Interview Transcript:
| Jessica Noll: | Wouldn’t it be great to have an event that uplifts female entrepreneurs? Sharvette Mitchell Productions, a talk radio show host and business woman wanted to fill that void. She created a popup conference where women come together to learn from each other. Sharvette is here along with our own CBS colleague, Antoinette Essa, who is one of the featured guest speakers. It’s great to see both of you this morning. |
| Antoinette Essa: | Good morning. |
| Sharvette: | Good morning. Thanks for having us. |
| Jessica Noll: | It is our pleasure. This is really exciting Sharvette. Putting a popup together though is no easy task. |
| Sharvette: | No. It’s been amazing to pull together speakers and panelists from all over really, the east coast, to come to Richmond, Virginia, really to help infuse female entrepreneurs with ideas to monetize their platform, how to use their social media, how to make more money. That’s what this all has been about, and we’re really excited about, and what we’ll converge on, short pump, in a few weeks to help female entrepreneurs. |
| Jessica Noll: | Why is the time now? Why was it right to make this happen? |
| Sharvette: | Yeah, you know, when we’re going out of one year and coming, getting ready to go into the new year, people have a new mindset. They have a different mindset. They might look back on the year and say, “I didn’t do this. I didn’t accomplish this,” but that’s why I call it the popup conference, because I want you to pop up on the scene and go ahead and work on the plans and the dreams and the visions that you have, so that you start the year on a fresh note. |
| Jessica Noll: | That’s a great mindset because we do get so fixated on, “I don’t have time. How do I make the time?” Popup makes it seem like, “I can make this happen, just pop it up and put it on my calendar.” |
| Sharvette: | Yes. |
| Jessica Noll: | Antoinette, I know you’re excited to be part of this. |
| Antoinette Essa: | You know, Sharvette asked me last year and I went, “Gee, what do I have to say?” So I come and I tell them a little bit about how I got started in the business in TV and radio. Then I talk about how they can get their organizations or their businesses on TV, or I talk about social media. We do social media here every day, every second of the minute we’re doing social media. So I encourage them and give them some ideas on what to do, how to get it accomplished and just get some ideas to them that might help them get their organizations out to the public. |
| Pretty much that’s what we do here. But it was very exciting because they’re women from everywhere and the excitement that’s there, they’re like sponges and they’re willing to hear and listen and write down everything you’re telling them. So they leave, learning from all these other women that are there, with all these great ideas, and go and try and maximize their organizations as well. | |
| Jessica Noll: | It’s easy for something like this to really it just sounds ballon and get really huge. I know you’ve made sure that that focus is going to be pretty targeted, because you’ve got to pull a lot from this one conference. |
| Sharvette: | Absolutely, it is a boutique style conference as we say, so we’re not expecting thousands and thousands of people. It’s boutique style so that it’s close enough, you can partner and network with the person beside you. You can interact with the speakers and really learn some tools and strategies of how other people are doing things that will help monetize your platform. |
| Jessica Noll: | You know what’s really funny in hearing you say this Antoinette, that you think, “Well what do I have to speak about?” Experts we find always have this, “Why would they want to hear my advice?” |
| Sharvette: | Exactly. |
| Jessica Noll: | But you’re the expert, right? So you really have so much to share. |
| Sharvette: | Yes, and she’s being modest because last year she literally knocked it out of the park. I mean, gave so much great information about media relations, how to partner in the community. I know this is getting Tuesday, how does your business partner with the community? We had to have her back this year, but she really was amazing, along with all the other speakers we’re pulling together. It’s going to be something that you don’t want to miss if you are a female entrepreneur and you’re in Richmond. |
| Jessica Noll: | Right, and you’ve mentioned that point, a boutique style. I know the folks who already have this on their calendar and ready to come are very excited. You’ve customized it so that they’re really going to pull a lot. |
| Sharvette: | Yes, absolutely. We have speakers that are coming that are going to say, “Hey, this is how I did things. This is how you can do things. These are the tools that I use.” A lot of times we’re told, “Build your brand. Build your social media.” Then the next step is, now what? I have this following, so how do I generate more revenue from this following that I have? That’s why talk about platform, because we always hear, “build your brand,” but then we don’t hear the next step. Okay, now that I have 500 people that clicked like on my post, what do I do next? |
| Jessica Noll: | What do I do with it? You raise a great point, monetize your platform. You’ve built it, you’ve started this brand. You said build more money off of it, there are a lot of folks who are just saying, “What do I do with it? How do I even start monetizing this?” And you’ll tackle that. Thank you so much. |
| Sharvette: | Thanks for having us. |
| Antoinette Essa: | And Kim Coles is going to be one of the featured speaker. Kim Coles, most people will know her from Living Single and In Living Color. She’s done quite a few things. She’ll be the keynote speaker. I’m excited to hear from her as well. |
| Jessica Noll: | Love it. The two day popup conference for female entrepreneurs is coming up Friday December 8th and Saturday December 9th at the Hyatt House Richmond West Hotel. For all the information about the conference and to get your tickets we’ll have a link on our website. |
