 Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls and children of our ages, you're a noun tuned into the Prince of Investment coming to you guys and girls live all the way from the beautiful city and state of Denver, Colorado via the beautiful city and state of Haluulu, Hawaii. So ladies and gentlemen, today we got a very interesting guest. As you can see, we have, you know, I like to highlight entrepreneurs that are out here doing great things that can give insight that can also motivate and see what great people are doing around the globe, which is very important. So today I don't have a lot of time and I definitely, you guys and girls don't have a lot of time. So we're going to jump straight into it. So today we have the CEO of Sisters in Sales. Sisters in Sales is a, is an organization that aims to put women in sales positions, sales positions and marketing positions. So they have a, what I've done so many great events, but they had the upcoming fifth annual event that's going to be in New York. Just came from New York a couple of weeks ago, but it's going to be in New York this year in September. So we have the CEO of Sisters in Sales, Ms. Shantel Jacobs here. She's here today. We're going to talk to her, how she did it, what is organization and about, and also give career advice to people coming up in the sales world, and how does she put this organization together, getting partnerships with, I don't want to get too far in. But anyway, let me bring in my guests, Ms. Shantel. How are you doing today, ma'am? Hi, I'm doing great. Thank you. How are you? I'm doing outstanding. Thank you for joining us live today. You're in New York City, correct? Yes, I am. Okay, nice. Well, the first thing I want to get into for, I kind of gave a brief introduction, Sisters in Sales, can you tell us about it? Sure. Thank you. So I actually founded Sisters in Sales five years ago, because I worked in the sales industry and I had a difficult time finding mentorship, navigating corporate policies, and I knew that sales was very lucrative, but I didn't know how to fully map out my career in it. So Sisters in Sales is the largest network of black, brown, limited professional sales, and we have been supported by the largest brands in the world that care a lot about closing this diversity gap, like Google, like Microsoft, like complex sales, for example, last year, in fact, you mentioned the conference, last year, 28 partners came to join us in advocating for black, limited sales. Okay. Now, recently here, you just did a partnership with Walmart. Coming up for your event, I think it was the makeup line that's in there, the people that intend that attend, they can have access to doing their makeup while they're getting so much knowledge in the sales industry. Can you break down to us? What is this Walmart partnership? How does that look for Sisters in Sales? Sure. So it's actually Walmart Connect, which is the omnichannel marketing group within Walmart, and they have access to Walmart's resources of course, like Walmart's Black Bill and Beauty brand, Luda Matching, and so while the attendees are learning about how to become a better sales professional, they can get makeup touch-ups at the conference over the course of the three days. Okay. So putting this organization together, when you said that, hey, I was seeking out mentorship and I was going up the ladder, I saw less people that looked like me, females. You saw less females and you saw less minorities and you was trying to figure out this thing and put it together. How did you put this thing piece by piece? Did you just, hey, you know, just created a Facebook group? What did you do? It's a million-dollar question. I get asked that question a lot. So I'll take you through it. I actually started with the dinner. I started with getting women around me that were in sales and I just wanted to take their brain. In fact, I didn't know that it was going to grow to this degree. So I was looking to just have a small engagement and leave it at that. But then I met a woman at Salesforce who said, why don't you have a public event and you can host it here. And I said, sure. And I expected to see same 10 women who were, you know, talking about their career show up, but it actually ended up being over 100. And so primarily through word of mouth, no marketing. And I realized this was an actual real problem that we had to solve. And the rest was really history. We just kept programming and kept putting on events. Five years later, we just had an event in a fraud in Ghana about two weeks ago. We'll be doing events in Atlanta in a few weeks with Google. I mean, we are going around the world and uniting black women in sales together. Nice. And I see you have something come in London. If I'm not mistaken, did I read that correctly? Right. So we'll be going on in London as well. We'll be launching in London as well. Actually, one of our strategic buyers, Hannah is in London and she has been creating a network there as well and has been establishing partnerships too. Okay. So how can people get involved with sisters in sales? Come to our website, but more importantly, come to our conference. September 21st, the 23rd will be seen. And the biggest, I think, takeaway from this is what we're going to be talking about. Historically, I've created content based on what's going on in the macro and micro economy. And right now, the biggest thing that's on everyone's mind is the state of the economy. And so we will have a whole day dedicated to financial literacy and financial wellness. In fact, Walmart is going to be, we're hitting a lot of that conversation because in sales, your money can go up and down. It really depends on how well you perform that month, that quarter or that year. But we need to be great at not just doing the work, but also saving our money and investing once and our community can benefit from that. So it's the sales conference, yes, but it's also skills to help you become a better adult and manage your life a lot better. Okay. So what would be your advice? Someone is just saying, Hey, I just graduated. I just got my bachelor's degree in marketing and I want to get into the marketing world. I always hear that sales is the number one way to get in. What advice would you, would you give this? I'm asking this question because one of the guys, I know he just recently graduated from college and he has a marketing degree. He always asked me on time. I'm like, I don't really know what to say, but I'm glad to have you on. What would you, what advice would you give to him? Self-app. I mean, no one's going to get it right the first time. And I used to make 80 to 100 pulls all of the day just to get my pitch right. And I think it's about communication and the only way to do that is to continue practicing it. Like not even a child learns the English language overnight. Be prepared to work really hard at your communication skills and your pitching and you will be successful. Okay. Is there any courses or books you recommend that you like that say, Hey, if you're going to get in the sales or marketing, using what you kind of got in there? I like two books. I like the Challenger sale is a tried and true book on how to work with customers and how to have a point of view, even though it might come across different than what the customer might think that they want. I also like one apologetically ambitious. That book is written by a Shelley Shelley and Archibald and it's basically a guideline for how to plan your life and also work up the corporate ladder in the eyes in the lens of a woman. So I think those are two books that I really hold near and dear. Okay. So with events going on in Ghana, also events going on in London and Atlanta, September coming back to New York City. What are some of the what is next for sisters in sales? What do you see this going now? This thing that started as a little dinner was next. Well, first we're celebrating on raising bootstrapping, I should say a million dollars in sponsorship sales as of this year. So that is one of our biggest accomplishments. We're on track to do two million in revenue, which is unbelievable and largely due to our sales team effort. And the second thing is against the 30,000 women by 2028 who are currently at 5,500. Okay, nice. Another thing is when you're looking at, let's say from the entrepreneur side of the house, whatever product they may have, I always tell people and I believe that I read this and I think he wrote a book called, I think it was Next Five Moves or maybe it was The Way of the Wolf. Jordan Belford wrote a book called The Way of the Wolf about sales. Now the thing that he always said is that the lifeline, the revenue of a company, the bloodline is through sales, right? Sales and marketing kind of go hand in hand, even though people kind of treat sales different from marketing. But if someone is that entrepreneur hiring the sales team, I don't even know which sales team to hire or any advice on that to entrepreneurs looking to get into that sales world and say, hey, you know what, maybe I can get a sales team behind my particular product. There are different types of sellers. There are sellers that are very process oriented, you give them a script, they'll read the script, they'll use the template. And I think that you need someone like that on your team, of course. But they're also folks that like to do it their own way. I think the sellers on my team sit within that bucket, I'll give them some guidance, but they'll remake it their own, I'll create that and they'll redo the debt. And it gives them confidence to have their own spin on what they do. So I would look out for people that are not afraid to challenge you, not afraid to ask questions, because they're curious. And you want your sellers to be bought into your vision. And you know they're bought into your vision when they start putting their own paint on everything that you do. And I, as a leader, I actually encourage that. Okay. Now you know with the big push that we have now recently with diversity and inclusion, how does sister in sales and your self-tution now like center about how you feel people, how can companies tackle this issue that so many corporations and companies and groups are trying to, you know, find now with getting more minority women into self-position, executive position, things like that. Well, first we have to acknowledge that it's not a matter of lack of interest in the industry. It definitely boils down to the lack of mentorship guidance and understanding of corporate politics. The same thing that I mentioned at the top of this interview. You may have actually a lot of diverse professionals at the injury level stage, but when it comes to figuring out how to become a sales manager or how to become a vice president of sales, you actually need someone to teach you the internal policies. Someone to teach you the unspoken rules. Someone to tell you, hey, you should talk to Mr. Smith and take him out for a drink and, you know, talk about your family and these are the kind of things you like. And while you're doing that, ask him when he's hiring for his team. This type of guidance is not happening with diverse employees, particularly because we need someone who looks like us to have those conversations with us. So I always push back on the fact that it's not because of the lack of people that want to meet in this. It's about the lack of more seasoned professionals that can shepherd the entry level and the mid-level employees through the process. Okay. Well, we're going to take a quick break. And I mean a very quick break. And we're going to come back here and talk more about sisters and sales and Michelle and Chantel here live with us today all the way from New York City. I'm from Denver, Colorado. So we're going to take a break. We'll be right back after the break. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls and children, ladies and gentlemen, we are now back here live at the Prince of Investment. As always, I'm a gracious host of Prince of Investment. Prince, thanks. Coming to you guys and girls live all the way from Denver, Colorado, via Hololulu, Hawaii. Don't forget that like, subscribe, comment, and share button, wherever you may be catching this, catching it live or the playback. If you saw the beginning of this episode, the beginning of the show, we're talking to Michelle Chantel, Jacobs about sisters and sales. She sat down and wanted mentorship and guidance into the sales industry. When a story came across my desk, I liked people who don't talk about things, but go out and actually do something to challenge the status quo and to actually not to seem like, hey, whoa, little me, but look what I'm doing about it. So she started something with a little dinner that turned into a conference that she's going to her fifth annual conference, the first conference back from the COVID, right? Turning internationally out in Ghana, London, Atlanta. Very proud of her. Very glad to highlight her. But she's very inspirational, but she has a great story because we know you want to know who you're dealing with. You want to connect with certain people. So, Michelle Chantel, can you tell us a little bit about your upbringing and your background? Of course. So I was born in the Bronx, New York, to two parents from the Caribbean, and they instilled a lot of really value in me. The importance of leaning on your network to help get by. They were a little bit more old school and conservative, so they were big on matters and being respectful. So that was, they created a commitment for me in a really, I would say, broadly difficult neighborhood, and I was very thankful for that. Okay. Well, that's good. And your childhood coming up in that childhood of that conservative background, you're dead. You spoke about your dad having been a big influence on you. Why was your dad a childhood father's day? But also, why was your dad a big influence on you? Well, when I was growing up, he was already retired. So he was a building inspector for 25 years, and he had me later at life. And so when I was born, he was already out of the workforce. And I watched a man have a second career and that was entrepreneurship. He was the type of man to just wait around. So he started a business and he used what he thought from that career he had as a building inspector, and he took that information and started buying and flipping homes because he understood how the system works. And I was always inspired by that. I learned a lot that he would always have a lot more to give and a lot more to teach and a lot more that he could create for other people to join in. And even when he was buying homes, fixing them and flipping them, he actually had a lot of my cousins and his nephew help him. And so that was a lot of generational information transfer that he would be able to do up until he passed away. Oh, sorry to hear that he passed away, but his legacy still remains, right? And you know, you're carrying on the torch of, I know he's looking at you and probably gating you every day of, you know, like, wow, look at it, you know, look at my daughters out here, you know, tearing it up across the globe and changing things. Now I'm going to ask you, Shantel, like, you know, what legacy one day that you would like to leave behind? What would be your mark you would like to leave on this earth? I don't want anyone who's watching what I'm doing to say that they can't do it, too. I think if there's anything that I can leave on this earth would be, we all can make the change that we want to see, just be patient. And I also want people to know that you don't have to change when you are being successful. I went through a phase in my life where I thought I had to speak differently. I had to do things differently. I had to show I had to be more stoic to my personality and the truth is that's not me. And I, the way of speaking to you is the way I speak to customers, the way things my team, it is refreshing. I feel very liberated and yet we are still very successful. So you do not have to change who you are and you don't have to change that you present yourself to be successful. And that authenticity that you have is actually what's very magnetic. You know, I got to second that, you know, because so many, you know, I was coming from, even in my personal situation, coming from the deep south of Georgia, Waynesboro, Georgia, right? People always say, Hey, you have to look this way, talk this way, act this way, do this to be able to be successful, right? I think we all kind of taught that to a certain degree. But when you do that, you start to lose your who you are. You know, I always tell people do new things, but put your spin on it. Like for prime example, for me, Thursday is my first day of golf class, right? I'm going to get into golf. And so I'm taking my first day of golf class, but I'm going to have, I'm still going to be me. I'm just going to be golfing. I'm not going to change who I am to golf, but it's, Hey, you can do something new, but to kind of keep that authenticity to yourself. Now, looking back, let's say, looking at your younger version of you, when you walked out and you got your first job with your dad, right? And you got into sales, what is something today that you would tell the younger version of you, or that you maybe would have done different? What advice would you give the younger version of Shantel? Hey, attention. I was, I was, I always wanted to just get past stages. I was, I had difficulty staying in the moment. You know, I'll never forget this one lesson when I moved into my own apartment. And I decided to, you know, move out of my parents' house and start my life. My dad came over with tools that he could change the outlets from two prongs to three prongs so that I could use more electronics. And I was like, oh, I'm finally free. Like, let me have the space to spread my wings and stay, you know, because of course, a few weeks later, I realized I couldn't plug in my blow dryer. I couldn't plug in my straightening iron. I couldn't plug in my curling iron. And we know, I think, you know, when you're growing up, you just want to get so quickly. You don't want to pay attention. You don't want to live in the moment. And you don't think that you think you know better than your parents. You think you know better than adults. Because I always think back and say to myself, I wish I just moved a little slower at those times and was willing to take feedback at those times. And I don't make those mistakes anymore because feedback is such a gift. Okay. So you're seeing that I trust the process. Yeah. And, you know, sometimes the adults, you know, elders know that that's okay. They do say that and people always say, oh, the, I forgot what the other corn phrase was. The lesson is in the process or the lessons and the, you know, something like that, right. And it's something to say, and it's, you know, it's something fun to hear and say, once you get over the hill, but when you are going through it, because you know, life is, I always tell life, life, I feel as though life is just an experience. You know, we haven't, we all have an experience and, you know, I love talking to old people because they've been there, they've done that. And they, you know, they, my dad, you know, I'm lucky to still have them. He always tell them, I look son, don't make the mistake I had. I fought to have the perfect life. Now realizing that life was an perfect journey. So he was like, just enjoy the process. It'll never be perfect. You know, I thought that, hey, I tried to have the perfect marriage. Then soon as I got the marriage together, then I tried to have the perfect kids, then I had you guys, then soon as I got the kids together, then the marriage was here, then I wanted a career that I wanted a job. So it's just, then I realized when I got older, like, you know what, it's just all a journey and an experience. Don't stress out about it. It's all part of life. So that's good that you say trust the process. Now, you know, like you spoke about going forward, looking at, you know, gaining new, you know, sponsorships, bringing in $2 million. Congratulations to that. You know, I definitely got to put in the sound effect for it. $2 million revenue. That is definitely a pretty big thing to accomplish. Now, I got to ask you this question. I don't want it to rub you the wrong way, but I got to ask you the hard question. Why do you think people maybe in your space are not as successful? People in my space. So other founders of networks and conferences? Well, I think that, you know, we're as a founder, our job as a CEO, I feel like my job is 20% my particular point of view and 80% was the community actually needs. If it were up to me, and if I wasn't paying attention to what the community needs, I would just put on a bunch of sales panels with really nicely dressed women and red bottoms talking about you can be like me one day and visually it would look nice. It would take you to get a lot of photos, but no one in the audience walk away with any action items or tactical items. Having a day in the conference dedicated to financial literacy isn't very sexy. Having a day in the conference dedicated to sales acumen isn't sexy either or a day in the conference dedicated to accountability. But it's what our community needs. And so I'm paying attention to what we need and I'm giving it them. And that's why we have such high attendance and high turnout. But some conference founders won't adjust their programming because they want things in a particular way. And that's where you lose interest and you lose your faith. Meaning people where they actually are, you know, I'm sure we are all aware that the economy is going through a ton of volatility. If your conference has been talking about economic disruption, then you're not timely or relevant at all. And so you just have to be people where they are in this current state. Okay. That's very noteworthy because, you know, I've been a ton of conferences. And some conferences just seems like, hey, we're here to sell a ticket. You know, let's get some draws. And then we can sell some tickets. And that's it. Thank you for coming next. And then some conferences are more built on like, no, we want you to get something out of this. We want to take you here. And that's a very good note for the thing. That's why you're successful. Another question I got to ask for you, what is the future of sales? Is that, you know, technology? Or what's coming up next in the world? Or is it one of those industry that's like the newspaper, the newspaper has been around, not the newspaper, I'm sorry, books, books have been around for centuries. They're still here. Is there a new way or new thing that's coming out in sales? You know, I actually think that sales is becoming significant again. So I would say in the earlier times that sellers used to be known for having a Rolodex, right? Like, if you have a Rolodex customer, companies would buy it over you because they thought that would help those companies grow. And for a second, we actually did away with that type of thinking until now, I think it's making a resurgence. And I believe companies are looking for sellers to have a personal brand. They want to feel like you have your Rolodex, you have your personal brand together, you are active on LinkedIn. This is cyclical in the sense that we're back kind of measuring sellers based upon their network. But also with technology allows people to have a professional brand online. Companies are now looking at individuals that have a strong professional brand. And even if you don't know everything, they are still being more bought into you, which I think is a very good thing. So let's you ask me about what someone graduating college might want to do. Now they can have a great headshot, they can talk about all the things they did in their internships, all the things they did in college, and position themselves as someone worth hiring for a great job because of how they show up on the Internet. And I think that is a wonderful thing. Like I said, part of that is going back in time when your network was really helping people hire sellers and also using technology to help you shape how you look to these employers, which is a beautiful thing. And I hope everybody takes advantage of that. Okay. So I need to get me a headshot done. I need to update my LinkedIn. You know, I need to be willing to learn, trust the process. Right. Got it. Got it. Now, Ms. Shantelman, how can people find you, get more of you, keep in contact with you, all those other things before we get out of here today? Well, you can email us info at systemsandsales.com or check out our website at systemsandsales.com. Okay. All right. Well, is there anything you want to leave with the audience of the people that are sketching this live or the playback? Join us at the summit. We would love to have you. It's for everyone, and the education is, it's very important and timely. Okay. Right here, we have it broadcasted of being able to see it, Systems and Sales, the fifth annual conference. Head over to their website. You got to hear login information. Definitely very inspirational story. Definitely, I love the action. You know, many people talk, very few people take action, taking action to do something, leaving your mark on this earth, giving you great things to help people out. Ms. Shantelman, I got to ask you one question. What about the guys and sales? I got to ask you this question. What about the guys? You know, Prince, you are more than welcome to start any sales group. Anything you learned from today's podcast is the world of yours. Okay. So guys, you are welcome to come as well, but thank you for highlighting the sisters and sales. Thank you for what you're doing and congratulations on all your success. Thank you. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, to the next video podcast, cartoon, book or whatever else craze you see me doing around the globe, you guys know my name is Prince Dykes. I'm the Prince of Investment. Peace, be safe. I'm out and thank you. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.