Brittany CowanAs entrepreneurship becomes a more common career path, N.C. Central University’s Women’s Center held a mega-workshop titled “Her Hustle: Leading as an Entrepreneur” on Sept. 26 to help future female business owners on their way to self-made success.
On September 26th, 2018, the Women’s Center hosted their Her Hustle Mega- Workshop entitled, “Leading as an Entrepreneur” in the James E. Shepard Library. Each of these hand-on workshops provided students with valuable information about business ownership, personal budgeting for one’s business, Event Planning, and much more.
The evening began with catered dinner and warm words of welcome from the Director of the Women’s Center, Dr. Nichole Lewis. During the welcoming address, Dr. Lewis gave thanks to the Women’s Center staff and volunteers for their preparation of the event and introduced the Opening Speaker, Dr. Adrianne Pinkney of B. Well: Live Consciously.
During Dr. Pinkney’s opening address, she shared stories about her training as an educator and how that shifted into a passion for helping others manage their mental & physical health. She also shared her own story about operating her own hair styling business at the young age of 12 and how that became a catalyst for her love of entrepreneurship. Her bubbly and witty personality aided the attendees in becoming more optimistic about at the event and eager to participate in their selected workshops.
Prior to the attendees relocating to their chosen workshops, Dr. Lewis truly emphasized how each of the participants were going to work and learn valuable life and business skills while taking part in this event. Many events that are held on campus can become lecture based, but Dr. Lewis and the Women’s Center staff completely strayed away from that format and created something much more interactive.
The speakers for each workshop of this event consisted of women from different walks of life and established entrepreneurs and business women.
The speakers for this event are as follows:
- Patrice Bayyan: Certified Coach and Training Specialist & Principal Partner at Bayyan Ventures, LLC.
- Kenya Cook: Owner of, Cherry Cook, CPA, PLLC.
- Toya Corbett: NCCU’s Dean of Students, author, operator of “The Etiquette Doctor”, and owner of Black Genius Apparel, LLC.
- Zelda Lockhart: Award Winning Author and serves as the Director of Her Story Garden Studios.
- Adrianne Pinkney: Founder of, B. Well: Live Consciously
- Brianna Roach: Owner of Out the Box (Raleigh) & serves as a Social Media Consultant.
Each speaker at the Mega – Workshop discussed different topics within their sessions. Also, each speaker has different career and educational backgrounds, which provided the attendees with more insight into different fields that could potentially become a great fit for them.
Along with providing step-by-step details about how to become successful entrepreneurs, the workshop attendees had the pleasure of listening to the speakers’ personal testimonies about building their businesses, their brands, and overcoming obstacles. As a result of the speakers expressing their personal testimonies during their session, they were able to connect with the attendees on a completely different level. were beneficial when connecting with the worship attendees.
After attending the Her Hustle Mega- Workshop, many attendees stated that they were now, “more prepared” to pursue their own business ventures. In her address, Dr. Pinkney stated that “even if you work for someone else, you still work for yourself”. The fact that Pinkney and other like- minded entrepreneurs had the same feelings towards this statement truly justifies how anyone and everyone can become a boss.
