Celebrating 5 Years of Entrepreneurial Wisdom

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We celebrate five years of Shades and Layers by reflecting on the top entrepreneurial lessons from dozens of women who have shared their journeys on the podcast. This special birthday episode distills key insights that transcend industry, geography, and experience level to help entrepreneurs at any stage of their journey.

• Embrace change - the pandemic forced entrepreneurs to adapt, from converting to remote work to pivoting business models
• Don't reinvent the wheel - learn from others' experiences and adapt their playbooks to your context
• Experience is the best teacher - no amount of planning substitutes for hands-on work in your business
• Don't walk alone - find community through co-working spaces, industry events, and online networks
• Take care of the back end - ensure financial and legal foundations are solid, using available tools and support

Thank you for listening! If you found this episode useful, please share it with your friends. If you have a moment, please give us a five-star rating and review wherever you're listening, so that others can find the podcast.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Wow, how time flies.
Can you believe?
It's been five years of Shadesand Layers.
Happy birthday, shades andLayers.
For this milestone, it'sfitting to celebrate with
something different.
Not only is this a celebration,but it's a moment to reflect on
the big lessons that have comefrom the dozens of women who
have featured on the show.
I hope you'll find it helpfulfor wherever you are in your

(00:24):
entrepreneurial journey.
I'm Gudlonos Kosanarici, andthis is Shades and Layers, the
podcast where black and otherwomen of color entrepreneurs
thrive.
In case you're new around here,a quick rundown of what Shades
and Layers is and why it exists.
This platform was created torecognize and celebrate the
underrepresented andunderestimated women

(00:45):
entrepreneurs that I keptmeeting everywhere but didn't
seem to exist in mainstreammedia.
These amazing women have voicedsimilar challenges, regardless
of where in the world they live,which industry they work in and
how far into theirentrepreneurial journey they are
, from lack of access to fundingto sexism, ageism and how to
hire the right people.
Their joys and successes havealso resonated across the seas,

(01:09):
from being able to changecareers, being validated with
customer support for followingyour passion and embracing a
leadership position in yourcommunity by providing
employment and being aninspiration for young women and
girls.
I'm excited to share some ofthe top lessons with you in this
episode.
I'm also excited to do thisepisode because it's my very

(01:30):
first solo episode, so in thenext few minutes I'll be
breaking down the top fivelessons from the last five years
spent with my guests.
There are obviously many, many,many entrepreneurial lessons,
but I'm excited to share thesefive that keep coming up with
every single interview.
So let's begin Lesson oneembrace.
Change Shades and Layerslaunched in the middle of the

(01:52):
pandemic and there was a lot ofrecalibration happening both for
myself and my guests.
So for me, I had just found outthat our family would be
relocating to the United States.
We were living in Denmark atthe time, so I had to embrace
using Zoom for interviews.
I had to convert a littlecupboard into a home studio and
had to broaden the scope of theguests who would appear.

(02:13):
Many of my guests were workingfrom home or operating under
some form of restrictionsbecause of COVID lockdowns.
Some had to close their shopsand pivot to online sales.
Some had to take better controlof their supply chain because
of the impact the pandemic hadon global trade.
Remember how goods were stuckin ports for weeks on end.

(02:33):
Yeah, that affected a lot ofpeople who make physical
products.
Well, whatever choicesentrepreneurs made during those
crazy months, they had to alllearn to do things differently.
If you were selling in personbefore COVID today, you probably
have an extra sales channel.
So life does demand that weadjust ourselves to reality on a
constant basis and we mustevolve as people anyway.

(02:56):
But also sometimes things don'twork out as planned.
If you're open to change,however, whatever direction your
experiences push or guide youin, it will count as serendipity
someday.
So initially I was disappointedthat I wouldn't be able to
interview guests in person, buteventually came to appreciate
doing remote interviews for thepodcast, which means that this

(03:17):
podcast can be recorded fromanywhere in the world.
Lesson two there is no need toreinvent the wheel.
This short and sweet lesson isone of the things that compelled
me to start Shades and Layers.
You can also learn a lot fromother people's stories.
As children, we copy ourparents and peers to acquire
invaluable survival skills andskills to thrive in life.

(03:38):
So in the adult playground, notonly can we choose to borrow
someone else's playbook, we canalso ask ourselves what skills
did they need to get where theyare what can I improve in their
playbook?
What should I do differently inmy context?
So the knowledge andinformation are always there, of
course, but when the factsshape the story of someone we

(04:00):
admire, that's when weunderstand it deep in our bones.
Lesson three experience is yourbest teacher.
As a follow-on to the storiesthat can teach us, you also must
get your hands dirty.
There's no better teacher thanexperience.
In fact, you can make all thebusiness plans, have the right

(04:21):
mentors and associates, makefinancial forecasts, read all
the books, but there's nogreater teacher than experience.
So what does that mean and whatdoes it look like?
Well, know your business insideout first of all, and figure
out what you can do and can't do, and don't outsource before
that, even in partnership, youneed to figure out who's good at

(04:42):
what and where, and how to fillthe gaps, your mentors,
conference workshops, businessbooks and self-help books.
They'll only take you so far.
What you do hands-on is whatwill take you to the next level.
Lesson four don't walk alone.
Related to lesson number threeis that you don't have to do
entrepreneurship solo.

(05:03):
After all, there's no suchthing as a self-made success
story.
You need people.
Shout out to Casey Ariel, bythe way, casey, ariel Tobias now
for running her Blaze Groupcoworking sessions way back when
I was still developing thispodcast.
These were free to join and Imet some amazing women through
this network.

(05:23):
So, find a community, and thatdoesn't mean anything big or
grand, it doesn't even have tobe in real life.
So, yes, find a community.
Lean on your friends or family,blood or chosen family and ask
for advice from your mentors andother colleagues in the
industry chosen.
Apart from online co-workingconferences and industry events
I've found personally veryhelpful.

(05:44):
For example, I've met sometruly wonderful people at
Creative Mornings, and there aremany, many Creative Morning
chapters around the world.
The PRX Podcast Garage andvarious podcasting events have
also been very helpful.
Lesson five make sure the backend is taken care of.
This is probably the mostfundamental lesson.

(06:06):
If you're a first time businessowner or a side hustler, you
find out pretty quickly thatthere are lots of balls in the
air and eventually, something isbound to fall through the
cracks because you don't knowwhat you don't know.
However, the one thing you donot want to fall through the
cracks is the backbone of yourbusiness, and that is finance
and legal.
Trust me, I've been there, andthere's nothing worse than

(06:28):
missing anything related tofinance, be it a deadline or an
amount.
And so nowadays, there are atleast some tools, some software
options to help you updatetransactions, keep track of your
finances.
There are also platforms tohelp you keep abreast of all the
legal requirements andconsiderations of running a
company in your industry, inyour country.

(06:49):
So use the tools at yourdisposal and customer support if
you're struggling with anyaspects.
Your amazing website and onlinepresence are nice, but they
will cease to exist if the backend is not in order.
And those are the five lessons.
Before we wrap it up, let megive you a breakdown of my
personal experience with all ofthis.

(07:10):
So the conclusion that I havecome to personally is that
running a business is like beingin a lab you test out different
things until you find the onethat works, and then you keep
building from there.
So once upon a time, I had twobusiness partners.
This was between 1995 and 2009.
Hey, maria McLeod, what's up?

(07:30):
Zeno?
And we built this multimediacompany called Black Reach
Productions.
We started out wanting to createa music and culture magazine.
When that didn't work, we putit on the internet.
When we were invited ascultural consultants in
developing Channel O, which isAfrica's equivalent of MTV.
We were ready because we werealready working with music and

(07:53):
culture when we were invited tocreate our own television show.
We were ready for that, havingworked with Channel O, and by
the time Tino went scouting fortalent for Outrageous Records
our very own hip hop recordlabel we were ready and in a
position to create somethingwithin that space.
All of this to say that what youdo today is practice for the

(08:13):
future.
So stay ready and it will beeasier to embrace change and
take the opportunities when theycome.
And that concludes this soloslash birthday episode.
Thank you for listening.
If you found this episodeuseful, please share it with
your friends.
If you have a moment, pleasegive us a five-star rating and
review wherever you're listening, so that others can find the

(08:34):
podcast.
Thank you for your support overthe past five years.
I'm Kutlanos, kosana Ritchie,and until next time, please do
take good care.