Number 9 Ya’ll

October 15th, 2020

9:40am

In-Class!!!!!!

Today is Thursday… which means a quiz but to our surprise that’s not what we started with!!!!! Instead, we had a guest speaker by the name of Malliron Hodge. Now don’t get too excited though because even after begging to push the quiz, we still had to take it at the end of class but anyway, here’s my notes on Ms. Hodge’s time with our class.

Malliron Hodge — Baddies with Business Podcast Host/Creator/Producer

Questions and Answers:

What is the nature of the podcast and where were you in your life when you felt like this was something you needed to do?

• June 1st start date
• Coached people on how to bring their ideas to life. Black women had a lot of interesting and innovative ideas. Wanted to get Black Women’s stories out in the world about their entrepreneurship from years 0–5 because so many stories aren’t told until after the 5 year mark so she wanted to shine a light on the beginning stages.
• Malliron shows leadership in giving them a voice and by building a community.

How did this fit into your life and professional career?

• She put it on a shelf for a while and asked around to find out if the interest for it was there. Turns out there was and she began recording and had to switch platforms a lot to find the right one. Being in quarantine provided a lot of time to put it together and launch it. “It wasn’t giving them a voice because they already had one, it was giving them a platform to amplify their voice.” -Malliron Hodge

Who did you start with and what do you talk about?

• Focus on people with minimal followers but a large idea that could be great, or people with interesting diverse ideas, or full-time workers that do their small business as a side hustle. Fewer followers entail people that need more support and advertising.
• First time talking is mostly when they start recording.
• A lot of her storytelling leans to empathy and digging into who the people are to make a connection and then tying it to their business and then touching on the struggles they have been through as black women in business. After that they talk about how they have overcome the challenges and where they want to be in a few years plus a “Baddie Tweet” last remark for the world.

What’s the process?

• Find the resources you need, prototype, trial and error, editing and finalization.
• Liberatory design: Notice (values ,goals, reasoning), Empathize, Define, Idealize, Prototype, Action, Reflect. (Always bring it back to empathy)
• Engage every step of the way.
• You have to get to the heart piece in order to understand the people and businesses themselves.

What are some of the leadership behaviors that you tend to notice over time in these business women that are shown often and well? Could you identify some that you regularly see that the women find challenging?

• Feeling like you have a great idea but you don’t see yourself as an expert (imposter syndrome) “Am I the right person?” -You have the capabilities so believe in yourself.
• Asking for help is a struggle too. -Black women are seen as the helpers but they can ask for help and can take a moment to breathe and help yourself. -Make sure your cup is full because you can’t pour from an empty cup.
• Just do it! Try it talk to people. -Real Gs move in silence like Lasagna -Lil Wayne
• Be strategic and make sure your movements are in line with your success.

How do you do it virtually? -Erica

• A lot of editing!
• Done on Zoom and vocals are recorded separate and added in to the video recording to make it even.
• Email and lurking on Instagram to find candidates for the podcast. -Try to make sure they have 1–2 products and are set up to produce the demand brought in by those listening.

Do you ever encourage the Baddies to look at or use the program? -Arbin

• She has never encouraged them to but she did hold a conference that provided 60min coaching sessions and time to mingle and learn from one another.

What was one of the most interesting stories you have heard? -Jalah

• “Precious Pythons” Precious is a woman that is a python breeder.
• Be open-minded to learn about all areas of expertise.
• Precious bought her son a snake because he was allergic to animal fur and she learned to love them and ended up buying more and breeding them and sharing them with people.
• Another woman had beehives and reported live from the hives with a bee suit on.

Book recommendation “Push Out” about black girls discipline and how it’s not talked about as much as black boys.

What leadership qualities have increased within you by doing this podcast and what motivates you to continue doing this? -Naheim

• Patience — the level that comes with listening to people’s stories and making connections with them.
• Not the fans but the platform built for these women. It is very motivational to see however that there is so much support. The desire to hear and share these stories also help push to continue the podcast.

Do you think that the voices you use for your podcast is more open ended or close ended? Just black women or extending to all women of color? -Terry

• Her niche is black women because often time black women’s stories aren’t out there and maybe she’ll open it up later on but it seems that when it is opened up to all women of color then black women do tend to get lost. However, she continues to like and share and support all women in business.

Have you had the moments of self-imposed imposter syndrome? -Shaniya

• She has questioned herself but everything happens for a reason and you have to connect to the reason and constantly encourage yourself and remind yourself that you are here and you are the shit.
• People have also called her an imposter and said she didn’t go to a real college because it was an HBCU but HBCUs are beyond real colleges they are the best of the best and produce phenomenal, successful students and prepare them for the world.

Do you think that you are a people person and have you struggled with certain personalities? -Lettirose

• People can be trash so it is hard to work with some people but she finds that connecting thread and brings it back to the reasons she is working with them. She makes sure things get done in a timely manner. She sees herself as a people person but does find it hard to be around and work with specific people.

October