Paula: [00:00:00] It is yet another episode of Chatting with the Experts where I speak with women from Africa, from the Caribbean, and in the diaspora. These women are passionate about educating, empowering, and inspiring women globally, and they’re successful entrepreneurs and professionals. The topic today is Purpose to Passion, Women Entrepreneurs, The New Era, and my guest who will be joining me in a few minutes is a coordinator. She’s a speaker, she’s an entrepreneur and a visionary leader dedicated to empowering women to turn purpose into passion driven success. As one of the founders of the Opulent Lady Business Association and a passionate advocate for women’s voices, she helps others embrace resilience, faith, and authenticity [00:01:00] in this new era of entrepreneurship.
And with that, I welcome Mijiza Green to Chatting with the Experts.
Mijiza: Hi!
Paula: Hello Majiza. Thank you for being a guest today. I’ve been trying to get you to be a guest, so I’m really blessed that you’re here.
Mijiza: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.
Paula: Absolutely. And I know we are talking about Purpose to Passion and this being a new era for women entrepreneurs. So let’s talk about the new era for women in business, women entrepreneurs. How did we come about that?
Mijiza: Hmm. Well, I can take it all the way back to, you know, being a team kind of always had the drive to either not fully wanted to work for somebody, just always feeling like I had like gifts and talents that could be monetized. So, started off very early with doing hair, completing a cosmetology school, opening up a salon at one point with [00:02:00] my sister. And, being a part of that was really a push to really see how much I can do, and it just continued on from there. I’ve always wanted to impact others and kind of create my own schedule. And so I made it a huge thing in my life to continue to be an entrepreneur and just being a part of different adventures. So Opulent Lady Business Association is kind of where I’ve landed from coming out of the hair business, from having the shops. We’ve also started a nonprofit where we were able to mentor girls within the school system. So I’ve been around for many, many years.
Paula: Sure. So part of what I’m hearing is you talking about rewriting the rules, how we as women, women in business, can lead with authenticity, by collaboration, and also within communities, right?
Mijiza: Yes.
Paula: I remember I met you some time ago and you talked about the contrast between the old and the new. Let’s talk a little bit about that. [00:03:00]
Mijiza: Hmm. Well, the old way was. I feel that many women wanted to do things alone, right? You start these businesses, but then you end up being everything.
Paula: Mm-hmm.
Mijiza: As an entrepreneur, you end up being the business owner, the administration, the finance department, the emailer, the assistant. You end up having up all these hats, right?
Paula: Mm-hmm.
Mijiza: And you end up wearing yourself out. So what my partner normally says, right? She says, so many grand opening and grand closings, right? Because you cannot do it all by yourself. I mean, I laugh every time she says that because it’s such the honest truth, you know?
Paula: Yeah.
Mijiza: And the grand closing 90% of the time is not because the business failed, it’s because you failed to create a plan.
Paula: Yes.
Mijiza: You failed to delegate or bring other people on based off of fear, right?
Paula: Mm-hmm.
Mijiza: And so looking at that old way, we created this organization to create this new way of entrepreneurship and especially with women, to beat the odds, right? [00:04:00] To bridge the gap, and to also remove the stigma that we couldn’t work together.
Paula: Mm-hmm.
Mijiza: And so the new era of entrepreneurship for women is collaboration. We believe that collaboration is the new currency. We don’t wanna do it alone and we wanna do it together. We wanna continuously show others what we can do together. So that’s why we truly created it, because whether it’s you having something as simple as the EIN or you having a brick and mortar. We want it to be on that journey with you to help you along the way and show you that you don’t have to be all of these things if we do it together.
And so this new era is really changing the game for many women who truly wanna do it. Now, it might not be for everybody there. Some women who choose to do it alone, but I’ll tell you one thing, Opulent Lady is not those women Janika and I love to bring other people on. We love to bring other people into the organization. And yes, it is a subscription based, but we know what we deliver. And if you [00:05:00] engage, we believe your engagement is your growth by being a part of the association, then you will get everything that you need out of the organization so that you can fly high wherever you wanna go in this entrepreneurship world.
Paula: Wow. Love it, love it, love it, love it. If you wanna go alone, that’s all right. But you and Janika believe together we can go further, correct?
Mijiza: Absolutely.
Paula: Right. So in doing all of that, I know you’ve had to overcome some barriers and you’ve had to definitely break some glass ceilings.
Mijiza: Oh, yes.
Paula: True or false?
Mijiza: True, true, true. Very true. Man barriers. Right? I’m gonna be very honest with your listeners out there. One of the biggest barriers as I talked about, which was the stigma working with women. I’m gonna have to say it. You said I can be real on your show.
Paula: Be real.
Mijiza: Working with women is not always easy, and we continuously take pride in being able to [00:06:00] break that barrier of what it looks like. And it’s our reality. We have so many hats. We are wives, mothers, and we doing all the this, but our reality is sometimes our response is our responsibility. Sometimes we are looking at, intimidation, sometimes we looking at all of these things that nobody really wants to talk about on why we can’t do it together, right?
Paula: Yeah.
Mijiza: And so that was one of the biggest barriers in the beginning was really removing the emotion, right? We are emotional beings, you know, that’s a beautiful thing about us, but removing it in order to do business, right? Nobody wants to talk about that. We have a heart. We love people. We are social, you know, we will help in impact, but sometimes we don’t know how to create the difference and the boundaries of business and doing business in excellence. And that was a barrier in the beginning for us of really breaking that and really bringing women together and showing us how to handle conflict, right? If [00:07:00] something wasn’t right. Not running to social media, not go someplace, but really handling conflict within an organization, with people when it came to collaborations and things like that. And so we used those things that created barriers and then create them into master classes.
So we turn those things around. So when things come our way, you know, we are like, okay, this is happening right now. How do we use this? It’s never a negative thing to us. It’s always something of how can we use it and then bring it back to others, and that’s what we continuously strive on.
Paula: I like that. How never a negative. How can you, in other words, there’s innovation coming into that. Correct?
Mijiza: Absolutely. Innovation in everything. If we take everything that came to hit us and we just fell, we would have grand closings every day. But if we take it and turn it around and utilize it, create it into a curriculum, created into a masterclass, , create it into a learning moment or, you know, activity [00:08:00] or however we need to do it. That’s how we get better and better in this entrepreneurship thing.
Paula: I know. Hmm. I also know that you’re a woman of faith.
Mijiza: Mm-hmm.
Paula: Because you faced a lot of resistance and have to become resilient. Let’s talk a bit about your faith.
Mijiza: Yes.
Paula: Resilience and of course that ties into innovation, which we just addressed.
Mijiza: It does. It does. None of this would be possible, of course, without God. And we are women of faith. I am a woman of faith. Just in the mix of building business, you know, there’s many things that has happened in between, you know, from changing of jobs to, losing a loved one, , getting divorced, having a child go off to college. All of these things were happening simultaneously. Like, you almost feel like what’s next? Right? What’s next? What is gonna happen? But with that, you know, you have to be able to understand that your faith is everything. That if it’s happening, then it’s happening for a reason.
Paula: Amen.
Mijiza: The one thing [00:09:00] we always talk about is, you know, kind of just what I just said. Why not me? You know, why wouldn’t it happen to me? Why not me?
Paula: I like that.
Mijiza: And I have to trust the process, you know?
Paula: Yes. I like that.
Mijiza: We have to trust the process of what’s happening in our lives right now.
Paula: Mm-hmm.
Mijiza: That everything is not meant to break us.
Paula: Yes.
Mijiza: Okay. It’s meant to build us even when it hurts, even when the tears are there. Even when you wanna give up. You know, as I say, my partner, I’m always gonna mention hus hus sayings, because I never know how to do the sayings, right? But she says. We don’t give up. We are four minutes and 59 seconds away, right? So, it’s times you don’t wanna get out the bed, you know, anxiety hit me really bad. Panic attacks hit me earlier this year. Mental health is real.
Paula: It’s real.
Mijiza: And me being a mental health provider…
Paula: mm-hmm.
Mijiza: You know, understanding what I was going through. And so it builds that resistance to keep going. And you hope that people will see it, not because I wanna be seen, because I wanna show people that you can still do it. Everything that hits you is not meant to break you. [00:10:00] We don’t need to lie down. And that’s it. You know, you take your time, you take care of your mental health. You trust God in the process. Why is this happening, Lord? You told me to do this, why is this happening? So plenty of times we have to get on our knees, pray. We have to stop. We have to revamp.
Paula: Yeah.
Mijiza: And we have to look at ourselves. You know, I’m very grateful for my partner because I have a younger child. And so you have to also have someone who truly understands the partnership, right? And many people go out and they get these partners, Paula, and they are like not compatible. I’m so blessed to have a partner who we understand who we are, what needs to be done, the lanes that we are in, and that’s what make us a dynamic duo.
Paula: That makes you and your business partner the dynamic duo, because you have a plan, you understand each other, and you said faith…
Mijiza: yes.
Paula: Plays a big part.
Mijiza: Yes, big part in our lives. She’s [00:11:00] married and we have to understand and we know when to say, okay, you gonna go ahead and step back for a few? We need a minute, you know, because this is not easy. And we say entrepreneurship is not for the weak, Paula. It’s not for the weak. This thing is an everyday battle for greatness. For greatness, especially when you’re built, God gave us this purpose. I’ll say to anybody, you think me and her just don’t wanna go on vacation, or we don’t just wanna work a nine to five like everybody else, and nothing’s wrong with that, you know, if that’s your purpose. But God has given us this vision and this plan that has to be done, and it’s us who has to do it, and that is what we were destined for.
Paula: Yep. I agree with you one hundred percent. That’s what I say about this, Chatting with the Experts. It was. I was ordained by God to do this because Paula does not like camera. Paula did not like public speaking. And to do this, I have to do both.
Mijiza: Oh my gosh. Yes. You do.
Paula: Both. Yeah, [00:12:00] but it is as onto God, and I see you know Him coming through over and over and over, especially when I have, in quotes, challenges, as you said. That’s opportunities to look to him and ask for wisdom and then resilience comes in and of course then you see something else happen. That’s innovation all directed from Him.
Mijiza: Yes, yes, yes.
Paula: So, you know, I know that Opulence women is about creating legacies and impacting communities, right?
Mijiza: Yes.
Paula: It’s not all about you. As you said, it’s difficult to work with women, and to walk with women too. I’m not gonna lie, but when you have a purpose, you’ve got a purpose and you’ve got to fulfill it. And you fulfill it, as you said, as a Christian by trusting God and moving forward. So let’s end with a note of telling women, now you know you are coming into this business or wherever your purpose is, but know that this is a new era. You’ve got people who are willing to collaborate [00:13:00] with you because it’s a different mindset now. I know a lot more women are realizing .A lot more than or not, realizing that walking together we can go further.
Mijiza: Mm-hmm.
Paula: If I’m walking alone, yep. I can go faster, but I may not go further.
Mijiza: I agree.
Paula: So yeah, let’s talk about that because I know that’s one of the things that you’re really passionate about.
Mijiza: I love that you said legacy, because one thing we do is the impact, like you said, has to be a ripple effect.
Paula: Mm-hmm.
Mijiza: Our success is not you staying with our organization for years and years and years and paying a subscription similar to you going to Planet Fitness and never going to the gym, but you pay the membership every single month. Our success is watching you soar, watching you grow, watching you be successful. We always say, if you are not winning, we’re not winning. If you are not growing, we’re not growing. We don’t just need people to just sit around and say, you are part of the association. We need people who are making strives. And now you’re going out there and building it.
And [00:14:00] it takes us back to not only did we build the organization, we created chapters in different states. Right? So we have Baltimore County, Baltimore City. We have Atlanta. We have Delaware. We have Philadelphia. We have Virginia. We have these different chapters. That’s when you see the ripple effect that you’re taking everything that you’ve got and now you’re giving it back to others.
So we wanna leave legacies and legacy is not just the pink bank as we call it, right? We want to leave that pink bank, that legacy, but we also wanna leave an everlasting impact that we came and we conquered that. We didn’t stop that these two little girls, ’cause that’s who we are. One from Baltimore and one from Brooklyn have come together to create change within communities because we don’t just talk about entrepreneurship. We mentor young girls. We not only talk about business, we have other areas that… we have an Africa initiative where we collect, you know, hygiene products to go [00:15:00] send over to to those other areas. We do collection for toys. We do a collection for dresses so that girls don’t have to pay for a prom dress if they don’t choose to.
And we collaborate with other organizations to create even bigger. I love that you said that when we walk together, collaboration, we can do it even bigger. Why would we wanna just collect dresses here when we know that we can collaborate with someone who’s collecting dresses from everywhere and then we come and volunteer?
Paula: Yeah.
Mijiza: Legacy is about our name. Not just Janika Lynch, Mijika Green, but about Opulent Lady that we’ve done it and we have helped in so many ways from helping people write their story, helping people tell their stories. That’s impact. That’s legacy. When our kids no longer have to guess who we are. And it’s right there in a book, and it takes me right back to Habakkuk 2:2, right? Write the vision, make it plain. That is what we live by so [00:16:00] that others can see it and run. You know, that’s really what life should be all about. It shouldn’t be about holding onto our gifts and talents until we in the grave.
Paula: Yes.
Mijiza: It should be about giving back everything that God has given us.
Paula: Yes.
Mijiza: Okay. And so that we can go ahead and look around and say, you know what I want him to say, Paula, good job. Well done.
Paula: Yes. Good job. Well done. And that’s what I’m gonna say to you as we are rounding up here. Good job. Well done, Mijiza. And for those who are looking at this online, who I’m not part of , the audience that we have today. How can someone who has heard this and wants to know more about you and Opulent Lady Business Association?
Mijiza: Oh, absolutely. First thing they can do is go right to our website, which is www.opulentladyba.com. Everything is right there. You can go ahead and book a tour if you are in [00:17:00] town. You can book a consultation. You can meet with Janika or I. If you are around, we have a boutique at 625 Edgewood Road. Every Friday is our Pink Friday. You can come and hang out with us from five to eight with some music, karaoke, some food you can do that. And our newest adventure, which is Opulent Executive Business Center, is located at 500 Edgewood Road. If you are looking for a suite, you are looking for a place to conduct business, you are looking for shared office spaces, we provide that as well. So first things first, go straight to the website and go ahead and get in contact with us from there.
Paula: Yeah. I love that. Are you also on social media? I can’t read that.
Mijiza: All social medias. Opulent lady. Opulent Lady Business Association, the Virtual Connection on Facebook, Instagram, Opulent Lady. We on LinkedIn, TikTok, all you have to do is type that in, Opulent Lady Business Association and you will find us on some platform.
Paula: This is just amazing. Thank you so much. And for those of you who just heard Mijiza Green, [00:18:00] Chatting with the experts is a show I put on every week. You can get in touch with me just like she did on my website, which is chattingwiththeexperts.com. I’m on LinkedIn as Paula Okonneh. I’m also on Facebook, Paula Okonneh. My IG handle is at chat_experts_podcast, and I would love for you to subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can hear these amazing women, these entrepreneurs, these women who encourage, who educate and empower women globally. All on YouTube. Thank you so much, Mijiza.
Mijiza: Thank you.
Paula: I know this has blessed me as it has blessed others. And now we’ll open up the floor to all who joined us who have questions for you. Thank you.
Mijiza: Thank you