We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Maurice & Alisha M Pennington. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Maurice & Alisha below.

Maurice & Alisha , appreciate you joining us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

There is a ton of business content focusing on marketing and sales. We get it! Those things are sexy. Who doesn’t want more customers?! In our 10 years in business, we’ve noticed that too many are focused on that though and often neglect what is needed to support more customers. A home’s interior design can be gorgeous, but without the foundation and the framing, the wiring and plumbing, the drywall and the insulation there is no beautiful home for people to see.

We cultivate a mindset focused on building the foundation and the framework of a sustainable business by highlighting business formation, contracts, accounting, SWOT analyses, and profitability. Not sexy, we know… but the results sure are!

Maurice & Alisha, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We both grew up with single mothers, living below the poverty line. We watched our mothers work tirelessly to provide for us and our older brothers. Each of them were able to work their way to six figures jobs with no college degree. They wanted our journey to be different. So did we.

As much as the “do well in school, go to college, get a degree, then get a job story” was told to us, neither one of us aspired for that. By that we mean the lifestyle. We didn’t do it the same way, but we both did well in school, went to college, got a degree… but it was the last part that didn’t sit quite well with us. We desired a lifestyle. One beyond the punch clock life. Beyond the work for somebody else, when they tell you to, for however much they believe you should.

If we were going to struggle through life, we’d rather do it in pursuit of things that were fulfilling. We wanted freedom. Freedom to work on our own terms, freedom to not live paycheck to paycheck, freedom to travel and enjoy time with friends and family, and freedom to do work with and on purpose.

Each of us tried the conventional method. The way our mothers and society hoped we would. After graduating college with a Master’s Degree, Alisha found no job waiting for her. In fact, she was forced to take a $10,000 stipend back at CSUF because there were no other opportunities willing to hire a fresh out of college athletic trainer. Maurice worked his way into upper management within a health club, and though he made good money, there was very little fulfillment and even less freedom.

But then came the big, shiny, job opportunities. Alisha got a call from a major D1 University asking her to take a position with a top-ranked, championship caliber team. Maurice, fresh out of college at 30, had the opportunity to pursue an internship to try to work his way up in the ranks of Sports Broadcasting in Bristol, Connecticut.

Alisha was being offered a dream job! Maurice had a chance to get a foot in the door at his! “Who do you think you are to not accept and pursue those opportunities?!” “Do you know what those opportunities can do for a resume?” “People would kill for this chance!” That was our mind convincing us to do something our heart knew we shouldn’t.

If we accepted those opportunities, we would be married to them. They would have control over our time, our money, and our relationship, which would likely erode our purpose. We knew that, but it was hard to choose.

We were discussing between us and we realized that our quality of life, the lifestyle we desired, was more important than any position/title. It took some time to adjust, but eventually we began to prioritize what we wanted for ourselves over what we had been programmed to think was best. We realized that other people were not meant to see our vision. That our vision was for us. So even if others didn’t understand, that was okay. Needless to say, once we had this new perspective, accepting those opportunities was no longer an option.

What is so interesting, is after Alisha turned down that D1 job, a new opportunity was presented to her. It was the opportunity that provided stability for our household, but also gave her enough freedom to start her own side hustle. Eventually, Maurice would also find himself in a new opportunity that allowed him the flexibility to support Alisha in her business.

So we strategically went all in on her business (and scaled it to $1 million by year four). When the people closest to us began to see what our unorthodox choices were allowing for us, they wanted to do it too. Once our friends and family began to inquire and learn from us, we knew we had to share our decade of experience with others! Now, we’ve taken our proven abilities building and scaling our own business and we’re helping others build and scale their own!

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

Oftentimes, eager entrepreneurs drop everything so that the side hustle can get all of their attention. We feel that the job that doesn’t challenge you, that has you on autopilot, but provides a consistent income and predictable hours is perfect. It means you can keep a ton of energy for the side hustle that will definitely challenge you and won’t provide consistent income and predictable hours early on! The weight of having to support your life can often prove too much for a side hustle and many often don’t see it through as a result.

So that is what Alisha did. Instead of leaving the job that Alisha wasn’t challenged by and didn’t want to be, she relied upon it to support our household while she built her side-hustle into a sustainable business. She decided that she was not going to leave until the business proved it could provide for her. Of course, this did not happen overnight, nor without a few pivots. It took two years, but she’s never looked back since.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

We talk about this in the about us answer (along with the backstory), but the greatest thing we had to unlearn was that we needed to live according to someone else’s vision. We realized that other people were not meant to see our vision. That our vision was for us. So even if others didn’t understand, that was okay. Needless to say, once we had this new perspective, accepting those opportunities was no longer an option.

Contact Info:

• Website: penningtonperspective.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/itsalishamp
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisha-m-pennington/
• Other: instagram.com/themauricep https://www.linkedin.com/in/mauricepennington/

Image Credits
Photographer: Aubree Tippetts