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Black History Month: 55 Books By Black Authors On Business, Entrepreneurship, Parenting, and Culture

Every few weeks I see new lists of the best business books, the top business books, and other essential readings lists for entrepreneurs. Quite often, the lists are heavily populated with the same authors, and are often made up of a majority of one specific demographic and background. If you only read books authored by rich, white, married men with ample support systems and buoyed by inter-generational wealth, you’ll get yourself into an echo chamber. Here are 44 amazing books by Black authors and Black entrepreneurs to add to your to-be-read pile.

The Wise Women’s Council is Back For A Fourth Year

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We are two weeks away from kicking off our fourth class of The Wise Women’s Council, and we have an extraordinary group of people joining us for the year ahead. The Wise Women’s Council (WWC) is our year-long leadership incubator for women business leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators who are also navigating pregnancy, parenthood, and motherhood. We go deep together for the better part of a year and support women at their growth edge who want to continue to level up in their life and career.

Dr. Shani Cooper: Pregnancy, Birth, and Private Practice in 2020 — Episode #177

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Navigating business challenges while navigating pregnancy is tough—navigating pregnancy, business, private practice, and doing it all in a pandemic is extraordinarily difficult. Dr. Shani Cooper, the founder of Root and Soul, runs a holistic health, wellness, and birth support practice based in San Diego. She was also pregnant in 2020, and a member of The Wise Women’s Council last year. We found a few moments to catch up about the year we had, and what it was like to be pregnant, give birth, and run a business in a global pandemic.

The Wise Women’s Council: 2021 Scholarship Contest

If you’re looking to apply to join us in this year’s Wise Women’s Council, we are hosting our annual scholarship competition the first week of February. Please read this post in its entirety for all the details on how to enter, the program requirements, how and when we’ll select the winners, and when you can expect to be notified of the results. Join us for a seven-day storytelling challenge to connect to other parents and be entered to win a 50% scholarship to join The Wise Women’s Council Class of 2021.

Leading A Startup Team While Pregnant & Parenting in a Pandemic — Episode #176 with Jess Kamada

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What’s it like to run a team of 40 people, in a pandemic, with a 1-year-old, and get pregnant with your second kid? Jess Kamada, VP of Client Services at Bamboo, a top growth marketing firm based in Seattle, joined me for a special episode to talk about how she managed the pandemic and the last year. Jess joined us in the 2020 Wise Women’s Council, and I asked her if she would be open to sharing her story and experience on the podcast, and share some insights into what it’s like to be in the Wise Women’s Council, and why she chose the Group Coaching level.

Reflections on 2020: Growth, Slow Downs, and Surprises — Episode #175

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Last year my family and I didn’t have childcare coverage for seven months. It was a long, tiring year, and we are starting 2021 in a similar place—we’re home for ten days, without childcare, waiting for the days when we can go back to daycare. I wish that 2021 could magically, instantly be different and that I could snap my fingers for all of us to remove so much of the chaos and uncertainty in our lives. Frustratingly, it looks like the upcoming year will certainly be bringing its challenges our way. In this podcast, I’m doing a highlights reel of the last year, and I want to share some of the key moments from 2020 and the lessons gleaned from the year we had.

Running Online Groups and Facilitating Group Experiences — Episode #161 with Tara McMullin

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A few weeks ago, Tara McMullin invited me onto her podcast to talk at length about mastermind programs—how we run them, what we charge, how they’re organized, how many people are in them, and more. I asked her if I could share the episode with all of you, too, so I’m airing this conversation again on the Startup Pregnant podcast. This episode is a very detailed, behind-the-scenes look at both of our online programs and how we’ve designed our mastermind communities.

10 Conversation Starters To Dive Deeper When We Talk About the Challenges of Being A Working Parent

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If you can, bring a group of people together for a dinner or a virtual hangout to talk about the challenges facing working parents. Here are the ways we gather together in community at Startup Pregnant, plus ten conversation starters to use for your own deep-dive. Use them to gather people together. Have everyone share what comes up for them. Sometimes sharing your story is the shift you need to make the next month a whole lot better.

Open House Q/A Call: A Replay Of Our Facebook Live Event — Episode #141

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Last week, we hosted an Open House in our Facebook Group all about the upcoming Wise Women’s Council. I was joined by Michelle Florendo, one of our coaches for this year’s group of women. We chat about The Wise Women’s Council, the impact it has, the reason she joined for two years in a row (and why she’s back for a third). Together, we answered common questions people have about the program and the process. 

Why We All Need A Space To Speak Honestly—About All Of It

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I was chatting on Twitter with a VC at First Round and he had a lot of great points that made me rethink how I explain the value proposition of my projects and products. Unpacking it all here in a blog post in case it’s useful to you to see my thought process. When we describe products, don’t just describe what it is—talk about what it’s for, and why. 

Want To See The 2020 Bonuses For The Wise Women’s Council?

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Every year, we invite a cohort of business women and entrepreneurs into our annual community to gather, create, connect, and support each other. In addition to the program, we also put together a bonus package for everyone who joins us. I’m thrilled to announce the following bonuses as part of the program this year—they’re even better than last year. Check these out!

Are You An Entrepreneur? An Inside Peek At The Wise Women’s Council — Episode #133

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We need more places to grapple with the reality of entrepreneurship and parenting: the grief, the rage, the sadness, the confusion, the joy, the sorry, the changes. The journey to figuring things out, creating new life, and building new businesses can be scary, overwhelming, and hard. Today we listen in as three women share their journeys over the last year, and what they’ve learned about themselves through the process.

ASK SARAH #4: Designing And Facilitating Groups, Masterminds, and Communities

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What does it take to build, run, and facilitate a group program? In this episode, I dig into how the Wise Women’s Council is put together and my personal experiences in designing and facilitating groups, masterminds, and communities. The Wise Women’s Council is my sixth run at a mastermind. In this AMA episode, I answer how I planned out the group’s structure, created goals, figured out what works for me (and what I hope works for you) and how we can get better at creating other mastermind groups over time.

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