IAM409- Founder and CEO Disrupting Traditional and Predatory Lending Terms

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus is the Founder and CEO of EnrichHER, a FinTech platform that is disrupting traditional and predatory lending terms through its credit model and lending environment. EnrichHER connects revenue-generating women-led companies seeking up to $250,000 with accredited, non-accredited and institutional lenders who want to earn cash flow while fueling the growth of women-led businesses. Roshawnna served on the Commission on Women for the City of Atlanta and was honored as one of the Women Who Means Business by the Atlanta Business Chronicle, one of the 40 Under 40 by Georgia Trend, a Halcyon Fellow for Social Impact, one of the Top 25 Disruptors and Innovators in Tech, and one of the 27 Black Founders and Investors to watch in 2019 by PItchBook.

• CEO Hack: Listen to affirmations in the morning and at night
• CEO Nugget: Ask people for help, go to the experts
• CEO Defined: Being a leader and someone who can inspire people

Website: https://ienrichher.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/iEnrichHER

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/enrichher/

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Transcription

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:30

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Dr. Roshawnna Novellus of I Enrich Her. Dr. Roshawnna, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus 0:40

I'm excited to be here.

Gresham Harkless 0:42

Super excited to have you on and what I wanted to do is read a little bit more about Dr. Roshawnna, So you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Dr. Roshawnna is the Founder and CEO of EnrichHER, a FinTech platform that is disrupting traditional and predatory lending terms through its credit model and lending environment. EnrichHER connects revenue-generating women-led companies seeking up to $250,000 with accredited, non-accredited, and institutional lenders who want to earn cash flow while fueling the growth of women-led businesses. Roshawnna served on the Commission on Women for the City of Atlanta and was honored as one of the Women Who Means Business by the Atlanta Business Chronicle, one of the 40 Under 40 by Georgia Trend, a Halcyon Fellow for Social Impact, one of the Top 25 Disruptors and Innovators in Tech, and one of the 27 Black Founders and Investors to watch in 2019 by PItchBook. Dr. Roshawnna, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Dr. Roshawnna Novellus 1:38

I'm ready,

Gresham Harkless 1:40

Let's do it. You're rocking and rolling. I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. What led you to get started with your business?

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus 1:47

Yeah, so when I was 12 years old, my mother told me that all women needed to be good at managing money and good at finance. So at that age, she started taking me with her to the investment club meetings at her school, she was a high school English teacher. And so by the age of 15, I understood money. At that point, I started writing letters to different organizations, telling them about my views and my passion and ended up raising over $600,000 to pay for my 11 years in college and my four degrees.

So fast forward, when I decided to be an entrepreneur, I said, Hey, there's this huge problem with underserved founders and money like people don't know how to access capital, there's a lack of diversity and inclusion on the decision makers side on who gets capital. And when I Why don't I do something about it? So in 2017, I decided to reach out to 30 organizations in Atlanta and get their perspective on, whether would there be a need in the marketplace to bring together different organizations that want to help women. The answer was yes. And then I've been running full steam ahead since then.

Gresham Harkless 3:04

Nice. I definitely appreciate that. And definitely correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like there's not this awareness that money is like a language, so to speak. And there's a lot of awareness and information that needs to be known about it. Because sometimes a lot of people don't have that basis and that foundation that your mom was able to give you. And when they come across money, or they start to get empowered, or they start businesses or organizations looking to raise funds, they don't really have that awareness or know how to speak that language.

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus 3:31

Yeah, you're exactly right. A lot of people don't realize how many, for instance, grants are available or city programs are available. For instance, this summer, we received sponsorship from the city of Atlanta to pay for the salary of two people to work for our startup. A lot of cities have programs just like this, but a lot of entrepreneurs aren't aware of them. So there are many different ways to use money and programs here at Vantage. And it's my mission to help as many people be able to live out their business dreams as possible. So that's what I'm all about.

Gresham Harkless 4:10

Nice. I definitely appreciate that and appreciate you just like you said, not just helping yourself out and being able to get all those grants that you've been able to get and that money but also reaching out and helping so many others create that awareness and give them an opportunity to also live their dreams as well. So I know I touched on a little bit, Can you tell us a little bit more about Enrich Her tell us exactly what you're doing to support the clients and in all about the business.

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus 4:35

Perfect yeah, and Enrich Her helps women grow their businesses through two ways. One way is we have a network called Enricher Society, which provides a community for women-led businesses we've engaged over 19,000 people on that side and we have in addition to the online resources and networking, we have in-person activations as well, and we're currently doing a nationwide tour in the US. For that particular thing. On the funding side, we have a funding platform that provides up to $250,000 to women-led businesses in a variety of industries all the way from event planners, to the wedding industry, to high-growth contractors to women who make doggy treats.

So someone would go to our website, fill out a pre-screen application, and ask you questions about your years in business or revenue use of funds. And then at the end of that application, we're able to match you with funding opportunities. And some of the people have received the financing in less than 48 hours through our platform. So there are direct funding opportunities on the platform. And the entrepreneur also has the opportunity to do crowdfunding.

This is debt-based crowdfunding, most people think of donations when they think of the word crowdfunding or equity when they think of crowdfunding. But these are, we offer crowdfunded loans, so that people in your community can lend to your company directly through our website, and you can repay them on a monthly basis. So with the funding option and a network option, our vision is that we provide both the capital and the community that women need to grow their companies.

Gresham Harkless 6:24

Nice, I definitely appreciate that. It's kind of like an easy, but so to speak, because a lot of people have these great and phenomenal ideas, like you mentioned, everything from dog treats, and everything else all around and in between, but they don't really necessarily have or know how to, I guess I should say, to fund a lot of these ideas, especially if they are capital based.

So it's great to hear that, you can go to the website and figure out not just how to do it, but also awareness around the different ways you can create funding. And, you might have already touched on this, but I want to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. This could be for you or your organization, but what do you feel sets you apart and makes you unique?

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus 7:03
Yeah, so our products set us apart. Most available financing options are only geared towards the high growth company, or the company that has a lot of assets, which leaves the service-based business out of option and it doesn't allow them to apply. So like hair salons and its consultancy, can't get a lot of financing from traditional sources. And so we are definitely focusing on providing capital for businesses and all industries. Especially this is important because most women actually build service-based companies and the market itself is excluding them from getting financing.

So our secret sauce is not only providing this financing for all women who have cash flow but also providing that support and community that we all need. Women really love to network with one another and support one another. And navigating through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship is difficult for all of us. So we provide a safe space for that in addition to the capital.

Gresham Harkless 8:13

Nice, I appreciate that. Because a lot of times and just as you touched on, I feel entrepreneurship is a rollercoaster ride. And sometimes when you're going through maybe one of the downs, you realize and sometimes feel you're the only one that's going through that down period. But having that community tap into it and lean on it. That sounds like it and correct me if I'm wrong helps out as far as helping people to understand as part of the process and propel forward and keep going.

And I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. This might be an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus 8:50

So my habit is that I do or listen to affirmations in the morning and at night every day. And so it's really important to set your energy before you go out and deal with all the energies outside of your space, right? So you should be in charge of how you feel. I really call him right now because I just didn't work out before this podcast but it's really important to schedule your self-care and make sure you're in charge of your own energy field before you go out and have your busy day. When you're happy and when you're positive the people around you are happier things tend to work out better for you and things tend to be more efficient so it's like a hack to make things go in your favour to be positive calm and happy as much as possible.

Gresham Harkless 9:46

Yeah, the same goes that everything is energy so just like you said, if you're able to start that day out with a very positive mindset everything starts to propel in that same way do you find in this. No, I find this for me but do you find that sometimes if you don't do that, then sometimes the day doesn't go as according to plan, I guess you can say. And sometimes you can look back and say, Hey, I miss doing that.

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus 10:09

Yeah, you're exactly right. Like the other day, I actually accidentally overslept by 45 minutes. And I was going to skip my affirmations. And then I realized the last time I did that, I was just irritated. I just felt like I was late the whole day. So I said, No, what? No, I'm going to be a little bit later, I'm going to listen to 30 minutes right now. I reset my energy. And then the day went fine. Like, the next step, something cleared off my schedule, my calendar, it opened up and everything else worked out swimmingly. So I definitely try my best not to skip even if my schedule changes.

Gresham Harkless 10:48
Yeah, I'm the exact same way. It's funny that you say that. Because a lot of times, even though you're quote-unquote, behind, sometimes you need peace, to understand that things are going to fall in line, just like you said, something pops out of the calendar all of a sudden, or needs to get rescheduled. And now all of a sudden, you're right back in pace, and you're not off balance anymore.

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus 11:09

Right.

Gresham Harkless 11:10

Nice. So. And now, I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you could happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus 11:25

So the best wisdom that I could share is to ask people for help. And as people with different skill sets and different expertise, don't just ask your friends or your family, ask people who have either done it or who you would switch places with. But at the same time, remember that you don't have to do anything that someone else suggests. So, especially when I was younger, I believe that everyone who gave me advice had more knowledge or more precedent than how I felt about a situation. So for instance, I was on LinkedIn, and I was one of the LinkedIn influencers, when the when the platform wasn't as popular as it is today.

And whenever I would post an article on LinkedIn, I would get 150,000 views or more. I spoke with a marketing expert, who told me, hey, no one ever uses his platform called LinkedIn, you need to stop doing this and go to Facebook instead.

And I listened to this person. And Facebook has never ever worked for giving messages out to financial companies, it still doesn't. And now I let go of my LinkedIn status. And LinkedIn now is recognized as the best platform for finances, the platform that the most successful people engage on. And I listened to this person who told me that I didn't know what I was doing when actually I knew what I was doing before the time. So I learned a lot from that experience about, you know, going out and finding experts yet trusting what I knew to be true at the same time.

Gresham Harkless 13:11

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And a lot of times, I'm sure that that marketing works by shaking his head as well. But a lot of times is great that you mention that. Because a lot of times we already know. But sometimes we don't trust ourselves. And with entrepreneurship, and it being such a quote-unquote lonely road and trying to make decisions. And sometimes you make a decision without seeing all the stairs or all the steps ahead. You don't really know what's the best decision. But I think sometimes if we look within we know or have an idea of what the answer is, and we have to listen to that intuition and that small voice we have within us.

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus 13:49

Exactly.

Gresham Harkless 13:50

Nice. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on this show. So Dr. Roshawnna, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus 14:02

Being a CEO means someone who can inspire other people and be a leader. And I'll touch on the inspiration part. We are a startup company, which means we had to raise capital from investors, we had to win grants,s and before we had a track record in business that showed that we were successful. In order to be successful in this process, we had to inspire people let them know our vision, and share our story with them. And if you're really good at those elements, you don't have to have all the proof per se to get the support that you need from others.

So we were able to get support on the capital side and we're able to get support on the human capital side in terms of people volunteering to be part of our team over and over again. We've had over 30 people have raised their hands and say, hey, I want to help you make your vision come true. And I think that to be an effective CEO, people have to believe in you and believe in your ability to lead and inspire others.

Gresham Harkless 15:15

Absolutely, yeah. And being able to have that vision and be able to see the forest for the trees and to get a team in place to roll that boa towards whatever that vision might be is huge. I appreciate that perspective. And then in that definition, as well. And Dr. Roshawnna, I appreciate your time even more. And what I wanted to do was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you can let our readers and listeners know. And then of course, how best people can get a hold of you.

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus 15:39

Well, I would just encourage you to apply for funding or join our community. So if you are a revenue-generating business and have been in business for over a year, feel free to go to our website and apply to see if we can finance you. Our website is ienrichher.com. And you can follow us at I Enrich Her on all social media platforms. And that's about it.

Gresham Harkless 16:03

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And just to clarify, you don't have to be located in any specific area to apply Correct.

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus 16:10

U.S only.

Gresham Harkless 16:12

Okay, perfect. And we'll make sure to have the link to the website and all the social media platforms in the show notes as well. But Dr. Shawn, I appreciate you so much again, and I hope you have a phenomenal day.

Outro 16:22

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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