Teaching Online Entrepreneurs How to Scale to Multiple 6-Figures

 

[INTERVIEW]

 

Shelli Varela: The one and only Becky Davis. Welcome to the It’s a TRIBE Thing podcast, buddy. Thank you so much for being here.

 

Becky Davis: I am excited to be here. I am super excited,

 

Shelli Varela: I’m super excited to have you. You are just like a little ray of sunshine and I could not adore you more and your story is so inspiring. So, I’m going to ask you to share that, but if you can start right off the top with what you do and who you serve.

 

Becky Davis: So, I’m Becky A. Davis. And what I do is I work with online educators, people who have a course, an information product, membership, or they teach online. And I help them to take the guesswork out of creating five-figure months with that digital product. So, we elevate your digital product so you can work less. And my target audience, I work with black women entrepreneurs. And that shift and focus really came during COVID and all of these things that have happened in 2020 really made my target market really clear to me to who I need to be serving and supporting and helping.

 

Shelli Varela: I love it. Your story is that of a movie just about… So, would you be so kind to, before you were The BOSSpreneur and just an absolute, just killing it out there, who were you before you became this person, before you had it all figured out? And can you share that with our amazing audience?

 

Becky Davis: Well, yes, and let me take it back even further than when I actually started my journey in corporate America, I had always wanted to, I had this spark and this interest in public speaking and it really took off and I really got all excited about it. When I just started with the company and they sent me for training, in preparation, it was a part of the onboarding process.

 

And so, they sent me away training and it was at the time when I tell this, like 25 years ago, where the onboarding, it was a skill path training and I sat in there for like three days, eight hours and I was amazed at how the presenter kept us engaged, nonstop. It’s like, who keeps people this, I was like, I want to do this. This is my career. This is what I want to do.

 

And so, I asked her, how did she get involved in it? What did she do? What does it take? The background, and she kind of gave me the information about working with skill path and all that stuff. So, I went to the library because it’s over 25 years ago, computers were not in your homes. And so, I went to the computer in the library, started to look up, I almost say Google, but Google was not around then.

 

Shelli Varela: At that point, it’s the Dewey Decimal System or something.

 

Becky Davis: Yes, exactly. So, I’m in there just researching to find out about training and speaking and I found Dale Carnegie. And they had a Dale Carnegie program in the area that I was in and I lived in Dallas, Texas at the time. So, I figured out how can I get a part of this and I registered for Dale Carnegie’s public speaking course. And when I tell you, Shelli, I loved it. I loved it.

 

I was nervous, but I wanted to learn the craft and the skill. And they asked me, the question is like, this is Becky, this is really natural for you, I mean, you are really good at this. And I was like, “Yes, this is what I’m going to do.” And so, I hired a coach to help me kind of figure out, I don’t know what I’m going to talk about, I just want to motivate people.

 

And so, we worked on a lot of different things. And I met with her over and over. She’s like, “Okay, it’s time for you to take the leap. It’s time for you to now start letting people know what you do.” So, I created these flyers, put all these flyers out, started promoting what I do as a motivational speaker.

 

And when I got my first response of someone that wanted to bring me in to share, it was for a political gala that was going to happen and I’m 25 years old and I’m excited. And then, I get scared at the exact same time and so scared that I talked myself out of it. So, I called him and told him that I had another speaking engagement on the exact same day, which was a total lie. I just was too afraid. I was like, they’re going to judge me, they’re going to ask questions or they’re going to say how in the world this 25-year-old, how is she going to motivate or inspire someone that’s 50?

 

And so, I really scared myself out of it. So, I just decided maybe it’s not for me, just go all hands on deck in corporate America and that’s exactly what I did. And I really focused on growth and development within the company and I succeeded at that, but it fed that desire to speak and impact and train because I did a lot of that in corporate America.

 

And when I finally got to a place where I was like, I have helped this company make millions of dollars, I have trained hundreds of people. And they keep asking me to go train, they keep asking. I can do this for myself. So, I finally kind of got up the courage in my skill set that there is something that I can offer. And then, I got a little nervous about how I was going to get paid. The first and the 15th was my favorite days of the month. I knew what those days were. And how am I going to start this business? And I don’t know when I’m going to get any revenue.

 

So, I was doing what I thought was the right things. I was hiring coaches. I was learning about the speaking industry. I was learning about creating a business, but I was still afraid. So, three years after I said I was going to start a business, I was still in corporate America, but the defining moment for me was, I had a surgery, a surgery that women have all the time. Doctors do these surgeries, thousands of surgeries a day.

 

So, I had abdominal surgery and I went home and after I got home a couple of days later, I was not feeling well, the color was going out of my skin, I fainted. I felt like I could barely breathe. And so, we rushed back to the emergency room to find out what’s going on. And I just remember, they had to rush me back in to do another surgery. And after coming out and being in the recovery room, the doctor came in to tell me from the first surgery, they had left an organ open. So, I was slowly hemorrhaging for six days. And when I was rushed back in, it was like on the cusp of you might not be here and the nurse actually said that if we don’t get in surgery and find out where the blood is coming from, we’re going to lose her.

 

And landing the recovery room was my big aha. I had been putting off doing this, 25 years. Then, when I made a decision to do it, three more years went by, all because I was so focused on my fear that in that moment, I just kind of shed a tear and was like, “Okay, I know, this is my calling. I know this is a part of my divine calling.” And so, my faith just increased at that time to say, “I’m going to take the leap and I will figure it out as I go.”

 

So, I stayed home, went back to work. Once I recovered and went back to work, I worked two months and I gave my notice and they threw everybody in the company often. Everybody was trying to, we had six different retail brands up under one umbrella and every department was calling me to come work in their brand. “Are you tired of that?” “No, I’m leaving. I’m out of here. I’m done.” It’s like, I know it’s time to leave and I’ll figure it out as I go because I really realized that tomorrow was not promised.

 

When you have an experience like that where you know that something is going on in your body and you might not make it, the fact that you make it, it really just shifted my thinking to say, “I’m not going to waste another day or another hour waiting for everything to be perfect.” There’s no such time or place, just go, and I did. That was eight years ago.

 

Shelli Varela: Wow. We packed a lot into that story. I just want to circle back on a couple of things because there’s just so much value in all of the things you said. When you think back to that first time you were offered a speaking gig, so you just finished Dale Carnegie and I just want to say this, like, my dear, you cannot bottle the charisma that you have. And I love that you just tapped into, like you see this person who’s leading the seminar and are just, like enthralled with their ability to captivate, to motivate.

 

And I just so want to acknowledge the fact that you want it to be the thing that lit the spark for other people. Like that’s just such an incredible calling, the ability to switch people on. But when you think back to that first speaking gig offer after the Dale Carnegie course, what advice would you give to your former self about that opportunity, now looking back when you say you’re never ready, it’s never going to be perfect, what advice would you give your old self with respect to an opportunity that they saw in you, that they offered to you, and then you said, maybe going to say no, thank you on this one?

 

Becky Davis: Yeah, I think there’s a couple things that when I look back what have helped me to make a different decision. One it is, first of all, doing my craft in a way and I’m one of those that if I feel good about everything that I’m talking about, then I can go and I can stand up and do what I need to do, but at that time, I wasn’t confident in what I was going to present. And so, that started to affect me. And then, I wasn’t surrounded by people who was also saying, “Oh, yes, no, you’ve waited too long for this.”

 

And so, I kept it to myself. I didn’t tell anyone. Looking back, I would have shared it with more people who would have probably, maybe given me different advice or steered me in a different direction, but because I kept it to myself and I didn’t tell anyone that I’d gotten this offer and I didn’t tell anyone because I wanted to keep it to myself because someone might have changed my mind about it. I should have told more people about it and then just did the deed. I mean, I’m one of those that I’m an overlearner, so I will practice and practice and practice too.

 

I have that thing down in my mind where I can do it, sleep, and I should have just done that and stood in that and then find out what I need to fix after that, but I didn’t even take this step to find out how to make it better. I just let fear tricked me into believing that I didn’t have what it takes. But today, I would look back and say I need to let more people know about it and let more people know what the opportunity is so that I can get some different advice. And even my coach, I didn’t even tell my coach that I had, I called her and told her I got the opportunity and then I didn’t talk with her anymore because she would have probably said you need to do this.

 

Shelli Varela: Yeah, she would know.

 

Becky Davis: So, we know who to talk to and who not to talk to based on the outcome that we kind of want. I would have done that differently.

 

Shelli Varela: Well, one of the things that is blatantly apparent about you is your incredible amount of self-awareness and even in that moment and even knowing all of those things we’re aware of that you were stuck and what was keeping you stuck. And as you went into corporate America and you’re learning your craft in terms of how the actual nuts and bolts of the business work, it’s not surprising to me that you are now considered the entrepreneurial secret weapon. Can you talk about the amalgamation of like what I call roots and wings or the emotional component versus the practical tactical, we need to get these things done?

 

Becky Davis: Yes, and one of the things I think is, and we have to really be into and I have learned that I need to be in tune with what I’m thinking and what I’m feeling and why because sometimes it’s the why that can be your hold-up and the why, not understanding or identifying the why can be a part of your self-sabotage to and when you think of any of the DISC assessments, I’m an expressive and I want everyone to be a part of it, I want to encourage you, I want to inspire you at the same time but also know that there are some tactical pieces that need to be in place.

 

And sometimes, as people are all tactical and don’t have the other emotional connection side, and some have emotional connection side and no tactical but having a blend of both, which was really helpful to me in corporate America, I can inspire and get my team to get results and to get to the desired goal that we needed. And at the same time, I could also say we have to fix some things, we have to change some things, we have to terminate some people, or we have to move beyond this. So, being able to have both sides of that in business. And if you don’t have it as a part of your personality, I think that’s where you go and get people, bring people in on your team that have that piece that you don’t have so that it creates totality for your business.

 

I had advice from executive in corporate America that told me when I asked him when you’re thinking about continuing to grow, what advice would you give? And he says surround yourself with people that are smarter than you, get people that know more than you, can share more ideas and that was just for me, I have taken that advice and ran with it, so bringing people in on the team. And it made sense when I thought about him and thought about the team and all the people he had, some very smart people. He said, “I don’t have all of the answers. It’s in the room and you just got to make sure you have the right people in the room.” So, being able to bring people into my business that’s smarter than me that can help answer things that I can’t help is a big part of being able to help the business and the brand to grow.

 

Shelli Varela: Wow. I just want to circle back on the answers in the room. I love that. I’m curious, do you have a process by which you either get yourself or your clients unstuck when it comes to like, what is the root of what’s holding me back? Because oftentimes, when it’s about ourselves, we can’t read the label from inside the bottle. And what is it like to work with you with respect to finding the root of what’s keeping you stuck?

 

Becky Davis: One of the things, that’s a really good question because it reminds me of a situation that I had. I had just pitched to a corporation and the pitch went really, really well. And the feedback and the information that I received from the pitch, I just knew, I was like, “Oh, this deal was going down.” And so, I was super excited about it. I came home and I had e-mails from the company with additional questions. And so, I was like, “Oh, this is really good.”

 

And the conversation was like, I think this would be a great partnership. So, I was excited about it. I was like, this is going to be a game changer. It was really going to put my company and brand on a larger platform and expose my company to, it was me partner… I looked at it like I’m a little red caboose and I am joining with the locomotive. And where they go, I get to ride, too.

 

And so, I was super excited about it. But then, like after a couple of days, I started feeling this, I couldn’t identify this funk that I was in. And I knew I was in a funk because I was like, “Why am I kind of dragging and lagging?” And I didn’t know what the answer was. So, I said, I’m going to take the day. I’m going to take a day and I’m not going to work. I’m just going to kind of sit and I got to figure out what this is.

 

And so, I’m sitting with myself and meditating and thinking and then praying and then I would read something. And I’m still trying to figure this out and my daughter called me and said, “Hey, Mom, what’s going on? I’m online.” So, we have a conversation. She’s like, “You sound down. What’s going on?” I was like, “I don’t know, I’m kind of in a funk, but I don’t know why, but let me tell you what’s great that’s going on.”

 

So, I tell her about everything with the pitch and all of the things that was going on. And she was like, “Well, you should be excited.” I said, “I am. I am, but I’m just trying to figure out why I’m feeling weird, too.” So, she had to go back to work so she’s like, “I’m going to get off the phone, but I don’t want to get off the phone because I feel like I need to pick you up.”

 

She gets off the phone and about 10 minutes later, she sends me a text. And her text says something that I’ve said to her growing up. She was like, “Ma, listen, God did not bring you this far to leave you. You have done the things that you need to do to get to this place for your business.” And she was like, “So, go do it. Just go do the thing.” And that was the release. I was like, “Oh my God, that’s what it is.”

 

And so, when I started to sit and think about it, I was fearful of being on this large platform, creating a larger audience, a larger community, and people judging me and people getting to say, Well, I don’t think that way, or why do you feel like it’s that way because this platform is going to be so much bigger that people automatically tend to think they can tell you what they think about what you say or what you do and that scared me. And I didn’t know that it was that until when she said those words, it made me start to think about, “Okay, yeah, I’m ready for this. Why am I scared of this?”

 

And so, it was self-sabotaging yourself just kind of pulling away and questioning, do I really want this contract? Well, yeah, I wanted it, but I’m questioning that because I’m afraid of what’s going to happen. And so, I had to sit with that and decide if you are at this place, are you going to turn it down just because you’re afraid? You’re already prepared for whatever people have to say and if you’re not prepared, you’re going to learn so when the next person has something to say.

 

So, I had to get myself in a different mental state to be able to move through that and once I did get past that and the opportunity closed, I was ready for it, but I almost messed myself up out of it because I had to identify why I was feeling the way that I was feeling or I was definitely going to go on down the road to self-sabotage. So, I think the mental capacity and how we think and feel about things, we have to stay in tune and in line with that and then question ourselves, are you feeling this way? Why are you acting this way? Or what’s holding? And sit so you can discover what the answer is and just being 100% honest with yourself, Becky, it’s you, you’re afraid. You’re afraid for people to judge you. You’re afraid of what they’re going to say. And now that you know what it is, now you can do something about it.

 

Shelli Varela: So powerful, probably truer words never spoken. And it is so helpful to be able to have somebody who has your back, a wingman who can kind of like watch your six, as they say. So, when you’re working with your people, how did this transition into a membership site for you and what does that look like for the ladies that you get to work with?

 

Becky Davis: When I transitioned into membership, it was because I was doing pretty much everything and trying to toss everything up and I realized that, for me to make money, I had to show up, I had to be somewhere. And I was like, “Okay, that means I have a salary cap.” And I left corporate America not to have a salary cap. And so, I had to figure out how can I generate revenue, and I don’t have to show up everywhere. I don’t have to be at this engagement or speaking here or training. How can I do this differently?

 

And so, I started my journey of researching and trying to figure out how can I do this role a little bit differently and that’s when some of the things started to come out. I’ve started to learn about memberships. And when I first did a membership, I had no idea what I was doing. So, it did not work at all. I was like, “Okay, maybe not that.”

 

But I started to try and figure out what I needed to do and how can I touch more people and not have to get on a plane or fly or show up somewhere. And when I started learning more about digital marketing and a way to put my information out there digitally and show it for people live, it’s just not I’m not in person, and if I could change my audience from the city or state I was in to worldwide, that would make a bigger impact and that’s what drove me into starting a membership and bringing people into the community.

 

Three years ago, I started my membership and it’s been one of the best things that I’ve done. Definitely not without its ups and its down learning in the process, but it has really helped sustain me when everything shut down in March, my membership and my interaction and digital products, that didn’t stop, it actually increased. All my speaking engagements canceled and so, I was not going to be in front of all the people that I’m normally in front of and so, everything just kind of shifted. But that’s how I ended up focusing on a membership and having something more digital is because the only way I made money is I had to show up somewhere and there had to be another way for me to do that.

 

Shelli Varela: So brilliant. Well, anybody who’s listening to this interview can attest to the fact that the amount of charisma that you bring, you don’t necessarily have to be live and in person in front of somebody, like the amount of energy that you bring is incredible. Last question, what’s the best piece of feedback that you received from a member as a result of saying yes and as a result of taking the action and overcoming the fear and doing all of the things that needed to be done to get you here?

 

Becky Davis: Probably, the best thing that I’ve heard is that, like, Becky, you’ve uncovered things that a lot of people didn’t share or people have taken other trainings or program. And it’s like, you literally show us with examples how to move forward. We just hear, well, you need to take some of these steps, but you literally walk us through it and that it is the first program that as I’ve gone through, I’ve gotten the result from it that you said I would get from it. That right there is the heart warmer.

 

For me, it’s like, don’t just come in, come in and let’s do this thing together. And I am one of those teachers where I think the why is really important. So, helping people understand why I’m talking about doing this practice or why I’m saying this is why I do it this way because then, people make different decisions and no, oh, well, this is why we need to take this step. But the biggest heart thing for me is helping people to make money online and not have to leave their office or not have to leave or they can work from anywhere. That’s been a huge component for me to be able to help people make money online.

 

Shelli Varela: Well, it also speaks to what you make possible for others and the ripple effect of that in their lives. If people are looking for you online, where is the best place they can find you?

 

Becky Davis: Well, all of my social media is BOSSpreneur. So, if you go on to any of the social sides from Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, it’s all under BOSSpreneur. And my website is beckyadavis.com. And then, the other website is the bosspreneurcircle.com. That’s the membership site is the bosspreneurcircle.com.

 

Shelli Varela: Amazing. Well, you are lightning in a bottle and I am so grateful for you blessing my day and sharing all your incredible insights with our audience. You’re incredible and amazing, and we’re so grateful you are here.

 

Becky Davis: Thank you, Shelli. Thanks for having me.

[END]