More Than A Vision: Lessons Learned While Building A Purpose-Driven Social Impact Business Feat. Dr. Omolara Uwemedimo

Authentic Leadership podcast, a podcast we're seeking to lead change. Also seeking to understand we're also here as a platform for leaders to come together to unite, to develop the power of the leaders and the areas of business, family and community. I'm your host, La'Fayette Lane, joined by my co-host John LeBrun. Today we are joined by our special guest, Dr. Omolara, who has joined us to have an incredible conversation about more than a vision lesson learned while building a purpose driven social impact business. Just a little bit about Dr. Omolara. She is an expert in purpose led entrepreneurship and in securing funding for health care, addressing medical racism for marginalized providers and patients, and building socially responsive health care spaces. She's also been featured in several media outlets, including People.com, NBC News, Medscape, Essence.com, News Week, Cranes, Politico routers and NPR. Which means she's big time, y'all, and today she's right here on unscripted, authentic leadership podcast. Dr. Omolara, thanks for coming on. Thank you so much. I hope not big time yet again. That was wonderful. Thank you. Absolutely. Doc, let's get right into the conversation. I'm excited. There's a lot of things that's even in our topic that I really want to dig into, and I'm sure John as well, our audience. There's a lot of things that I think that will be of value to them. one of the first things that I really want to unpack and kind of get a working definition about the social impact business. What does that mean and how is that pertinent to what you do? How important is that about having that social impact business? Yeah, I think, you know, business, of course, can look many in many different ways, even what we most times we say for profit businesses when we're talking about businesses, but they can be nonprofits as well. It's really an exchange for value for money, right? And I think that one of the things that is really about social impact is what we're doing here is thinking about how does my business bring value to a specific social poppy at so Pacific population that is enduring some kind of social issue are bringing some social change so that a lot of times look like marginalized populations , potentially. Or it could be around a specific issue that affects a large target of people. So we talk about community businesses that are hopefully bringing some value, but we talk about and invite a business that is working on maybe climate change. So it can be any of those kind of businesses where the main the main target is not solely bringing that person value, but really calling a transformational, transformational change for a specific issue, condition, community or the so forth? Absolutely, absolutely. And so you you have talked about lessons learned while building this social impact business and having more than the vision. Can can we start with that first part on having more than a vision? What do you mean by that when you say more than a vision? Yeah. So I think that, you know, I there are a lot of us who come up and are like, Oh, this is like an amazing thing that I think should exist in the world, right? And the thing about it, oftentimes it comes down to one time energy and money, OK? We know that time and energy, especially as you know myself as a black woman, we know that a lot of times money was scarce. So time and energy was what we used to make sure that things happen. But a lot of times what I've found is that when we're thinking big, when we're thinking about these massive populations , we almost get scared or overwhelmed by our business. And we're like, Well, that, of course, is going to need hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that's not in my bank account. So and for our health care professionals like myself who have a huge amount of educational debt, that is not something that they're looking forward to getting another loan or anything like that. And so then it starts to become less and less tangible, and they and they start to doubt whether it can happen. And so my thought for people is starting to think about what are the ways that you actually almost created that MVP or a specific smaller version of it? Or what are the ways that we can potentially find funding for you, right, to actually be able to manifest what you're doing or a specific version of it? So there are three things that I think about whenever I'm thinking about more than a vision I'm thinking about can we make it smaller? What's the? Smallest, most transformational part that we can focus on what is the way that we can potentially get capital if there is no smaller transformational part, it has to be, you know, something that needs a substantial amount of capital. Or where is the network that you can start to tap into that existing already serving the population but doesn't have the thing that you need that you offer? Excuse me, and they need that. So those are kind of the three ways we start to move them out of thinking about it to like now planning. So when you say, can we make it smaller, you mean like more localized or like a smaller scale? I guess it's it's either or. So for example, I'll give you an example of our business. So starting children, well, this is one of my two current businesses stronghold and wellness started from pretty much and I worked that I was doing as an intro producer, right? And so I was at an institution that was partnering with a community organization through a grant that we had and was basically taking care of kids within the school. And then we were like, This is amazing. But I brought it to my institution and said, Can we like figure out a way to do this bigger and more structured? And they were like, That's absolutely crazy. And so I don't think it's crazy. And I found two other people who think it was crazy, either who are collectively frustrated. And so what we said was that smaller version. We found transformation through that. Let's use the results of that to now be able to say, OK, what if we now actually were able to get some money to buy an actual medical like furniture and find a space within your organization? And so it started really with just having two medical rooms and getting another grant with the idea to today what we've been. So we got our first 125,000 just writing the idea and saying this is what we did in the school. And then they were like, Oh, cool, let's give you some money. So like, let's put some structure around it, let's give you some furniture. Let's give you a proper medical space and let's see what happens. And during that, we were that like, very important. I think one of the thing that's really important when thinking about funding or investors is results, results, results, results. So we were really clear about this is what happened. We saw this patient. These are the anecdotes. This is the data. And from then, we were able to now capture bigger money, right? And so today I think we have raised in 18 months about $625,000 for us, but that's without loans, not b c money. That's grants payments. Wow. Go ahead, bro. You know, so basically start small and then you can scale up is basically you're saying go ahead and start and they can be small and you like you said it can be small size wise and it can be small in terms of the specific thing you're targeting. Like when we started, it was just the medical care. Now we're in behavioral health and we're like, mom had some team members to do that. So yeah, it makes sense. I work with an organization that shoes. She was a nurse, actually the lady who runs it. And she saw a need that of kids who did not have shoes and like literally nothing or they are just beat the heck. And nobody noticed it because down on the floor, really? And she said, Let's get some shoes and these small. Eventually, they went to shoes is still the primary thing, but they also have coats and you know what I mean? It started with shoes, and you could find shoes for like $5 a pair or whatever it is. It's gone up since then, but it's very cool. Good for you. Um, so do you find I notice there's is there's definitely a trend of companies like for-profit companies attaching themselves to social causes, right? He talked about it because you want to do business, but you also want to impact the community. So how do you link yourself with in that sort of aspect? How do you feel about that? Yeah. Corporate sponsorship corporate sponsorships are a really good luck, right? Because ultimately, the most important thing about corporate sponsorships is doing the homework before you go. Like a lot of people like, Oh, I think this works, but what you need to do is really start looking at the press releases. Have they had news about what they're going to their website? What is what is coming up? Where is their last annual report? What did they say were the next things that they wanted to focus on? And then you come in almost with one people like you read that like because nobody read that annual report and being able to link. This is where I think this fits in with the goals that you have for your organization. And you can start with potentially an event right where they sponsor you. And when you get that and that's successful, then it starts to be something larger. So I think really making sure when we're first starting out thinking of something that is starting, well, circumscribed like for me, melanin in the medicine, I'm doing a summit on Saturday about right. And so I could have said and gone to this institution. I think this is really important. You want to think about what your mission is. My mission is to ensure that we have black women led own health care spaces, health care consulting firms all over that can really change the landscape of health care. And so when my head, I want to think about what other corporate organizations are very interested in black women entrepreneurs, what other corporations are interested in building more health care practices, right? And potentially that could look like what are what are they going to say? Medical equipment company is right because they're like, Oh, OK, yeah, we can get in front of those people. Yes, lots of clients. So you really want to think about where the who is your audience and who wants to be in front of your audience. And even if your audience is small, right, you can start there and get it, get funding for maybe a small event or something that you're doing. And then once that's successful, it allows for you to really expand. So corporate sponsorships are amazing. So how about from on that same note? Yeah, you're on. You're on the recipient of the of the company, right? Sponsoring your events and so forth, attaching to your organization. Let's take it from the other angle. Let's say my side as the entrepreneur who is I actually see you as entrepreneur as well, obviously, but from the entrepreneur to the company who started the business but is not linked to any kind of social impact directly on the side of things we do, you know, in private, I guess you could say, what are the things they should look for or consider to make sure that they find the right partnership that they're seeking? OK, so what you're referring to is let's say that the equipment people right, almost like bombas socks, right? Bombas says. For every one of these socks that are made somebody in this country, wherever it is, I don't remember their exact cause or we see companies that say, for every one of these you buy, we plant one tree , right? one thing, there's a cost attached to it. I don't think they're doing the planting. I think they're probably partnered with somebody doing the planting. So in terms of that, I think, you know, ultimately, I will say that what I've. Because I have not been on that side, I've usually been on the side of like the actual, you know, entrepreneurship that's doing the social impact work. But I have been in institutions that are aligning and have been in some of those conversations. I think the biggest thing that you want to think about is what is your what? What is the place where you feel like your company wants the impact, right? What and who are the people? A lot of times when I think about strategic frameworks, I think about the fact that right now my focus has been on black women in health care. Next, I might want to experience either a larger demographic or a different type of health care, a different type of profession outside of health care. Right. And so I have to be laser focused on what is my three year and my five year plan and can is can does this fit inside of that ? So I think that's the thing. So like Bomba saying that, it's like, you know, we're really interested in, of course, homeless youth, but now we want to expand into climate change. Who would be who will be the people who would help us do that? And so that's, I think, really about vision once again visioning and being very strategic around that. Perfect. Oh, so you deal with the health care, that's your main focus. That's what baby. Yes, I focus. I mean, I think I honestly know, right, that even though we're starting with health care just because I have most proximity like I am very well. And what I like to say, just shaking people down for money, like I'm very well writing it and negotiating with it because honestly, I'm just very interested in impact, right? And I write that too often, especially so for black women. I think it's 61% of our businesses are bootstrapped for the general population. I think it's 16%. And I know that grit Premiere. Yeah, I mean, I mean, as a compliment, not only that way, but I mean again. But then, right, 18 black owned businesses, I think it's about 18 months that we see about 80% of them fail . And so the great, great good to start, but not to mature. Right. And I think that's the that's the issue where we have to be forward thinking about what is the money that we really need and what's the growth pattern and knowing that there is money out there. I'm someone in health care, and I almost got a reason why I really decided to focus on funding was I was seeing all of these companies being birthed by people who weren't even in health care, who were like from Google or tech and decided, Oh, health care is cool, let me get in there and we were getting millions and millions of dollars. And I'm like, There's money out here. But then I realized people aren't as savvy in terms of how do you access it if you don't have a company that is that is attractive to B, C or angel investors. And if you don't want to take out a loan and dilute your credit, know that one of the things that you focus on is addressing medical racism for marginalized providers and patients. Can you kind of speak to that? Because I recently, my wife and I, we recently had a a baby boy. He's eight weeks. Oh, right, right, right. You saw him. Mm hmm. Yeah, I'm doing all right now. My wife has another story. What are the things that before we got pregnant, I was reading on and I'm not in depth on the medical field side of it was the care that Black Woman gets like from OB GYNs and doctors. That is much different than other ethnicities because there's a misconception that black women are stronger or have a higher paying in tolerance and things like that. So these are things that I was kind of cognizant of going into are the birth of our son. But now that we have a medical expert on here, especially as a black woman that can speak this term about medical racism because I think, you know, racism is just a general term. And I just think we think black and white, but it's much deeper than that. And I want to provide some exposure, but also some solutions to what that looks like and how can we improve in that area? Yeah. So I'm really excited about this. I'm also a co-founder of a group called Coalition to Advance Anti-racism in Medicine and Our Big, and it was actually started by myself and seven other black women physicians. After I don't know if you're familiar, a case called Susan Moore, who was a physician who actually went on Facebook during the COVID pandemic and was saying, like her, her doctors are trying to kill her because they were they weren't believing her this right and they weren't believing her. And she ended up dying. About three weeks later from COVID, she had to call talk to the highest level, and they finally admitted her in the ICU, and she ended up passing away around December 22nd. I think it is, and I was. And right before that, in the same state, another doctor died during childbirth to two days after childbirth complications from pre-eclampsia. And all of these came to a head. And I think one of the things around medical racism is the idea that when people enter into the medical system, there should be equity in terms of how they're treated in terms of the information they get in terms of diagnosis and also in terms of information. Not only that they get, but how the encounter goes in order to solicit and make sure that they're heard. That honestly, is what leads to the differences that we see in outcomes. So for example, one of the most recent things around your wife is that what they found actually were that babies who were born, black babies who were born and had medical providers who were discordant. So non-Black medical providers, they were more likely to die in their first twelve months of life than those that had black providers. That's a problem for two reasons. one, right, because there's a lot more non-black providers than white providers. And so that should never happen. Right. And so the thing about this is that we have to, I think, a part of leadership right now. We're in a sense of when a state where we're starting a business around this, which is going to be more of a nonprofit business, right where we're going to try and do the legwork, the advocacy work and get money from the population to be able to push this agenda forward and get legislation around the fact that hospitals who don't abide by certain laws in terms of how they're treated, treating patients in terms of when complaints come in about racism, that how they are managed and investigated. If that doesn't happen, those hospitals lose accreditation, those hospitals are fine so that those are the things that we're looking for inside of addressing medical racism, which is really, I think, a huge issue. And I think that's one of the reason I'm so passionate about getting more black women owned practices so that people have the choice and have the diversity and the same ability as a white client to be able to say, I want, you know, I want someone who understand that has my share cultural experience for my body that also people who are who are minorities and marginalized have the same opportunity. So I loved because what you just provided was some solutions there. The loss of the accreditation or the shutdown of the entire institution, patient ones though, so so some things that I would say about patients are really about informed consent. So right, really being able to one have a partner that, you know, has some kind of medical connection. So I think one is always if you're going in and it sounds almost like, I hate to say it, but it sounds almost like the talk that we give to kids about police encounters the same kind of issue that we need to give about clinical encounters. Do you have someone who in the medical field who can advocate for you that you can connect with when you're going in? Do you have you been able to make sure that you write your questions down, have a notebook before you have your encounter so that you have all your questions there before you get to the visit and sure that you know who it is that's coming in the room to talk to you. I need you to write your name, especially on inpatient when you're hospitalized. So those are some of the things that you that we still have to start knowing to do just to protect ourselves during these encounters. Hadn't thought about that. Go ahead. So I'm just curious if you don't have all the answers, it's OK to think. I'm just very curious about the topic. And so I'm trying to wrap my head around like the the whole, the whole topic of medical racism. And I'm not I'm not saying it's not a big thing. Obviously it is. But it was during this study, did they figure out like you mentioned? You mentioned that a I think it was the baby, and I think it was the mother has a higher chance of passing away within the first twelve months. Yeah, if there if in care by someone like a like a white or another race, right? Is there, do they give like, yeah, so depth of reason. I'm trying to figure out I'm like, my mind's going, like, what is it? Negligence? I mean, that's the only thing I can think of that I don't know. So there's two reasons to this, right? one is that what? And I think they're both patient and provider related. There's been data before this that has been around observations of actual clinical encounters between Concordia patient providers. That means race, same race versus just concluded. Some of the things that have been noticed is that there's less time that's being spent when a patient are disconnected. There's also a lot of times there is a different line of questioning, sometimes, which is more so. Or maybe I shouldn't say line of questioning, lack of questioning. So it's more of this is what's happening. This is little like less shared decision making a lot of times also on the patient side. There's a different aspect, as with affect means like kind of, you know, there may be more hesitation, there may be less like they're there sometimes. Isn't that openness initially, right? And one of the things we know is that in a patient provider relationship, they're like, I have to be able to elicit all of the information from you in order to be able to make a sound decision about a medical decision. And so I think one is helping providers to learn how to make sure that the patient knows that you trust them. The patient knows that you respect their values. The patient sees you as a shared decision maker and not just as someone who they aren't going to tell what to do and that you're sitting down and really listening to their concerns. What we know from the data when we talk from those kind of interactions is that black patients, Hispanic patients all have lower rates of feeling like those things are happening during their clinical encounters than that time. Okay, that's good. So it took, I think, to make sure I'm right because I knew this question would come up if it was like, Well, you know someone else who has not experience and say, Well, how is that true or possible? I just the question would come up and say, I feel like I had to ask. Yeah, absolutely. And so basically, when I had my kids, we didn't know the nurses, but you're there so long that you kind of get a connection pretty quick with the nurses and they kind of hang out in the room. And you're basically saying, I think is sometimes this is not all nurses. This is not chastising all nurses, but at a higher percentage. That connection is not being made. Therefore, the questions aren't being asked. Therefore, people are hanging around the baby that extra five minutes to say, Wait, why is their leg shaking kind of funny? Or is that kind of what you're getting at? Yes, look at you. Yes, we are going every day. And if you think about it right, think about like if the shared experience is like, I can imagine it's all because of this race. Divide what they feel. And that's the thing. Racism is not even real, right? It's a social construct, right? Yeah. But you know, what has happened in America is that race because it because it's been such a divide, it has created like specific cultural like norms that are connected to that, right? So a barrier? Right. So if I'm playing a certain type of music that is connected to my black nurse and they're like, Oh, I love that song, let me. It's like a nail coming in more and checking on me how you feel. You want some more ice. All of those, you know, it's yeah, like some of these things you can't couldn't control for saying the study, but they as well anecdotally about our experiences. We start to see how that kind of social connection connectedness is really important for medical care. Mm hmm. Cool. Thanks for giving me that time to digest that. I just had to know it's just hard, you know, it's a hard thing to swallow like that, but I don't see it from the same perspective. So I have to, you know, ask questions to gain the perspective, I guess. Yeah, I think a big part of it. What you're saying, though, too, is representation, right? How do we push our people? To go more towards the medical field, so we do have that more representation, like what is the I hate to use the word incentivize, but I think that that is the word I want to use. How do we incentivize more of our people to, hey, we have a lack of representation in this area. We need more people in this field. What does that look like? So this is hard because I I had right. I'm not practicing clinically right now, and I developed an autoimmune disorder in 2019 after, what, 15 years of practicing pediatrics. And it's called multiple sclerosis. I had a I was hospitalized. I couldn't walk. That was how it presented. And ultimately, when we do the math and we look back and I did the research and had to take leave. What we realized was the stress there's something called weathering that happens that is specific to kind of the medical under servicing, but also the systematic exclusion economically, politically, socially of minority groups, right? And so it's this idea of dealing with the discrimination, not getting your needs met and then also having additional stress from all of that. And it causes a weathering that Anna allostatic load, which is chronic stress that basically causes dysregulation of your immune system, cardiovascular system. So we're seeing more of us obesity or autoimmune disorders more, but it's almost like racism is killing us in a way, but also the idea of being in situations where you are isolated on honest, right? As a medical doctor, only 2% of doctors in the US are black women. So most of my leg areas where I'm male are not. I don't see a lot of my people. You say percent are 20%. 2%. two out of 100 doctors are black. Wow. And so ultimately, one of the things around that is you're always having the second job taking care of your patients, but then always kind of stay above the fray. Make sure you're OK. Like, make sure no one thinking that you're not capable. And so that causes weather. And so as I did the research, I started to realize that I probably like burned myself out in medicine. And I think when it's so, it's a hard question to say, how do we get more people in because I think I need to. We need to make sure medicine is safe for us, first of all. And so what I would say is one, I think now it's changing where more of us are being vocal and saying , no, don't just sit down with your head down and just take it, come together and start to say, OK, this needs to change in this environment, like in the med school. If this is happening where you're having, I don't use words like microaggression. I use covert overt racism. So where covert racism is happening to you, where people are like, Wow, are you really a medical student? You know? I mean, really, where you're like, I have a white coat and the OK, where those two things are happening constantly? Mm hmm. You know, we need to not just take them because literally everything is building up weathering. The biggest thing that weathering does is we've seen a connection between it, and I'm using a lot of big worsening our chromosomes and the telomeres. The telomeres are the ends of the chromosomes if they're shorter. That means a lower life expectancy. Our our telomeres tend to be about seven. This was among women. Black women tend look about seven years shorter than white women of the same age, and you control for everything race income, so education. So this is really important. And I think if we want more doctors, we just need to make sure that we have the the room to change the systems and make sure that we're educating people in the right way without the with the right leadership. So it's not a straight answer. I wouldn't say, you know, I want to make sure people are safe when they go in so that they can truly laugh. Sure, part of it, but incentive it, incentivizing it. I think we need to just break down some of the barriers, which mean we need to like get more access and access to us being able to see what it's like being in medical arenas. And we also need to make sure that we're thinking about ways that we could reduce like loans and reduce the. Financial barriers to pursuing medical careers. That was an incredible answer, and I know it was it's it's more complex than just a simple answer, and I think you did great in answering that. You're an entrepreneur and of course, that is a big fiber of our podcast. And most of the people that listen to this are entrepreneurs, are aspiring entrepreneurs. What would you say to those entrepreneurs who are listening, not just the minority entrepreneurs, as we're speaking to them as well, but just entrepreneurs as well, just in general, because I think the struggle is real in the entrepreneur life, right? It's not easy. What would you say to those that are struggling and saying, Hey, I don't think that I can really do this anymore? Talked about the bootstrap thing at the beginning, but what are some things that you've learned some lessons from a applicable things that you can give to them that say, Hey, you can make it through this? Yeah. So I think definitely what I would say is clarity. first, I'm a I'm an alliteration guru. I love like having things in domain, like boxes where I can be like, OK, these are the things. So I always say clarity, community commitment and confidence. And so I'll explain those. So clarity far and away. So I think a lot of us go into business and we're like, I'm going to serve men between 25 to 40 and all of them, and this is what I'm going to give them. They give them shoes, right? And it's like, that's beautiful. But there's a lot of people doing that right. one of the things that I always like to think about is not what, but why. And that's what went into purpose led entrepreneurship. And I think that when the why is so fervent, then it doesn't become like, Oh, I hope this works. It becomes like, this is going to work is non-negotiable. So what we're trying to do now is trying to say, is it a marketing problem, right? Is it that I'm not getting to my audience? And who do I need to talk to or who do I need to partner with to get in front of them? Is it a problem in terms of my messaging? Are people coming? And then they're like, No, I don't want your stuff. So like, why am I not speaking to the right people or whatever? Is it a selling problem where you have not been able to truly say this is the value that it brings and showing people because it's never a pricing issue honestly, like I have that was not a pricing issue and really a lot of time because, you know, you have people out here who are using credit to buy like Louis Vuitton bag store, whatever, like, you know. And so it's like the value, what how is this going to impact my life? And really, I think just being able to be clear on those things wasn't one of the first things we do in our incubator is we have to go to the accelerator and it's all about your value. Add it's all about being able to figure out how is this aligned with your purpose and vision so you can be like, distinct in that space? And then it's all about being able to say, what's the transformation framework that you have? Show me exactly what parts of your thing are going to take someone from before to whatever that after impact. So that's the clarity the community. Who else is around you? Do you have guides? Do you have peers like you? Sometimes is just paying the membership so you can be around other people talking about it. I remember for me, leaving medicine, it wasn't normal. People were looking at me like, Why are you leaving? This job has been Dr. Yeah, this doesn't make sense. This is not normal. And I need it. I couldn't stay in that space because I would be like, Yeah, you're right. That don't make sense. Let me go. So I had to shift myself and say, I love you, we'll talk and I want to shift myself into communities of people who were doing that and being able to share and build my networks. But also having guides confidence is the piece that I think is really hard. And that's the mindset piece. And that's the piece like no one ever really talks about. They're all like, Oh, no big deal. That I think has been the thing that has, you know, in my first year in twelve months, I was like, I told my job in January, I was like December 31. I'm leaving right? So by January, I had and I have, you know, I'm a doctor. So I was like, I got a replacement salary, taxes. So I, you know, just a six figure 16 figure was not going to work. I needed multiple six figures. By the time I left and we got it right. And that helped us. But the reason was because we have to have a mindset that is literally around. This is going to work and I just need to figure out who are the. People that are going to help it happen. The commitment is the discipline to say it's time to grow my mindset, I would say the biggest thing that is important around commitment and and confidence is investing and making decisions from where you want to be now, where you are. So there were times where I had to go. I was like, Oh my God. Wait, you want me to hire that person as an employee? But like, I don't know if I'm, you know, generally I did it in like the next few months or like the month after. That was like my best month ever. Hmm. So we have to do that because then you make decisions differently. And then it's like, I don't know how to describe it. And so like, right now, I'm making decisions and we're multi six, but making decisions, I'm like, OK to be what is a multimillion dollar business look like for each of my businesses? OK, so we need to now have this in place, this in place. So let's think about how we're going to phase that in. Who? You're one of my favorite guests. Well, I it would be a good guest. I didn't know all my favorites. Here's why we ask questions all the time for detailed information. It's hard to get it, and you haven't. I mean, people do get generalizations like we like to get in the weeds, as I say, and you have you really brought it today? I mean, really brought it. I'm got to listen to this thing like five times me and your words are way bigger than the ones I know. So we are incredibly intelligent and you're just a rock star. Thank you. Yeah. Well, I'm sorry, I get very. This is important, I think. I think business is a place that a lot of us are not are not told about intentionally like men and then are not exposed to. And I think that where I think it's a way for us to have more and especially as a black woman, freedom like I'm not just in safe spaces or gray spaces. I was the freedom like, I want free and men that I find entrepreneurship now going into it as someone who loved her salary greatly, like someone who was like, Yay for salaries. I find it to be so exhilarating, and I just want as many people to take the blinders off and just consider that could what they offer their value? Could it be something that brings, you know, that brings you freedom and also brings freedom to other people? Like right now we have three full time employees, all black women, two part time contractors and a four day workweek. Great and is like, you know, yay, yay. I'm like, You know, that's that's OK. I'm not saying payroll is fun, but it's exciting to know that your dream can actually help others. Yeah, a free, free to life. But first Class Life, basically, you hit on something that's kind of a passion point of mind sometimes. So when I first started. So my first step outside of corporate America, I had a corporate job, whereas when my dad had started a cybersecurity company and asked me to jump in and help him , right? Sure, we had maybe one clients sort of, you know? And so it was back to how can we hire people sort of thing. And everybody's like, Why you got promoted? You brought it again. Why are you leaving your job? All that kind of stuff. And I was like, Well, first of all, I thought, I'm young. I can go get another one. Not a big deal. But second, I said, like you said, we're not going to fail, but here's what I found and everybody in this understand this. When you work a job and I'm not, I'm not captain on jobs, they're fine. But you have oh yeah. No, you're not. Everybody thinks that that's the safe spot, right? I do it for the in the security. That's the word is looking for it. But what it really is is a cap on your growth. Yeah, they're telling you how fast you can grow or not grow. When you go, what I found is when you start working for yourself. Yes. Is there a little bit of this you have? It's up to you, of course. But as long as you believe in yourself, here's the thing if you lose a client, you're in control of going and getting another client or three or five. So you are 100% in control where you lose clients, probably over time. It happened right them before and not done anything wrong. But you're in control when you're at the job. You don't get to choose if you walk in tomorrow and they say, Hey, you didn't know this, but our last board meeting, we had to make a budget cut. And you're it right? I mean, doctor, you're a doctor. So if a hospital has to make a cut, it could either be one doctor or seven nurses. What are they? To pick the one doctor unless they are so specialized that we can't do without them. This is how it is. The higher you open the ladder, the more likely you're going to get cut on a big budget cake that you want of you or seven other people. So when you work for yourself, guys, you don't get the pick that you're not firing yourself anyways. No, and I love that and that that's good. That was the boom that happened in 2020 because doctors are like, No, can't touch us. You know, we're we're doctors. And then they were like, I'm sorry to say, but. Yeah, you know, because that was what was happening right away. And a lot of it was a wake up call. Luckily, I had started my business before the pandemic, like in 29 November 2019. I was like, We're going to start a business. And then anywhere I started and I, with an autoimmune disorder, right, a very high risk was able to say, I understand the whole health care hero thing, but I can't be a part of this. And I'm I'm no I because I was still at my job, right? And but I have learned to 80% time so that I could work on it and got a lawyer. So please, people get a lawyer. Make sure if you have a job, I don't. I'm not a leper. So I got two kids and a big boy to do good, right? So I was like, OK, we're going to 80% and I'm going to do 20% by business. But before I did that, I had a lawyer say everything that I create is mine. Y'all can't touch it. OK. So that's really important. But what I would say is that allowed me the freedom to be like, Yeah, I'm not bringing this thing home. I'm not doing that. I'm going to be able to work. And, you know, and that's more than anything. So I really appreciate what you're saying because I think I tweeted something recently where I talked about the fact that people say it's safe. But for us, I already told you about the weathering process, like how you have to be combined, like it's like armor, like you have to show up like this. Do this, do that? Do this, do that. And the fact that that causes shortened life expectancy, higher stress, higher cardio. But is it really safer? Are you are you really especially? So I think it's extremely, extremely important for us to consider it and to have your job, your first investor, you know, like, right, be like fake. So does income and pour it right into that booth. So, yeah, so important. That is awesome. Listen, those of you that are will watch this and those that were listed as we want you to stay connected to buckle your. You can do that on social media at Dr Omaha. We are all in all. Also add melamine medicine seat, hold on social media, is there any other avenues that they can stay connected to? So we have, yeah, our website. Well, we're upgrading with latency. So our quick legs. I've seen a wide forward slash military and Alison Kosik and everything that we offer her work life, integration, funding your business, your business and I do have to put in a plug for our summit from the seventh floor. You can still get a ticket. Oh yeah, you got two days. Yeah, it's fun. But your health care busier than. I think it's crazy because we've been talking everything from like, you know, how to the mindset that you mean, like, how do you find funding, what kind of set up your funding plan for 2022? And we'll be talking to have guess what? My co-founders are coming on to talk about how we got hundreds of thousands of dollars. And then my other guest who has two businesses that will be able to use my car was able to get seven figures. And it's like pretty much from her brand is pretty much OK. And so like, you like to do this work on the house, it's going well. So we're super excited about it. You can go to the. And you'll see it right there. Amazing. And as always, stay connected here.We're @unscriptedleadership on all social media platforms. Check out our web site unscripted-leadership.com. This podcast will be available on all streaming platforms wherever you stream your podcast. They we say thank you to Dr. Omolara for having this amazing conversation on more than a visual lesson learned while building parts was driven social. Is the doctor I want to say he's showing that black excellence always. We pray that you be the leader that God is supposed to be. We're here to build bridges and not walls.