We recently connected with Shella Sylla and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Shella thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

* My background is in commercial banking and commercial real estate financing * I was working in a male-dominated industry
* Found that my colleagues were using golf as way to network and develop relationships that led to business & closed deals
* Started taking lessons and participated in my 1st charity golf scramble and was the only female participant
* I made an impact as well as several important connections that turned into referral sources
* This led to me being able to close deals that I had previously struggled to acquire
* This was when the light bulb went off in my head and I realized that so many women were missing out on the opportunity to
take advantage of the networking and connection that takes place on the golf course, simply because they were not present.
* I then learned that many women weren’t participating because they felt intimidated and lacked confidence because they did not have proper knowledge of the game. As a result, SisterGolf was created to fill in the gap needed to give women the confidence required to participate and fully take advantage of all of the business benefits that golf has to offer.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

SisterGolf is the brainchild of Shella Sylla, an ex-banking executive with over 18 years in the financial services industry. Shella experienced firsthand how golf can positively impact your career or business after taking up the sport early on in her banking career. As a result of signing up for and taking lessons, in a few short months, she went from struggling to meet her monthly goal of $500,000 to being a repeat member of the “Million dollar” club (a designation given to associates who exceeded $1 million in production in any given month). While reaping the rewards of this newfound “secret” to success, Shella noticed that very few women, if any at all were taking advantage of the business development and relationship-building opportunities that golf has to offer. This prompted her to create SisterGolf as a tool for helping women to learn and leverage the game of golf for business and career success.

Shortly after launching a series of workshops, clinics, and events designed to help women get in the game, Shella began getting numerous requests from male executives and professionals to provide a similar program for them. As a result, what began as a quest to empower women in the workplace, expanded to include a curriculum that will benefit both male and female professionals interested in using golf as a tool for relationship building and professional engagement.

What sets SisterGolf apart: We are not just a Women’s Golf Group that gets together for fun. While having fun is a part of what we do, because we want to make the experience enjoyable, our main mission is to empower women with the tools to leverage golf as a way to gain access, proximity, and visibility with key decision-makers that can lead to opportunities for business and career growth.

I’m most proud of the numerous clients that have benefitted from participating in our workshops in events. Whether they share how they deepened a business relationship, landed a business deal, got a promotion, or got their daughter involved in the sport and landed a college scholarship; the positive feedback I receive from clients brings me the greatest joy!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A lesson that I had to unlearn was thinking that hard work alone was enough. I began my entrepreneurship journey thinking that as long as I showed up and worked on my business every day, success would naturally come. After all, that’s what I had been taught, and what I had heard from so many so-called business coaches and entrepreneurial experts. Unfortunately, this belief or ideology is far from the truth. Success in business takes much more than hard work. Relationships are a key factor when it comes to success. A friend of mine once said, business happens at the speed of relationships, and this is something that I found to be true. While hard work requires that you master technical skills, relationships require that you master people skills. So in essence, I had to practice what I preach. In my workshops, I teach women that people do business with who they know like, and trust and golf is a great way to foster “know, like & trustability”. In building my business, I had to do the exact same thing, get people to know, like, and trust me.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Visibility, Consistency, and Reliability. I had heard it said by a few successful business people that visibility equals credibility, so I made it my mission to be highly visible. I was present at every networking event, and golf tournament in town. As a result, my name almost became synonymous with my company SisterGolf and my brand. So much so that people would see me out and out about and instead of saying my name, they would say SisterGolf. In addition, to that, I was consistent with my appearance. This made me easily recognizable and memorable. Last but not least, I am extremely reliable, whether it’s golf or business-related or not. Once, I give my word, I honor it, and make sure to always show up and do what I say I’m going to do. These three things have hugely impacted in a positive way my brand and reputation in the Greater Metro Birmingham Market.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sistergolf.com
• Instagram: @sistergolf
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/sistergolf
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/sistergolf
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/sistergolf

Image Credits
Chris Jones