We were lucky to catch up with Mia Dunlap recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Mia, thanks for joining us today. If you’re open to it, can you talk to us about the best (or worst) investment you’ve made. What’s the backstory and the relevant context behind why you made the investment

The best investment I’ve ever made is in my self-development. I spent years having grown up in poverty on the Southside of Chicago in abusive circumstances from being stolen from, be waken by gunshots outside my window and body blows and screams within my home— it was traumatic. I remember being 12 years old telling my mom, who was battling addiction, I’m going away to college and not coming back and her saying, “you staying your behind right here.” Ten years later I graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta— and moved to New York for ten years one week following graduation. I invested in my healing, my dreams, and my potential both with my mindset and money.

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 back background and context?

I started AYA: Adversity Yields Audacity back in 2013 because I wanted to tell my story— I wanted to speak to youth across the country about being a first generation high school graduate, having parents with addictions and mental health concerns, and betting on themselves. A couple years later, I added coaching— life coaching to support with practical tools. That morphed into workshops and a talk show called the Audacity Show and even healing art events. The entire premise was we have the audacity to curate our lives.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

I am still building my business— I had to pivot from business- client to business to business because that’s where the resources were. I was a one person’s business and needed to be able to sustain— so I began doing contracting work after creating self development events, printing flyers, paying for the venue, publicizing the event, having folks rsvp and then no one showed up. That happened at least three times— enough for me to figure out that I either had to hire more people — which I did (paid interns) or pivot to contracting work with businesses, which I also did and am doing.

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

Lesson I have to unlearn: That even though I am the face of this self development business, its success or failure does not determine my value. I am a representative and leading the work but I am already enough. Who I am is already worthy. The business is an extension of me. The income is an extension of me.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.miadunlap.com
• Instagram: The audacity of Mia
• Facebook: Mia dunlap
• Linkedin: Mia dunlap
• Youtube: Mia Dunlap

Image Credits
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