Black Rise

How To Build Multiple Multi-Million Businesses Without Losing Your Mind - With Tommie Edwards, Serial Entrepreneur

• Black Rise • Season 1 • Episode 12

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Embarking on an entrepreneurial odyssey often demands a fortitude forged in the fires of early trials. Our guest, Tommie Edwards, is no stranger to this journey. With roots in Lagos' vibrant markets, she's navigated the transition from teenage business manager to tech trailblazer. Hear her story as she recounts the pivotal moments that shaped her career, from taking over her mother's businesses at the tender age of 16 to finding her niche in the UK's competitive markets. Join us for an exploration of Tommie's masterclass in resilience, where she shares her secrets to scaling businesses, managing risk, and embracing opportunities, even when they're accompanied by a steep learning curve.

Tommie's tale isn't just about individual success; it's a testament to the power of community and connection. As we move through the tapestry of her experiences, we uncover the value of a supportive network, from family influences to strategic partnerships. Discover how Tommie's adeptness at balancing family life with ambitious business ventures, coupled with her capacity to build and leverage relationships, has been instrumental in her achievements. Her insights serve as a beacon for entrepreneurs striving for harmony between personal growth and professional excellence.

What does it take to secure venture capital as a black woman in tech? Tommie walks us through the doors of TechQuantum's boardrooms, offering listeners a front-row seat to her strategic manoeuvres that garnered support from key players in the industry. Learn how she navigated the complexities of building a tech company, from employing her sales savvy to mastering the art of the pitch. This episode isn't just a celebration of triumphs; it's a candid look at the hurdles and learning experiences that define the entrepreneurial journey, providing valuable lessons for those ready to chart their own course in the business world.

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Black Rise is not just a podcast but an extension of our Business platform. We are on a mission to bridge the gap between businesses and the immense potential of Black talent. We provide a dynamic platform where businesses and individuals can connect, collaborate, and prosper with Black professionals, entrepreneurs, and black-owned companies. We strive to showcase the value, creativity, and innovation that Black talent brings to the table, fostering partnerships that drive economic growth, diversity, and mutual success.

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Speaker 1:

People ask you how do you do it? But then people do not understand that when it comes to the support system, what support system do you have that allows you to be able to look and appear like you can do it all you know?

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Black rice podcast. You get a way to inspiring conversation with Black creme de la creme of Black talent, world leaders of seven figure and, above, businesses across a spectrum of industries. I'm your host, flavilla Fongang, an award-winning serial entrepreneur, who will guide you on his journey. Black rice isn't just a podcast. It's an extension of our business platform, allowing the business world to connect with skilled, talented and experienced Black talent. Our mission is to serve as a bridge, connecting businesses with vast opportunities that lie in working with Black professionals, entrepreneurs and enterprises. We strive to showcase the value, creativity and innovation that Black talent brings to the table, fostering partnerships that drive economic growth, diversity and mutual success. Visit theblackricecom to find out more. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. No matter where you are, I hope that you're enjoying the Black rice podcast and every week I guarantee to bring you the most exciting conversation about Black leaders who are amazing and discovered sometimes even more, and so we can learn about their stories.

Speaker 2:

I think there's so much power in listening to someone's journey. You can also gain from their wisdom and learn from their experiences, but also really gathered how you can achieve your own success. Success is achievable, you know. I know there's a lot of issues and systematic barriers in front of us, but those Black leaders have done well, and so can you. So I want you to be inspired, and I'm with me, tommy Edwards. When you think about Tommy Edwards, I'll come to your mind. You think it's a man, you think it's a white man? Well, tommy Edwards is nothing as such. What you think, tommy, how are you?

Speaker 1:

I'm very well, thank you. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2:

My pleasure, tommy. We know each other, obviously through GTA, black Home and Intek. You were one of the women who were featured in my first book, the Voices in the Shadow, and I love the fact that when I met you when you were featured in this book, you had another business, which is so exciting to show you how much of an entrepreneur you are. So this is not your first video and but I think we need to understand from the start where you are and what you've done, and, yeah, I'm super excited to have you to have in this conversation and the best way to start is from the beginning. So I would love to know, tommy about before going to the business world, what was your childhood like? What did you grow up? What was your, some of the people that influenced you when you were young, and maybe family figure or friends and whatsoever who influence the person that you are today.

Speaker 1:

All right, fantastic, Thanks for having me. It's exciting to be here and I actually absolutely love what you're doing with Black Rise. I think it's a platform that is absolutely needed and I'm excited to share my story here today. So let's go back to where it all started.

Speaker 1:

Born in Nigeria, grew up in Lagos, Mom was a midwife who had also a side hustle, and that was an engineer who also had a side hustle. So I kind of grew up understanding that, OK, I saw them basically do different businesses which, at the point in my life when I was 16, my mom had to go to the US for a while. At that point, this is where you're waiting for your results in order to be able to go to what we call going into university then. So I was 16. I had to wait for my jam results and things like that, and while my mom was leaving, she just basically said you've been watching me for a while. You understand all the different things that I sell here.

Speaker 1:

This is like an off-license shop, but also has a pharmacy in it and she's like OK, you would be the one managing this by the time I'm back in six months. That would be the time where you are also living for school. So I'm like, oh my God, how would I do this? Within the same building just next door, my dad had a men's salon where they basically have like a barbing salon and also a business center. This was quite a long time ago before everyone had their own personal computer, so people come in there to get their projects done and things like that. So automatically I had 14 staff.

Speaker 2:

Well, can I just ask you how old were you at that point? I was 16. Wow, you did say 16? Wow.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so at the age of 16, I inherited basically three businesses in one and in total they had 14 staff, and this is where I had to learn very quickly. So apparently I've been learning for a while but I just didn't know. And I think that was what she saw. And she's like do you know what? I have no other person to give this to. This is just such a short notice and opportunity she can't reject. And then I was just dropped into it To me.

Speaker 2:

I love that you didn't back up because, look, it's like you know, mom, I don't want to do this, so I'm not interested. I want to know. Thank you, but you just accepted it. Why did you accept and didn't let the fuck take over?

Speaker 1:

I didn't think I have a lot of choice.

Speaker 2:

Well, you have to listen. You have no choice.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, you know that's what I'm talking about. So I'm the first one. I'm the only girl. It's a family of four kids. All the rest are boys. Basically, I'm the only one that is available. And not only that, but there's possibly been listening to her for a while, and so she's just like. This girl is on it, she can do it, and in the beginning I was like, oh my God, why would she do this? But then something else kicked in my brain, which is she believes in you. She thinks you can handle it. She doesn't think you can. She wouldn't have given it to you, she'll have just shut it down. So why don't you then do everything in your power to make sure that when she gets back, she finds this place better than the way she left it? So I started with my listening skills and I love that you know what you say.

Speaker 2:

It's so important that the best lessons sometimes happen, and I said to people over time you can spend hours learning at school, but the best way to actually learn and really become and be skilled is actually getting to action and apply it as well. I'm not saying that you shouldn't go to university or whatsoever, but the best way to really become a practical and developing skills to get into work.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, exactly. So this is where my economics came into play straight away, and I'm like the law of diminishing returns, the law of demand and supply. People are coming in and basically asking about some things and we are like, how come we don't stop those things, do you know? So I'm like, ok, I'm going to then have to find suppliers that I could basically bring into the picture and they can start supplying us, because if five, six people asking for the same thing, there's something there, and so I learned that bit in there. I also also learned how to manage employees, because you can imagine, I'm 16. Everybody there is a law holder than myself, you know, and not only do I have to give feedback about them to my dad when he comes back in the evening, I also have to make sure that the business is running properly all through the day, and I have to ensure that the right people are being paid the right things, all of that are running.

Speaker 2:

So can you say a question to me? Because you're 16 years old and you are at stories of people who are in their 20s and they manage people who are older, but being 16, you're not even 18. You're 16 years old. How do you manage them effectively? What did you do? Yeah, you have to tell me.

Speaker 1:

So I think this is a skill I still use today. I just thought about listening to people and making treating people the way you like to be treated and understanding that everyone has a role, but then everyone has a life. So I tap into both aspects so they get to see the funny, playful side of Tommy, where you know, we kids, we laugh, we are serious, but then when it comes to the serious aspect and what we need to do, the line does not. Basically, you can't cross that line because it is just two very separate people and I think this is where I have this information I interpass on to.

Speaker 1:

This is what we need to do going forward, and I'm giving them the rationale why we need to do it, not because I'm autocratic and I'm just saying let's do this, meaning they're not going to follow me, but if I make people believe that whatever decision that I want actually came from them, then they are likely to do it. So it's like the. Let me give you an example. So the example would be maybe I already know that the average, let's say, hair that they need to be cut in pop by hour is three, yeah, and currently they're doing one and because they're wiling away. They're not just doing the rest. So what I would then do is, instead of saying, oh, we need to be cut in three, nobody's going to follow you.

Speaker 1:

So this is now in like hmm, sales are not looking up. What do you guys think we should be doing? How can we make this thing faster? And they start to come up with ideas that could be that it should you think that if we do those things, will they allow us to get to cutting three or four people's hair within the hour, or what do you think. And then they are coming like, oh, four will be pushing it, but maybe we can get to three. So now they own the decision. It came from them, but it always came from me, but they just didn't know that.

Speaker 2:

I love you. The art of negotiation is very powerful, always that.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, exactly. And when people own a decision they tend to, like you know, follow it. They tend to believe that. Oh yeah, I told that this and that is like I didn't even understand when I was doing it. I just realized I was and I felt that was just working. And of course there will be times where it doesn't, but most times it actually does.

Speaker 1:

So that's kind of like the beginning, the early days and when I actually knew that I actually had my entrepreneurial bug was every time on Fridays I have to go pay money into the bank. At the bank, the ladies at the cashier because they're there for long hours, they don't have the time to go shopping. So I had one day talking about African wax and they want to have this African print and things like that. But then they were complaining about time Me. I've had a friend who comes to the shop told me where you could get this in Republic of Benin, which is very close to you know, lagos. So I just started to do two plus two and I'm like, ok, I'm banking this money sitting down in the bank. What if I don't bank this money and I actually use this money and go to Benin and I buy whatever I could buy and I sell it for three for the price, and then this lady is paying me and I return the money back.

Speaker 1:

So that was where I started and I had to do that. And quickly, when it was time to get the money from them, I brought in another strategy and I'm like okay, if you have to buy more than two for you to be able to pay me at the end of the month, if not, you have to pay now. So you see, you saw people buying, you know, two, three and all of that in order to be able to pay at the end of the month when they get their salary. So all of this, as as when I was doing it I didn't even understand the recall strategies, but I was just doing what was intuitive, you know, to me as at the time. So that's kind of where I feel like my very first entrepreneurial book, kind of like, came from.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's beautiful. It's beautiful because one thing that we, when I first had, when I first was put in a position of management and I was never trained right and people and I've seen people manage before and sometimes if you see bad managers, you copy the bad habits and I've always thought, oh my gosh, you have to type what to do, but what are you doing that you're cutting them from their empowerment and they always rely on you to make every single decision. And I think what you've done from a very young age was empowering your team and again, they're more reliable and they hold you know, they hold the power in sense, even though this was your idea originally. I mean again, something that you mentioned was the importance of always paying attention to opportunities and quite often, instead of creating a product or a business out of thin air, listen to what people want, listen to your problem, and if you can find enough people with the same problem, then you have a business opportunity. And that's what you've done, which is really really cool, really really cool.

Speaker 2:

So what happens next? Are you someone? Did you come to go to university? Or you say you know what, I'm good already, I don't need I have a school of life. I'm good where I am. I don't need to go any further. What did you choose to do?

Speaker 1:

So and I had to go to university. It was just one of those things that you just had to do and I went to university. But this time around, you know, I went in there with a whole lot more of I'm learning things, I'm being sociable. I need to. You know, university kicks so many things With you, not just the skills that you're learning, but also it brings in your social skills, it brings in your leadership skills. It brings in so many things and you start to develop a whole lot while you're there.

Speaker 1:

But what didn't leave me was the fact that I just have been, like I said, the whole business idea just kept coming. So I kept listening to what people were looking for and I kept just becoming someone that is always, you know, doing the love, demand and supply. You want this. I need to find someone that has it, and I'm how many people want this and I'm able to. So I used that a lot in school as well.

Speaker 1:

And then came 2003. And this is when I had to tell. And so I was living in uni and I had to tell my dad that the next thing for me was not just to come in and find a job, was for me to actually leave Nigeria for the UK. And I said at that time things were a bit tougher home and things like that. And my dad is like I don't have the funds. And I'm like, okay, I'm determined, how do I get myself into the UK? And this is where I had to say well, I had to then basically draw out a map and the plan was how much do you need?

Speaker 1:

What is the minimum amount of money? How much do you have? You have zero. How do you get this amount that you require? What are the things you could do that could help you get this? What can you speak to that? How resourceful are you? So I quickly realized that you know what Modeling was going to be a great idea. So I started to do like all this face modeling, where you are on the cover of Limca, which is on Bicocacola, you are a calendar girl, you're on the billboard promoting the soap, you are this and that, and I just kept taking those money and changing them to pounds.

Speaker 2:

I love that. I didn't know you did that. It's amazing. I mean, you're definitely beautiful, so I shouldn't be surprised. But yeah, I do know you do that and you choose. Sometimes there's money around that people don't see where you can get it from. I love that. You're just like okay, well, let me use that. That's interesting. I love it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely so, and that was it. And that was how I was able to then pay the school fees, because I was coming to the UK to study ACCA. So this is which is a professional accounting, and so that was how I was able to pay for the college that was going to lecture me and all of that. And I went to my dad and I'm like, see, I already paid the fees which was half of the fees, by the way and he was just shocked, how did you get it? And then I was showing him all the contracts and all the things that I've signed and he was just super impressed and with that it backed me and I later found myself in the UK.

Speaker 2:

Wow, Can I ask you a question? Why did you choose the UK and maybe not the States? So why? Why were you UK?

Speaker 1:

I know I keep asking myself that question as well, but I think it was all about the people around me. So while I was in uni, a lot of my friends come to the UK for summer, and the UK is just six hours away from Lagos, so it was just a normal destination that I've always wanted to go. And I read up about the UK. I've always been fascinated by a lot of things about the UK, and the US just didn't come to mind. I don't know for any reason why, or pretty much anywhere else, but the UK was just always that one place that was just the number one on my list and I felt like from there you could become anything you want to be. Wow.

Speaker 2:

So now you're in the UK and you arrived. Is it what you expected and what happened?

Speaker 1:

So it was a shock to my system. So this is the naive girl pulling up a suitcase and going to oh my God, this is so funny. And I just basically went to this college. You know, there were all these colleges that I just went to this college and I was like, yeah, I've come all the way, I've picked my school. I was just expecting something else. And they told me I know, it doesn't work that way. You have to find your own accommodation. You have to find, oh, you know, I was just very stunned.

Speaker 1:

So I was now in the city of London, basically stranded, and this is where family. I had to call my dad and my dad like, oh, yeah, his cousin is here, and blah, blah. And that was how I had to then start squatting with my big cousin for a few months before I started to find my feet. Oh, finding my feet within the first week of being with her. She's like oh, you need to start any money. I have this job that I found for you. What job was that? It was cleaning. What are we cleaning? We're cleaning toilets and we're cleaning offices. So at Regent Street, funny enough, it was like so I was like, really, I left, you know Nigeria to come clean toilets. But you know what. You have to be humble. You know the things you've had. You have to be humble. You have to start from somewhere. I'm like, okay, let's roll with it.

Speaker 2:

But sometimes you know you have, because there's a danger of this falling into that trap of oh, you have to be humble and then you lose your amazing ambition, right yeah.

Speaker 1:

Nah, nah, nah, nah. So it was just like within like a few days, I'm like I'm stopping at the end of the week. I'm not even good at it. So I'm like nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, this is not for me. I apologize, but I can't. I know you tried to get me this, but it's not just for me, I'm going to lose myself. And the next thing I did, you was like okay, this is London, you're not going to have anywhere. I'm like I understand, but I have to try. And so I got on a bus from Elephant and Castle and I'm like wherever this bus stops, this is where my journey begins. And then I got on bus 453, stopped at Victoria and from there I'm not Victoria, baker Street I just started to look for any sign of jobs.

Speaker 1:

I found this oh, we're trying to hire an office assistant or something like that. And that was how I applied for that job. They asked me for a CV. I noticed I saw a cafe down the road. I went to create the CV, gave it to them and I got that job in the same day.

Speaker 1:

And but then it was a job selling DVDs to people in a store and stuff like that. So I had to start talking to the people I was selling DVDs to. I was having conversations and one day one of the latest customers just said oh wow, I really like you, tommy, you're very engaging, you're just in that, you know. We got talking and she realized that I studied insurance. And that's what are you doing here? That my cousin or their sister or something works in an insurance company and they're looking to hire. Would you want me to put you through? That was how I got my first corporate job. Wow, just like that. Yeah, just like that. So it went through. Of course, I went through the whole interview, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1:

But then it was just a matter of if I didn't talk to people, if I didn't make conversations, and I'm just like oh, the job is so. What I'm saying is, even though this job was paying below the minimum wage, you know, but I was treating this job like it was everything and I was talking to customers. I made sure I was the best at that job. I made sure that when people come in, I greet them with a smile. So what I'm saying? I'm giving my 100% to something that I know is not me, but then I still had to turn up because I made a commitment and in doing that you don't know opportunities could open. So, because I showed up every day, being my authentic self, opportunity arise and when the opportunity arose I was there to pick it up, because I already have the credentials and everything that was needed to take on the opportunity and that's what I could hold on to from you. Know what happened within that period?

Speaker 2:

Yes, I think what we learned from that moment of your story is that you have standard the certain visits you prepare to do and certain visits you're not prepared to do, such as cleaning the toilet. That's not you and you know that, but certainly the truth you have to say. It's an exchange, it's an opportunity for me to be a stepping stone to closer to where I want to be. So, and you know that, break my heart when you hear that you know people live an entire country to come here and be a cleaner. It breaks my heart because sometimes they set the standards so far too low and it's really hard to go back up.

Speaker 2:

But when you are, and against the feeling like, when you're in a position, even if you know that you can do more than that, be so good at it, because you never know who is watching you and somebody out there will see your talent and be able to see beyond, even sometimes if you don't see it. And I've seen many times in my life where it's like, oh, you're really good at this, is that really? And then you go for it. So that's the beautiful story to tell, because people might think, oh, that's just luck. But I don't think that's luck. You created your luck and this is why you are where you are now today. It's amazing. So you got into insurance.

Speaker 1:

So basically, I got into insurance and I realized that I could sell. So this is where I it was insurance sales. So you're selling, like life insurance, critical units and all of that to people, and I realized that the first thing they taught us during the induction of this was you have to understand and listen to people, understand what their needs are, make sure that whoever is the decision maker is in the room when you want to close, and things like that. I never leave a client without asking for a referral. So I put all of that together and, before you know what is happening, within a couple of months of being in the insurance company, I won, like three hours, the best sales person of the year. The best because I'm not even joking.

Speaker 1:

I'm like because if I come into your home, you're buying. Well, that's because I've done my study before coming into your home. So I've spoken to you, I've had conversations, I've already qualified, you understand the fact that you are the right person for this and then I'm not coming if you and your partner are not there together. I understand who the target audience for this particular product is and I go after those target audience. So because of that, my success rate was very, very high. For me as well, it was a shock that, oh wow, tell me, you could really really sell. And this is how I started to like oh wow, I can do anything.

Speaker 2:

I love this. You know what you say is important to people. Go into conversation blind If you don't know who you're talking to, or you're going to a call no idea who the person is, how can you have a fair advantage to ask the right question? And sometimes the power resides in asking the right question to convert your customer, and that's super, super key. But also understanding the. You know having process. You have process and you know exactly from A to B to C, where to start out to end, how to close and so on, and what to follow up with asking for referrals. This is super powerful and and sales skills will take you always far.

Speaker 2:

People don't know you. Obviously. I know you. Never nobody would imagine that you're such a great sales person because you're so soft, so soft and you know and and lots of words. It's not yet charming, but like a nice flower. You don't think that you are aggressive, because people have this image as well of sales, but aggressive, but you are very soft in your approach and you know she and just do it. You listen. I think that's one great quality of being a great salesperson.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely so. I think that's what people are all pretty much people actually respected. That is like I'm not constantly pushing, I just don't know. You lay the facts of facts. What are you going to do about it? You know what I mean. I laid the facts in there and I'm like you see that you are going to be losing out If you're not taking the next step. And I think because they realized that they decided warming towards that. And after that, while I was talking to people, people started talking about mortgages and back from I know remember this is me coming from Nigeria All this happened within the first couple of years of being in the UK and I'm like, okay, we don't have mortgages.

Speaker 1:

What exactly is this about? And I researched into it. I realized that, okay, how do I sell mortgages to people? Because if I sell mortgages to people, insurance and mortgages goes on the end. And I realized I had to be a market advisor. What does it take to become one? I researched into it. I did the exams, I became a market advisor and I'm like, okay, now you're a market advisor, what next? I forgot the fact that you have to get authorized. How do you get?

Speaker 1:

So I found that bit of not knowing the right people. I didn't have the connections to be able to help me get authorized, you know, to be able to help me get into the right places. So I lost a lot of time trying to figure out all of that, when, the midst of doing that, I kept, you know, building up myself, I kept, you know, understanding. Okay, if I do this, what next? If I do this, what next?

Speaker 1:

I was so curious to really understand exactly how the UK works, how the entire sector, or, you know, finances, works. How do people decide that, okay, this is the home the one, this is insurance the one, this is the type of car the one, what is the? You know? I basically bombarded myself with a whole lot of information that I could then have a play-by-play of what a typical household would look like if this is their income and what they could buy and what they could not buy. And all of that was because, in understanding that then I could understand and discover the type of people I need to start selling things to. I need to start selling my mortgages or insurance and stuff like that too. Let's leave all of that to one to one, because, to one part, I feel like in doing all of that, I later found my way into tech. Well, how did that happen?

Speaker 2:

Yes, we're going to get into that because obviously you, you are in, we're both in tech, but you didn't start there and then like something like you, my car. We didn't start in tech, I was in fashion and oil and gas completely different. But and as you say yourself, you know going, you love it. You would have done differently, sometimes, having the right people around you, having the right information, and it's hard sometimes when you, when you, it's a new environment you can see that you're ambitious. Obviously there's different regulations for different sectors, fortunately, and that comes sometimes can become a barrier to opportunities.

Speaker 1:

So, so I think I and I agree with you. It's like people, don't you don't just find yourself? Many of the people that you find in tech today came about it one way or the other. Somehow, not everybody basically studied computer science and automatically knew that this was where they were going, or data and things like that. And for me it was the same. I didn't. I didn't even. It was not taught, you know, and how I found myself there was after I later got regulated and I could sell mortgages.

Speaker 1:

The financial crisis of 2008 happened and I'm like, what are you going to do yourself? You know, while I'm doing all the while I was working and doing all of that, I was also making sure that I was studying and making sure I was getting my postgraduate advancing myself, and then I decided that I was going to go to Harvard for the executive program. So I went to Harvard and decided to learn product finance and cross-border innovation, and during my four months within that program, what I was able to pick out from it was the fact that you know you have to be like a failure tolerantly, that you have to feel fast, and you'll have to learn from those failures and move. You have to build something that is truly sustainable. You have to understand that this is how well to generate.

Speaker 1:

It is not for you to just basically keep building or keep creating vitamins. Why not create painkillers? How do you identify pain? How do you understand what type of painkiller is going to work and for who is it going to work for? So I took all of that and I'm like, okay, I'm going to build something from the ground up, but I need to find a huge basically need that, regardless of what the economy looks like, this needs to always be there.

Speaker 2:

Yes, it's crisis proof. It's, you know, recession proof. People always need it. There's water People always need water but if you buy luxury car, it's something that people will be cut off very quickly.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, but you will be surprised about other things. That has now become like part of us. Imagine somebody taking off the internet right now. We're all going to go into major panic because we are so used to that. That's like a big problem. If anything happens to that, you know.

Speaker 1:

But so is logistics, and I didn't so the way I have to jump and find logistics. So this is me trying to tell you how I'm going to take. I know logistics is not tech, but you get how I got in there gradually. But then so me coming back from Harvard, I'm like remember the mission? Now Tell me you're trying to build something that is basically sustainable, that is big enough, that is recession proof that you know all of those sort of talks.

Speaker 1:

And then I saw someone that I know is always coming to deliver to me, and then we became friends. You know the delivery guy, and I'm like, okay, I wanted to ask how exactly? I want to understand this process, how exactly do you get hired? Because I noticed that some vans come here they have this little gurney, and some come here they don't have this little gurney. So I was asking him questions and I asked the question do you mind me going with you to deliver and as your assistant driver for the day, and he's like, oh really, I'm like, yeah, so I jumped on and for me it was just a learning process. I learned while we're driving. I learned how he was, you know, delivering. I learned that even you know the FIFA lethal that we're taught in economics basically works in logistics as well. So it's like if you want, if I wanted to leave out to you and your address is the first place I'm going, then it has to be the last thing I put into my van, because when I open my van that's the first thing I see, you know. I'm like, oh, okay, so I was learning so much from that.

Speaker 1:

But then I then later realized the gap, and the gap was they needed a whole lot of people. There's always a big demand. When it comes to the end of the year, the number of parcels that has been distributed within the UK typically just triples, and the companies the delivery, the logistics companies that you know do not want to just bring in triple staff. In fact, they can't even find the staff, because not only do you have to have the vehicle, you have to understand how to use their software, you also then have to understand the basics of delivery so that they don't get clawbacks from their own clients, which are pretty much retail sellers, to get the process. So for me, to fully understand this process, I had to apply for a driver's job and go for their induction. Wow, so you became a delivery driver.

Speaker 1:

No, I didn't. But I applied for a delivery driver. I love it. I learned the process and I didn't do the job. So I learned the process and I'm like, okay. I then immediately started a logistics consulting company recruiting drivers for large companies, but I don't have one contract. So what do I do? So what I had to do was I then realized, okay, if I put in an advert out to be looking for drivers, I'll start to see if there are a lot of them while I write the list of all the different depots or the different logistics companies out there that are in need of this.

Speaker 1:

And I later realized that you don't treat them as oh, there is DPD. You have to treat DPD as a whole DPD. You just need to get one of the branches and not the entire DPD. They'll tell each other. You know what I mean. So I didn't know all of that. I knew that because I got insight, and this is how I started to find. Every day I'll go trying to find this contract.

Speaker 1:

And it was so difficult. You have a lot of gatekeepers at the reception who are not allowing you to go see the manager, and so I found that very difficult. And then one day I wrote a list of 35 and I was just about to give up. I was with my husband and then we were going and I'm like do you know what I'm tired? I can't go for this last one. Every way. They just keep shutting the door at my face. They just keep shutting the door and he's like do you know what? You wrote a list of 35. You have to finish it. And I'm like, okay, all right, because of him now, not because of my own will, so this is not me taking credit for it. Because of him pushing me to do it, I found my own strength and I'm like, okay, he's right, let's go do this and believe it or not, as we got to the place, the final depot I just realized that I was still talking to the reception.

Speaker 1:

She was already about to say no, and the manager was just coming down to do something else. And he's just looking who are these, you know, these corporate looking people doing here? It just feels odd. And I looked at him and I felt that might be the manager. Then I repeated what I wanted to say I'm looking for the manager. And he just said oh, that would be me.

Speaker 1:

And that's how I said okay, come on upstairs, let's have a conversation and, believe it or not, I got the first almost like a pilot. It's like give us this few drivers and we'll see how things go, and that's how I was able to get the logistics roll Before you know what's happening. We started to supply the whole of the country and we just started to do that. We started to have the very, very big names in the game and we went from having no drivers to basically supplying over 140 drivers every day. And this was just and this was all around the country, and I was like, oh my God, this, this became something that was really, really big and in no time. That was where I was able to grow my first seven figure business.

Speaker 2:

As we continue this engaging conversation, remember that Black Rise is more than just a podcast where dynamic platform, where businesses can connect collaborate and prosper.

Speaker 1:

Everyone has a role, but they then everyone has a life.

Speaker 2:

Our commitment to diversity, inclusion and empowerment reshapes industries and builds a future where Black excellence thrives globally. So don't forget to subscribe and give us a five star review on iTunes. That's amazing. Can I ask you a question? At any point do you felt a bit like whoa, this is going too fast.

Speaker 1:

No, really, I think that I felt like, because you all did not have, because now, because I'm trying to condense the story, it feels like it's happening really, really fast. But I understood remember that I did my study before coming into it. I already understood that it was a very, very fast paced kind of pretty much environment. If they want something, they're going to give you just like one hour notice. That is even a lot, you know, and you just have to have the people ready. You have to be ready and you have to say yes to opportunities, even though you're like, oh my God, I don't know how I'm going to deliver this. But then you work it out at the end. And that was what I did. I said yes to something and I wasn't even sure how exactly I was going to get it delivered. But don't forget, I was prepared, I was preparing, not completely prepared, I was preparing. So I had a lot of people that have applied to the roles that I want as drivers. I had some of them that had bands I had I've already made. If they don't have bands, I already know where I could go. I could get the bands from. I already know the language I need to speak to them. I'm already speaking the industry lingua. So, people, the drivers felt comfortable. I already knew how to lead people.

Speaker 1:

All of that together came together and this was how the very first two people that we gave to them was were fantastic, and because of that we started to get what of mouse referral, depot by depot. Have you heard of this company? Have you heard of this company? They could help you, they could help, and we just started to go on mass recruitment. Mass recruitment, understanding the type of people that we absolutely need. It was very fast, but it was something that I knew that you only had a time period, because come January the parcels go down again and then you don't demand. So it was for a window and you had to take everything you can within that window hmm, sounds very stressful but, you know, very stressed.

Speaker 2:

But if you have good management skill, logistic skills and again you get, you had the great you know baseline from your past experiences and so forth.

Speaker 2:

And I think one thing I love about you that you understand the power of doing your due diligence and you've done that really well for your entire career and utilize that to make sure that you take risk, but calculated risk, and I mean it's important to what you say that sometime and I have been in a situation like you where somebody give you something that I don't know I'm gonna do it, but I'm gonna figure out anyway. So you don't say no to the opportunity and I say like, oh, I can't do this. I think you know what you're gonna have to take it and I even make you know I can't do it and then realize I actually I had figured out and sometime being on the spot drives you know you have a machine, the brain work and if it happens, so from what I'm hearing you now, you have a seven-figure career, career, business. If things doing well, is everything still going well? Or how did this collapse? What happened so?

Speaker 1:

I made a major error. So while I was doing all of this, one of the so this. The years went by, but as at this time I already started to implement technology into what we're doing, you know the same question.

Speaker 2:

You say you implement technology. How and what. What did you implement technology to me?

Speaker 1:

and I didn't even understand that what we're building was called the CRM. I was just creating stuff and what happened was the number of drivers became a lot. I have to process a lot of invoices. I became financing, I became HR, I became everything you know and I needed a way in which I could get these people to understand. You know, we have to then become, look, very, very corporate. I could get drivers to apply, I could get them to tell me the roots that they are on, I could get them to send me the their invoices and I could sit down with a process and just be able to make all of these payments.

Speaker 1:

My brother happened to be studying computer science and then he was like I don't, I was just telling him about what we, what I was doing and everything.

Speaker 1:

And he decided to say, okay, what's going to experiment and build us something that allows them to make this happen.

Speaker 1:

And from there we built an entire system, which I now know it's a CRM, and basically had the whole, all the videos of when someone, a new driver, comes in. We're able to just show them the video of embodying them into our platform. We are able to get, show them around and get them to start pretty much sending us invoices, and then a year then came, so this we then had one big customer, citylink, and for one reason or the other we just made sure that the 90% of the others that came that particular year was sent straight to them. And at the end of that year Christmas that year I just saw in the news that this particular company went bankrupt and they went bankrupt and we had pretty much over 200 and something thousand what of invoices with them, and we still had over 200 and something thousand what of people that I still have to pay. So within that alone we lost pretty much over 400,000 pounds and I just didn't know how to wake up from bed. You know.

Speaker 2:

So what was your feeling? You know, when you hear in news, what went through your mind and the feeling. What was that? And how did you react? Because you realize, oh my gosh, I've, I'm depending a lot on this, this company, and they haven't done the part right which is now affecting my business. What is it? What is the emotions that go through? You know?

Speaker 1:

the emotion is that how many? So the first thing I had to remember was what percentage of our supplies you know, of our invoices actually coming from that business. I realized the amount of it. I quickly realized that I made a a major, major error, and I had two emotions. One was beating myself up for understanding that I should have known better.

Speaker 1:

You understand, like you don't throw your heads in one basket. You never make one, one major company be the bedrock of your entire company, because if they go down, you go down. You know, I always also like how unfair, like we still had people working for you, like three hours ago, before you knew you were going to go bankrupt. Why didn't someone tell me I was? You know, there was just so much and I was all like, how do I?

Speaker 1:

I could either go down with this and say, you know, these people went down, there's nothing I could do, and close my own business immediately, meaning that I don't have to pay the other 200 and something thousand that I have to pay the drivers, or I could do this with my head up high and try to make sure I make this right. You know, and and that was what I did I took that option. It was a very, very tough option and it led me to going back into employment and while I try to figure things out and stuff like that, so you could imagine going from a business that you're going to seven figures into all those going bankrupt and what we had to do was I had to take all the stuff, what we created, which are later than realized that the tech was very valuable and allowed us to then be able to sell that for me to exit from that business amazing amazing.

Speaker 2:

There's always a, there's always a silver lining or lesson that we can learn from, usually from what both good about situation and one thing that you see, you say that you had was an asset that IP of creating the CIM, which was a great logistic tool management logistic management was a was a great way to bounce back. And again, you know, as you say, situation like that happens and we learn a lot. Definitely never put your eggs in one basket, especially because you never know, even if it was HsBCO, some of the most established businesses, anybody is safe forever. So good lesson to learn. And also, I think it takes a lot of courage to be humble, to say you know I'm gonna go back to employment because I was at. You know I'm gonna go and start another business, but you know you are humble about about it. You know I did this, but I'm sure that the entrepreneur within you was still flaming yeah, but you know how things are.

Speaker 1:

If I jump into the next thing without thinking I use, then I've not had time to learn from the lesson, you know. So I thought like, the next thing is I'm a very everything it's. You know I'm a very resourceful person. I will be an asset to any organization. So I decided to go into contracting, for this time around I decided to make sure that it was anything digital transformation because I already saw how that could be very, very powerful. So how can I now start to learn and go into very, very huge projects? You know so, and this was what I did. So I started to go into contracting and I was I did this for, you know, a few years.

Speaker 1:

I learned pretty much. It became from the time I started to the time I did that. I did it for like a decade, which was quite long, but while I was doing that, I was always experimenting on something. My experiment was then building a digital agency, a software agency where we're able to build, like what we created for my logistic company, how can we create some another software for anybody?

Speaker 1:

else you know so, and that was the idea. So I partnered with my brother and then we started to say, okay, what do we do? Well, how do we get customers? But all this while I was still working in making this happen. And then, come 2018, we decided to and obviously I was still working on another we decided to experiment on an event application and so we built this event app and the event app did like extremely well, we had like it was.

Speaker 1:

It was an application where people could find suppliers, but also we built the corporate time of the application where you could go and events onto it and while you are doing events, you could connect with other people and and things like that.

Speaker 1:

It was called events break and we had the likes of African Union, where we had about five precedents in the conference and our application was what was used in that conference and that really like showed oh, wow, this could go to wherever, and we won quite a few awards for events break.

Speaker 1:

We had a number of events going on with that and at some points, I looked at it and I didn't understand how venture capital or anything like that worked. I felt like the velocity of this for you to really take off and become, you know, have a hundred million in sales and things like that. I would need a whole lot of money in order to get the marketing done, and I just didn't know how to go about that. So what I ended up doing was we got approached to sell the business and I was excited. It was a good offer, and then we're able to basically sell that because we had an eye on something that was a whole lot more interesting. So why can't you sell this to people that already have the funding and can really take this to the next level? Because we don't, and we continue building applications for people until we're able to gather enough funding to build something that we can back ourselves.

Speaker 2:

Amazing, it's amazing, I think, sometimes it's sometimes the issue with business owners that don't know when to let go Then you have some of the previous guests on the podcast and I agree as well is that you have to know when to buy, to buy additional business. So I have you have to do some acquisitions, you have to know when to take some external money, but you also have to know when to exit, and I think that's super key and you think that your heart is not there or somebody can do it better than you. Exit and get your pot of cash and live your best life.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, absolutely, and it was just a matter of we felt like they would be able to execute it better as I went there and that's it. Like you said, you just have to know the right timing. But then it's like you can't keep buying, selling, you know, figuring out where you know, I'm still looking for this big thing. You know what I mean, and that was just something that kept chasing and before it was happening. Okay, let's concentrate on Ted Bray and build for other people. We always try to, you know, think and create a particular core software that would know that can actually become whatever we want it to be, and we can then get the backing and back ourselves as well because of the revenue that we've generated. And that's what we did. And then we started. It was initially the type of companies we're building for were like small, mid-level, and gradually we started to move up into the enterprise level and that's where the revenues just began to change. You know, boom, explosion.

Speaker 2:

Bigger pot yes.

Speaker 1:

So we, so that began to change and we're able to really grow that into millions. And it then got to the time where we needed talent, because for you to continue, you have a lot of people asking you I want to build this, I want to build that, but you don't have enough resources in order to help them do that. But you know how to do it, but you can't cut yourself into multiple places, and that's where the problem of that type of model is in terms of scalability. So we realized okay, how do I make sure that I can get talent quite easily To the talent market? And the analogy in my head was you know what is sausage factory looks like, where the sausage just keeps coming, it doesn't end until you cut it off. You know what, if we have like a talent factory where the talent that I want keep coming whenever I need it until I'm like, okay, I don't need this, and I feel like every business should be able to have their own talent factory, where talents are coming in and talents are also like oh, wow, I'm excited to work on this, I'm excited to work on that, and it's almost like it's a way where you could build like the avatar of the type of talent you have and you'll have them there as that's whenever you require them. How can I make this possible? Because that was what was hindering the business from even growing bigger than what it was.

Speaker 1:

And this is when I realized that the recruitment industry, the process is actually broken. The process is long and you know, and if you get it wrong, it becomes a lot more expensive because you have to start again from the beginning, and I'm like, no, it shouldn't be the case. What can I do to make sure that this changes? And initially we are like, okay, maybe we educate a whole lot more tech talent and bring a lot of tech talents into the picture, and that could be the answer. We did that. We saw, okay, that's good. We gave us 1000 scholarships to people, especially in pretty much different economies, to be able to come in and learn technology, especially during the COVID period, and we had like bootcamps of front end, backend development, product management, data science and that, and a lot of people took advantage of that and we started to see, you know, insurance companies, financial services, people within startups and tech companies hire these guys.

Speaker 1:

Okay, this is interesting. How can we now say, remember, in order to build something really scalable. We can't keep training this. What if we work with all the people that are training people and we build an incredible model that allows you identify a top quality candidate? And, if we're able to do that, create a place where you can have this candidate stored and whenever you have a new role, you can easily pull out from there and use artificial intelligence to understand the avatar and the. You know the configuration of this person by understanding what their attitude is, by understanding what their personality is, by understanding what their skill is. So we decided to create a software and that's where Tech One was born that allows you to understand a person's skill, understand how that matches what you are looking for, but also understand this person's attitude, true skill assessment, understand the true cognitive and psychometric tests, understanding what this person looks like. Can you give us again?

Speaker 2:

just tell me. Can you give us again the name of a company, and so we're curious to find out the tell us again, it's called Tech.

Speaker 1:

One M, and the one M was like one million, because when he initially started it was like we wanted to accelerate one million tech talents, and so now we build Tech One M, and is an AI powered recruitment automation and skill assessment software that enables businesses to attract, evaluate and hire candidates fast.

Speaker 2:

So what has been the success rate? I'm assuming this is launched right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is launched and the success rate has been quite interesting for us, one of the so for Tech One M. The journey is still early, but in as much as it's early, it's had interesting successes. So far. We've been able to transition and we go into like the one of the biggest accelerators in the world Tech Stars and we got pretty much busy backed by them, and this gave us into the whole picture of okay, this is a company, a business, a software that could grow into becoming a unicorn based on everything that we're seeing. The scale is large. The way we are solving it is very delicate and we've used a whole lot of studies looking into the way people think, looking into the way people act, looking into how people want a streamline process to be done and bringing all of that together alongside a fantastic team, and this has allowed us to start moving off the ranks with what we're doing with Tech.

Speaker 2:

One M. This is amazing. I love the ability to just see solutions and adapt to it very, very quickly. And I think one thing that I've learned from you to amaze your ability to just not accept a problem and also figure out how you can bring out the solution. And I think you know I've started to think about what the two of us find ourselves into technology because I think we have a desire. People who chose technology by nature have a desire to make an impact as scale, and that's what always interested me about working in technology from an agency point of view. Now building something as well in tech is because you realize that if I can help one person do that, I can supercharge it with technology and help million people of doing that. And being backed up by VC it's a big thing. Can you take us back? People maybe wondering how did you get backed up by VC? How did that process happen?

Speaker 1:

Okay. So basically, when we created TechQuantum, like I said in the beginning, it was just a matter of me now understanding how the VC world works. So, all the businesses. So at this point I've grown two businesses into millions, isn't it? But everything has been bootstrapped. So I didn't understand the whole venture back situation. In fact, I didn't even agree with it in the beginning, because I felt like, oh, why should anybody back you when you can back yourself? That was the mentality I had. But quickly I realized that mentality was wrong and if you're going to build something that is truly impactful, there is no way in which you could fully back yourself, and it's not just from the funding perspective only, it's also from the resources, from the connections, from the growth, from even strategic partnerships perspective. You need to start thinking of how you could bring other people in. So I decided to go on a journey to educate myself about this and in doing that, I started to sign up to Accelerator programs, and then I saw 1000 Black Voices. So 1000 Black Voices headed by Dr Elizabeth Chou.

Speaker 2:

She's amazing. I've heard that she's amazing.

Speaker 1:

She's really amazing. She's making a major impact and she's deliberate about what she's doing. And she had this Accelerator program. I decided to join and it also then had a way in which they could take you for a trade mission in New York. But by this time, remember, I already had the application Even before then sorry, I need to rewind a little bit. Before then, I applied for one of the Google Black Founders Fund.

Speaker 1:

We got into the interview stage because they found what we're doing was exciting, but then one of the feedback that they gave to me as a then was that our buyer was at the end of the life cycle, so we need to bring the buyer right to the beginning. That's because we were saying, once we train these people, then we would make money from it to make. You know, basically using technologies to do recruitment. And they're like no, you can't do that because the seller is at the back of the. And I think that they were right, because the buyer was right at the end. What happens if we don't get this people trained appropriately? And we've just lost our money. And so I took all of that from them. Then we basically pivoted the software and itself and we then said, okay, we're going to make this in a different way, that we don't have to put the buyer at the end of the cycle. Why don't you bring the buyer right in front? And so I took that and I go into 1000 Black Voices. And then 1000 Black Voices had an opportunity for us to go on a trade mission to New York, like I mentioned, and I joined that trade mission and we went to New York and we were there. They laid out quite a number of VCs as well as text, as Gary Stewart was starting as an MD of Textas New York by JP Morgan, and then he came in there to listen to us chat and he just was basically explaining what Textas was towards us.

Speaker 1:

At then I realized I was asking him a lot of questions and he was just pretty much digging a hole. I was just saying, okay, so tell me, why should I care? And I will listen to what he said, I'll go back and I'll think about it and then I'll go back to him again because we're standing having lunch with him and I'm just like, no, you should care, because this, this, that, that, that. And I was trying to really see things from his perspective because, at the end of the day, these are the people that are meant to be my buyers. If they are not saying what I think they should be saying, then we've done something wrong. Then it could be the way I'm pitching it.

Speaker 1:

So I had to tweak my pitch a little bit and I told him. I said okay, are you going to come in the evening and watch us pitch? And he said yeah, I'll be at the consulate house in the evening to watch you pitch. True to his word, he came and he watched us pitch. At the end I went to meet him. Now do you understand what I was explaining? And he's like I get you applied to Textas. And that was how I applied and went through the entire. It was a rigorous process and, at the end of the day, out of over 2000 applications, we're one of the final 12. And we got the investment from them.

Speaker 2:

It's amazing Out of 2000 applications, you're among the final 12. This is a big deal and really I'm saying this to all the black women who are ambitious about launching their tech business. Really, tommy is a great example of what you can really look at, and her resilience I think your resilience is commendable. You do that so beautifully, while being aggressive as possible. It's okay. You can't get it, okay, cool, I'm listening, I'm taking on board, I need to and again, people sometimes understand the understand the role of business. You have to say it from someone's point of view. When you get that and speak their language, then you cut their attention and you know if you go to VC, then their intention is to make money, not to just be happy to help you. But why is good to a foundation is completely different, right?

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. But then you know you have to also, like you mentioned, they want to make money and they have to understand that whoever they are investing in is going to pretty much pay, you know, three times of their fund back. And you have to make sure that you are that person. And it's almost like why should anybody care if you, you know, if you can prove it and you're fighting against so many people that wants this? So it's like, how do you stand out? What exactly are you going to do to make yourself stand out? And it's all about building something that is a pain killer, and not just the vitamin, but also validating it and making sure that the buyers understand the pain. And you took your time to really discover who your ideal customer profiles are.

Speaker 2:

I love what you're saying I come back with a book I read and say that are you setting vitamins or are you saying a painkiller? A vitamin means that you know people say, oh, it's nice to have, but I'm not going to act on it right now. But if it's a painkiller, they will get on it. Would you rather sell water to someone with a hair on fire or do you rather sell water to somebody who's just passing by and doesn't need it right now? I think it's about that being at the right time, at the right position, and I think exactly what they're after. This is good. Tell me what you are. What does the future look like for you?

Speaker 1:

Oh, the future is tremendous. I feel like Tech 1M is going to help a lot of businesses, both big and small, and we really see ourselves being the main company whenever you're thinking of talent. We want to be able to revolutionize talent acquisition globally, where talents, wherever they are in the UK, any country, can be able to find the type of roles that they want. But while companies are using Tech 1M to be able to attract such candidates and making sure they're making the best decisions, that allows them to continually innovate within their business, we think that we're doing something amazing. It's just the beginning and I can't wait to see where we are this time next year.

Speaker 2:

I can't wait for me to see where you are this day and having you just getting stronger and stronger. You're about to be the next Oprah.

Speaker 1:

Never say never.

Speaker 2:

Exactly never, say never. Not only the Americans have to showcase that they can make billion, but you too. You're about to do that successfully, and I talked about the future, but what it's for you? I like to ask this question because sometimes I'm not a pay for it, and that's the idea of it. What is the question you wish people will ask you about you?

Speaker 1:

So you typically get the question oh, how do you do it? How do you? But I think some of the questions that I feel like people should ask this is an interesting one will probably be things like how exactly do you stay focused? You know how exactly. What are those support system that allows you to go ahead and do this? Because, if you think about me, I'm a mom of two kids, I have a husband, I'm running a company that's going to be a billion dollar company. I have I'm running you know quite a number of staff and I'm trying to do it all. People ask you how do you do it all? But then people do not understand that when it comes to the support system, what support system do you have that allows you to be able to look and appear like you can do it all? And I feel like those are some of the things that we sometimes not look at or sometimes take for granted, but because without that, it makes it quite difficult for you to win If you don't have a very, very good support system. This could be family, this could be friends, this could be people that just wanted to win.

Speaker 1:

Being a founder is a very, very lonely journey and, as you're finding out and everything is stuck in your head and you are telling people about what you're trying to do, but you'll find yourself talking about it a lot of time, which could be annoying.

Speaker 1:

You start to see that your friends are not even pretty much there every time because they're like, oh yeah, we go again, she's going to talk about this thing again. You know what I mean. But then what I found that works for me is inasmuch as I have great support at home and everything. I also try to find like-minded founders that are in the same you know pretty much situation as me. We might be working on something different, but we have a similar goal, and then I try to pretty much be very, very close to them, meet with them as regularly as possible, share ideas, bounce ideas, and all of that together allows us to see opportunities. I tap into other people, but I'm always given first and that is always my own way of winning. I think if I give, then automatically it will come back at some point. It might not be from the same person, but it's always a principle to give first.

Speaker 2:

I love what you just say. You might give, but you might. You always get back, but it might not be from the same person and I think sometimes people get this wrong so badly and they wonder. I talk every day about what. I talk about the power of lackability, and a lot of people do. People have developed that and that's what I love about all the Black leaders I have on this podcast.

Speaker 2:

You can see that you're a woman. A Black hasn't stopped you from achieving great success, right? You have people around you, allies, family, a supportive husband which is super important, because a lot of husbands say you know, why don't you just stay at home and cook at home? They say you know, go for it. If you don't have that at home, it makes things very complicated.

Speaker 2:

But what you say is so important and I say that to people all the time is that if you know how to provide value before getting something from someone afterwards first, you will always get 100 times more.

Speaker 2:

And I wish you know I say that often. I wish people understood that like, give first, not the intention of getting, but it will come back to you anyway because of your aura, about who you are and so on and the energy I mean. Energy sounds like I'm talking about spirituality here, whether you believe in God or not, but I think it's so good to act in good faith and knowing that God or whatever you believe out there, from his God, you know will give you back 100 times. And that's the beauty of it and which explains why, even when you failed with one of your business, you still managed to go back and begin another seven figure business and another seven figure business. Most people will say you know this is the end of the day, but you've learned from it to become stronger and you'll be able to adapt what you already have and be here to tell your story with so much humility.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, Fabula. And now we're going nine figure business. Oh, nine figure business is easy, all the way, all the way.

Speaker 2:

This is amazing. I am so excited Nine figure business. If she can do it, dear listeners, you can do it too. Yes, listen to this episode more than once. This is an amazing journey of what she's done from Nigeria to coming by herself and always being resilient and finding solutions where people are. Let them some stop by problem and that's beautiful. And, tommy, such a pleasure to have you. Tommy, what is the best way to stay in touch with you and maybe fire more by your business? Maybe you might have some clients listening to this podcast. Who knows?

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, it's always easy to get me on LinkedIn, but then easily visit tech1mcom and then you can find out a lot about us. But I'm Tommy Edwards on LinkedIn, I'm Tommy Edwards on Instagram and I'm Tommy Edwards on Twitter or X as well. So please connect and I'm happy to tell you more about what we do and how it could help. Thank you so much, tommy.

Speaker 2:

This is a story that hopefully remain part of a legacy that we remember. When you think about black success, yes, the black rise is about that telling stories of fantastic black leaders who are making it, no matter the struggles, no matter the issues that are in front of them, and their rise. Thank you so much for listening and I'll see you very soon. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Black Rise. We hope that you found this conversation as inspiring as we did. Share your takeaways on social media and tag us as we wrap up. Remember that you can always stay connected with us. Join us on this journey of elevation, motivation and empowerment. Let's rise together, break barriers and create lasting change. Subscribe now to stay updated with our latest episodes and visit the Black Risecom to find out more. This is Black Rise, where excellence and impact converge to redefine the future. Until next time, keep rising.