelle.
You could Western Union money.
That's how you exchange money globally back then.
Or somebody put it in their wallet and flew it now to the country.
So I met some girls at Book of Ramunga.
I just prayed on it and threw it into the wind and said, I don't know about this.
It's like $6,000.
I'm gonna just send the machine and I'm gonna see.
(07:11):
What happens?
had to settle with it and say, okay, you're in debt.
You're stressed out.
You're struggling.
The guy you're with is so dumb, he won't pivot.
His business is failing.
So nothing that you're doing is working.
It's not like you're like razzle dazzle.
No one's winning here.
And you spent more money on less.
(07:32):
You know what mean?
At that point, I would spend like five, 6,000 on a vacation to Mexico, to Jamaica.
Just no ROI, right?
So I did it.
I said,
I'm just going to wire the money to these girls in the mountains of Bucaramanga, Columbiaand hope it works.
And they actually sent me the machine.
So I was like, they didn't rob me.
That was great.
(07:52):
Then this machine gets here and I'm in my living room and I'm like, what the hell am I?
I am literally about to smell somebody's butt.
Like it just never, the concept is here.
But when you have a booty in your face, you're like, did this, did I just?
So off like a bandaid, I just went on Craigslist, bought a bunch of used massage tablesand implements, set up my iPad on Skype, because that was how we talked back then.
(08:20):
I don't think Zoom was really like a novice thing.
And that was like, it was like I cracked open a can of worms because number one, itworked.
And number two, the people that I was practicing on became addicted.
They were like, holy cow, this works.
So then now I have my trial person bringing her sister.
(08:41):
bringing her cousin, bring, and it was to a point where I said, my, I'm still doing mycorporate job, mind you, I'm still broke.
I'm still running around stressed out, waking up at three in the morning to get to a baseand just stupid stuff, right?
Waking up realizing I have a mismatched boots, the wrong socks, just crazy stuff, juststressed out.
So I, that was it, it was like I peeled the little thing off and I saw the trajectorygoing and I did know enough about business to know that once you get that rhythm, once you
(09:09):
get that pulse going,
You don't stop.
A lot of us will try things and then we'll put up a coming soon sign.
Guess what?
Nobody cares.
If you have interest and you have something going and there's a thread of hope in there,you gotta ride that pony, baby.
You gotta jump on it and keep going because if you let it fizzle, you may never get itback.
So that's what I did.
(09:30):
When I told you guys I was in this like hundred and something year old cottage, this islike an old house.
I love that house.
I renovated it.
It was all cute.
But it was an old house with a little vestibule.
in the living room, know, do you guys have vestibules and stuff, Steven?
And it's like when you walk, you have them when you walk in the house, there's a littlearea with a door that closes, like the mud room or something, right?
(09:52):
Like it cuts off the main room.
By the time I put the table in there and all my little setup, I literally could not openthe door to the living room anymore.
That's how tight this space was.
And this is my living room.
This is not a dedicated room.
This is crazy, so I have strangers just laying here half-naked, letting me try stuff ontheir butt.
(10:14):
It was just a whirlwind.
So then I just scaled it and said, I don't want to keep cleaning my restroom.
I don't know these people now.
Let me get a little tiny inexpensive room and practice there.
But it was tumultuous.
I attempted to do it with a partner.
It's just a lot with this story.
So that's how I started.
(10:34):
Proof of concept.
let me get this stuff out of my house and the people want what I'm putting down and I wastrying to figure out how to give them more.
That was literally the trajectory of Black Bella.
It was weird.
Well, so, like you said, it's a bit of a crazy story.
(10:55):
Something that I recently talked about in a networking group was the Four Seas.
And it's about the stage of how you get into business.
The first one is the commitment.
You dove in head first, jumped in both feet, sending money to Columbia, that's crazy.
(11:15):
I know.
had the courage to kind of jump in and keep developing and truly start growing it.
And it's only until you really got to grips with it and everybody really kept going withit that you found that you had the capability to do this and keep working with it.
So at what point did you have the confidence to take that leap of faith and make thetransition between doing your regular, you know,
(11:45):
say government job or whatever to full time.
so I would say the numbers, the number, so I knew it was working.
I knew at this point, this is when like the dance clubs, the strip clubs were all trendy.
Everybody had, I go to the strip club, men, women, children, puppies, everybody's at thestrip club.
So like all the dancers were there.
(12:07):
All of like the hot nightclub girls were there.
It was just so much traction.
And by this time I knew enough to know I needed
to know more about anatomy and the body and everything else.
So I was, it was the numbers and said, okay, I need to learn more.
What's the lowest barrier of entry where I can learn anatomy and safety.
(12:28):
And it was massage therapy.
So I said, I'm making enough money here to pay for massage therapy school.
And that's another thing I could sell.
So now I'm working the corporate job, trying out this business in the middle and going toschool at night.
It just got stupider.
The numbers, one day I looked up and I realized I was actually making money.
(12:51):
And then I was like, no, that's not right.
And I remember it was a Monday night because it was about midnight.
And I said, this can't be right.
I'm just sleepy.
I'll wake up tomorrow morning and look at the numbers again.
And when I looked, the numbers were numbering.
I literally had made like 60,000 and a couple, 60 some thousand in a couple of months.
And I was like, I'm really not making 60,000 in a couple of months over here with thisjob.
(13:14):
So I was like, oh my God.
And also my number one customer complaint was that I didn't have enough appointments.
People weren't even giving me Google reviews back then.
I didn't even know if I had a Google My Business page.
I had Groupon.
They were going on Groupon and complaining that I didn't have enough appointments.
And this is one thing that I know about people.
(13:36):
When you tell people that you have a side business, they treat you differently.
I like to observe humans.
They treat you like,
it's not important.
She's not really serious about it.
So I lied by omission and I never told people that I had a job.
For their knowledge, I was just here in this studio working in these scrubs every day.
(13:58):
So I was just, had, was like monkey bars where I had three rungs and I was just, and allthe while I was like breaking up from a 20 year relationship with my best friend and my
ex.
Like it was a year of exodus, but then like a
year of like entry of like this new thing.
So long story short, the numbers were numbering that Tuesday morning.
(14:19):
I saw the numbers and I said, my God.
And by then I had left the big company that I worked for and went with a smallerconstruction company and all these negative things were going on with that company.
So it was like, was set up in a divine situation where they deserved for somebody to quiton them.
And like I'd never left the job.
(14:40):
You know how your mom says you never leave in a manner in which you could
could never come back.
So you always give them a proper three week notice and help them transition the newperson.
On that Tuesday morning, I called those people and said, we have an emergency with myfamily business.
And I wasn't lying.
Forgive me.
You know when they say, yeah, it's a lie because you're really omission.
(15:03):
I was like, when my dad died, he did die.
And I got to take care of my family.
I did need to take care of my family business.
He just didn't die Monday night, so...
didn't die.
I mean, sorry guys.
You know, was a little...
So that was it.
And I said, I'll send you your laptop back.
And then I sat in that suite and said, my God, now I need me a husband.
(15:26):
I have no healthcare, dental-o-vision.
So I was sitting there like, what did I do?
Literally, I could taste metal in my mouth.
I was so scared.
Well, to your point, I had a conversation this morning with a realtor and she made areally good point.
If you set your availability, it's none of anybody's business why there is no otheravailability.
(15:55):
New clients, people that you're trying to get into the door, it's definitely not any oftheir business because the impression that you kind of need to give off is that you're too
busy at that time so you can't meet with them.
Yes.
where as in reality, you've got a dots appointment, you've got to drop kids off at school,you're taking time for yourself!
You've got focus time, catch up time, whatever it is, like...
(16:18):
You need to have that time.
it.
And I think that's one of the things that I'm learning in mastering business anyway, isyour business should run like a faucet or a tap, where you should open it and close it
when you want.
If it's dragging you along, because then I did that.
I dived all the way in, Steven, and I was like, I'm in this studio now, let me just takethe appointments.
I created an eighth day.
(16:38):
That's how hard I was working.
Like I literally created an eighth day of the calendar.
I told you guys, the dance girls would come to me from the major strip club.
was Stadium Nightclub back then.
high-end place, steakhouse.
That's where I met this person that connected me with Mary.
That's another story.
Okay, so.
So I would work to the bone all day and night.
(17:02):
And then the dancers would fly in from around the country and a lot of their flights werecoming into our Baltimore airport, which was like 20 minutes from my studio.
So I was so silly that I would nap.
in the studio sometimes and get myself back together and create this eighth day where Iwould do another round of services and treatments.
(17:25):
I'm in there at midnight.
I'm in there at one.
Like they're coming to me on their way to the strip club and they're like, touch me up,get my stuff done.
I'm ready to hit the stage.
And then it was so dangerous because I'm in this class C office building.
No one is here.
No security is here.
And then it dawned on me, these girls actually have security.
Like, okay, this is dangerous.
(17:46):
And then also they want to pay you in cash.
So now I'm sitting here with like hundreds and hundreds of dollars and I'm watching thesecurity guy count the money.
So then my brain start all these things just organically happen.
I'm watching people when they're watching me and I'm like, he is thinking I have a lot ofmoney in here.
He's probably going to murder me.
(18:07):
So then it was like new policy, no cash.
Put your money on a card instead of put your money in the bank.
do something else but we don't accept cash so I had to do a big performance in front ofthis guy like no money's here I can't take the cash crazy stuff
And I imagine it wasn't long between then and finding Mary.
(18:31):
Tell us a little bit about when you realised you needed an accountant.
I need a book.
Okay.
So I had this Excel spreadsheet and I was just excelling it down.
Like I just knew that, I just knew that everything that I did needed to be on saidspreadsheet.
It was color coded.
(18:52):
It was kind of cute.
but a lot of pink, a lot of fuchsia, a lot of it was so good.
But so, the challenge is
I was so afraid of accounting.
I knew that it was a thing that was out there for big businesses.
I didn't think that I could afford accounting.
But what I didn't know is that I couldn't afford to not have accounting.
(19:14):
I literally was...
I couldn't afford to not have, because I was stuck.
So if I thought 60 something thousand was a lot of money, I'm like, holy come on.
So I meet this guy.
It was just spicy.
He's chasing me around the strip club and I'm like, but the women are naked.
(19:35):
Why is this man chasing me?
This is so weird.
So lo and behold, he was what I needed at the time.
I'm intuitive.
I try to be intentional.
And I really, really believe that God sends me everything I need.
Somebody's sending it to me.
Buddha, somebody's sending me what I need.
So this guy who wouldn't stop, when I say chasing, I've run up into VIP with my friend andI'm like, let's just go.
(19:59):
She's like, he's gonna murder you.
He's gonna kill you.
I'm like, don't drink the drinks.
Like he's, we go this way, he comes this way.
So we dip up and going around in the back and we look down there and he's just standingthere like, and I'm like, we just need to go.
We try to run out.
He's talking to me.
(20:20):
The dancers are like talking over me.
It was mass pandemonium confusion.
I'm just like, I just want to leave.
He's yelling at the dancers, no, I'm not coming back there.
They're like, bring them back here, has money.
And I'm like, I don't care.
My friend is like swirling her drink, he's gonna kill you.
And I'm just like, why am I alone in this journey?
Give this guy my card, just hoping he goes away.
(20:43):
He starts calling me, I'm like, I am working.
Like I have no time, I don't even know what you want.
do you, long story short, you know, he appeals for my time.
It works out, we have a conversation.
And then I'm like.
you're actually a real person.
didn't know.
just thought you, okay, great.
And we became kind of fast friends and he knew things about business that I needed toknow.
(21:07):
And excuse me, one thing I say about him, he was obsessed with what I was doing.
He was like, I want to see, I want to get in there.
And he's like, my God, the way you maximize the space.
He literally put the fire under my butt and was like, you need a bigger space.
And I'm like, I can't afford it.
He's like,
Yes, you can.
This is how much it costs.
You're already paying him.
And I'm like, really?
I didn't know this how much it's of course.
(21:28):
Then he's like, you got to meet Mary.
Mary's gonna come in here.
She's gonna get all this crap done to her.
She's gonna do, oh, she gonna love you.
And I was like, I don't even know who he's talking about.
Is this his other girlfriend?
This man, I was like, I knew he was strange.
He's like, I love me some Mary.
She gonna do.
And I was like, is this man trying to put me in a harem?
(21:49):
Like what's about to happen?
Make you an oiran,
I mean, he just keeps going.
you were the, have to this day, well, no, now I think he's sent me like two or threepeople.
He did, he, I was his, like, he does not like to refer me to anybody because I'm his.
mean, I've known him for what, like 15 years or something.
(22:12):
And when he said, I have somebody for you.
And I was like, what?
I almost fell out of my seat.
Like, what?
And then.
an accountant.
then.
about it, but remember my first reaction was, child, I do not need any one of your littlegirlfriends as a client.
And he was like, Mary, please.
(22:34):
And I was like, okay.
And I met with you and boom.
It was insane.
I was like, I cannot afford this.
I don't have any money for her.
How am I supposed to pay her?
Like I'm in here now.
My head is like underwater.
I'm thinking I actually have to figure out how to pay my mortgage.
I have to figure out how to pay my carpet.
Like I was still paying regular bills and sitting here now in this suite, like, oh mygosh, what have I done?
(23:02):
So the accounting, account.
So by bringing an actual,
public accountant, someone who this is what they do, they know how to look at the moneyand teach me to look at the money differently.
Number one, it took a crap load of pressure, stress, just when you know how you fear theunknown.
So now I had someone who had that part covered and we developed a relationship veryquickly.
(23:28):
Mary's like, you actually are, you do have a brain.
Okay, great.
You
got.
I don't know.
I don't know.
It's like when you see two bulls in the thing and they're walking around each other andthey're like, and in the circle.
I don't know.
(23:49):
Little what a side I go in like yeah
was like, girl, I don't know.
And so then it was like, yes, she's going to help me.
Yes, she's going to make it affordable, which is like the biggest thing.
Like I'm literally like, I can't afford any of this.
And so that was my big, big, big scaling moment from that, from the moment where he metme, I had scaled from my house to a tiny room, to a tiny, tiny, tiny room, to a medium
(24:14):
room.
And guys, one thing about entrepreneurship, really, I always tell people, forget what youdo.
It really has a really almost nothing to do with the thing that you actually do.
Entrepreneurship is really about problem solving and finding the right people who canmaster the different, I call it the bail team.
(24:35):
You you got your banker, your accountant, your insurance and your lawyer.
That's the infrastructure, the foundation.
Those are the pillars of business.
If you're missing one of those cogs, just the bottom could fall out on you, right?
Banking, accounting, insurance and legal.
You gotta have a resource for each of them.
And they don't all have to cost a crap load.
(24:55):
You know, I tell people go to the colleges around you, the legal colleges.
They have clinics every month where they're supervised visits, yada yada.
But the money, the money, the money.
By partnering with Mary, she just changed my lenses.
She let me see and understand I was actually making more money than I thought I wasmaking.
And then the biggest thing is she helped me with transacting.
(25:16):
Like, what should I do next?
How should I do it next?
And then I'm...
talking to her and I'm like, now I know that I can actually afford this, you know, thatwas my first triple net lease.
I didn't know anything about triple net.
I was renting suites from Africans.
You know, I'm in here trying to do massages and people were next door microwavingstockfish.
I'm like, great.
(25:37):
That's not the ambiance you want to give off as a medspar, is it?
But okay, so back then I still wasn't at a spa level I was still just doing my bodysculpting doing a little butt lifts doing a little stomach stuff doing a couple detoxes I
never aspired to have a spa it was super super organic when you go through I thinkdifferent steps and businesses and you're scaling your resources and then your team and it
(26:02):
my god Mary How long did it take me to even pay myself for the first time?
like four years So hard
four years.
Four years.
like, how are you in debt and not paying yourself?
Like, the dots.
What are we supposed to do?
So just learning all these different things about financials was a lifesaver.
(26:27):
And I just, can't say enough about it because that was the catalyst and that, Mary was thetool that helped me to get to the next spot.
I would have never gotten my first real space, that triple net lease where I actually had.
for respectable treatment spaces and a retail and lobby area.
(26:49):
I don't know if you've ever seen the picture of my first space, Steven, but my firstspace, when I say it was a room and I had went, see when I say problem solving, I found
this company called Room Divider now and they made these freestanding, like big, thick,almost like theater drapes.
And I went and ordered a set of room divider curtain.
(27:13):
That's just called it is.
I ordered some curtain jaw and the curtains.
I put them in this one room shaped like the letter T and created two treatment stalls anda reception area.
What in the hood?
What?
You're in one tiny less than 500 square foot room.
You got an audacity to have a desk.
(27:34):
You have lateral files.
You have a sette.
You got aromatherapy, music.
Women, the place was so tight that they were in there holding each other's purses.
One day I, and I would have one client going and beside this curtain, then I come out thecurtain and one is sitting here waiting, hi.
And I go on the other side and there's another client on the table in there.
And they're actually busting down the door to get in this space.
(27:57):
Can you believe it?
So that's when I tell people, don't discount yourself.
Don't overthink it.
You just have to do it because you can create whatever feels, atmosphere, vibe, and theydon't buy it.
They were, I remember I had this woman come to my door and it was just me.
(28:20):
So I'm running between clients, greeting clients.
I had to lock the door.
For me, I'm going to go in a place and get almost half naked.
I'd be kind of skeeved out if you started locking the doors.
I'd be like, well damn, is it safe in here?
They were like, okay girl, go ahead, get the door.
And I'm like, oh my God.
The lady knocks on my door and I'm like, she's like, I'm here for my appointment.
And I'm like, oh my God, I can't find that.
(28:41):
I'm panicking.
She bursts out laughing and shaking her head.
she, lady's a high school principal.
She says, you know what, I'm just pressed.
I'm lying.
I was like, what?
She said, I just wanted to be in here.
My husband told me I was pressed too.
I just wanted to be in here.
I don't have no appointment.
That's, I was like, what?
That's when I knew, I said, oh, this is crazy.
(29:02):
This like high educated, I said, child.
She was like, take my money.
So when I tell you guys, you can, I always get emotional, I'm the town crier.
But when I tell you, you can create from a grain of rice something that people are gonnawant, people are gonna pay you for, people are gonna put it in your budget.
(29:23):
It's just such a blessing and an honor because all you have to do is be authentic and yougive them what you're gonna give them, the way you're gonna give it to them.
Don't lie, don't try to be someone else.
sell the damn thing because what I know about business is I don't beg people to patronizemy business.
(29:44):
I connect with people who are already looking for me.
That's how you market and you get the path of least resistance in a higher value clientand relationship like that.
that was the beginning of everything, moved into my space, hired my first person.
That was...
Terrifying no systems.
No processes.
(30:05):
No training manuals I just had a person and I'm like Lord.
I hope she doesn't do something and I get blamed for it This was pre-law suit.
So that's another story.
So, okay
So I think here, we definitely gonna have to have you every month and just make this aseries because there's so much we could go on for hours.
(30:28):
So I think here's a good point that we kind of pause, but I will say this.
We have worked together now for like eight or nine years.
We have partnered together, which is super important.
And when was the first time we actually met face to face?
Because this is important.
We have...
worked together, partnered together, built her business, like she said, from a tiny roomto you have three locations, a retail, a spa.
(30:55):
And the first time we met each other was a year and a half ago, face to face.
So, and that's the thing, the world has gotten smaller with technology.
And a lot of people have this thing where they're like, I need to go and talk to myaccount for what?
What you're taking a box of receipts over there?
No one's doing that.
That was circa 1962.
Like everything that you need should be digitized at this point and encrypted andprotected somewhere.
(31:20):
But the relationship is the, I feel like it's the work.
And it's something about the way that
we were both able to curate our partnership, right?
Because yes, it was the fields and yes, it was like, girl, hey, but the work was the workwas the work first for many, many, many years.
(31:41):
And every time, it's just so much with this.
Okay, so I tell people you have accounting, you have bookkeeping, and then you havebusiness development.
Not all CPAs are in those different rungs of business and development.
Some people just want to do your taxes.
That's called H &R Block.
Right?
(32:01):
And then I'm telling them people, you're going to H &R Block and they work at the postoffice for real.
So that's not necessarily where you want to entrust your financials because there's somany changes and F's and flows and different laws and forget write-offs, just rules and
regulations.
You need somebody who knows that stuff.
So by having Mary, I know that she knows that.
(32:24):
Go ahead, I'm sorry.
I was just gonna say that's why you need a Mary.
I say that to everybody.
you gotta have someone who this is what they do.
And I know we're at time and I know we're wrapping up, but I will say this and it's, mean,I love myself.
Everybody knows how much I'm in love with myself, but I am a unicorn when it comes to whatI do.
(32:44):
I am a unicorn in the sense that we partner.
know every aspect of accounting and I like what I like.
I specialize in what I specialize.
We do what we do, but so that's work.
Yeah.
And we love it.
another thing because small business, need it.
We can't afford to not have it, but we can't afford, like I've had someone approach mebefore, I do your fractional.
(33:06):
I'm going to charge you this quarterly fee and X amount of percentage of your revenue.
Who can afford that?
Like, who do you think I am?
Elon Musk?
I don't have money for that.
You know, so to scale it and grow with me.
is exceptional.
And as you said, to be a unicorn and live and breathe and eat in this space and be able tohelp me head off those problems and challenges has saved me on so many levels.
(33:31):
I don't know.
So yeah, it's just so much.
my God.
Well, we're excited to keep diving into this and we're definitely gonna keep revisitingand we want to go through the whole story because you have a massive story.
You do need a book, I might have to find a copyrighted for you or something.
(33:51):
But we'll definitely get you back on.
Where can people find you, Josie?
Everything is BlackBellaSpa.
Keep it simple.
BlackBellaSpa.com, BlackBellaSpa on Instagram, BlackBellaSpa on TikTok.
BlackBellaSpa, that's it.
Well, the great thing is, Josie teaches people how to do this.
(34:11):
And she's become a master at her craft, so we're definitely gonna get into that on thenext one, maybe two down the line.
But, we'll figure it out.
to cover before we get to that one, but we definitely need to talk about that.
Definitely.
Yeah.
yeah.
well now thanks for joining everybody.
(34:31):
I hope you enjoyed this first special episode with Josie and until then have a peacefulday.
Thank you.
Thank you, Josie, we love you.
Love you guys, see ya!
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