5 Ways I Made My Bachelors Degree Work For Me as an Entrepreneur
When I first graduated from Washington State University, I was certain I would have my first corporate job by the end of June 2017.
I had a stacked resume. During my time as an undergrad, I:
- held two positions in student government as the Director of Student Life & Director of Diversity Affairs.
- built, developed, and executed a Leadership Development Program for 30 Sophomore and Junior year university students out of an outline my supervisor gave me.
- built a four-year leadership development curriculum with my program chair.
- founded and ran a dance company for four years, building it up from 0 to working with over 80 dancers and collaborating with another dance company on campus every semester.
- served on the cabinet as the Marketing Chair of the Black Student Union
- was an active member and served as the Ritual Chair in my sorority, Sigma Kappa.
- as a Residential Advisor and built a close-knit community with the women on my floor.
- ran for President of Student Government — and even though we lost — helped foster one of the largest turnouts in student government elections. Out of the ~4000 votes, we garnered a little more than a third of the vote and built the largest social media following out of all three candidates through the use of viral content (I wrote the lyrics, audio engineered, directed, and edited the campaign video linked).
- graduated Cum Laude from the Honors College, Phi Beta Kappa, and a Top Ten Senior at the University while spending my last semester pregnant.
There was a lot more that I did (which you can read on my LinkedIn because honestly, we don’t have time for all of that here), and I learned very quickly that none of those things meant diddly squat once I stepped out into the real world. At the time of graduation, I was 6 months pregnant with my son, and I was at the point where I was showing noticeably. You can imagine how that affected my prospects once I started walking into work interviews.
I was told multiple times “We absolutely love you, but your due date conflicts with our start date.”
I applied for over 50 different jobs, heard back from seven, made it to the final round of four salaried positions, and walked away with nothing.
I was confused. “What did I just spend $120,000 on if I can’t secure employment?” I worked so hard — ten times harder than most due to my identity as a Black woman — and knew I would be an incredible asset to whatever company decided to have me, but nothing came through.
So we packed up our things, moved cross country back to Houston (a week before my due date), had my son four days after we arrived back to town, and then lost our house in Hurricane Harvey three weeks later. Couldn’t I get a break?
What I didn’t know what that my break would end up becoming a contractor as a live audio engineer at Cafeza, a local coffee shop and music venue based in the Arts District of Houston.
How did I get the job? The owner of the shop did a call for sound engineers, and I stuck my hand up in the air to interview with him. I quickly showed him my portfolio in Arts, spoke on my experiences in the music business industry, and spoke on my multiple skills as a creative (all skills I cultivated in college). He hired me on the spot.
This impulse move that was driven by my need to find some sense of purpose in my work ended up being the springboard to me starting my business two and a half years later. I skipped corporate completely and had the opportunity to learn everything about running a small business while navigating the life of a creative entrepreneur.
I see things being broken down for me on a step-by-step basis:
1. I tried and I failed. Twice.
My first attempt at business was as an influencer and content creator. I started doing this while in college, and although I loved partnering with brands and creating content, my life was so freaking busy I couldn’t stay consistent. This failed quickly.
My second attempt was about six months after joining the Cafeza team, I launched an Artist Management company called Coffeeshop Entertainment with a friend of mine, and started building a team of other creative friends to make it happen. I knew it could be something big, and if we all put effort into making it happen, it would pop off. Shoot, I was able to secure our first three clients with ease and helped connect them with different folks pretty quickly since networking came easily to me. But the driving issue was everyone had their own lives, no one could be held accountable — because we had no budget to pay anyone yet — and I was the only one who was really driven to make it happen. Once I found out I was pregnant with my daughter and passed out at work, that business endeavor basically died.
I wanted to give up on myself and just thought we were destined to be broke, but what I didn’t know then was that both of those business endeavors would end up becoming the foundation to my third and current business, vp wright international, which combined my love for content creation, networking, coaching, mentoring, and creative entrepreneurship all into one.
2. I laser-focused on my sellable skills and college work experience.
As you saw in my resume above, I’ve done just about everything. Graphic Design, Audio Engineering, Video Editing, Songwriting, Mentorship, Coaching, etc, etc, etc. My experience as a college student in combination with the knowledge I learned in the classroom was able to help inform the first version of my mentorship program.
I not only coached and mentored folks hands-on, but I also dove deep into their business building process.
I would not have been able to do that if I didn’t pursue the work opportunities that I did in University. If I didn’t take the time to learn how to use systems like Canva or Asana, and introduce them to the departments I worked in. These were all my first experiences as a small business owner and manager, but they didn’t come to fruition until years later.
3. I niched down to my degree specialization and leaned into my experiences.
I got my degree in Comparative Ethnic Studies (CES), with minors in Women’s Studies, Pop Culture, and a Global Leadership Certification. I specifically studied the intersectionality of social identity and power. For years, I dove into heavy research and discussion on the exploration of diverse racial and ethnic identities in contemporary society, and the ways that our identities intersect with national policy and popular culture.
When I graduated and eventually landed at Cafeza, my lens in CES shaped how I viewed business ownership and opportunity. As a Venue Manager, I was a gatekeeper for who got booked and who didn’t. Something I noticed immediately with a lot of acts that were Black and Brown was a significant issue with marketable visibility. There was little to no social media presence, no website, or hardly any evidence of recorded music.
This wasn’t because the acts weren’t talented — because damn it, the folks who play at Cafeza are mad talented — but it was because no one was teaching these musicians and performers how to market themselves and grow their followings. This was particularly disturbing considering the genre we primarily featured — Jazz Music — was founded and once filled with Black + Brown Musicians, and a majority of them were college-educated.
I noticed this pattern as an aspiring small business owner and expert in my field and knew I would be able to help close the gap. This led me to launch my Creative Business Mentorship as a Creative Entrepreneur Coach, which still exists to this day in my business.
Ten months after my first launch, I pivoted into Anti-Racism and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work for Small Business Owners and combined my creative efforts into a reworked product suite. Through all the chaos that was occurring surrounding #BLM and performative allyship, I realized that the knowledge of my degree was not only needed now more than ever, but at the foundation, most businesses weren’t taking into consideration how the identity factors of their clientele could impact how they interact with their content, products, and programs.
My love for Creative Entrepreneurship could still live in this process while ensuring folks were building inclusive, ethical, and sustainable businesses and my business has skyrocketed ever since I leaned into the expertise my degree brought me.
4. I used my research skills to cite my evidence-based methodology.
The more I started incorporating more of my expertise into my products and programs, the more I cited the folks I learned from.
All of my methodologies are evidence-based, meaning that for my work there is either theory or methodology that has been researched and evaluated by a group of peers in my industry or cited from credible sources.
My workbook Inclusive Strategies for your Coaching Business didn’t do well only because of its timeliness and appearance, it did well because I cited every single one of my theories and methods to a source. I also gave links to other resources and experts within my work to help people connect even further with the information.
I wouldn’t have known how to do any of this without the hundreds of hours I put into developing my research skill in my undergraduate career. I hated it at the time, believe me, but those skills ended up helping me bring more authority and credibility as an educator and expert because I was able to prove I knew what I was talking about.
There’s been an upsurge of people wanting their coaches, educators, and mentors to not only be certified in what they do but also cite the source they learned from. The Coaching Industry is unregulated and there aren’t too many ways to hold a Coach accountable — certified or not — but if you have the skill to discern if an Edupreneur is bullshitting your unproven methods or not, it can save you a ton of coins.
5. I stayed in contact with my Collegiate network and my University’s Alumni Association.
A majority of my first mentees that signed up to work with me were folks I was friends with in college or were referred to me by folks I knew in my Alumni community.
My network from college are also some of my biggest supporters and DM me all the time to tell me I’ve inspired them to build a side-hustle for themselves, build their business, lead into their creative side more, or just flat out believe in themselves more.
One of my dreams is to go back to my Alma Mater to speak to the Multicultural Community and show them that they can make their dreams come true whether it's in corporate America or not. I would love to teach as a Professor for their School of Business, or even work as an administrator that helps bring foundational change to university policy to create more equity, inclusion, and sustainable practices to campus, both online and offline.
If I want to make that happen, I know that staying in connection with my community back at my Alma Mater is not only necessary but vital.
These were just five steps I took to make my degree work for me, and I’m sure there are so many other ways folks have implemented who are wanting to step into entrepreneurship post-graduation. Either way it goes, it is absolutely possible to be successful in life as an entrepreneur if you want it. There is no single path to success, but you do have to believe in yourself.
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