We were lucky to catch up with Latoya A. Benson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Latoya B., thanks for taking the time to share your stories 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?

I’m a creative and multi-faceted at my core. Ideas are just a part of my DNA but I quickly learned that all ideas aren’t viable. This means that every idea you have won’t result into a business but it can fuel or feed into other ideas that will become a business. I officially launched my business in 2013 however my entrepreneurial journey started long before that. It started with a God-given creative idea to start a women’s empowerment newsletter back in 2007. I was sitting at my desk at my government job and I decided to create this newsletter and email it to 25 friends and family members. They ran with it and shared it to their contacts and by the next week women were asking did I have an official subscription list and guess what…I didn’t. So, I created one. I did that for about two years before the next idea came which was to create and launch a faith-based online magazine. Those ideas led to me officially launching my brand consulting company in 2013.

An idea can’t live if it’s stuck in your head. After you have an idea, you need to do some mind mapping to get all of your thoughts onto paper so you can actually see your vision clearly. Then you should assess your idea/vision to determine if it’s actually a business or just a passionate project that you would like to pursue. I always recommend seeking expert advice to gain the knowledge you need to help push your idea forward. Of course it’s important to set up your business as an official entity and trademarking is always important to ensure you are protecting your intellectual property. I also recommend counting the cost by determining how much money you will need to start and maintain your business. It is also equally important to focus on branding and marketing which is a part of the structure needed to push your idea/vision to the marketplace. And lastly, you must believe in what you have to offer. If you don’t believe it, no one else will.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I like to say that I am a perfect mix of JLO when she was a fly girl on “In Living Color” and Beyonce in the Boardroom. LOL. I am a fun, loving, intellectual person and I try my best to live authentically. I love God and the gifts that He has given me which has allowed me to give birth to every single thing that I have done.

I worked at The White House for twelve years serving under two Presidents and while that was a great learning experience and very rewarding, it wasn’t my purpose. I leaped into entrepreneurship to fulfill my purpose and I quickly discovered that it was so much inside of me that I never knew. I am a brand consultant, spiritual advisor, master teacher, executive coach, and author. I am the Director of Boardroom Chicks which is a hub positioning influential women of faith to build brands, package their difference(TM) and monetize their message for the marketplace. Through my business I am able to assist women in business in elevating their brand through monetizing their skillsets and gifts, business coaching, mindset mastery, graphic and web design and branding. In my personal brand, I am able to coach and teach individuals, leaders and executives to apply spiritual principles into their everyday lives to achieve success, thrive and fulfill destiny. I love hosting masterclasses and creating digital resources to further personal and spiritual development.

I am most proud about my ability to use my skillsets as a catalyst to create change in the lives of individuals and to be able to convert my gifts into conversations that lead to coins LOL. I am also proud of my work as an Adjunct Professor at Prince Georges Community College teaching branding in the Continuing Education Department.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I used to be a person that saw things as black and white. Either it was this or it was that, the in-between or gray area wasn’t my jam. It really came from being disappointed as a child so after you receive so much disappointment you learn to protect yourself by not expecting. At the time, I didn’t know that I was teaching myself to see only one way. Either it’s going to happen or it’s not, that was my mindset. However, as an entrepreneur you learn that business is never perfect. It’s never just one way. It may not have worked out the way you wanted but it did teach you a lesson so it actually did work for you. One of the greatest skill sets to have as an entrepreneur is thinking fast and knowing when to pivot. Your mindset is everything and it can literally make or break your business.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I don’t know anyone that gets married to get divorced. At one time in my life, I was a wife and a mother and then the next season of my life I was a divorced woman with two young kids and a new entrepreneur. If there was ever a time that I realized who I was and the level of tenacity and resilience that I carried, that was it. I was resilient because I had to heal, be a mother, run a business, minister to individuals all at the same time. I had to rediscover me while still maintaining some sense of normalcy. Through that experience, I learned that resilience doesn’t mean bouncing back from something like it never happened. But it meant being vulnerable and present enough to feel what I was feeling while walking out the journey to bouncing back. That was a game changer.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.LatoyaBOfficial.com www.boadroomchicks.com
• Instagram: @LatoyaBOfficial @Boardroomchicks
• Facebook: @LatoyaBOfficial
• Linkedin: Latoya A. Benson
• Twitter: @LatoyaBOfficial @Boardroomchicks
• Youtube: @LatoyaBOfficial

Image Credits
Rodney Young Photography