Today is my 28th birthday (*cue confetti*), and like a lot of people, birthdays are more of a reflective thing as you grow older. I stopped making New Year’s resolutions a long time ago, and I critique my year based on what happened between my last birthday and the most recent. This year has been very exciting for me as I’m in a place creatively in my career that I wasn’t a year ago, and I wanted to share with you all some of the joys and mistakes hiccups I’m made along the way. I also want to share some goals for the upcoming 12 months that I want y’all to hold me accountable for.

In May 2010 I received my Masters in Social Work and in October 2010, I had been working full-time for an HIV/AIDS organization here in New York City for about two months. I’ve always had visions on working in my own consulting and speaking business, but it wasn’t until January 2011 that I started to grow more comfortable with the idea of being an entrepreneur. My passion has always focused on women and girls of color and in sexual/reproductive health in various aspects (organizational programming, writing, giving talks, workshops, etc.) and I decided that I wanted a career focused on that. I would follow numbers of entrepreneurs on Twitter, and read up on successful entrepreneurs, and at times it seemed overwhelming (and still can be). I knew that I had the passion, and I knew my WHY for creating my business. I just became bogged down on HOW it all would manifest.

It’s always been said that when you make a decision to play big, the Universe will rearrange itself to bring in people and opportunities that will get you closer to your dreams. When you have a big enough WHY, the HOW will always present itself. I felt that I needed the business cards, a website, a business plan, a business number, an intern to help me, and all that comes into creating a business from the ground up. I felt that there had to be some structured steps I needed to take. I also thought about the fact that I still have a full-time job and worried about being able to work on my business while giving 40 hours of my life each week to my employer.

Also…I was scared, and I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I felt that I needed to have everything right and in the perfect order before I could make anything happen. But what I realized I needed most was just to 1) make the intention to become an entrepreneur, 2) know that I have the skill set needed for my brand of entrepreneurship, and 3) Ready, Fire, Aim!

(more…)