We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Marlia Hall. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Marlia below.

Marlia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of our favorite things to brainstorm about with friends who’ve built something entrepreneurial is what they would do differently if they were to start over today. Surely, there are things you’ve learned that would allow you to do it over faster, more efficiently. We’d love to hear how you would go about setting things up if you were starting over today, knowing everything that you already know.

This is a great question! And it’s honestly something that I have been thinking about. When I was working full-time, I was addicted to YouTube. I listened to books, took classes, and even used it for entertainment. YouTube University played a major role in my success. The content that was created on this platformed has helped me in so many ways.

So if I was to start over, I would have gotten on YouTube and became a content creator just like all of the other content creators that I loved watching/listening to on YouTube. I would have read books, shared prayers and guided meditations. I would have also took people on a ride with my health and wellness journey. I would have taught and released free Masterclasses. I would have given out my best advice and created the best content that I could and allowed things to grow from there.

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

I am Marlia Hall, the owner of M Bryonne LLC a consulting company for women and co-owner of WMYL Publishing, a hybrid publishing company. I never saw myself as an entrepreneur, let alone a business owner. But years ago, I realized that I needed to do more than work my 9-5 to become successful. In my 20’s, I struggled with the idea of becoming broke, homeless, and another black girl statistic. I was a young mom with two children and the last thing that I wanted was for us to become like the average poverty stricken family in Cleveland. So I got into blogging, speaking, and real estate. I became a voice for single moms in Cleveland, Ohio as a member of The Mom Squad with Brooke Taylor of 95.5 FM The Fish radio station. This opportunity created a space for me to speak, teach, write, and work with women and their children. I even did a few commercials and got back into acting during this time. With the success of The Mom Squad, my confidence began to grow and I started to book bigger gigs. People began hiring me to speak at local, national, and federal conferences. This was all so much fun but not enough to replace my full time income. So that’s when I got into real estate.

During this time, I was asked to speak at a conference in Akron, Ohio. To my surprise, one of the other speakers took a interest in my story. He said that he owned a publishing company and was interested in publishing my story. A few weeks into our Skype Coaching Sessions, I found out that the owner of the company wasn’t just interested in my story but was actually interested in marrying me and spending the rest of his life with me. From there, we got engaged and married. He was the first person to see and believe that I could be a full time business owner. He believed in me so much that he took me off of my job our first year of marriage and set me up to succeed as a full time business owner.

The work that I do now is what I have always done. I just operated as an individual who enjoyed helping people. But now I have two companies and a team that help me to help people. We help people to see, believe, and achieve their dreams. Whether you want to become a better wife/mom/person or write and release a book or start and grow a business, we are here to serve you. We aren’t just focused on the end result. We deeply care about the individuals that we serve. We care about their minds, bodies, and their spirits. We develop whole people who are able to produce healthy products and services that serve the world!

What I love most about my life and my story is that I didn’t let anyone or anything stop me. I had every reason to quit and not believe in my dreams but I didn’t. This is was not quitting looks like. If you just keep going, you will find yourself living the life of your dreams. Doing everything you said you would do.

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

I recently had to pivot in my business and it was the best decision I have ever made! After reading the book Who Not How by Dr. Benjamin Hardy, I was able to identify the parts of my business that I did not enjoy. And boy were there alot! In this book, Dr. Hardy and Dan Sullivan suggest to their readers that instead of asking the question, “how can this be done?” we should be asking, “who can accomplish this for us?” This simple questions shifted my life in the most amazing way. I went from doing everything on my own to allowing people to help me. I went from thinking that I had to have control of everything to allowing people (other experts) shine in their area of expertise. This not only freed up time in my mind to focus on the things that I love and that I am good at. But it also freed up time in my schedule. Now I have so much time for my man, our children, our parents, grandparents, my friends, and my passion projects. Replacing How with Who was a game changer for me and I have never been happier. And my businesses have never been better!

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I built my business on social media by 1. Being on platforms that my potential purchasing audience was on. A lot of my audience was on Facebook and Instagram when I first began. 2. Delivering a consistent message consistently. Not just showing up once a month and disappearing for weeks. 3. I invested in books and coaching that taught me how to market myself and my services. Marketing and sales is a huge part of building a successful business. 4. Having faith in your potential success even when the likes, views, and comments aren’t there. I never based my success on followers and likes. I trusted that God would supply all of my needs and I didn’t have to depend on an app to make me successful.

If you are just getting started, begin with a solid message that you want to speak to a specific group of people. Decide if you will relay this information through video, audio, imagery etc. Also, get clear on your call to actions. Do you want your audience to like and subscribe, visit your website, or download your resource? Once all of this is in place, consistency will be key. Just keep going. Keep posting and sharing. You will build a tribe and a beautiful following.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://marliabryonne.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marlia_hall/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marliabhall/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MarliaHall
• Other: http://www.wmylpublishing.com/

Image Credits
Photos taken by Mary Kazmir and Kamron Khan