We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Iria Abram a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Iria thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

Becoming Dr. Iria Loraine Abram, your “Purpose and Success Coach” has been an extraordinary journey. One that began to gain momentum while I was still a teenager making a courageous move across the country. I thought it was just for college. I had no idea what God had in store.

The energy in Atlanta, Georgia in 1999 was electric! I had just arrived from South Central Los Angeles, California to attend Spelman College, and it felt like I walked into a gold rush on unchartered territory. Anybody who wanted to do anything could make it happen in Atlanta, and I had a talent that made me a hot commodity. I didn’t know it was called “content creator” back then. All I knew was that I could make things pop.

It all started when I was a young girl. My mom, Mother Maggie Lee Estell, God rest her soul, was a creative powerhouse. She was functionally illiterate and not very good with handwriting. Therefore, she struggled to get her creativity out of herself and into the world. She never let that challenge hold her back. She was a Teacher’s Assistant for over thirty years, she served on countless boards and committees for the Los Angeles Unified School District, She was an L.A.U.S.D. Union Representative for Local 99, She was an executive for the National Black Caucus, an Eastern Star, and a Missionary at our home church, First Evergreen Missionary Baptist Church in Compton, California where my brother Dr. Earl Estell serves as pastor. She was blazing trails and couldn’t break stride for something as simple as pretty handwriting or grammatically correct documents. That’s where my training began.

Mom would scribble out her notes and give them to me to type out on the typewriter (Yes! I said typewriter.) Her notes were never really just words, but more like pictures of the page she envisioned. She would draw lines and make side notes of every little detail, even marking exactly where she wanted me to photocopy an image into the document. She had the vision and I would figure out how to make it happen. Her letters organized strikes, won higher pay for workers, taught bible lessons, and delivered the most amazing event invitations. I began helping others and over the years I developed a superpower for manifesting a person’s visions and dreams into creative tangible materials. As technology advanced, so did my ability.

By 2005 I had a pretty nice side hustle making flyers, business cards, etc. Personal websites had become a popular trend and everybody wanted one so I had an overflow of people wanting my help. I began to give advice and suggestions to clients based on something I learned from another client’s project. One day I realized I was actually consulting, and more importantly that I was helping so many people build businesses, but hadn’t built my own. It was that year that I incorporated EPHRIAM HOUSE (Ephriam is my maiden name.) I knew I was the real deal and it was time for me to establish myself as a business owner. It is no wonder that my first book is titled Winning the Entrepreneur Shuffle: Building Blocks for New-preneurs. I have helped countless people create businesses from nothing more than a thought, and I know what it takes to pull it all together. This is my passion. Even now as a coach, I approach client goals like I did my mom’s notes, with the highest respect for their vision and genuine excitement for the potential they have to impact the world.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started this business when I was twenty-four years old. Just as it has grown and developed over the years, so have I. I’m no longer that wide-eyed college freshman eager to begin carving out a place in this world. God has blessed me to be married for over ten years to Vincent Augusta Abram, and to be the mother of our brilliant sons Isaac Michael Abram, Elisha Ephriam Abram, and Caleb Vincent Abram.

Academically, I have earned a Bachelor’s degree in Leadership and Administration from Beulah Heights University (BHU), a Master of Arts degree in Christian Education from the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC), and a Doctoral degree in Ministry degree also from BHU. Professionally, I have been a college professor for over twelve years, I am a certified life coach, the owner of a streaming channel, a published author, a speaker, and of course a business consultant. Notably, I founded Sigma Gamma Theta | the Society of Women in Theology, a non-profit organization and community that focuses on the core values of S.T.E.P.S. -Sisterhood, Theology, Exposure, Platforms, and Scholarship.

EPHRIAM HOUSE, my foremost endeavor, is a strong resource for beginning entrepreneurs and micro-business owners, specifically “New-preneurs” – those who have a great idea for a business, and very little else. We offer value from the first click on ephriamhouse.com. Every subscriber instantly receives a free chapter from my best-selling book. At EPHRIAM HOUSE we are all about offering real solutions to people who need help building. We serve you with:

-Business Consulting
-Individual Coaching
-Funding Solutions
-Workshops & Group Coaching

There is no event like an EPHRIAM HOUSE event. Our workshops are extremely interactive and you will always leave with more tools and knowledge than you were expecting. Very simply put, we help people to be and do what God called them to be and do. We believe that if you launch with purpose you will experience success, so we set you up in a pre-launch sequence to help you have the best possible chance of success. With EPHRIAM HOUSE we want you win BIG!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Never in a million years would I have thought I’d live through a global pandemic. The Coronavirus and its aftermath of mandated quarantines, face masks, and vaccinations changed everyone’s life. In the summer of 2019, I had begun making arrangements to resign as the Director for the Doctor of Ministry Program at BHU and to instead teach for the university exclusively online. This shift was supposed to allow me to prepare to give birth to our third son who was due in February 2020 and to really dive into building my consulting business. God told me to prepare to be in entrepreneurship full-time. I had set a tour of church visits to speak and share about my book, and I was developing workshops and events to build my brand and clientele. I was excited and really looking forward to giving my business the attention it needed. Instead, COVID-19 hit and continued to hurl out of control causing closed venues and social distancing everywhere. What a blow. It was like time stood still.

Suddenly I had three children at home and a husband who was declared an essential worker and had to be out and about with this frightening virus lurking around. I was clueless as to what God was doing in our lives. I knew I had heard him clearly with each step I took, and I could not figure out why he would have me make such drastic changes if he knew all of this was coming. Our savings dwindled quickly and things got very tight financially. By August 2020 I was not being assigned any more classes to teach because enrollment was so low. Then, in September 2020 I received a call from my big sister Cornelia Estell telling me that a man named BJ was going to call me and for me to answer the phone. Shortly after, I got that call. It was Coach BJ King, Regional Vice President with Primerica, the Life Insurance company. He had an opportunity to offer that aligned with our entrepreneurial endeavors so my husband and I met with Coach BJ and his wife Elia Leialoha via Zoom, and by November I was a licensed Life Insurance Agent. By February 2021 my husband was too.

Just as I never would’ve forecasted a pandemic in my lifetime, being an insurance agent was nowhere on my radar. However, it ended up being one of the most amazing decisions we’ve made. With this pivot, we found ourselves surrounded by like-minded people, and most importantly we were earning good money! We began building together and coaching together as husband and wife. God had a plan. I learned so much about how money and business works from an entirely new perspective, We began receiving coaching from millionaires daily and we have been able to help over thirty other families to start a business and support themselves through the pandemic as well. I am a better coach today because of this pivot.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

I have been blessed to establish three major organizations in my lifetime. EPHRIAM HOUSE (EH) in 2005, SIGMA GAMMA THETA | The Society of Women in Theology (SWT) in 2018, and most recently mPWR | The Empowerment Network in 2020. In contrast to how I do business with EH as an individual, with SWT there is an Executive Leadership Council, a Board of Trustees, and myself as the CEO, With mPWR, I work with producers and content creators to stream their media to viewers across the globe.

All of that to say, I know a thing or two about managing and maintaining teams! Building these organizations has taught me some invaluable lessons such as, “When it comes to leadership, confidence is everything!” You must exude confidence in what you produce, and your team must have complete and total confidence in you. That’s why they follow you – because they respect your vision and trust you to carry it out. Once confidence is lost it is hard to get it back. Gaining weight, the need for dental work, losing money, etc. are all examples of the kinds of things that can shake your confidence, and/or cause your team to lose confidence in you. Exceptional leaders find a way to push past pain, to rise above mistakes, and to show up knowing that their blessings are new every morning!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ephriamhouse.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iriaabram/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iriaabram/
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/iriaabram
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/iriaabram
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAFWIdx52b8PHPAto1Aebmg
• Other: SIGMA GAMMA THETA https://www.societyofwomenintheology.org/

Image Credits
Alycia Moorman – Stylist Taviette Booker – MUA iCreateStudios.net – Media