Ziva Voices Issue No.4 The World of Wealth

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9798985630831

ISBN 9798985630831

NO. 4 // $6.99

The World of Wealth

WHAT IS WEALTH?

WHY WE NEED TO FOCUS MORE ON COMMUNITY IN 2023

THE DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES ON WEALTH

CONTENTS WELCOME 03 EDITOR'S LETTER

PART 1: DEVELOPING A GROWTH MINDSET FILLED WITH ABUNDANCE 08 WHY YOU NEED A PRENUP. 16 BAD AT MATH: HOW GENDER STEREOTYPES CAUSE WOMEN TO QUESTION THEIR ABILITIES 22 MY EVOLVING VIEW OF WEALTH 25 ​FINDING FUNDING AS THE UNDERDOG: 5 PRO TIPS FROM A FEMALE FOUNDER IN TECH 30 YOU SAY BUDGET, I SAY CASH SPENDING PLAN 34 5 STEPS TO BUILDING A SOLID FINANCIAL BASE: 35

WHERE ARE YOU FROM?

38 “IF IT DOESN'T SCARE YOU, THAT MEANS IT'S NOT BIG ENOUGH.” 44 DO WE HAVE TO DEFINE WHAT A WOMAN IS

55

THE FREQUENCY WE GIVE MONEY

59

WEALTH MEANS HAVING ENOUGH

49 HOW TO PRICE YOUR WORK

WWW.ZIVAVOICES.COM

PART 2: SPECIAL EDITION STORIES FROM LEXINGTON 65 THE WEALTH OF COMMUNITY

70 KENTUCKY STORIES: SQUANDERED WEALTH 75 WOMEN CREATING WEALTH THROUGH REAL ESTATE IN CENTRAL KENTUCKY 80 PERCEPTION & REMOVING BARRIERS 83 SHOP LOCAL- MORE THAN A CATCHPHRASE 89 BOOK REVIEW: "SEEKING" 91 PODCAST RECOMMENDATIONS

PART 3: WORKBOOK SECTION 93

WORKBOOK

94

LEARN ABOUT YOUR WEALTH

95

UNDERSTANDING YOUR WEALTH MINDSET

97

THE 4 PILLARS OF ZIVA VOICES - HERSTORY IN THE MAKING

98

MISSION VISION

99

OUR GOALS AND WHAT WE OFFER

PART 4: THE ZIVA VOICES 102 CONTRIBUTORS 104 OUR STAFF

WWW.ZIVAVOICES.COM

Editor’s Letter

BY DR. KINGA MNICH

I have been very fortunate to have never come across someone who would say to my face that women are not good at math and, therefore, cannot be good at building wealth or managing finances.

Having grown up in a matriarchal family structure, my mother and my grandmothers were responsible for managing our money. And even though there wasn’t much to start with, it was incredible for me to watch them make - out of nothing much - a life filled with travel, friends, family, and ticking items off the dream list. For my family, this meant often being aware of priorities and having a clear vision on how life should look - tomorrow, in a couple of years, and in a few decades.

But most women haven’t had the fortune to grow up with women managing the family money. And, let’s be honest -many people have never been taught how to manage money and build wealth and many struggle to even define what wealth means.

Interestingly, while looking for contributors for this issue, whenever I would bring up the topic of wealth, the first thing that would pop up was money.

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Yet wealth isn’t money. Money is a vehicle for wealth, sure. But, wealth is so much more. And I really think that money playing the central role in most conversations about wealth is in itself a problem. Without the skills to understand why we need money and how we want to use it, we start by simply putting a price on everything!

So let me ask you right now to think about what wealth really means to you.

For me, wealth includes the community around me: the people who pick me up on days when everything seems to be going wrong, those who bring food to our house because they worry we have been too busy to go grocery shopping.

Wealth is also, for me, the ability to travel and explore cultures. My heart fills with so much joy when I walk around streets I have never seen before.

Certainly, like most people, I would like to have more money, because some of the goals I have set will require additional financial means. But, just like in most of the conversations I had over the past few months while preparing this issue, I would also really like to be able to give more to others.

Growing Ziva Voices and amplifying women worldwide is really my mission.

And I am clearly not alone. When they mentioned money, all the women in this magazine also mentioned that they would (or do) use it to improve other people's lives. It was fascinating to see that it was always about using money to create something, and not once about buying something or using it for personal gain. (continued >)

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Now imagine a world in which the focus would not be the Porsche in the driveway or the Rolex on someone's wrist, but instead, it would be the well-being of humankind overall: the creation of a better space for the communities around you, and ensuring that people are truly experiencing joy. Imagine the world we would live in as a world filled with abundance and lightness. That is a good start to having true wealth.

I hope you will enjoy this issue, and end up, like me, with a more accurate understanding of not just your own ‘wealth’ but also of its immense potential in improving the world in our immediate communities and, ultimately, in the global perspective also.

Kinga Mnich

DR. KINGA MNICH EDITOR IN CHIEF

03 | SEPTEMBER - NOVEMBER 2022 05 I DECEMBER 2022 - FEBRUARY 2023

ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS IS A MATTER OF COMMUNITY SEE BEYOND YOURSELF. VISIT WWW.ZIVAVOICES.COM

1 PART ONE

At times we feel alone, misunderstood, and lack the inspiration to continue on our path.

DEVELOPING A GROWTH MINDSET FILLED WITH ABUNDANCE

LEADERSHIP

THINKING OF LIVING TOGETHER OR GETTING MARRIED? HERE’S WHY YOU NEED A PRENUP. By: Kimberlee Davis

I am a strong, capable woman, and I was left financially and emotionally devastated after a divorce. How did this happen? It happened because I did not have my priorities straight, I was not vigilant, I didn’t take preventative action, and I wasn’t willing to have “uncomfortable” money conversations.

In the years since recovering (and firmly bouncing back) from this hardwon lesson, I have made it my business to study the relationship between women and our financial responsibilities to ourselves.

My life and experiences, like so many women, have been complex. I began my career as a Wall Street-based corporate lawyer. I then transitioned into investment banking, and ultimately wealth management. I have also been a stay-at-home mom during the period of time when my three daughters were young.

My 23-year marriage ended badly, and my divorce was contentious. I experienced what is known as a “gray divorce.”

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The phrase "gray divorce" refers to divorces involving spouses over the age of 50, who are typically members of the Baby Boomer generation.

(While the overall divorce rate has declined over the past 20 years, it has doubled for the segment of the population over age 50.)

The gray divorce typically represents what is a financial “double whammy” for women, who find themselves with less ability to recoup earnings lost to time spent on family responsibilities, and results in many women living at a much lesser standard in their later years. During my marriage, for example, I supported my husband’s career, moving to a foreign country where I could not pursue my chosen career, and I was the primary caregiver to the children. I stepped out of my career path and related earnings, and thus was in an extremely vulnerable position upon our divorce.

Women have financial issues and concerns that they must confront over the course of their lives that are unique to each of us. Over the course of our lives, we make decisions as to who we live with, whether we commingle our assets with our partners, how we establish our credit, and if we will be caregivers to our children or family members. These decisions are wrapped up in personal relationships and complicated dynamics, and the hidden risks should be considered.

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What you need to do to protect yourself from the hidden financial risks of marriage or cohabitation: It is time to establish a new tradition and change the paradigm. With the ever-changing roles of women at home and at work, more women are in the workforce, increasingly acting as the primary breadwinners, and often have significant assets from employment, divorce, death of a spouse, or inheritance. If you are considering cohabiting or marrying, protecting your assets and future financial security should be paramount in your mind, and not something to be avoided or treated as an after-thought.

The First Step: Create a Separate Property Trust A separate property trust is a revocable living trust created to hold property acquired outside of the marital estate, regardless of whether it is acquired before, during or after marriage, or by inheritance before, during, or after marriage.

An example of separate property is a savings or investment account held in your name only that you fund with money that you earn, or a house that you purchased with your own money that is in your name only, or an inheritance you received for you only.

A single or divorced woman should create a separate property trust before cohabitation/marriage, and fund it with her assets to set up her game plan. This will delineate the ownership status and separate property character of her total assets that she owned prior to marriage or cohabitation, or that she funds or acquires separately after marriage.

Even if you are not considering cohabitation or marriage at this time, if you are a single woman with assets or on the path to accumulating assets, you should establish a separate property trust.

You can retain a lawyer to create the trust, or you can do-it-yourself with online services such as LegalZoom.

Cohabitation Agreements

'What if we want to live with a partner and don’t get married?' Unmarried couples are not afforded legal protections for their property rights as are married couples.

In light of that, if you are intending to live with someone for more than a short time, it is in your best interest to have a cohabitation agreement that spells out who owns what, and how it would be distributed if a couple parts company.

Most agreements include: How specific assets are owned Whether or not, and how, income and expenses are shared How newly acquired assets are owned How bank accounts, credit cards, insurance policies, etc. will be managed How specific assets will be distributed in the event of a separation, or what process will be used for resolving disputes of property rights If you buy a house together, address “how” the ownership is listed on the deed, whether as joint tenants or tenants-in-common, how much of the house each partner owns, buyout rights, how the house will be appraised, and who stays in the house if there is a breakup.

Liability for debts—unmarried partners are not responsible for each other’s debt unless they have a joint account or are a cosigner or guarantor, which is different from married couples, who can be held liable for marital debts.

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Support payments after the breakup for one of the partners Surviving Partners—if one of the partners dies, the surviving partner has no rights to the deceased partner’s individual property unless left to the surviving partner by a will or trust of the deceased partner (you are not considered a legal spouse).

Preparing for Marriage: Prenuptial Agreements You said “Yes!” The arrangements are now in motion, and there is so much to plan. It is normal and natural to get caught up in the flurry of romantic excitement and not want to discuss money and what happens if it doesn’t work out as we expect. Who in their right mind wants to talk about money and division of property before you even walk down the aisle? You do!!

A prenuptial agreement is an agreement entered into before marriage to address: The nature of property acquired before and during marriage, and the division of property and income (including support/alimony) in the unfortunate event of divorce, separation, or death.

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If you think you might choose to stay at home with your children, either parttime or full time, and step away from employment, you may wish to enter into a prenuptial agreement to set forth the right to receive a certain amount of spousal support or a base settlement amount in the event of divorce.

The prenuptial agreement can create a future monetary value for your contribution in raising children and the running of the household. That is a settlement amount to compensate you for: lost professional development, lost wages, the fact that you cannot contribute to a 401(k)s, Social Security or other retirement fund during your time out of the workforce, and the transition time it might take you to be financially independent post-divorce.

This means that, in the event of a divorce, splitting everything down the middle probably isn’t fair to a stay-athome mom because she gave up a salary to take care of the spouse, the house, and the children. She should most certainly be compensated by an agreed valuation for loss of career development (in fact, a step backward), wages, and benefits over the time of not working outside the home. This should be clearly stated in the prenuptial agreement.

You’re Already Under Contract…

Without a prenuptial agreement, you subject yourself to the default rules and guidelines of the court, and the judge has discretion and jurisdiction to determine what is community property and separate property. In short, you’re already under a contract of sorts that you had no part in designing. If you have a prenuptial agreement, you take control of a potentially volatile situation fraught with financial uncertainty and prevent the decisions being made by a judge who doesn’t know anything about you or your life.

Prenuptial agreements can be amended later if the landscape changes and both parties agree to change the terms.

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Postnuptial Agreements

A few other things to consider:

Oh no! I don’t have a prenuptial agreement! What can I do if I am already hitched?

What is Commingling of Assets?

It is important to understand how assets can get commingled in a marriage and transform from being “separate property” to “marital property.”

Once you are married, you may think you are too far down the path to bring this up. However, the same uncertainty and possible unfortunate outcomes can still occur if you do not come to an agreement with respect to property division in the event of an unanticipated break-up. You can create a post-nuptial agreement after you are married to address property settlement in the event of a divorce. Note that post-nuptial agreements cannot address alimony.

The Process The recommendation for establishing any of these agreements (cohabitation, pre-nup or post-nup) is for one party to retain a lawyer to draft up the agreement and submit to the other party for their review with their own independent counsel. If both parties have their own separate counsel, it strengthens the agreement and it mitigates one party stating later that they weren’t represented and didn’t understand. It may have a cost but down the line if something happens, it could save you from long-term financial hardship that ripples throughout your life.

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Here are a few examples of how funds get commingled: You inherit money and deposit the inheritance into a joint account you share with your spouse - those funds will become marital property.

You owned a home before your marriage and the rest of the mortgage is paid for using funds from a joint bank account - the home will become marital property.

You and your spouse combine your resources during your marriage to buy a car, television, home, or any other type of property - that property will become marital property.

You have an investment account in your name, but both you and your spouse’s incomes contribute funds to the account the account will be considered marital property.

You have a checking or savings account that both you and your spouse are depositing funds into those funds will be considered marital property.

Here are a few suggestions to reduce or avoid commingling: Don’t use your separate property to pay off marital debts. If your parents were to give you a large sum of money as a gift, for example, do not use it to pay off your home that is held in joint names or to pay for a credit card debt. When a marriage benefits from funds, those funds become marital property.

If you own property prior to your marriage, keep your name alone on the deed, and, if that separate property requires maintenance, only use your income to fund it.

You should also keep strict records to prove that your spouse did not contribute to its maintenance.

Before making a large purchase, such as a home or a car, consider discussing if it should be marital property or separate property. If you want to have an equal interest in it, use marital funds to purchase it.

Being Credit-Wise Once you commingle debt with a spouse, it is almost impossible to de-mingle it! Even if you get divorced, a creditor will not recognize the court’s assignment of debt responsibility, because lenders are not bound by your divorce agreement (because they are not a party to it). If credit cards are held jointly, then whether you are divorced or not, the lender can come after you for repayment.

Bad credit will follow you and can have real detrimental ripple effects in your life, so maintain some separate credit and regularly monitor your credit report

Our relationship decisions can have hidden financial risks that we should be aware of and plan around to protect our financial futures, come what may.

Don’t make significant personal decisions without pondering the consequences to your future stability - it is far less scary to address them and then move forward with your life!

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Kimberlee Davis is a Partner and Managing Director in The Bahnsen Group, a wealth management practice with offices in Newport Beach, California and New York City. She is also a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst.

15 DECEMBER 2022 - FEBRUARY 2023

https://www.linkedin.com/in/daviskimberlee/ https://thebahnsengroup.com/

BAD AT MATH: HOW GENDER STEREOTYPES CAUSE WOMEN TO QUESTION THEIR ABILITIES Women can and should build bigger businesses - we owe it to each other.

by Emi Kirschner

My fifth-grade math teacher, Mr. Williams, convinced me that I was terrible at math. I don’t remember exactly what he used to say to all of the girls in my class, but it was clear that, to him, we were less capable than the boys at math, and thus at handling money as well.

His humiliating comments followed me for years. It wasn’t until I was in college and first introduced to business statistics that I had any inkling that numbers and money could be something I would excel at.

Over the years I’ve done the work to recognize that not only am I capable of understanding math and managing large amounts of money. I’m excellent at it. I also know I’m not alone in having falsely believed that I wasn’t good at money and math.

The average female business owner brings in about $323,000 in revenue, while men earn over $700K in revenue on average.

It’s a frequent conversation I’ve had with hundreds of women business owners, and it might be stopping you from growing the business that you’re meant to lead.

The average female business owner brings in about $323,000 in revenue, while men earn over $700K in revenue on average. Only 1.5% of privately-owned businesses run by women make it past the milliondollar mark for revenue.

Why?

Only 1.5% of privatelyowned businesses run by women make it past the million-dollar mark for revenue.

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Why? In addition to tending to ignore their financials, women sometimes set smaller limits on what they think they can earn.

The truth is that when women get comfortable with bigger numbers and give themselves permission to go after and achieve their dreams, we have a much bigger impact not only with our clients and customers, but with families and communities as well.

In fact, a recent survey by UBS found that 90% of women believe that money is a tool to be used to achieve their purpose.

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Yet our lack of confidence with money still shows up. In the same survey, UBS found that 50% of married women still defer to their husbands when it comes to finances.

[How important is money to a woman?]

I’m not surprised by this. The women I talk to on a regular basis are impactfocused, but frequently still seek their husband’s approval or input before making investments in their business.

The first step is to allow yourself to think bigger.

which is why building bigger businesses means helping more of your clients and customers and being able to give more to your team members.

On an upcoming episode of my podcast, Women Who Build Empires, Alyse Maslonik, Founder of RedfinED Advisors, shares that she pays everyone on her team the same as what she makes, and she recently started a pension for everyone.

In today’s climate of polarization and corruption, it must be women who take the lead so we can finally achieve a more sustainable way of living in community with each other.

We heal communities by using our natural abilities to collaborate with others, asking questions to gain the knowledge we need, and being less emotional when making decisions about money.

When goal-setting with my clients, I have them set revenue goals that make them feel very uncomfortable, and in some cases the goals seem impossible to reach.

Usually, if my clients don’t reach this goal, they come very close, and they reach numbers that are far beyond what they would have earned if I hadn’t nudged them to think bigger.

What my clients come to understand is that making more money is not greedy.

Making more money gives you choices and the ability to do more,

One of my clients, Givelle, has scaled her team’s working hours back to a four-day workweek without reducing salaries.

Other women leaders I’ve met are starting to make similar choices about how they run their businesses. They are looking at how nurturing their team actually reduces turnover and increases sales.

The path all of these women have walked to heal their money stories are similar, and none happened overnight.

They allow their passion for their purpose to outweigh self-doubt and fear, and they have moved through the following steps after realizing that having more money is a great thing.

Forgive Yourself: Many women hold a lot of guilt over how they have spent or not spent money. I recommend journaling or making a list of how your actions or beliefs with money have created negative feelings.

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For each action or belief, write a positive statement starting with what you are forgiving yourself for. For instance, maybe you overspend from time to time.

A new more positive statement could be:

I forgive myself for not honouring myself by spending within my means. I make intentional choices with how I spend my money.

Get Started: As with anything you want to change, it’s important to create a practice of small habits that you can build on. Don’t pressure yourself into becoming a money master overnight. Anything from paying more attention to your money to reviewing reports to educating yourself more is a great step.

Seek Support: We all need people around us who contribute to helping us reach our goals, both personally and professionally.

Surround yourself with a team. Consider a financial advisor, accountant, CFO, tax planner, even a few girlfriends you can have conversations about money with.

Women aren’t bad with money, and we can do math.

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The truth is that women don’t have enough money, and while we are making gains in the fields that require more math, there is still plenty of room for us to grow.

Every time you level up your desire for more money and choose to do more, you empower yourself. But you also start a ripple effect for every other woman to also elevate her beliefs about the money she is capable of earning and managing.

Money is, after all, an exchange of energy. It is the giving and receiving of value. As you embody your value, isn’t it only natural for you to receive more money?

https://emikirschner.com/ https://www.instagram.com/theemikirschner/

Emi Kirschner is a coach and host of the Tribe of Leaders Podcast.

Her mission is to empower women entrepreneurs to reach beyond 7 figures by helping them build more profitable businesses that create the change they want to see in the world.

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WEALTH IS SO MUCH MORE THAN

MONEY

MY EVOLVING VIEW OF WEALTH

By Ingrid Harb

I grew up in the North of Mexico, where women and men often had an invisible line dividing their roles, thoughts,and responsibilities.

A very tangible example of that division for me was that I went to an all girls school, where the buildings separating boys and girls were divided by a soccer field. Going to an all girls school was both a blessing and a curse.

The good that came from it was that expectations and our expression were not limited.

We lived in a world where we could be girls, continue to play like "boys," and many times even sit like them, which felt like freedom. We didn't have to worry about how we looked and what we said, we spoke our minds, and our gender did not define us.

That was, at least not until we had to interact with the boys, and we soon realized how unequal the playing field was.

Our uniforms were skirts that covered our legs up to our knees, restricting our ability to play sports. The boys wore pants.

Because we were only used to the company of each other, when we were around boys, we often didn't know how to act! At any party or event we attended, we typically stayed within the safety of our gender. As we moved on, year after year, the separation between genders got smaller, but the roles and responsibilities grew bigger. I began to notice how this line was also present with adults.

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The men always sat with the men, and the women always sat with the women.

The conversation at the men's table was about their jobs, money, wealth, or the news, while the women's conversation was about children, food, and hobbies.

This line was so present in my life, and I never thought one was more important than the other. I just wanted to figure out a way where I could be both. I wanted to exist where all of these conversations existed at one table.

When I left to the United States to pursue my education, this line ceased to exist for me. I was able to bridge many topics and interests, and I had to explore what each topic meant to me. Where I grew up, it was very normal to see women take on the role of housewife and the men the role of businessman.

What shocked me was to see how most women did not know how much their partners made, as if money and wealth was a topic only men had the privilege of having.

During college, I took multiple jobs while in school, because I wanted to experience what it was like to make my own money. I then went on to start my own organization, and at the same time was able to work with, and learn from, other entrepreneurs. I experienced what it was like to make money, but I still did not know how I could build wealth.

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I became obsessed, so much so that the people around me noticed and reminded me of how money was not important. At the time their comments felt irrelevant my goal was not to become greedy, but to prove to my own society and myself that women were capable of creating their own wealth. I took on different consulting jobs when I graduated college, and a few years later was able to start my own business in consulting. I began to onboard bigger clients in my business, but the feeling of scarcity still lingered within me.

In my childhood experience, women often had to ask for money from their partners, and many times we would witness a woman's husband leave her without a dime. That terrified me, and as I grew in my business I had to change my personal relationship to money and wealth. I had to make space to heal the parts of myself that didn't feel worthy of making money. I knew that at all costs I had to believe in what I was doing, and that soon I was going to be given the opportunity to build my own wealth.

Since the pandemic, I became clearer on what my role was - my business and personal brand began to grow organically, and of course, I also spent a lot of energy in making sure that we delivered the best service. I was able to build a team, and this past year I bought a house.

I came to realize that the more work I did on myself, and on letting go of things that I did not have control over, the more space I made for future abundance. I also noticed how true wealth was not just what I owned and made, but how healthy my body is, my relationships, my mental health and my daily practices.

Ingrid Harb is a global advocate who at only 19 years old founded the Women Ambassadors Forum while still in college.

She has partnered with over 50 Fortune 500 companies and created over fifteen international and national conferences that have reached women from 150 countries.

I hope that you find that balance within yourself and know that true wealth is within you. The more you see it, the more you get to manifest it.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ingridharb/ @ingridharb_

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​F inding Funding as the Underdog: 5 Pro Tips from a Female Founder in Tech

By Thea Myhrvold

The numbers don’t lie, and they’re unsettling. In 2020, even after several social movements raised awareness about widespread gender inequality, female startup founders still received less than 3% of the available VC funding pool. The intention here is not to complain, instead, to inspire and equip you with the best possible tools to raise your next round.

These numbers feel overwhelming. You have an amazing idea for an extraordinary product or service, and all that stands between you and your vision is the onerous task of fundraising in a funding ecosystem where the numbers are wholly set up against you.

As founders, we have expertise in blazing our own paths and seeing things that others don’t. Your value proposition statements are like polishing a diamond.

You know you have a hidden gem, but it’s up to you to figure out how to make others see it. This same mindset applies to the challenges of fundraising. From my experience as a woman in tech - located in the Middle East, no less - raising VC funds is a challenging and nuanced process.

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The following tips are my key learnings after having raised over the million-dollar mark. This is the information I wish I had starting out - and, best of all, it can be applied by any startup founders seeking VC funding, regardless of background or gender.

1. Have an answer for every “Why” As Simon Sinek says, it all starts with Why. Crafting your storytelling around your why (and how) should answer any major question that pops up in a conversation.

Before dealing with any external questions, you must understand the fundamentals for yourself and determine if this is the right path for you. Many founders want the glory of having raised a round of funding, while not understanding why they really need it or how they will invest their money raised. Make sure you have clarity on this for yourself first.

How they negotiate with you in this process will also reveal a lot about them, too. This relationship is like a marriage – through the good days and the bad. They are your network and should be your cheerleaders.

Actionable tip: Verify if your investors do follow on rounds (meaning they have money set aside for your next round and can support you). You want players who can be with you for the long term and not just flip a quick deal.

When you are ready to deal with investors, it’s helpful to think of pitching a lot like speaking to a toddler that repeats that same annoying question, “why?” For every slide on your deck, understand the “why” to things like: Why this problem? Why you?

Why your team? Why now? Why this amount? Why should your investors/clients care? Why is the problem you are solving relevant/big enough/important?

2. Choose your investors wisely Instead of thinking about investors as giving you money – change your mindset to – who do I want to make money for and with?

You are giving everyone who invests in your business a chance to massively multiply their investment. You are giving them as much of an opportunity as they are giving you. So you must define what kind of values and fund dynamics you want to support.

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4. Recognize unconscious bias As a founder, I was being asked negativelyloaded questions like, “How will you make sure not to lose key clients?” or “How will you prevent bankruptcy?”

Every time I felt like I gained a step forward, I felt I was taking three steps back.

It wasn’t until I watched Dr. Dana Kanze’s Ted Talk, The Real Reason Female Entrepreneurs Get Less Funding, that I had my first real “aha” moment, and I admit, I cried. This is a must-watch for all founders.

I finally understood what was going on. It wasn’t until I unlocked this, that I could: 1. Recognize unconscious bias 2. Deal with it constructively 3. Turn the conversation around to a positive 3. Align your thesis Understand their thesis and deal size / stage focus. Most funds state a clear thesis as an investment focus. The closer you can align, the easier the conversation and relationship will become. i.e. some funds love early stage founders, while others need scale and traction.

For example, if you are raising your seed round, make sure you are speaking to funds that match that can write a ticket size you are looking for. You might spend months in a negotiation only to find out that they cannot afford to invest the amount that you are looking for.

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5. Timing is everything In startups, timing can make or break your business. Manage your timing, assign deadlines for diligence and processes.

Understand your investor’s process and set your expectations early on to save everyone time and energy. A process that takes too long is likely not to close, especially in the early rounds. Creating a sense of urgency will make sure you get over the finish line.

Also be sure to track and analyze your fundraising data and process – use platforms like DocuSend and tools like FounderSuite. Just like you optimize your business with tools and data, optimize your fundraising process with key platforms and track what is important to you.

6. How? You might be thinking, “so how do I structure all of this and how do I know what I am even worth?” I recommend Y combinators’ comprehensive content on how to structure your round, what the different options are (Equity, SAFE, Convertible, Debt, etc), and what the right fit might be for your business. https://www.ycombinator.com/library/4A-aguide-to-seed-fundraising Traditional VC and equity rounds are not the only options available to founders these days.

Venture debt is a new revenue-based financing model that is becoming popular and has started emerging as a trend in predictable scaleups like SAAS or enterprise models. Know what the right fit is for your business model and your long term plans.

7. What kind of business are you building?

Understand which category you fall under. For example: Software as a service (SaaS) - think Slack or Salesforce Consumer facing (b2c or c2c)- think Airbnb or uber ·Hardware Each of these categories of companies has its own revenue multiples and ways of being evaluated. Your data points, traction signals, and how you are being benchmarked will vary depending on your category.

Some funds only focus on consumer while others only focus on software or SaaS. This is usually part of their thesis to be agnostic or specialized.

Follow trends in the market in terms of mergers and acquisitions in your space.

Understand similar exits in your space to analyze trends. For example, during COVID investors became bullish in certain areas like collaboration tools, future of work and telehealth software. These multiples (i.e.

10x revenue) increased for public companies like Zoom, Slack, etc. Knowing these trends and similar exits will help your investors see a clearer path to your future potential.

8. Do your values align?

This might not seem like a priority when you are just starting. However, I cannot stress how important alignment on values are when building a team and your funding round.

Some funds use this more as a PR tactic to generate a pipeline of startups and to raise funds for their fund (VCs have to fundraise, too). One might assume female funds are more supportive of female founders, especially if their thesis is about supporting women in tech. Not necessarily. I once had a founding partner at a female tech fund tell me that I was worthless, I wouldn’t get a salary if I was to apply for any other job, and therefore I didn’t deserve one. She tried to sabotage my round to get herself a good deal.

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Know your worth, and stay true to your values and what you are building. Evaluate them as much as they are evaluating you.

Once you understand the other side of the table, it’s easier to align or address their questions or challenges and know who a right or wrong fit will be.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/theamyhrvold/ @theamyhrvold

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While the odds might seem like they are stacked against us in terms of funding for female and minority founders, I encourage you to speak up, share your stories, and to pay it forward. It is up to each of us to change this narrative and foster innovation so we can build more inclusive technology and more welcoming environments for all.

Best of luck on your fundraising journey, and remember to pay it forward so that we change the odds together!

Thea C. Myhrvold is Founder at Getbee Transforming the way people buy and sell online. She is also an International Speaker, LinkedIn Power Profile, Cartier Women's Award, Expo2020 Global Innovator

LEADERSHIP

YOU SAY BUDGET, I SAY CASH SPENDING PLAN

By Amy Getz

What even is a budget? It sounds kind of scary and not at all fun. I suspect this is why lots of people just take the “I don’t wanna” approach.

A cash spending plan gives you the freedom to determine ahead of time whether you have enough money to do the things you need to do, and even better, what you want to do. If you come up short on your anticipated wants and needs,

then a cash spending plan allows you to prioritize your spending on the things that are most important to you and your family.

To create a cash spending plan, simply get out a notebook, or if you’re so inclined, create a spreadsheet that shows your sources of income (wages, rental income, alimony, etc.) less your fixed and variable expenses.

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PHOTO: JANNEKE NOOIJ

A budget, or as I prefer to say, cash spending plan, is a super useful tool that does just what it says . . . creates a plan to spend your money. Now that sounds more exciting . . . a plan to spend money!

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Variable expenses, as the name implies, vary in amount each month, and can be grouped into two categories – flexible and discretionary.

There are other several benefits to having a cash spending plan, whether you’re single or supporting a family:

1. IT’S A ROAD MAP FOR YOUR GOALS Flexible expenses are anything that’s a necessity, such as utilities, food, fuel.

Discretionary expenses are for things that really aren’t necessities, but make life more enjoyable, such as trips to the nail salon, the mall or monthly fitness memberships. I suggest using an average of several months as a baseline for your variable spending amounts.

Having a cash spending plan allows you to create a path to achieve your long-term financial goals. If you don’t have a handle on how your money is working for you, then how will you be able to save up enough to put a down payment on a home, take that trip to the Caribbean or live your best life in retirement?

2. IT HELPS TO CONTROL YOUR SPENDING.

3. AVOID DEBT & IMPROVE YOUR CREDIT.

Without a spending plan, there’s nothing really holding us back from spending beyond our means. We all have a general idea about what we spend on a regular basis, but without actual data, it’s easy to lose control of our spending habits. A spending plan helps us understand the impact of what we think are insignificant expenses, such as quick trips through the drive thru or stops at your favorite store.

Having a spending plan ensures you pay your bills on time, and hopefully it will help you make better choices by not taking on too much future debt – both help to build your credit score. Paying your fixed expenses before your discretionary spending allows you to make paying off your debt a priority.

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4. YOUR RELATIONSHIPS WILL IMPROVE.

Whether you’re in a business partnership or a romantic partnership, a spending plan keeps you on the same page financially. It will help you plan your financial future together, hold each other accountable and help you feel like you are fighting for the same team.

Once you subtract your expenses from your income, what is the amount remaining? If it’s positive, set up automatic savings each month and treat it like a fixed expense.

If it’s negative, then it’s time to think about ways to increase your income or reduce your spending.

5. YOU’LL SLEEP BETTER AT NIGHT.

How many nights have you tossed and turned worrying about your finances?

People who lose sleep over financial concerns are allowing their money to control them. Take back the control. We all worry about the monster under the bed until we are brave enough to turn on the lights, look under the bed and realize nothing scary is there. Creating a cash spending plan is facing the “monster” under the bed.

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These are just a few of the many benefits of having a cash spending plan. There are countless advantages to knowing where your money is going and making sure it’s working for you. So, what are you waiting for? Be the boss of your finances!

Amy Getz is an IRC Wealth's Financial Advisor, Money Mindset Expert, Professional Speaker.

She is also an expertise CPA. https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-getz/ https://ircwealth.com/

33 I DECEMBER 2022 - FEBRUARY 2023

5 Steps to Building a Solid Financial Base

By Amy W. Getz, CPA, CDFA®

1.Spend less than you make So simple, but this a crucial step to financial freedom!

Staying home and putting you career on hold?

3 things every woman should consider when making this decision:

2. Create a cash safety net Open a savings or money market account that makes you feel emotionally secure for things such as a spontaneous trip or an unforeseen emergency.

1. Make sure that it’s a joint agreement between spouses and both are fully on board . . . this is a team decision.

3. Automate your retirement savings Maxing out your company retirement account options [such as a 401(k)], or an individual retirement account if you’re an independent contractor.

2.

Evaluate the long-term financial impact of reducing the household by one salary . . . will this affect your ability to live stress-free from money concerns, pay for children’s college education or retire? Consult with a financial advisor for advice if you need help with this step.

4. Consistently work on eliminating your debt.

Financial freedom does not truly exist if you owe money to anyone.

5. Do a quarterly review of your financial information.

Awareness is power and allows you to make adjustments to stay on track.

3. Actively engage in a monthly review of the financials prior to making the decision, paying special attention to variable expenses which are easier to control. Even when you’re not earning, you are still an equal partner in the decision making process.

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THE WEALTH OF IDENTITY WHERE ARE YOU FROM?

By Crystal Gentry

For the first 17 years of my life, I knew what this question meant when asked.

I knew exactly how to answer: I was from West Virginia in the United States. No doubt, no hesitation. No follow up from the requestor unless they wanted to know more about my town, or to ask if I knew someone they knew.

These days, this question automatically gets a question from me in return. Then, depending on the response, it affects the direction of our conversation very quickly.

Today I am asked where I am from, I ask to verify what lane they want to travel: Are you asking about a geographical location, or are you asking about my ethnic background? If you answer “location,” this brings up a positive happy response and a guaranteed story about living in my home state. If you answer “ethnic background,” this can go in multiple directions. Not all of them are positive.

It took living in Europe for almost three years for me to gain a sense of nationalism for the country in which I was born. Previously, I never felt a bond with my country because of the many experiences of feeling like an outsider.I was born in a nation that forced my ancestors here against their will. They were held hostage and tortured for generations, still viewed as less than a citizen for decades after emancipation.

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From now on, when asked where I am from, my one and only response will be, “A small town in West Virginia. Do you know anyone from there?”

You may now be wondering how such a simple question could have such an impact on me now, and why the change in my own feelings. My experience was changed while living abroad. I was often asked “Where are you from?” and the moment I started speaking, I would often hear, “Oh you’re an American.” I was American, not African-American, not Caribbean-American, I was simply American. I started to embrace this. I leaned in, and started to feel pride in my country. I was an American, and would proudly tell you I was.

Then I returned to the US and boy, how the mighty fell.

I get this question a lot now that I’m back in the US. (I no longer look classically American, and it is immediately obvious when this question is not about where I live.)

It seems that many people do not care that I was born in a small town in Southern West Virginia to two parents who loved each other. Their parents were also born in the US, and their parents’ parents were as well. No, there are certainly no stories about my family landing on Ellis Island, New York. There is no origin story that I can share from a specific country in Africa. There is no family Bible listing the births of my ancestors.

There is no oral history known to me, either. (My grandparents had no answers for a young kid trying to finish a social studies project. My great grandma’s eyes would fill with tears when asked about her family and her past. To avoid causing her pain, I stopped asking.) My past is largely unknown to me and my family.

My skin color denotes that I had ancestors that originated from Africa, but the exact location is unknown. My DNA will hold clues to solve this, but for some reason having my DNA tested fills me with trepidation. So, I will continue to identify myself as an American, and I will not be shamed for my answer by entertaining follow up questions or defending against skepticism. By claiming my American identity, I am not denying my African roots any more than the descendants of European immigrants do when asked where they’re from.

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Crystal Gentry is a Producer at ESPN, with more than 20 years experience in the media production industry.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/crystal-gentry8b705270/

37 | DECEMBER 2022 - FEBRUARY 2023

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

INTERVIEW

“IF IT DOESN'T SCARE YOU, THAT MEANS IT'S NOT BIG ENOUGH.” AN INTERVIEW WITH FOUNDER, ICON, WINEMAKER - NTSIKI BIYELA, SOUTH AFRICA’S FIRST FEMALE WINEMAKER.

BY ELLA LUCAS-AVERETT Ntsiki Biyela is the Founder, Head Winemaker and Director of Aslina Wines grew up in Mahlabathini, a rural village in the Kwa Zulu-Natal province of South Africa. She graduated from university with a BSc in Agriculture, (Viticulture and Oenology), completing her degree in a language other than her native Zulu. Biyela began her first job at the boutique winery Stellekaya in 2004. She won her first award in 2006, and three years later, was named Woman Winemaker of the Year in 2009. In 2016, she founded her own company, Aslina Wines, named after the grandmother who raised her.

Ntsiki’s story is one of unbridled optimism, determination and self-belief in the face of many obstacles. Ella Lucas-Averett sat down with her to hear more from Ntsiki about the forces that compel her to continue to build such an extraordinary life.

You are now a renowned winemaker, but that is not how life started for you. Can you tell me a little bit about what growing up in South Africa was like for you?

I grew up in the rural areas of the Kwa ZuluNatal province in South Africa. I went to primary and high school there. [After not being accepted to study elsewhere,] I got a job as a domestic worker.

My grandmother was absolutely not pleased - she was not happy! I had to beg her and make her understand that this was just a stepping stone. So, she eventually agreed. And when I got there, an extended family member said “Look, if you want to continue studying, you can study. Do your chores in the morning, and do your chores in the evening, and go to school during the day.

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”And, I was up for that challenge. It was one of those things - when you don’t know what to expect, you just go blindly, “oh sure, I’ll do that!”

Stellenbosch University told me that I could study winemaking. I had no idea what they were talking about. But, I agreed. And they told me that it was in Afrikaans, and I said “Ok, I can do that. I can study.”

So you spoke Zulu, and they tell you the course is in Afrikaans. Did you speak Afrikaans at the time?

Laughs. No. And still, you said “sure, sign me up.”

Absolutely! They said “study” and whatever they said after that, I didn't hear. I was going!

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Many of us will find the smallest excuse sometimes to not do something, and here you are, you wanted to get an education, and when you're presented with an opportunity to study in a different language for a course of study that had never entered your mind, and you leap at the chance.

You have that right - and in a completely different culture, by the way, moving from a province to another province. They were very different.

Tell me more about that.

The first time I arrived at Stellenbosch, it was very interesting. I remember standing at the library and looking around, and it's only white people - you can't see any black people around. And that is like a shock.

Where are the people I know? Where are the people that look like me?

A lot of people don't understand what the culture was like throughout South Africa at that time - extraordinarily segregated.

It’s still segregated, but it's much better now, compared to previously [just postApartheid]. But at that moment, that's the early days of the change and it was a shock.

Like, am I still in the same country? The people are talking and you don't even know what they're saying. And, and then you realize, oh, the course is in Afrikaans. And then the reality kicks in: How the hell am I going to study?

How did you do it?

I think it was the realization that if I go back home, I don't have anything to do. There was no other option for me, there was no choice.

It's either I do this, or I'm going to go back home and do nothing. So there was no choice.

And so I had to find help on campus, and I went to Student Counseling. I remember the first time I said to them, “Look, I know I'm gonna fail. But they cannot kick me out. I need to study, I need to stay. So you guys need to help me. I know I can't go back.”

So they told me they would help me, and then I could study without stress. I could focus on my studies. I had tutors and classes to go over the work, and that helped a lot.

Let's flash forward a little bit to what happened when you left university. You completed this degree, despite the odds that were not in your favor, and you had enough self-belief to take the next step. I know you didn't graduate from that program, and immediately go open your own winery. You had a job in between? Tell us a little bit about that.

When I graduated, I got a job at a small winery in Stellenbosch, called Stellekaya. I worked there for 13 years. I did this with my mind set that at some point, I'm going to start my own business, and I was aware that I needed to learn as much as possible. I learned finances, doing my own budget as a winemaker and planning all those things that are part of running the business. Then I did a harvest in Italy, France, and I visited California and New Zealand just to expand my knowledge.

In 2015, I went to the United States with a program called African Women Entrepreneurship Program, which was actually funded by the State Department, to expose African women to business women, and business people in the United States.

And that actually was more like a push for me to say, “Now it's the time. Now it's time to step out,” because when I was there, I realized that in our continent, there are still countries where some women run successful companies, but the company cannot be registered in their own name.

Because they're a woman, they cannot get money from the bank. So what's holding me back? In South Africa, I can call it my own company, I can do this. And I still had fear, like the fear of not having money to do it or just being able to do it on my own.

Within two years of starting that job with the other winery, you won your first award. And then a few years after that, you were named Woman Winemaker of the Year 2009. Were you the first black woman to win that?

Yes.

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Absolutely incredible. And yet, you're still facing the fear that we feel when it's time to start something new, and to really commit 100% of ourselves. But, you did it anyway.

Yes. I think it's only now that I realize, if it doesn't scare you, that means it's not big enough. If it doesn't scare you, that means you're going to undermine it, you know. So I think that fear - it prepares you, actually. That once you start, you give it your all, you give everything to make sure that it works.

Because if you're not scared, you're like, “oh, yeah, it's gonna work.” And then things can fall apart quickly. So I think that fear is actually to look at it in a positive way.

What would you say to the teenage version of you that just learned that she got rejected from University and the programs she wanted to attend? What would you tell her knowing what you know, now, I think what I've learned is that everything that I've done, everything has been happening at the right time. It's never late, it's never too early. And I'll just give you one of the examples - in my final year, I failed one of the courses in my major.

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I passed everything else, but because of this one, I couldn’t graduate. And I was already anxious. And when I graduated later, I realized that if I graduated a year earlier, the job I got, I wouldn't have gotten it. If I had graduated a year earlier, certain opportunities were not going to be there because they did not exist at that time.

So I think sometimes we have plans, which is fantastic. We have plans, but we just need to know that whenever something doesn't work out - no matter how much you've put in, and it doesn't work out - it's because it's not the time for that. Whatever is best, it's going to come. I know it's difficult to tell someone actually who is struggling, but actually, it's just a matter of really, really accepting certain things to say, “okay, fine.”

You are, and always will be, South Africa's first black female winemaker - busting glass ceilings and stereotypes all over the place. Thank you. But despite the honor and the privilege of that, and the hard work that got you there, and you being able to set an example for so many other people, I have to imagine that it hasn't all been “rainbows and sunshine.” What are some tools you've developed? What are some ways you have persevered in the face of people who said “You can't do it? You don't belong here.”

When I started working, I remember there used to be farmers who came to sell grapes.

And when they asked for a winemaker, I told them I’m the winemaker.

They're like, “No, no, no, we're not asking for a supervisor. We're looking for a winemaker.”

And I thought to myself it's a shock for them because they're not expecting that person, a black woman.

They didn't know you were the winemaker?

Even when they're being told no, she is the winemaker! They say “no, no, no, we're talking about the winemaker, not the supervisor.” And I personally showed them the office to meet my boss. He would say to them, “I've got no idea what you're talking about. I can't even make wine.” And then he would bring them back to me. And he would say, “This is my winemaker.”

It was a matter of really understanding that you know, \we're human. When you've been put in a space where it's a shock, you know, you're going to meet a winemaker - your picture of a winemaker. You already have created the picture that it's going to be: it's a man, he is white. That's what they expected.

And you see a woman - not even a white woman, but a black woman. And so I had learned to say, “I'm going to meet people who are negative, those will be for me the minor part of it.”

I love that you're out here pursuing your dream and showing people what that looks like when Ntsiki Biyela does it. And what else are we here to do, other than to live our best lives and set an example for others and show them what is possible?

Exactly. And for me, it's always important to focus on the positive. Whatever you focus on is going to expand.

There are so many people in the industry who are positive.

There's so many people in the industry who support me. There are so many people I could pick up and call, not even knowing them. So I've made a choice to focus on the positive.

You said, “When I make wine, I make wine for myself to enjoy. I know that if I love it, I'm going to meet some crazy people like me who like the wine, too. I cannot make wine for someone else. I'll never satisfy everyone.”

Imagine a world where we all did what we were moved to do, and then hoped that there was a world to receive it, instead of trying to make sure that there was a guaranteed reception before we did our thing.

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I think those are the things that stop us from doing certain things, but if I like it, that's guaranteed number one that somebody likes it, and that's me! So I'm going to share my love, my passion with other people. And I understand you have different tastes, and not everybody will like it, but I am loving this.

Laughs.

But isn't that the beauty of it? We are here to share love and spread love. And how do we share love? By sharing the things that we do, whether it's conversations or a glass of wine or food that we’re sharing. It’s a symbol of love, sharing.

She told me “when you do something, do it from a place of love.”

Thank you so much for sharing your story, Ntsiki.

Thank you for having me and thank you for helping to spread the word of Aslina. The company is named after my late grandmother. And the reason for that was to honor her, to honor the person who has taught me everything I know about life. When I think of my grandmother, and naming the company after her, for me it’s about spreading the love. That’s what she taught me, and who she was to me. It’s like, “here’s is love, let’s share.”

Cheers.

NTSIKI BIYELA is one of South Africa’s iconic winemakers, Aslina Wines. She has forged a path to become a highly respected and widely admired name in the world of wine. Today Aslina is renowned for its range of premium wines and is the realisation of Ntsiki’s dream to create an exceptional world-class brand.

www.aslinawines.com 43 | DECEMBER 2022 - FEBRUARY 2023

DO WE HAVE TO DEFINE WHAT A WOMAN IS

by Mpilo S'phephelo Shabangu

“To commit oneself to the assumption of gender is to remain unquestioningly embedded within a specific western intellectual tradition of critique.”

- Oyeronke Oreyumi I believe that the LGBTQ+ movement continues to successfully challenge the world to confront its understanding of gender and the reasons behind why we think what we think about the female and male sex. These are conversations which need to happen, as our current perceptions regarding gender norms is that they are not only binary in nature, but that they are so fixed as to be unable to fit some of life’s very nuanced possibilities.

This was not always the reality, and we can learn from the lives that women in precolonial Africa led. Before I move further into this topic, I want to note that when we have conversations on Africa and issues related to it, context is extremely important.

I cannot stress enough the importance of understanding that African societies, as with many other collectives, were and are not homogenous.

This is not to say that there did not exist any similarities in pre-colonial African societies, but rather to highlight the fact that women organized themselves differently in different spaces.

As such, the history which I will speak of, will be predominately from dual-sex societies. These will give us a glimpse into how women conducted their lives without the expectations and confinements of today’s gender roles, and also held positions of power, navigated predominantly male spaces, worked for justice, and negotiated within the social constructs of their time. This is important because the male and female body during this era was not ascribed the same meaning as today. Indeed, gender was not always a fundamental social category in African societies. We can learn a great deal from the very fluid and flexible understanding of gender that women in pre-colonial Africa had.

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My hope in sharing these realities is to broaden the conversation on gender roles by encouraging us to continue questioning the universalization of gender categories as a fundamental organizing principle in all societies and across time, and to drive more understanding around the concept that the physical body cannot always be linked to the social body as current gender roles would have us believe.

The Physical body is not always linked to the Social body: Religious Organization of Women History informs us of how some African societies before colonization followed a dual sex system in that the operation of society was premised on each sex doing what was important for the needs and functionality of all people in those societies. As such, the idea of gender in Africa was not as rigid as current gender roles. Dual governance meant that gender roles were distinct and complementary in nature. One could be born female, yet be categorized as male without there being any tension. We see this in a number of cultures within dual sex societies, and the neutrality that exists in their languages. When speaking from a religious context, we find that in many African societies, God is neither male nor female. Ogunyele’s contribution in “Women’s Roles in Ancient Civilization” speaks of the Ga (a Ghanian ethic group) conception of a fathermother God, or Atta Naa Nyonmo as an androgynous deity. This spiritual notion enlightens us to the dual-gendered divinity belief that these societies had about how their gods possessed both a female and male essence to them, which was expressed through a “pantheon of masculine and feminine spirits.” In cases where the divine was gendered, the god or goddess would be balanced out with a priest of the opposite gender.

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In the worship of the Nnobi society’s goddess Idemili, the only person that was allowed to enter her shrine at the river was her priest, a female man (who wore a cloth tied in the female way). This idea of a man becoming a woman also existed in the Gabra community, a nomadic tribe from northeast Kenya. They have an institution of D’abella whereby elderly men take on feminine identities. They aren’t just “like women,” but they become women. The D’abella address these men as women in a formal context, the men dress in attire that is likened to that of women, and these men live amongst the D’abella women and forgo the masculine role of hunting.

Gender is a constitutive element of social relationships based on the perceived difference between the sexes, and gender is a primary way of signifying relationships of power.

- Joan Wallach Scott

Wood perceives this practice of gender as a “cultural construction that is independent of sex, but fundamentally related to it.”

The Private is Public: The Social Organisation of Women Beyond the religious sphere, we see that the idea of gender neutrality also existed in the family structure. Since dual sex societies meant that biological sex did not correspond to ideological gender, women could thereby play roles that were predominately monopolized by men or better yet, classified as roles for men in terms of the power and authority they had over others. Roles, therefore, were neither strictly for men nor women, thus there was no stigma associated with the breaking of existing gender rules.

Additionally, women were able to acquire wealth, power, and authority. African social categories are fluid, therefore the idiom of marriage that was used was primarily not about gender. Rather, as explained by Oyewumi, the marriage/family idiom in many African cultures was/is more akin to a patron/client relationship that has little to do with the nature of human bodies. One such instance is in Ifi Amadiume’s “Male Daughters, Female Husbands,” which shares accounts of the Nnobi society that was organized in a patrilineage system of inheritance, making sons the custodians of their family land, homestead, and rituals pertaining to the ancestors of their patrilineage.

Women in this society were given access to land by their husbands and were charged with the responsibility of providing food for their children.

In a dual-sex society, gender was not determined by biological sex, thus making it possible for the eldest daughter to take on the position of the eldest son and inherit property, land, and livestock from her father. She then became the head of the homestead (Obi), or rather a male daughter. As an Obi, the eldest daughter was able to share in the male dividends of patriarchy by marrying wives in order to increase her wealth. Two outcomes resulted from this woman-to-woman marriage: the Obi would permit those wives to marry outside the patrilineage, thus giving them rights to receive bridewealth. The second outcome was that the Obi’s wives would continue to live with their female husband (Obi), take on casual lovers, and have the children from these affairs rightfully belong to the Obi. “Anatomy is not Destiny: - The Political Organization of Women Furthermore, during this era women were not only afforded the ability to navigate through social norms, they were also afforded the opportunity to organize themselves both politically and economically. We see this in how women monopolized and controlled the market space.

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Moreover, women were able to organize themselves for the purpose of bringing reparative justice to a woman who was in any way violated by her husband (or any man).

This is evident in practices such as “sitting on a man” by the Igbo society of Nigeria.

“Sitting on a man” meant the solidarity of women expressed through strikes and boycotts to see the realization of their collective demands of justice. To “sit on” or “make war on” a man involved gathering at the said man's compound, dancing, and singing scurrilous songs, which detailed the women’s grievances against him and often called his manhood into question. The women would also bang on the man's hut, or make demonstrations by plastering his hut with mud and roughing him up a bit. These were part of the sanctions that men could have imposed on them for mistreating their wives, violating the women’s market rules, or for letting their [men’s] cows eat the women’s crop. This political judicial system was a social security net which began with women making a complaint in the women’s gathering [Mikiri] and concluded with having the men who committed the offense repenting and promising to mend their ways. Collectively, the power of the women’s gathering performed a major role in self-rule among women, as this meeting space articulated the women’s interests and assured that direct action could be taken to enforce their decisions and protect their interests.

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There were also other societies where women could individually attain power through different means. The Mende and Sherbro women were one such grouping.

Women from important descent groups, who had the experience of age, charm, and a forceful personality could occupy leadership roles within their descent group.

Hoffer shares about how in the “Shenge, the capital town of Kagboro Chiefdom, the paramount chief, the head of the dominant segment of the ruling descent group and 23 out of 39 Sherbro heads of households in 1970 were women.” Little reports similar leadership roles for Mende women, pointing out that as household and lineage heads they were trustees for lands and property, and their influence in the community was as great as any male head of a group of kinsmen. “Such women were as eligible as men to become village headmen, members of the native administration, and chiefs.” Enter the example of King Ahebi Ugbabe, who Achebe defines as “having become a man” because of her being the first woman to be saluted as a leopard and crowned king.

The events detailed above in part depict the ways that women were, through the means of tradition, able to construct, negotiate and challenge the notions of power as prescribed by manhood and masculinity.

Understanding the Past to Shape the Future There were very active, fluid, and different lives that women had in dual-sex societies during pre-colonial Africa. This history is an important consideration when thinking about the consistent fight for women’s liberation and for social justice, equity, and equality. Many present-day liberation efforts - both the women’s movement and the LGBTQ+ community’s - in more ways than one, might aim to return to a semblance of this pre-colonial past.

Mpilo is passionate about Climate Change, Women and Children’s Rights, and Black Male Masculinities, but, ahead of that, the issues of globalisation, modernisation, and a neoliberal capital agenda have seen African leaders quick to adopt Western prescribed solutions.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mpilo-s-phepheloshabangu-396748104/

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HOW TO PRICE YOUR WORK

by Rachel Dorsey

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Whether you sell tacos or towels, ad space or earrings, there is always going to be someone who thinks your work is overpriced.

But just because your work is outside their budget, does not mean it’s unfairly priced.

“Fast-fashion” and “hand-crafted” are very different beasts. “Cookie cutter” and “bespoke” aren’t in the same world. “Massproduced” and “ethically-practiced” are not equals.

But “widely needed” and “needed/wanted by very few” are also different beasts.

So before you start pricing your work, or before you make a major pivot to a new offering, it’s also wise to do some market research. Who wants what you offer? Get really granular: How old are they? Where do they spend their time? How much are they already spending on adjacent products/services?

Is someone/something already filling this need? How can you stand apart?

It can be scary to lift the veil, but spending time and money only to discover that no one wants what you make is even scarier.

Once you’ve determined that there is, in fact, a market, it’s time to price your work.

Here are some things to take into consideration:

01. How much time will it take?

Your time is valuable. What do you need to earn per hour of working time to make you feel good about the decision to do X instead of whatever you’d be doing otherwise.

When you say yes to one thing, it means you’re saying no to something else. To feel good about your “Yes,” weigh the hourly rate against that walk, that project, that post - whatever you’d be doing otherwise.

Consider the additional time it takes to run your business. Managing the back end of a business is a whole-ass job! Don’t just calculate the time you spend making the product or performing the service, consider the time it takes to run the business as well.

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02. Understand the full scope?

Get really clear on the scope of work. Drill down into every category of work product. It takes longer on the front end, but it saves time, confusion, and disappointment later on.

Consider how much time to allocate to execution, how much time to allocate to presentation, feedback, refinement, etc. Be open about the resources you need to make a project happen.

You can always scale down the deliverables to fit the budget, but you want to be transparent about the true time commitment.

03. Are there expenses?

If you need supplies, materials, external resources - factor it in. If you maintain an office or a studio, pay for your phone, your internet, your website… Do you have business insurance, a finance system?… roll it in.

It’s great to start small. The less overhead, the better. As you begin investing in your business, it’s important that you reflect those costs. They can be listed out as line items, or rolled into your rate - but they need to be covered.

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04. Factor in taxes and profit.

The tax man will take his cut, so budget for it.

And if you want to be left with anything to show for your metaphorical (or literal!) blood, sweat, tears, you need to add profit on top.

If you allocate budget for everything and everyone else, but neglect to factor in budget for yourself - what is the point?

05. It’s about more than money.

Not everyone can afford what you offer. That makes it even more important to be transparent about your rates. Every time you are transparent, you are educating your market on the true cost that advocates for everyone in your industry.

At the same time, there are occasions where a lower rate will be worth taking. Money is a very important form of compensation, but it isn’t the only one.

Be clear on what you need to feel good about the exchange of time/energy/product and if it isn’t a YES - it’s a NO.

06. Be willing to adjust.

Once you set your rates, be prepared to adjust as you go. If it’s selling out too fast, it’s time to raise your prices. If it isn’t selling at all, it’s time to make an adjustment - bring down the price, put together a stronger marketing plan… make an adjustment after you analyze the issue.

07. Build a thick skin.

Even with an amazing portfolio or a strong brand story, your audience is never going to understand how much effort, time and money you’ve invested into your business. And they will almost always be able to get a version of what you do cheaper somewhere else, so you have to build a thick skin.

Yes - do market research. Yes - listen to your audience. Yes - be willing to adjust as you go. But remember - if your work is outside of their budget, that does not mean it’s overpriced.

Listen and pay attention. What is your audience telling you?

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“BUT WHAT ABOUT ACCESSIBILITY?” For folks who want to make sure that their work can be accessed by a wider audience, I recommend considering one or more solution: work/trade sliding scale scholarship or buy one, donate one lower price point offerings promotional specials early access pricing group membership

BUT - don’t forget: Your time is valuable. Your work is valuable. Just because someone can’t afford what you do, doesn’t mean it’s overpriced.

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Run your numbers early and often.

Track the resources that go into your business and be sure they are reflected in your pricing as you expand. Invest time and money into understanding your numbers - are you profitable? Is your time being spent in the right places?

So whether you take photos or make halloween masks, design custom cards or consult, there is always going to be someone who thinks your work is overpriced.

So lift the veil. It’s scary to dig into what’s real, but it’s the only way you’ll be able to do what you love for the long haul.

Good luck!

www.goinglegit.co www.boneandgold.com

Rachel is the founder of Bone + Gold, a full-service, high polish commercial production company. Her team produces content for some of the largest and most influential brands in the world. She takes everything she learned to build her business and puts it to play as a coach and mentor for women who are starting and scaling businesses.

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JANUARY MARCH 2022

THE FREQUENCY WE GIVE MONEY

By JJ DiGeronimo

Are you giving away your potential impact to an artificial energy that our society has given to money?

In my case, leaving a dependable paycheck to work as an entrepreneur created a huge awakening for me on so many levels that illuminated my money issues. Even though I saved for six years before making the leap, I struggled with my relationship with money.

Lynne Twist’s The Soul of Money started my deep investigation into my relationship with money—both my spending habits and how I felt about money in general. Her insights helped me rethink how I thought about money. Here are a few of my key learnings from Twist’s work that may resonate with you, too: “As a society, we give money so much power—we have assigned it more power than human life.”

“We swim in a culture of ‘there is not enough.’ Not enough sleep, friends, vacations, or time. This creates a toxic state for us that drives ‘I am not enough.’”

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This ‘not-enough’ society has us chasing what we do not have and not appreciating what we do have. This drives us all to a place of being dissatisfied and feeling like we are not enough.”

Three years after I put Lynne’s practices into action, a book by Denise DuffieldThomas crossed my path, further expanding my awareness about the role money played in my life. That book is called Get Rich, Lucky Bitch! Release Your Money Blocks and Live a First-Class Life.

Duffield-Thomas suggests starting with little steps that can be taken every day.

Her advice was to give gratitude for every little thing that came my way. She reminded me that the Universe will bring us exactly what we need, in abundance, if we appreciate what we have right now.

Yes, it may be hard to believe that there is more than enough abundance, especially if things are not going your way, but YOU MUST count your blessings.

Practicing gratitude can be hard to do in today’s world because marketers flood our surroundings daily with reminders about what we do not have, what we “need,” or what will supposedly make us feel better about ourselves. If we are always yearning for more or disappointed with what we have now, the Universe is not going to give us more. So, we must do our part by recognizing all that is already coming our way and contributing in a meaningful way.

Working to shift our focus onto the abundance that already exists is key to cultivating more desirable energies.

Appreciation of what we already have creates opportunities for higher frequencies and more abundance.

What has the Universe provided you with today, and even yesterday, that you could consider abundance? This could be a card, a meal, an unexpected message, a call, a gift, insights, or even a penny lying in the parking lot. It takes practice to recognize all that is available for us right here and now.

I found I had to develop a mental awareness to acutely notice the messages, signs, gifts, and experiences all around me.

To get started with retraining my mind, I created prompts to use during the first five days.

This began with writing down a daily list of gifts that came my way.

Just like me, your first reaction may be, “I do not have time for this.” Remember, however, that this practice is a great step toward being present and feeling grateful for what you already have. And if you are thinking, “I do not have any abundance in my life,” the first thing you may need to shift is your perspective and awareness of what is happening right now all around you.

If you are ahead of that step, you know that “being present” is key to many of the lessons related to fulfillment that fuel your light and life’s work. This means you are careful and aware of how you’re spending your time. You are not allowing your mind and ego to rob you of the current moment. And, you are present, in the moment, looking, watching, and paying attention to all the things happening in your path, as this is where you will experience, see, and appreciate the many gifts that come your way.

I’ll bet you have more beautiful things happening each day than you realize.

Noticing and listing out all the abundance and love that comes your way can create momentum for more love and abundance.

I copied the following five reminders into my calendar at 7:00 a.m. each day for five days to ensure that I was on the lookout as I started my day. I did not dismiss a task until I have completed it, even if it takes me all day to get it done.

This shift in my focus has been helpful in all aspects of my life because I have conditioned myself to constantly look for abundance.

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5 Days of Prompts: Day 1: This is how the Universe has sent me love and abundance today: Day 2: Big and small, I can see how I am showered with love from the Universe: Day 3: I am surprised by how many little things the Universe sends my way each day: Day 4: I am grateful that I have taken the time to log all that the Universe sends my way: Day 5: What I focus on expands; the abundance is showing up in so many ways: Doing this for five days and beyond is often necessary to shift the view and mindset associated with the abundance in your life. In fact, I keep a folder inside my inbox called “AHHHHHHH” and have a wall in my office where I hang up tokens of all the love that comes my way. I save all the moments that I am receiving from the Universe from various people, events, and experiences.

I am blessed. You are blessed, too, with abundance, love, and access to a frequency that will illuminate your path based on your gifts and desires. As you collect your abundances each day, you can say your own prayer of gratitude - or use mine:

“Thank you for the abundance of love, connections, experiences, and growth. I feel rich from the energy I create, share, and receive within my work and throughout life.”

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JJ DiGeronimo, President of Tech Savvy Women, is one of the most highly regarded speakers, authors and executive strategists to attract, retain, and advance professional women. She navigated her way from entry-level positions to top-level leadership roles within leading technology companies and now shares the strategies and insights that helped her accelerate her career with her audiences.

https://jjdigeronimo.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jjdigeronimo/

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WEALTH MEANS HAVING ENOUGH

By Tatenda Zimondi

I have come to understand wealth as having enough.

That is, enough money to buy food for my family, enough money to take my children to school, and enough left over to help out my parents. When you grow up the way I did, you learn to not take this for granted.

When I was 13 years old, my father left us, and my mother had to fend for four children on her own. It was a very difficult time in our lives. My mother struggled to pay school fees for us, and her family came together to help out. Her siblings and sometimes her friends paid for me and my sister to finish school. My mother worked very hard. She had a day job in a clothing store that didn’t pay very much, and at night she would knit jerseys until 3 o’clock in the morning to sell at her workplace and at church.

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She walked long miles to work because she could not afford to get a taxi. That little bit would make a difference in buying bread or meals for the house.

Still, one thing that I remember about my childhood is that we never went hungry. My mother made sure of that, even with the little that she made. My dad didn’t help out much, so it was left up to her. My mother was very intelligent, but her father did not believe in educating the girl child. His focus was on her brothers, so she didn’t get to finish school let alone go to university. I remember her writing her O-level exams when she was already married.

I knew then, as I saw my mother struggle, that I wanted better for myself. I knew that I wanted to be financially independent by the time I got married. So, I pushed myself, worked hard in school, and when my father unexpectedly came back into the picture, I was able to go to University. I studied Accounting and later became a Chartered Accountant. I am reasonably comfortable and able to contribute financially in my home, and I do not worry about what could happen to me and my children if my husband was not here anymore. For me, this is wealth! Not a big car or a big mansion, just having enough – I do not take that for granted.

Despite my family’s struggles when I was growing up, I still had the opportunity to get the education and a job that gives me a comfortable life.

In my society, many have not been this fortunate, and there are many obstacles to being able to live a comfortable life including the drain that comes with taking care of extended family. In our culture, as our parents age it is our responsibility to take care of them. Most of our parents had their pensions wiped away when the Zimbabwean economy went down, and so it's left to us to take care of them. The economy is also difficult for our families, and we have to help support our siblings to get by. We send money home on a monthly basis to support our families to buy food. This makes having healthy savings rather difficult. My mother continues to be very enterprising – she has moved to the country now and has a pig farming project. We do support her, but she insists that she wants to continue using her hands to make extra money. She has done a few projects over the years – poultry farming, vegetable farming and maize farming for her subsistence. This is quite common for women in Zimbabwe. My mother has a piece of land just outside Harare and this is her wealth.

I consider myself blessed to be where I am today.

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She has also come together with a few women in her community, and they set aside money on her monthly basis, and after six months they go to the wholesalers and buy their groceries in bulk. These are called grocery ‘rounds’ or ‘society or stokvels’. I send her money for this (and for my mother in law as well), and I know every six months they get their bulk groceries.

Other women do cash rounds and after a year, they give each other money e.g. they each pay $100 into an account, and then at the end of the year they divide this money. It also operates as a lending facility, and the members can borrow from the account at an interest rate which becomes income for the fund. My mother always has a good lump sum for the Christmas holidays or for her next project through this effort. For her, it’s a way of reducing the burden on her children.

For our own families, we have also started similar initiatives here in South Africa where we set aside money every month and then buy groceries in bulk at the end of the year that last us a year. It helps guard against the impact of inflation when you don’t have to buy these basic foodstuffs every month. We are also starting a cash round next January to buy furniture and other items for our homes.

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The community of chartered accountants have also come together to start a ‘property stokvel.’ This involves bringing money together to invest in property in South Africa.

My church teaches the working of ‘talents.’ This school emphasizes working using your hands. So even we professionals are encouraged to have a project on the side to help supplement our salary income. The aim is to prepare for when that job is no longer there, and you might be required to use your hands to provide for your family. Over the years I have done a chicken project and a bookshop on the side to supplement my income. I know of so many women who start successful businesses through the working of talents!

With all these initiatives you will find a lot of women supporting their households. The basic principle is that alone it will take much longer, but together we can achieve more and faster. Gone are the days were women would wait for the husband to provide for the family. I have seen women contribute in an enormous way for their families. They have not gone to build big houses or mansions with their money, but have been able to take their children to school and take them out of poverty much similar to what my mother did when I was growing up.

More education will go a long way in helping women run effective businesses out of these initiatives and projects. Organizations aimed at empowering women in the financial aspects of their business are increasing, and you can see the willingness of many women to learn to be good business managers and take care of their finances. One of the key barriers to growing businesses is the lack of finances to fund these upcoming businesses. But we have seen women continue to come together and start small as a potential solution.

There are still a lot of barriers against progress for women in our society. A lot of women have not received the same education as men due to prejudices against women that are ingrained in our society, and you will find that women still lag behind both in business and professionally. Our culture is still very male-dominated, but I smile when I see women continue to rise up despite these prejudices.

Women are finding their way to the top. Women are taking themselves to school to learn how to run businesses, and are coming together to run business to provide for their families. I, for one, continue to learn from the determination of my mother so I continue to push on! I owe it to her to continue.

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I am not the wealthiest woman in Africa - not even close but, I have enough. I want my children to grow up and have enough for their families, too. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ tatenda-zimondi-ca-z-paab-ca-sa-ra5189b329/

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Tatenda Zimondi is a CA (SA) and Registered Auditor. She is also a CA (Z) and is registered with the Public Accountants and Auditors Board of Zimbabwe. Her experience in Zimbabwe includes audit and assurance, financial accounting and reporting, advisory services such as forensics and investigations, business valuations and mergers and acquisitions due diligence work.

2 PART TWO

Highlighting stories and writers from Kentucky in honor of celebrating our headquarters location.

WE THRIVE TO HIGHLIGHT WOMEN FROM AROUND THE WORLD, AND THAT INCLUDES HIGHLIGHTING UNDERCELEBRATED CITIES, TOWNS AND COMMUNITIES.

THE WEALTH OF COMMUNITY Experiencing the wealth, security and comfort of community came early for me. I remember eating rice porridge every morning under a palm tree, feeling so happy surrounded by my family and a loving community. I had no idea that I was living on a poor rural island in the Philippines.

That was my reality from age three to six years old. I loved it.

Fast forward, I have since lived to watch the erosion of a lifestyle that was once commonplace in the US, where family lived as part of an extended network of relatives and friends living in community, similar to what I experienced in the Philippines.

This family-centric way of life has all but disappeared, but over time, I have recreated it within my own community, personally and professionally.

Let me share what this transition has entailed and why the wealth of community is so important.

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By Connie Milligan

HISTORY OF FAMILY & COMMUNITY IN THE 1900’s In the early 1900’s, when my grandparents’ and parents’ generation were young, they lived in extended families, where the older helped the younger generation with child-rearing and home-making, and where siblings looked after one another. Jobs were shared, and the sense of community within a family was as strong as the shared values within the greater community.

This changed during WWll when women went to work in droves, and afterward joined the ranks of men to obtain an education.

With the introduction of automobiles and a new network of interstate highways making transportation more accessible, young adults suddenly had the means to leave their home and make their own lives. The very identity of communities, especially in rural areas, was irrevocably changed.

The extended family community was replaced by the individual’s strong urge to “make it and leave a mark”, with material wealth as the new litmus test of security and comfort. Family stability, your legacy, and the standard of wealth within a community was replaced by standards that valued individual monetary over collective values and shared resources.

Individual competition and outward displays of wealth were the unspoken values. It changed us and how we lived in the US. By the 1950s, the extended family had been replaced by the nuclear family. Being raised in the suburbs of any US city meant you were relatively isolated from other family, except perhaps at the holidays.

Further, the suburbs isolated households in their own “bubbles,” often separate from the others around them. The older generation of role models were no longer readily available. It was a lonely experience for many.

CREATING SEPARATE COMMUNITIES IN THE 1960’s Starting in the late 1960s through the 1970s, young people -

disillusioned with the isolationist suburban lifestyle and the loss of community it represented - sought radical change.

People began experimenting with alternative lifestyles and alternative beliefs.

Hippie communes became prevalent, giving people a chance to re-engage with one another in communities of their own design. Some were modeled on Eastern beliefs with gurus and doctrines, some were just friends experimenting with “back to the land” ideas where they lived on rural farms and grew their own food.

In town, there were communal houses where friends lived together and shared expenses, food, and child rearing. The urge to return to some of the old ways of life was an undercurrent to the trend.

In these communities, there was an underlying belief that there is more value, more wealth in community than there is living alone. It was also a time of experimentation with drugs, including marijuana and psychedelics, which was part of the community culture.

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Many of these endeavors died out for reasons ranging from people needing a more financially responsible and drug-free lifestyle, to the realities of conflict born out different personalities and ideas, to the difficulty of living off the land.

Nevertheless, this period still marked a turning point in US history where the value of living in isolation was questioned.

CREATING THE WEALTH OF COMMUNITY WHERE YOU ARE NOW Now we are experiencing a resurgence of people creating community where they are. Neighborhoods have taken to developing their own culture of community involvement that brings people together for specific occasions.

There are block parties, holiday decorating traditions, holiday potlucks, clean-up days, and simple backyard socialization. There are neighborhood Boards of Directors and Homeowners Associations, which represent the area for neighborhood improvements. Collective housing and assisted living options for elderly are springing up, along with communal housing for artists. The desire to make community a part of your identity has been reborn, and is often a significant factor in giving people a sense of satisfaction and comfort in their lifestyle.

Once again, people are discovering the wealth of living in community. This has been a significant factor where I live.

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Our neighborhood shares an abundance of interesting, creative people who are always looking for ways to join together. From block parties to holiday parties, backyard music parties, to front porch gatherings during Covid lockdown, there has been a sense of bonding and pride at our coming together.

I’ve served on our Neighborhood Board of Directors and helped bring in sidewalks, safety measures, a park and community center.

Neighbors know who is elderly or sick, and will do things like yard work, shovel a sidewalk, bring food and check in on one another. It is gratifying. We feel grateful and lucky to have one another.

And yes, it makes our lives feel rich.

Here are five reasons we think community is a source of wealth: 1. Creates a Sense of Belonging that is collectively shared and unique to where you live. It adds to your sense of identity and enhances your personal confidence and pride.

2. Offers Shared Experience around special times of years and events that brings people together who otherwise might be isolated.

3. Creates Deeper Friendships with neighbors who might not have had the opportunity to meet. This often cuts across ethnic and social economic barriers.

4. Increases Safety when neighbors watch out for one another and extend themselves with kindness. Thus, the sense of being isolated in a suburban bubble is gone.

5. Opens Doors Professionally, as networking occurs naturally. We support one another professionally, showing up for each another’s events.

Now as an adult, traveling in different parts of the world, I love noticing the evidence of community living like I experienced in the Philippines. In a rural village in Ghana, our host is surrounded by extended relatives and a hierarchy of village people who have known him since birth. In Cuba, our host’s family is close to one another in a housing complex. In the City of Dakar, Senegal, our friend lives with his extended family in a big house.

In each place, I have been reminded of the wealth of this more community oriented way of life, similar to my Philippine experience.

To give thanks to our hosts for their hospitality, I always extend the invitation to come visit us in Lexington, Kentucky. A surprising number of people have taken us up on that offer coming from Ghana, Senegal and Cuba. They love the warmth and welcome our community of friends offer to them and cannot wait to visit again. They are experiencing what we know is special – the wealth of living in a neighborly and loving community.

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Connie is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Transformational Life Coach and consultant and trainer for social justice reform.

She has 4 decades experience, knows what it means to stand in her power, and helps others to do the same.

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https://spectrumtransformation.com/ @spectrum_transformation

KENTUCKY STORIES: SQUANDERED WEALTH

written by Sylvia Lovely

“Did you hear the one about the hillbilly and his wife…?”

A

s a native Appalachian and proud Kentuckian,

I wince at comedians making Kentucky, and in particular, Appalachia, the butt of their jokes. But, I get it. An argument can be made that we are at least partially to blame…

We’ve managed to make ourselves better known for our dismal health and economic statistics than for our native talents. It begs the question – did our own denial of a vast storytelling talent pool create the version of us beloved by the jokesters? Perhaps that is best left answered by social scientists.

What I do know is that we’ve lost a wealth of great stories and storytellers of Appalachia. Beginning with the Hopi Native Americans, wisdom was that “those who tell the stories rule the world.” Stories are key to empathy for others and create a resilience to rise up, often against the odds.

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Underlying native tribal philosophy tells us that we should “plan as if seven generations depend upon us” when making decisions.

I suggest that we pull from the many even more generations that have gone before us to meet our obligations to the future.

Each has the gift of storytelling at her roots, no doubt nurtured by a culture marked by close knit communities and living off the land. That is simplistic, and only part of the story, true, but support by my own story.

What is not as well-known as the stereotypical jokes is that Kentucky is a leader in producing outstanding, even famous authors, and others not so famous, like the ones in my class, “Writing the Stories of Your Life.”

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The famous include such greats as Wendell Berry and his tributes to farming and community life, Harriette Arnow and her masterpiece, “The Dollmaker,” telling the tale of her family as fish out of water who were forced to leave Kentucky for Detroit.

Other names include Barbara Kingsolver, Bobbie Ann Mason and Crystal Wilkinson, a Kentucky Poet Laureate who writes of the Black female Appalachian and Southern experience.

As one born to poor Appalachian parents, I know the ups and downs of Kentucky’s history from my own life stories -

one of which is my birth story. It was a wicked November snow in YEAR, in the midst of which, my father twisted rags onto the truck tires to get my mother over the mountain to the charity hospital in which I was born.

My father came the day after I was born to take us home. The nurse greeted him with, “You aren’t taking them home in this cold, Mr. Leach.” His response, “I ain’t got no money and I ain’t got no insurance, I’m takin’ them home.”

The “or” can go on and on. Our strengths come from our heritage, and that heritage lies in our stories that could have fueled a positive and meaningful economic growth.

All that, however, is the subject of books and scholarly pieces, and beyond my ability to conjecture.

What is within my grasp is that the lack of traditional wealth was made up for by a culture that was conducive to artistry - including storytelling, and more broadly, music, and crafts.

My birth story contrasted with the middle-class life that I enjoyed because of my parents’ sacrifices. This story is among the many I have inherited, and which I will impart to my children, grandchildren, and beyond.

My parents’ stories unfortunately perfectly profiled that of many Kentuckians of that era, and too often today. My father tried but failed in his quest to stay in his beloved Kentucky.

Like the characters in Arnow’s “The Dollmaker,” my family moved to Dayton, Ohio where my father went to work on the line at National Cash Register, a company that once employed 20,000 Kentucky expats.

After losing his job to what he called in anger, THOSE DAMNED COMPUTERS, he and my mother returned to Kentucky to help me take care of my boys when they were young. I recall he planted his tomato plants in my flower beds which sent me into a rage. I have regretted my reaction many years later, as I too had become “story blind” – wooed instead by a culture of success that equated to status and money.

Perhaps if Kentucky had played its cards right, it would not have ceded ownership and control of its vast mineral wealth, or might have more creatively used the land marked by a rugged topography, or better educated its people.

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The reasons for this are complicated, but I do recall my father telling me that his father made mandolins for a living, with a native creative spirit to do what had to be done to feed his family. People lived off the land and entertainment consisted of “front porch holler” neighborhood gatherings after the coal jobs were done, the garden tended, and the mandolins made. Sounds of banjos and stories filled the night skies.

Many employers report that Kentuckians are among their hardest working and resilient.

Can we mine the spirit of stories and their power to grow strong communities? Like that of the native Americans before us, we can embrace who we are as strong people whose mission is to plan for seven generations through story wisdom. As we emerge into a different time marked by lack of community and unprecedented loneliness, strength can be found in our stories. We are not too late.

My own story can be summed up by a conversation I overheard between my father and my son, David, a recent college graduate in the midst of angst over an opportunity lost.

After hearing him out, my father suddenly blurted, “David, things never work out.”

I was puzzled for a moment, having remembered this man, at that time in his late 80’s, as happy and content in all the time I knew him. That included leaving his beloved Kentucky and embarking on a “career” for the daily grind of the rat-a-tat-tat of a drill press that robbed him of his hearing. Surprisingly, I concluded that he was an optimist after all.

Life has been hard. After his father’s death at 42, he quit school in the 8th grade to find work where he could to help his mother raise nine siblings.

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When I asked why they didn’t take his dad to the doctor, he laughed and replied, “Sibya, we didn’t go to doctors back then.”

What he meant was that he was too poor for the likes of doctors. He enlisted and described shipping out to his post in Japan -- not about being in the ship’s dismal hold -- but the joy of a poor boy seeing the world. He later left his beloved Kentucky deliberately to gain a toehold in the middle class status that he sought for his family.

Stories are a confluence of life’s rivers, both of your family and those with whom you are blessed to share your life journey, either personally or through the recorded word. If understood, recorded, and shared, stories will strengthen our communities, our economies and our lives with wisdom for the ages.

Wealth in stories is incalculable.

Artistry and storytelling in particular tend not to count in a dollarobsessed culture.

But, wealth can be many things.

Sylvia Lovely is a storyteller and collector. In her early career as a CEO with two small children, she had little time for stories.

She since has written three books, including one of them about the local extraordinary heroes she met during her travels.

She also works in other venues in pursuing her passion to encourage others to be storytellers.

https://sylvialovely.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sylvialovely/

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Women Creating Wealth through Real Estate in Central Kentucky

by Amy Boone

I I believe home ownership is a means to creating family roots in a community, and I believe in the peace and solitude that comes from having a place that is your own.

grew up in Central Kentucky and have been serving this area as a full-time Realtor® for nearly 16 years.

I am passionate about both this community and real estate. Additionally, I believe real estate is the most viable way to create wealth for most people. Generally, a person’s home is their single most valuable asset.

I started in real estate after leaving an accounting career and a family business in hopes of providing for my two young daughters as a single mom.

After a short time in the industry, I realized this career was not about pushing a sale, but far more about problem solving.

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Whether the motivation to purchase a home (or land) is financial, or to be closer to family, to be in a new school district or because you need more bedrooms, I am the problem solver all the way to the closing table.

Whether the motivation to purchase a home (or land) is financial, or to be closer to family, to be in a new school district or because you need more bedrooms, I am the problem solver all the way to the closing table.

What makes Central Kentucky special?

The Greater Lexington area conjures visions of horses, beautiful farms, rolling hills, green grass, bourbon, and basketball.

Lexington is known as the Horse Capital of the World, and is home to famous race courses such as Keeneland, The Red Mile, and the Kentucky Horse Park. We have the luxury of big city amenities with small town charm. Central Kentucky is a collaboration of a large economy and many small community economies.

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These small towns provide much of the manufacturing, hospitality, and history that Kentucky is known for, including many of the distilleries that make up the Bourbon Trail, world famous horse farms, and stunningly beautiful Main Streets.

Most people who move to Lexington (or choose to stay in this area) would agree it is because of the quality of life. Central Kentucky has notable education, a diverse job market, affordable housing, top-notch medical care, shopping, dining, and entertainment. Best of all, the cost of living in Kentucky is nearly 11% below the national average! The Bluegrass region is also a safe place to live with lower crime rates than regional and national averages.

What makes real estate investing so special?

Billionaire Andrew Carnegie famously stated that 90% of the globe’s millionaires became so through real estate investing. Interestingly, only ~32% of real estate investors are women and 70% of real estate investors are over 40 years old. While populations are growing, the supply of land is limited. The demand will continue to grow and the return from real estate will continue to grow.

Anyone can invest in real estate! It has a relatively low cost of entry compared to most investing, and requires far less knowledge and skill.

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Most investors start with their personal residence, which can be bought with little to no money down depending on income and price. When they are ready to buy a second property, they can buy a new home and use the first as a rental. Second homes will require a 20 – 25% down payment. In doing this you are continuing to build equity in the initial property rather than cashing it out.

Why is Central Kentucky a safe investment?

When deciding to begin investing in real estate, I would urge one to look for an area with population growth, a steady job market, a history of increasing values, and a strong rental market.

The state of Kentucky as a whole is growing as people move here for a lower cost of living and a better quality of life.

According to the most recent census, the population of the Lexington-Fayette urban area has grown by 9% over the past decade, while Scott County (immediately north of Lexington) posted the largest growth in the state at 21% over the last 10 years.

When wages and job expansion are increasing, people are more likely to buy real estate; when job opportunities are scarce or wage levels are low, demand for real estate usually drops.

Major employers in the Lexington-Fayette metropolitan area include the University of Kentucky, Kentucky State Government, Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Fayette County Public Schools, Amazon.com, Inc., Lexmark International, Inc., and Baptist Health Lexington. Colleges and universities in Lexington and the Bluegrass Region include Eastern Kentucky University, Midway University, University of Kentucky, and the Bluegrass Community & Technical College. The economy of Lexington is diverse, with business sectors such as manufacturing, technology, education, and healthcare helping to keep the job market well balanced.

Per capita income in the Lexington metro area is ~$34,200, while median household income is ~$60,800 which is on track with the national average. The unemployment rate in Lexington is down to 2.8%, according to the most recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (September 2022). The Lexington Chamber of Commerce reports that Lexington has been ranked among the best places for business and careers, and the “most inspiring city” for artists.

Two metrics that real estate investors use to help forecast current and future demand for rental property include changes in housing prices and the affordability of housing in the market. Real estate prices in Central Kentucky, are soaring to all-time highs, with the median sales price of homes in the area at $235,000, up 4% from last year (as of October 2022), according to the Bluegrass Association of REALTORS. However, home sales are down about 28% from this time last year, which makes it much less competitive to enter the market.

The Freddie Mac House Price Index (HPI) report is one resource investors use to measure the typical price inflation of homes.

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According to the most recent HPI report released by Freddie (April 2022), home prices in Lexington have grown by nearly 54% over the past five years and ~15.5% in the past 12 months.

The housing market in Central Kentucky has been so hot that many people have been priced out of buying and have had to turn to renting instead.

Rent in the city has increased 4% yearover-year, more than three times the increase nationally. Even though rents are on the rise, prices here are still relatively affordable.

According to RentCafe, Lexington ranks among the best cities for renters based on key metrics such as affordability, neighborhood quality, and opportunities for job growth.

Amy Boone is a licensed realtor based in Central Kentucky.

https://www.sweethomeky.com/ https://www.instagram.com/amyboone_realtor/

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PERCEPTION & REMOVING BARRIERS

by Adina Tatum

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JAN - MAR 2022

One of the first of its kind in Lexington, Kentucky, Julietta Market is a multi-vendor public market and small business incubator. Public markets are destination locations in most big cities because of the atmosphere and offerings. Operated by the nonprofit Northside Common Market, Julietta Market focuses on BIPOC business owners and community development. If you ever have the opportunity to visit Lexington, make a stop at Julietta Market - it is a complete vibe!

Bustling with small business owners and their handmade wares, Julietta Market is unique for a few reasons.

It is a nonprofit market set in a forprofit building, and all of the businesses involved are owneroperated. Additionally, the majority of the businesses are minorityowned. Markets like this one are important for a multitude of reasons, and Julietta Market is no exception.

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For me, one of the most outstanding benefits of this public market is its impact on representation and perception by future entrepreneurs.

REPRESENTATION & PERCEPTION Julietta Market comprises 67% women-owned businesses and 75% minority-owned businesses. Several of the business owners involved were previously engaged in “corporate America,” and many of them have the same perception of inequality, lack of diversity, discrimination, feeling that they had no voice, and experiencing harrasment.

For them, participating as a small business in the market is viewed as an opportunity to “create their own seat at the table,” and to become their own CEOs. Fortunately, our community youth have a front row seat!

Representation, perception and removing barriers is why markets like these are important, and we are proud of this living example in Lexington.

Our youth benefit when they are exposed to possibility. Witnessing people in your community that look like you, have faced similar adversities, and now own and operate their own businesses is incredibly powerful, and at Julietta Market, we offer the opportunity for people of all ages to try their business idea at our market.

Exposing our youth to this first-hand experience makes it easier for them to believe that entrepreneurship is an option for them, and these experiences can be life-altering.

Growing up, I wanted to become a fashion designer. Living in Kentucky, I didn’t think that was a possibility. I felt that I needed to be in a bigger city to be successful, and financially that was not possible for me.

I did not see examples of the possibilities for me, and I did not pursue that dream. I can say with certainty, if this market was around when I was in highschool, I would have had more confidence to follow my passion.

hhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/adina-tatum-1434a284/ https://www.juliettamarket.com/

Adina is the Director of Operations of the Julietta Market and she is a Jazzercise Franchisee.

Entrepreneurship & community development are what gives her purpose & energy to continue with her work.

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SHOP LOCALMORE THAN A CATCH PHRASE

by Marie Pullen

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Why is shopping local important? Does it Personalized Products and Service really matter that much? Buying local is Neighborhood enterprises often carry essential in more ways than you might realize. regionally produced goods and the owners are well acquainted with the artisans. It is in Boosts the Local Economy these shops you’ll be more likely to acquire a Frequenting a local store keeps customized order that best fits your needs approximately 45% of every dollar in the whether it be in color, style or community. In addition, another 9% is personalization. You’re also less likely to retained within the state.

These show up at a party with two other people expenditures include supplies, wearing the same outfit! wages/benefits and local taxes. That translates into your direct support of Superior Customer Service neighbors and their families! Whereas in Here’s a challenge for you. Walk into any big dealing with a chain store, only about 14% box store and ask to speak with the owner. A of every dollar remains in the district, laugh or look of confusion will likely be the according to Forbes. Though big box first response. In a locally run shop, the businesses do employ local citizens, a owner is frequently the person behind the significant portion of their revenue goes counter. The proprietor and the employees, elsewhere. often family members and close friends, have a personal, vested interest in delivering loyal Building Community customers the best service.

As reported by Shop Appy, locally held establishments donate more money to Environmental Bonus charities near at hand. These in turn, help to Purchasing close by means lowering the build and strengthen your area of residence. production of carbon emissions from crosscountry trucking and importing via overseas.

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Marie Pullen Marie at her best - organizing a community event

And let's not forget our valuable farmers! They don’t rely so heavily on individual packaging and labeling, thus reducing one-use cardboard and plastic waste.

EXPLORING YOUR OWN BACKYARD A fascinating approach to patronizing locals is to plan a vacation within your home state. My readers are pleasantly surprised to travel a mere 30 to 100 miles within Kentucky and yet feel totally far, far away. With rising prices and Covid, taking a nice break within your state resolves airport hassles and saves on gas expenses.

Consider becoming a tourist in your own backyard and experience something new and charming!

For Kentuckians, there are literally hundreds of intriguing cities to tour. Here are three suggestions, located in different regions:

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OWENSBORO- WEST If Bluegrass, Bourbon and Barbeque are a priority, you’ll relish a holiday in Owensboro.

There’s something about a river burgh that is extra special.

Ranking high on my list are townships which are attentive to the mystic of their riverside and design comfortable walkways with breath-taking views. Most endearing are the lighted, circular fountains, beautiful artwork, engaging entertainment, and attractive restaurants and bars.

Owensboro, the fourth largest city in Kentucky invites all to savor these amenities and more, establishing this oasis as a prime destination. Learn more about Owensboro here.

MIDWAY- CENTRAL Meet me in Midway! All roads lead to Midway, Kentucky. At least the scenic ones do. Drive Old Frankfort Pike alongside peaceful farmlands, rolling hills and bluegrass horse pastures to arrive at the most charming community you can imagine.

Kentucky Eat, Shop and Drink Local Initiative

Situated “mid-way” between Lexington and Frankfort, Midway was founded as a railroad town.

In fact, trains run right through the middle of downtown today.

Midway is known for its wonderful restaurants and fabulous shops complete with the best apparel, gifts and home décor. Lexington is only 15 minutes away and Midway is an ideal resting spot when the hotels fill for the Keeneland races.

Follow @MeetMeInMidway to keep up with events and make plans to visit the engaging city of Midway.

About 1 billion people live in deserts. Many of these people rely on customs that have been around for hundreds of years to make their lives as easy as possible.

CORBIN- EASTERN Journey to Corbin, Kentucky nestled between Knoxville, Tennessee and Lexington, Kentucky.

Settled on Laurel Lake, amidst the beauty of Daniel Boone National Forest, this captivating little hamlet is a popular haven for boating, swimming and fishing.

While hikers traverse 17 miles of trails at Cumberland Falls State Park, travelers are drawn to the mesmerizing Cumberland Falls, dubbed the “Niagara of the South”.

The falls cascade 125 feet over a 60-foot drop, culminating in a dewy mist that creates the only “moonbow” in the Western Hemisphere!

The excitement is palpable among locals and tourists alike, eager to observe this wondrous phenomenon which appears solely on a clear night at certain times of year.

With so much to offer, Corbin is an idyllic stop off.

The downtown has enjoyed a revitalization in recent years with the restored buildings of historic architecture now occupied by new businesses you won't want to miss.

Discover Corbin here.

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BEST PLACES IN LEXINGTON, KY Whether you live in or would like to visit Lexington, I have some great ideas for you! For the biggest bang of businesses in a single visit, here are a couple of my favorites.

DOWNTOWN Following an extended period living outof-state, I returned to a cozy condo in downtown Lexington. The more friends with whom I spoke, the more I realized they rarely visited Main Street and its bustling corridors.

On infrequent occasions when they did head downtown, the target was a ball game, concert or dinner and a show. In other words, Lexington doesn't get the opportunity to showcase its true colors!

I consider the old courthouse the heart of downtown. One only needs to stroll within six blocks of this notable edifice to appreciate the Kentucky Theatre, Farmers Market, coffee houses, city view cocktails, live music, breakfast nooks, sushi, a children’s museum, beignets, prickly pear margaritas, epic tacos, historic homes, a bourbon bar, oven fired bagels and awesome public art. Read more about various attractions in downtown Lexington here.

JULIETTA MARKET Talk about all-inclusive, one-stop shopping, I highly recommend the Julietta Market. This plaza covers a 23,000 square foot, year-round, multivendor, public market. It is located in the heart of the historic Southeast Greyhound Building at 101 W. Loudon, on the corner of N. Limestone and Loudon Avenue.

Flanked by brick-and-mortar shops and restaurants, visitors enjoy vegan and other delicious dining, donuts, wine and cocktails, a mini grocery, plants, gifts, boozy cupcakes and home goods. Filled with a multitude of local vendors of every type, Julietta encompasses the ultimate in a vibrant marketplace. I love that Julietta Market is diverse, not only in terms of products but also its owners and makers. Follow @juliettamarket for announcements of events, pop ups, block parties and festivals.

I hope my suggestions provide you with a little taste of Kentucky and ignites your desire to discover more of our majestic state. Regardless of your home address, I encourage you to follow a local blogger or the state tourism page. I venture you'll be delighted with the many discoveries you'll encounter all around your home state!

Marie is a Kentucky blogger with www.BackroadBluegrass. com and creator of the Bluegrass Creative Market, a curated Kentucky made pop up market.

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What is Wealth to YOU?

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December 2022 Issue 4

BOOK REVIEW SEEKING: 74 KEYS FINDINGS TO RAISE YOUR ENERGY, SIDE STEP YOUR SELFDOUBTS AND ALIGN WITH YOUR LIFE’S WORK” WRITTEN BY JJ DIGERONIMO Reviewed by Lisa King Seeking by JJ DiGeronimo is, in my opinion, a must read for anyone looking to move into their next phase of self discovery and looking to illuminate their path. Through personal stories, anecdotes and thought provoking questions, JJ takes you on a purposeful journey from the beginning of the book all the way to the end. Her energy spills out of the pages as she gently nudges you to do the work to embrace your gifts and shine your unique light out into the universe.

The book is laid out in five parts; Stepping Into Your Whispers, Redefining Self Worth, Uncovering Life Lessons, Getting Present with Mindfulness and Shifting Your Frequency, each with short chapters and spaces to dig in and begin to align with your life’s work.

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You can easily move through it in sequential order, or my favorite way is just asking the universe to guide me and opening to a page and digging into the words and the questions. There are so many practical strategies for exploring your desires, your options, your obstacles and connecting to your “whispers’(Chapter 1). Each chapter is sprinkled with key findings from JJ’s personal seeking, which are like little nuggets to pull out and carry with you along your journey.

Although the book is an easy read, it is not all a fast read. Some of the questions and journaling prompts will be very thought provoking and will spark curiosity in you, and awareness in you, that needs to be savored and returned to many times.

A great book to get inspired & motivated The all-time great insight into self-worth.

Everytime I opened the book, I felt as if I was sitting down to chat with a good friend, a wise friend, feeling refreshed and full of possibilities with each page! After finishing the book, I couldn’t store it on my bookshelf. No, it’s on my desk. And most days, at some point, I open it, finding a passage or a note that speaks to me, in just that moment. So ladies of all ages, if you're seeking, looking to connect your inner knowing with your outer work, or need a little nudge, “Seeking” is a must read, again and again and again..

Lisa King

Curious what other books we suggest? Visit https://zivavoices.com/must-read-books-on-womens-history/ THE ZIVA VOICES BOOKAZINE | 90

PODCAST RECOMMENDATIONS We've added some podcasts that we truly enjoy listening to!

We added this time some Spanish, German & Portuguese podcast.

1. DE CARONA NA CARREIRA | 2. WHAT'S HER STORY | 3. RICH IN REAL LIFE| 4. HOLA PODEROSA | 5.

CONSCIOUS CONVERSATIONS PODCAST 6. FAST & CURIOUS| 7. CLEVER GIRLS KNOW. | 8. FRAUENFRAGEN 91 | DECEMBER 2022 - FEBRUARY 2023

| 9. THE LINKEDIN BRANDING SHOW

3 PART THREE

The second part of the bookazine is for you to explore your

POTENTIAL as a LEADER and the goals you want to achieve on your path.

USING YOUR TALENTS TO BE THE LEADER YOU WANT TO BE

education

WORKBOOK ADDITION This workbook is designed to walk you through the process of understanding what you should focus on when working on your leadership skills.

DR. KINGA MNICH

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LEARN ABOUT

Vol. 4 December 2022

YOUR WEALTH

NEW FRONTIER Now it is your time to explore how you can build wealth Revisit your beliefs, obstacles and stories you have been told.

UNDERSTANDING YOUR WEALTH MINDSET Let's break down the barriers that you might be carrying within you when it comes to wealth.

What beliefs are you holding on to? What does wealth mean to you and what steps do you need to take in order to build wealth?

Let's start by looking at the situations when it appears and what effect it as on you. Describe it and become aware of the triggers. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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When does wealth inspire you?

When does it make you feel uncomfortable? ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Who are the people that share your understanding of building wealth?

Can you spend more time with them? And ask them for support?

Which article inspired or motivated you the most? And why? Which tools are you going to try out? ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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THE 4 PILLARS

OF ZIVA VOICES - HERSTORY IN THE MAKING BOOKAZINE Start by getting to know yourself better and understand your feelings.

It gives you the ability to self-assess by understanding your strengths and weaknesses and their effects accurately.

And it builds self-confidence, having trust in yourself and being willing to be yourself.

ROUNDTABLES Empathy is one of the core pillars of emotional intelligence because it helps you to understand and acknowledge others’ emotions.

Organizational Awareness, meaning having the ability to explain yourself well and be aware of how you are being understood.

Creating space for others to process information and listening to others.

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VIDEO PODCAST Emotional Self-Control is an essential part of emotional maturity. Guiding your feelings and/or appropriately expressing them is a crucial skill.

Being goal-oriented and being able to work toward your goals.

Initiative, being self-motivated and having the ability to keep working despite setbacks.

COMMUNITY Inspirational Leadership: being a good mentor, role model, and inspirational figure.

Influence in a positive & effective matter Improve relationships, negotiate, and lead.

Have the ability to settle disputes, differences of opinion, and misunderstandings.

Be Change Catalyst!

Ziva Voices – HerStory in the Making is committed to collecting women’s stories, amplifying their voices, and providing a network to connect women worldwide.

We exist to show how women influence their communities and benefit their economies through their work, to demonstrate the power of women working together, and to create a protective space to allow for growth.

We foster self-empowerment through sharing resources, building confidence, and helping women develop a growth mindset.

MISSION

OUR MISSION

VISION

VISION

Creating a world in which women’s contributions, creativity and voices are recognized and any opportunity barriers against them lifted.

We exist to show how women influence their communities and benefit their economies through their work, to demonstrate the power of women working together, and to create a protective space to allow for growth.

We foster self-empowerment through sharing resources, building confidence, and helping women develop a growth mindset.

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OUR GOALS We highlight how women change communities, benefit the economies in which they work, and lift each other up by fostering diversity and authentic equality.

The networking effect of this bookazine, our community and our workshops focuses on promoting women all over the world and providing them with highly effective and readily accessible support.

REMEMBERING THE END-GOAL

WHAT WE OFFER Community Events We organize regular in-person events for women to network, learn and get inspired.

Connection & Inspiration Online magazine, Quarterly Bookazine, Online & In-person Events, Workshops, Corporate Trainings, and Podcast (coming soon!)

Ziva Voices - HerStory in the Making bookazine Online quarterly publication with a focus on women’s stories, amplifying their voices, and providing a network to connect women worldwide.

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Creating a world in which women’s contributions, creativity and voices receive equal opportunities & visibility.

Z I V A

V O I C E S

WEALTH A PLAY BETWEEN STRATEGY AND PATIENCE & MORE THAN MONEY

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4 PART THREE

Insight into the Ziva Way System

C ON T A I N S T H R E E P A G E S

SHAPING POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS

DECEMBER 2022 - FEBRUARY 2023

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04

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02 08

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Ingrid Harb

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Amy Getz

05

JJ DiGeronimo

Dr. Kinga Mnich www.kingamnich.com Lisa King https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-king-b4b578232/

Connie P. Milligan, LCSW https://spectrumtransformation.com/ Sylvia Lovely

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-getz/

https://jjdigeronimo.com/

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/sylvialovely

Kimberlee Davis https://thebahnsengroup.com/ Rachel Dorsey

Amy Boone

www.boneandgold.com

https://www.sweethomeky.com/

07

Adina Tatum https://www.linkedin.com/in/adina-tatum-

Mpilo S'phephelo Shabangu https://www.linkedin.com/in/mpilo-sphephelo-shabangu-396748104/

1434a284

Tatenda Zimondi

Marie Pullen

https://za.linkedin.com/in/tatenda-zimondi-ca-

www.BackroadBluegrass.com

02

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ingridharb/

z-paab-ca-sa-ra-5189b329

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Emi Kirschner https://emikirschner.com/

hello@theziva.com

Thea Myhrvold https://www.linkedin.com/in/theamyhrvold/

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Our Staff.

Editor in Chief Dr. Kinga Mnich Deputy Editor Hannah Sword Senior Editors Ivana Madzarevic Executive Art Director Amanda Harper Contributors Kimberlee Davis, Emi Kirschner, Ingrid Harb, Thea Myhrvold, Amy Getz, Crystal Gentry, Ella Lucas-Averett, Mpilo S'phephelo Shabangu, Rachel Dorsey, JJ DiGeronimo, Tatenda Zimondi, Afshan Butt, Connie Milligan, Sylvia Lovely, Amy Boone, Adina Tatum, Marie Pullen, Lisa King Chief Photography Editor Dr. Kinga Mnich Photographer Janneke Nooij, Karen Santos, Eryn Shea, Create With Gusto, Kinga Mnich, Ayna Lorenzo, Girlsquad Media, Jennifer Chang Associate Art Director Amanda Harper Associate Editor Carla Patricia Caguioa Photography Editor Amanda Harper Associate Photography Editor Janaya Combs Permanent contributors Connie Milligan MSW Kim Normand Dobrin

Feel free to reach out with suggestions, comments, questions and inquiries:

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The bookazine is published by The Ziva Way, LLC. & Ziva Project Incorporated 501c3 Kingamnich.com and www.zivavoices.com 103 | DECEMBER 2022 - FEBRUARY 2023

Ziva Voices.

Mind I Leadership I Community I Entrepreneurship

HerStory in the Making.

THANK YOU TO LUCIAS EMPORIUM FOR SPONSORING THE PRODUCTION OF THIS ISSUE

THE ZIVA VOICES BOOKAZINE | 104

Ziva Voices bookazine.

HerStory in the Making.

Mind I Leadership I Community I Entrepreneurship Digest

More women are building successful communities and businesses everyday. They are shifting their mindset, using their leadership skills, mobilizing communities and turning a small business into an empire.

In the Ziva Voices, we bring forth stories of experience and inspiration to highlight ways in which you can learn how to shift your mindset, change your habits, learn new skills, build your confidence, and learn to speak up.

When we hear the stories of other women - overcoming the pain, social obstacles and self-doubt - it can become easier to understand that you have all it takes to make the next move, be the person that creates change, and feel connected and empowered.

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