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

Shontaye, appreciate you joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Being a small business owner, success is often defined by the numbers – sales, profit, revenue, clients, customers, likes, follows, and subscribers. But honestly, true success can’t be measured because it’s unique to each of us.

With that said, I do believe that it takes action to be truly successful regardless of your goals.

Action defeats and silences fear, negative self-talk and doubt. Consistent action creates results. Even if those results aren’t what you expected, they provide feedback and can guide your next steps.

One morning, on my way to a training run, I realized I had left my running watch at home. I felt very unsettled, even though I had run this path many times before. I decided to stick with my plan and run anyway. After about a minute, I saw the words, “keep going” written on the sidewalk in chalk. I nodded my head, smiled and kept running.

About 10 minutes later, I saw those words again, in a different location. I soon realized that in order to cross the finish line and achieve my goals, I would need to keep going.

I believe this is the same level of consistency required to be successful. But it starts with knowing what you desire to experience and achieve in your life and business. Some people think I’m crazy for running half marathons… and some see it as a huge success.

In either case, success isn’t a responsibility I can delegate, it’s mine to define, achieve and live.

Shontaye, 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?

I’ve always been that ambitious, sassy girl who friends and family call on for advice because they know I’ll give it to them straight. The girl whose infectious laugh, genuine spirit, and transparent demeanor breaks down the strongest barriers and helps people get to their breakthrough. That’s my way – firm yet loving, in life and business.

The business bug bit me at a very young age as I watched my dad and uncles operate the family grass farming and landscaping business. I remember sitting in my dad’s office as a little girl, no more than six years old, playing on the ten key machine and pretending to log orders into the accounting ledger. At that young age, I was in love with the numbers and my eyes were always on the money. And frankly, that hasn’t changed much.

Before I answered the call of entrepreneurship, I played it safe and went to college. From there, I scored a “good, corporate job” in investment banking with Goldman Sachs where I helped raise over $1.1 billion (yes, that’s a “b”).

Needless to say, the “American Dream” wasn’t it…at least not for me. So, after discovering that there was no real security in Corporate America and after searching for the “ladder”, I built my own. I decided to fully embrace the woman that the little girl was pretending to be many, many years ago and lay the foundation for what would become Profit Is The New Black®, LLC. And, I haven’t looked back since.

My company, Profit Is The New Black®, LLC is a business coaching and training company that helps high achieving service based women business owners double their revenue and build profitable 6 and 7 figure businesses without sacrificing their peace, power or personal time.

My clients are successful, established service providers who want more for their lives than what they can achieve in Corporate America.

Utilizing my signature Paid and Profitable™ System, I help my clients identify the best strategies and solutions to confidently grow, scale and profit without the stress and overwhelm.

Through private coaching, mastermind programs, retreats, online trainings and digital products, I show women entrepreneurs how to take the brakes off their success so they can experience the happiness, freedom and profits, they desire and deserve.

Today, more than ever, my purpose is to help established women business owners, create insane profit and build their own version of the “American Dream” – essentially, a life and business they love.

In addition to being a Business Coach and Speaker, I’m a Best-selling Author, having penned two books: Profit Is The New Black: Key Action Steps To Boost Your Bottom Line and The Profitable Woman’s Playbook: 15 Strategies To Win Big In Life & Business. I’ve also been a featured guest expert on Fox News Radio, CBS Radio, Black Enterprise along with other media outlets across the country.

When I’m not working with high achieving women entrepreneurs, you can find me working out, reading a good book, spending time with my family and friends, traveling, or simply living a highly profitable life on MY terms.

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

From an early age, there were countless messages that reminded me that in order to achieve my goals I would need to work hard, grind and hustle. One message that comes to mind in particular is, “hard work pays off”. The truth is, work pays off and it doesn’t have to be hard. Messages like that led me (and too many other women entrepreneurs) to believe that building a successful business should be hard.

Because if it wasn’t hard, I wasn’t working hard enough or I was somehow doing it wrong. Plus, it didn’t help that from grade school to Corporate America, I was constantly reminded that I had to be better than everyone else if I was going to be successful. Get better grades. Put in more hours. Show up early. Stay late. Be available. Do more. Work hard.

This mental conditioning can lead us, especially women, to believe that we must prove that we are worthy and deserving of money and success, only by working hard.

Which is not true. We’re worthy and deserving just because we are. We have nothing to prove. Besides, who determines that we’ve worked hard enough to be successful?

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t do the work or take the necessary actions to achieve our goals…

I’m saying that we don’t have to struggle and hustle first in order to succeed. We can go from success to more success to more success without inviting struggle and hustle to take a seat at the table.

It took me way too long to realize this. That’s why I’m so passionate about helping women entrepreneurs see that building and scaling their business doesn’t have to be hard nor does it have to be a struggle.

There’s no certain number of hours we must work to be successful, impactful or profitable.

We can make money AND make memories just because we choose to!

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Yes, absolutely! In addition to the mentors that have poured into me, coaches I’ve worked with and events I’ve attended, I attribute my business growth and success to the books I’ve read.

Honestly, being a successful entrepreneur isn’t about the strategies, systems or the next bright shiny object, it’s about our mindset. Entrepreneurship is a journey in personal development. It’s about who we become as we pursue our goals while navigating the highs and lows, and every thing in between.

In addition to the books that I’ve listed below, meditating, working out and journaling have played a huge role in how I build my business and live my life.

Books I recommend:

• The Big Leap – Gay Hendricks
• You Are A Badass At Making Money – Jen Sincero
• The Power of Your Subconscious Mind – Joseph Murphy
• Get Rich, Lucky B*tch – Denise Duffield Thomas
• Success Principles – Jack Canfield

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ProfitIsTheNewBlack.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/profitisthenewblack/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShontayeHawkinsCoaching
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/shontayehawkins