We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Zollyann Howell. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Zollyann below.
Zollyann, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
My goal is to always make sure that everything I do in life or aspire to do in life is meaningful or has some sort of positive impact on the lives of others. Growing up I would always enjoy tagging along with my mother or gran-gran during the holidays when they would go out to feed the homeless in the city or give back to the local children’s orphanage in the neighborhood. Of Course back then it was fun for me to tag along with them and I never really understood the “why” behind why they did it. But, as I got older my grandmother would always reiterate the importance of giving back and putting good out into the world. She would always say “ to get good, you have to give good”.
However, for me giving back is more than about just putting out good into the universe to get it back. Being able to do my part as a person to help make the world a better place is what gives me the drive and determination to get up each day and grind and I try my best to instill those same morals within my children.
There have been many meaningful projects over the course of my career and life. However, the two most meaningful projects that I’ve worked on these past few years have been my Non-Profit Organization and being a Tedx Speaker.
What started out as a community service project for the Fashion Club that I ran on campus during college ignited my passion to want to do more to help women and children in need and has been a priority since. Then becoming a mother and educator motivated me further to keep the mission alive so I did by starting my own Non-Profit called BAE & CO. Gives Back. And I wanted to make sure that it remained a priority when I started my businesses.
My mission is to have the power to help transform the lives of those in need by helping supply children with school supplies, holiday toys, supporting young entrepreneur’s dreams through grants, or simply just giving back to underserved communities throughout the year in any way that I can. The largest project that I’ve launched through the organization was Zee’s Virtual Library which is a free book gifting program for children across the country. My vision was to foster a love of reading among young children and their families by providing them with the gift of one of my children’s books and I was able to expand the program to not only provide my own Independent Published books but books of all genres from different authors through donations and self-funding. As of today, the program has been able to provide over 1000 free brand new high quality books to children across the country to help promote reading and literacy. Knowing that my virtual book gifting program is able to help close the education gap in some way is meaningful enough for me.
The second meaningful thing I’ve done thus far as an entrepreneur is getting the opportunity to grace the stage and do my first Tedx Talk. The most meaningful thing for me to do in life each and every day is to inspire others to love their authentic selves and go after their dreams. Whether it’s a student that I’m teaching or an adult that I’m interacting with, my goal is always to inspire and to inspire by sharing my own story or journey. And finally being bold and courageous enough to tell and share my story on a platform that the world will be able to see is a heartwarming feeling. Every time I walk on a stage, I’m never concerned about getting the words perfect. I’m concerned about breathing life into the room with positivity. And I got the opportunity to do that in Bronx, NY this year with TEDx Bronx, alongside some other amazing and inspiring speakers as well.
And thinking about my kids, I always try to teach them that doing good is good and it helps people. I hope they keep the mission alive and become inspired to do the same.
Zollyann, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Well my career journey has been quite a trip. I resigned from my full-time teaching career back in 2019 and took a leap of faith to accomplish some goals. Since then I’ve been able to publish several adult books and several children’s books, which has landed its way into several classrooms to support social emotional learning and has even made its way on the Amazon Best Selling Book List. I’ve also launched a Fashion Brand called BAE & CO. which provides stylish and trendy high quality fashion at an affordable price.
While running my fashion brand, my passion for teaching and helping was still growing and inspired me to relaunch my in-home daycare into a Virtual Learning Academy to help support homeschool learning and virtual learning. Earlier this year, I also made a decision to return into the education field as an employee. I wanted to have a secure plan B instead of solely relying on my business income for a rainy day.
Each project keeps me extremely busy while working full time as an Educator. But with grace and balance and commitment, I’m somehow able to pull it all off. I want to inspire others to know that being a fulltime employee and entrepreneur is definitely challenging and it’s easier said than done, but it’s not impossible.
A lot of times we feel as if we only have time or should only be focused on doing one thing in life and we start to box ourselves in. Being an educator spring-boarded me into finding my true passion in life. I absolutely love my career as an educator and I love being an entrepreneur and a mother. So I constantly have to be creative in finding ways to allow all of them to coexist in my life for now because they each fill a bucket in my soul and help others do the same.
I’m able to help others do the same by hosting an Annual Mindset Mixer, which was originally started after I launched my book titled “Your Mindset is Lit AF” and has turned into one of the biggest virtual networking and goal setting events over the past few years. This year I hope to make the event bigger by bringing it in person to a new city- my hometown city of New York.
It’s not just a workshop and it’s not just a networking event because I feel like people need in-the-moment ideas of how to take what they have built or dream of building and go BIGGER. They need a plan of what to do next. They need time to think and breathe and dream and the Mindset Mixer allows them to do just that. And do it with others on the same journey to success to cheer them on, inspire them with what they are doing and collaborate with. So I would definitely encourage readers to check out more details about the events on my website at booksbyzee.com.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
As an entrepreneur I’ve made all the newbie mistakes that you could possibly think of. When I first started my journey, I started by creating candles in my home and selling online. There wasn’t a roadmap, YouTube and Google became my best teachers. I was often frustrated and confused about certain things because I had to struggle to find answers. Back then there wasn’t a plethora of information on social media, YouTube and Google like there is now. So it was difficult and I had to spend a lot of time doing my own research and building my own knowledge to learn about different aspects of running a business to be able to pivot. I remember launching my first business and when an order finally came in, I didn’t even have a box for shipping! I can laugh about it now but when I think back, I still feel the stress of that day: scrambling around, trying to figure out what to do and how to do it all on my own, beating myself up for making a mistake that no ‘real’ business owner would make. Many times I wish I had someone to show me the way, step by step and save the time, money, headaches and tears from trying to “make it happen”. But I stuck with it. And got smarter. I used every single lesson, trial and error to learn and grow.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
I’m not a business or finance guru but I have done enough research to help make the right step in the right direction when it came to funding my business. Before even thinking about funding my business, I had to make sure that I was set up legally the right way. There are so many resources and funding available for new entrepreneurs and small businesses but many times we don’t know how to access it or our business is not set up legally and properly to access those funds. When I first started my business. I knew my personal credit was poor so it was important for me to build business credit while I worked on fixing my personal credit so that I didn’t have to keep dipping into my personal funds that I had saved for a rainy day.
However, like your personal credit score, a business credit score does not generate automatically. There is no free online tool that you can utilize to check your business credit score. I had to actually take the steps to acquire it and that includes paying for it. I used Dun & Bradstreet and Nav. And to do so all of your business profile information must be accurate for example your business name, address, phone number, etc. I had to also make sure that my business EIN, website, and other things were set up correctly as well. When I signed up for the free Nav account, I got unlimited access to my business credit reports and scores. Checking them didn’t hurt my credit scores either. But, I would highly recommend signing up for the Paid Nav account which can help you build business credit because it will report that payment on your business credit profile. I also started to acquire Vendor Accounts which I used to purchase supplies for my business and those accounts reported to my business to credit bureaus. Many vendors offer net 30 or net 60 payment terms that can report and help you build your business credit. It’s vendor credit that allows you to buy now and pay later. Vendors then report those payments to commercial credit agencies to help your company establish strong business credit. I used vendors such as Grainger, Quill, Uline and speedway which reported to the credit agencies, and even better, they didn’t require me to enter my social security number, meaning my personal credit wasn’t considered. Many of these vendors did not automatically report to my business credit report automatically. I had to add them as reported tradelines.
My business credit profile was the foundation of my business’ success because it allowed me to leverage my business credit, and take my business to the next level by allowing me to lease a commercial space and acquiring business credit tradelines, business credits cards, etc. it’s always helpful to do your own research or speak to a professional.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/bossbabemove
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/zoll_inreallife
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100054485405970
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zollyann-howell-8b86a522a
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/zoll_inreallife
- Other: https://www.booksbyzee.com/pages/mindsetmixer https://gofund.me/e59c03a0
Image Credits
RTW Photography Studios