We recently connected with Yolanda Brathwaite and have shared our conversation below.
Yolanda, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
Being a woman is so empowering. We’re strong, ambitious, and wear many hats. I am so proud of my gender and enjoy every minute of being a woman. We want to be understood and would like to be respected. I love a little friendly competition every now and then but to never be happy for your “Sisters” accomplishments and continuously try to show them that you’re better, isn’t a ‘Sister Code’ way to be.
That kind of behavior doesn’t make you a good a friend, and definitely not a ‘Grown Girl’. So in this book journey Sister Code volume 1, I express my opinion on ways that women can come together and have mutual respect for one another, as well as dwelling in peace with each other.
“You don’t have to like every woman but every woman deserves respect.”
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?
My name is Yolanda Brathwaite and I am the Founder and Executive Director at Grown Girls NYC, Inc. I started this organization to create a network of sisters that were committed to supporting and empowering women to achieve their fullest potential.
My initiative to achieve this task led me to writing the Award Winning, Amazon Best Seller Book “The Sister Code”.
From there, I wrote my second book, an Anthology, “Girls Pep Talk”, to encourage women who may not have a circle of support in their own community to be encouraged by the words shared by other supportive women.
I have been featured in the following published magazines: “Hott in Birmingham”, “VoyageATL, “She Is”, “Black and Published”, “WYB” and “ACHI”, to name a few. Currently, my latest literary work has been released and on the Amazon Best Selling New Release list for the month of July 2022. Titled, “Tales of a Grown Girl: Sex, Drugs and Freedom”. This book has gotten me featured on several podcasts. Pretty Women Hustle, Life Her, She Confident and Really Real are a few podcast features that Yolanda participated in. Essence Festival also hosted me at a book signing in 2022. Tales of A Grown Girl, is currently casting for a Stage Play to be released in August 2023.
My inspiration and motivation comes from my mother who I watched raise myself and my sister as a single parent. I was taught that I could be strong, loving and in charge of her own world. The future is bright with infinite possibilities for Grown Girls NYC, Inc.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
The lesson that I learned in business is that you are not for everyone. When you find your tribe of people that you can relate to and they can also relate to you, the conversations change. Your circle is very important for your growth. In every situation I place myself in a position to not be the smartest one in the room so that I can grow to new levels. Another lesson I learned is that it is ok to agree to disagree. Growing up disagreements typically ended friendships or maybe even ended in a fight. As an adult however, I have learned that disagreements can be healthy debates where both parties learn something or view the issue from a different point of view.
How did you build your audience on social media?
I built my social media audience first by sharing daily quotes giving people motivation quotes to think about for the day. I started selling t-shirts to get the revenue flowing for my business as well. My advice for someone who is starting to build their social media now is to follow the social media rules for algorithms. Social media is an ever evolving free platform that is very specific about what it shows to your followers. Hashtags are also a very important part of social media marketing. Make sure you use the appropriate hashtags to attract your followers to your message.
Contact Info:
- Website: growngirlsnyc.com
- Instagram: https://www.
instagram.com/growngirlsnyc_ inc/ - Facebook: https://www.
facebook.com/yolanda. brathwaite - Linkedin: https://www.
linkedin.com/in/growngirlsnyc/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/
growngirlsnyc - Youtube: https://www.youtube.
com/channel/ cUCvL8YP0xhNTxPiC8f5ajj-Q
Image Credits
Steve Williams Photography