Episode 494: Strengthen Your Mindset & Confidence To Turn Being Underestimated Into Your Greatest Advantage with Arlan Hamilton

Arlan Hamilton 0:00

Not every sale happens at the register. Before AT&T Business Wireless, checking out customers on our mobile POS systems took too long. Basically, a staring contest where everyone loses. It's crazy what people say during an awkward silence. Now transactions are done before the silence takes hold. That means I can focus on the task at hand and make an extra sailor too. Sometimes I do miss the bonding time. Sometimes

Speaker 1 0:24

AT&T Business Wireless connecting changes everything.

Jamila Souffrant 0:30

You're listening to The Journey to Launch podcast. How to turn being underestimated into your greatest advantage with Arlen Hamilton.

Intro 0:42

Welcome to the Journey to Launch podcast with your host Jamila Souffrant. As a money expert who walks or talks, she helps brave journeyers like you get out of debt, save, invest, and build real wealth. Join her on the Journey to Launch to financial freedom in 543 4321,

Jamila Souffrant 1:09

Hey, hey, hey, journeyers. Welcome to the Journey to Launch podcast. And if you are completely new, you might be like, wait, who's a journeyer? You, you listening, you're a journeyer, that means you're on the journey with me to financial freedom and independence. So, thank you for just listening to this for the first time, and if you're a returning journeyer, you know what's up. So, I'm really excited to speak to today's guest, Arlen Hamilton. Now, you may not know who she is, maybe you do. I'm going to just share her bio in a quick second, but I actually met Arlen in person. I was on her podcast, Your First Million, and I want to share the background to that meeting and how that all came about. I'm going to do that at the end of the episode, so stay tuned for that. But let's talk more about Arlen's background. Arlen Hamilton built a venture capital fund from the ground up while homeless. She is the founder and managing partner of Backstage Capital, a fund that is dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are people of color, women, and or LGBT. Started from scratch in 2015 Backstage has now raised more than 7 million and invested in more than 130 startup companies led by underestimated founders, and so I have Arlan on a podcast today to talk a little bit more about her story. We talk about her new book, it's about damn time, how to turn being underestimated into your greatest advantage. And while we touch upon the venture capital world, I really wanted to have this interview based more on the mentality, the mindset that Arlen has to be able to do what she does, because I really do believe that being equipped with a belief in yourself and going after it, the gumption - you're going to hear me mention that in the interview - to go after these ideas that come into your head, that is what takes you to the next step, that's what separates average people from journeyers, so I'm going to talk to Arlen a bit more about that now. If we say something that really like, it's like, "Well, I really liked that, or Arlen says something that you like, tag us on social media. I'm at Journey to Launch. Arlen is at Arlen Hamilton, where you hang out on Instagram, Twitter, even Facebook. So tag us, maybe take a screenshot, share what you're taking away from this episode, so that we can see it. If you want the episode show notes for this episode, go to Journey to launch.com or click the description of wherever you're listening to this episode. In the show notes, you'll get the transcribed version of the conversation, the links that we mentioned, and so much more. Also, whether you are an OG journeyer or brand new to the podcast, I've created a free Jumpstart guide to help you on your financial freedom journey. It includes the top episodes to listen to, stages to go through to reach financial freedom, resources, and so much more. You can go to Journey to launch.com/jumpstart to get your guide right now. Okay, let's hop into the episode journey. Are really excited to have on someone I admire immensely that I've met actually in person, and you heard about that in my intro to this podcast. But Arlen Hamilton, welcome to the podcast, Arlen. Hey,

Arlan Hamilton 4:17

thanks for having me.

Jamila Souffrant 4:19

So I know you get asked this question like every time you do episodes or podcasts with people who are not familiar with what you do, but I think just to start here, so people who are not familiar with your background in venture capital, in the venture capital world, in this space, like what that actually is, and then actually want to hop into the really good stuff, because I read your book, which is amazing, and I want to touch upon some of that stuff. So, tell us first, what your role is in the venture capital world.

Arlan Hamilton 4:43

Yes, so I am a managing partner and a founder of a venture capital fund called Backstage Capital, which is basically an investment fund that invests in startup companies, and what makes us different is that 90. Percent of all venture capital tends to go to, or does go to, straight white men, and has for decades, and we flip that. I mean, we invest in, I think, our current portfolio is 37% or so, black women, women of color across the board is more than 50% people of color is pushing two thirds, etc. etc. So we invest in underrepresented, underestimated founders. We started with women, people of color, and LGBTQ, which identifies all three, and have started that from scratch. Officially started in 2015 after working on it for several years, and got my first yes, kind of halfway, and I've been.. I'll turn 40 this year, and I've been working on this since I was about 3031,

Jamila Souffrant 5:49

What I find amazing about your story is that you jumped into this world really without any connections, any like previous like knowledge within the space, and I find that so inspiring in your book. So, your book is called "It's About Damn Time: How to Turn Being Underestimated into Your Greatest Advantage. I think this is a testament to everyone, like listening to this podcast. A lot of people may feel like they're underestimated, overlooked, and the fact that you jumped into an industry that typically overlooks people like us, and created your own lane, and now is not a gatekeeper, like you said in your book. You helped create keys, is amazing. So, can we go back to how you like first got into this? Because, upon what I understand, in reading the book, like, you at first thought you, you'd be the entrepreneur, you'd be the one trying to maybe raise funds for something, you realized you wanted to play a bigger role than that.

Arlan Hamilton 6:41

Yes, I still consider myself an entrepreneur, just built a different product for a different customer. Originally, when I first got into and learned about this world, I wasn't setting out to become a venture capitalist, never thought about that, didn't know what one was for most of my life, but it was in the research that I did in or started in trying to find out what the investor might be thinking when I wanted to approach one. I wanted to start my own company, and I wanted to be really prepared, you know. And a lot of your listeners are these types, right? You want to be super prepared, that's why you're listening to this podcast, that's why you do your research. So I started researching, and when I came across this statistic that more than 90% of all venture funding goes to straight white men, and I know that a third of the country is white men. Something stopped me in my tracks. I was just like, wait a second, I, you know, this is a.. there's a bigger problem here. There's a. there's a huge issue here. Even if I can raise money, because I've hacked my way, I've done this and that, I know the rules, and I fight them. What happens next? Am I still going to be shut out the next step, or even more importantly, what happens to the hundreds of others who I know personally are building, do they just get shut out because they didn't hack a certain way, they didn't play a certain game. To me, it was a, it was a bigger deal. I don't want to ever compare myself to Stacey Abrams, because I think she's absolutely brilliant, but she reminds something that she said to me once reminded me of what I must have been doing, she, and she is actually a featured review on the back of the book, so I'm so excited about that, but what she said, we were kind of getting ready to go, and I was going to open a speak for, like, open for her, or whatever, at this event, she was backstage, and she was talking to a couple of us, and I was saying, you got to run for president, you got to, you got to, you got to run for president. I need you to. This several months ago, and she said, "Look, what I'm worried about is fair voting. That's what all of this energy is about. If I don't fix the voting, whether I run or not makes no difference. If it's fixed when I get there, and she has this great experience of not great, not a good experience, but a grand scale experience of having run for office in Georgia, and literally had it stolen from her, like really had the balance stolen from her. So, point is, I felt like we can't even talk about me trying to raise money for a company if the whole system is broken, that doesn't sit well with me. So I set out and say, how can I make a small difference and be a seed of a difference, and that's where I started.

Jamila Souffrant 9:28

Yeah, and because that seed, and we talked about this in the book, and I think that's relevant in all areas of our lives, and sometimes you know that seed, you won't always see, you know, the direct results of the plant and the petals and the flowers that bloom from that, like, sometimes you will, like, you've seen direct impact on the companies you've been able to raise capital for and invest in, but what I want to get to, because I think this is like fascinating for people, that you have this idea and you have the gumption, the chutzpah to go after it, when I was reading your story, and I find similarity. Between, like, what you were able to do, and why I choose to go after the things I go after, and everyone that I've interviewed that has ever done anything amazing, they have the belief in themselves that they can do it. So I want to talk about that confidence, because there are people listening right now who have ideas or thinking of things, and they don't necessarily put themselves in that like mind frame of that's them, right? Like, am I like, oh, that works for them, or that was cool that she did that, but I want to start talking about, like, what allowed you to feel like, without the experience that you know most would have said you needed, and the educational background that you felt confident to do what you did, because I think that is where, like, we can start to really change and plant the seeds for people to go after what they want.

Arlan Hamilton 10:43

I mean, it's a few things. One was early on in life, where my mother really helped me instill that in me, even though she wasn't someone who would - she's kind of shy, you know, an introvert, so she wouldn't necessarily go out and just scream at somebody. But I observed her and her character, and I, it's something that stood with me, and she told me she said everybody's equal, and she was saying that to me to make sure that I didn't treat people poorly, you know, and I took that as okay, everybody's equal, but what I think happened is that, and it didn't happen overnight, and it wasn't, hasn't been the case my whole life, I've had people treat me really poorly, and let them do that. What happened was, there was this point where I had done so much research, and had talked to so many of these leaders in the venture capital space, and I had met with so many founders, and I had done this and that, where imposter syndrome became null and void, it was neutralized when I realized behind the curtain everybody's just figuring it out, you know. I started looking at these people who have millions of dollars under management or billions of dollars even, and these guys who are the 90% and I'm like, wait a minute, they. I could do that, I could do that, and a lot of us could do that. What they did was, instead of it being that they are truly these thinkers that you just can't even get to their level, or you know, these geniuses, what they were really good at was marketing. They're really good at marketing themselves, as such, as the emperor's clothes. Yes, and so the more I observed that, the more I thought, okay, it's common sense mixed with, like you said, gumption. It's, it's mixed with that I'm going to go out there and do it. It's definitely mixed with intent, like I had to know why I was doing it. I had such a bigger mission behind what I was doing, and not a philanthropic mission, but an impact mission, for sure, capitalistic, impactful mission at the same time, double bottom line. And that certainly helped me on days where I was struggling, and this still helps me to see that,

Jamila Souffrant 13:00

yeah, and you talk about, like, the education, like, if you don't have the physical and material resources, even as you stand or listen to this, you can be the resource, you can be the money with that, you get to regain a lot of power, because you know, maybe you don't have the relationships and connections yet, but, like, what you did, like, you spent years researching and learning and building yourself up as your best investment, but what other ways did you invest in yourself? I know you did a lot of like research, right, but you also like you went after like what you wanted in terms of connecting with people, cold emails, right, but tailored to the person you were reaching out to, and things like that. So I think just like going through like what it means to invest in yourself, and why that was so important.

Arlan Hamilton 13:43

Yeah, so you touched on a lot of things there. Part of the confidence that I have, this was actually something that someone told me this year, like I hadn't really realized it. They were interviewing me, and they said, you know, a lot of.. does your confidence come from knowing what you're talking about? And I was like, yeah, because you know that that's how you tie the two together, where I say if you don't have money and you are looking for money, you want to attract money, you do have to become money, and you have to do that through the information and through knowing everything about your lane possible, don't let me know more about your lane, don't let that next person know more, and the tied together is once you do, you'll look up one day, and you'll realize you know more about your lane than anybody can tell you, that will help instill that confidence in you in a big way, even so much so that I didn't even realize that was part of it, and it's two sections of my book, but I didn't realize that was the takeaway, it's an ongoing thing, believe that, like it's a daily thing, you're listening to this podcast because you are, you are refueling for the next few days, that's that's what you do, and that's that's good game, you know, and the second part of your question was about refresh my memory,

Jamila Souffrant 14:59

reaching out and. And using what you learn to like build the networks,

Arlan Hamilton 15:03

yeah. What you're referring to is that if I would ever send out mass emails to people to gain a job or to ask for capital for anything like that, I would make sure that there was quantity and quality that combined, right. So I think you have to do things at scale, because incrementally it's you're not going to get there as quickly as you, as you may want, and that quickly could still be years, but more importantly, is the quality, so even when I would send out messages to dozens of people at a time, or even the example that I give in the book about how I scored my first touring gig by doing this, I would definitely make sure that each email was tailored in a way, in some way. They're not going to react to spam, you know that everybody knows that. When you open up something that looks like spam, someone writes to me and they say, "Dear Hamilton, which is my last name, because that's how they accidentally put the thing, like that sort of stuff doesn't really resonate, but at the same time, you may not be able to write an opus to 100 people at once, so you kind of, you find a happy medium, and that's one way of investing in yourself, is is learning, you know, taking different courses around editing, copy editing, I think, is probably smart communication. Being able to articulate what you do in certain mediums is very important to whatever,

Jamila Souffrant 16:31

right? And a lot of that also applies across scales, right? Whether you're in corporate America and building your business, entrepreneur contract, or whatever, that works like these skill sets that we're talking about work across all platforms and levels.

Arlan Hamilton 16:45

They absolutely do, because no matter what you're doing, you are the CEO of you. You are the CEO of the empire that you're building. So that could be the Uber driver, because you got to figure out, okay, how many hours I'm going to do, going to do, what's what's the weekly amount I'm trying to get here? What are my goals? Where am I trying to go to next? How do I upsell? What do I do? It could be someone building a fund, like I, like I have been doing. It can be someone who works at a nine to five, like I used to, or overnight shift, all of that. If you're thinking about it, the way that you're figuring out, okay, what are my goals? What do I want to accomplish? What does each day mean towards that goal? What you know, you can't just wake up every day and it's just okay. This is the pattern that I'm in, and I got to do this, make ends meet. There's more to life than that, no matter what. And I'm saying this as someone who for 90% of my life, has been completely broke.

Jamila Souffrant 17:45

Yeah, and I think that's the thing about challenging what you know and what you see in front of you, because sometimes so many people like it's what they see that's their immediate environment that influences them, and it's not until they can put themselves and see something and say wait and challenge the assumption that, hey, that could be me too. One of the things that I love, because I find that, you know, if you don't have the resources, like as a parent, especially if any parents are listening, or being raised by someone who let you go, who basically allowed you to fail and still supported you, I think is like key. So, some parents may not have the resources to, like, put their kids all through, like college, and pay for everything, and introduce them to the CEO, right, like on the golfing course. But I find that when you talk about your mom, like allowing you to, like, live at home, and, like, you, you know, you went through ups and downs, but, like, she just was there for you, she let you be, was important. And I see that, like, within my own story, with, like, when you have parents that just instill that kind of confidence and let you fail, and you're there, there, you know, they're there for you, regardless of who you are, if you're ever on a magazine cover or not. Like, I think that kind of reassurance is capital for your kids to help them get to the next level.

Arlan Hamilton 18:53

Let me tell you, my mom, for I don't know how many years, I had a, I had a music magazine that I published, and it was difficult to do, but you know, every few months we put out this magazine, and it was really impressive magazine, and I had all these 1000s of people who are reading it, and everything, and Rolling Stone got in touch, and they loved it, and everything, and when that magazine was out for years, what my mom would lead with, when she would talk to her friends or with people she just met, was do you know that Arlen can type 100 words a minute, that was what she cared about, because that happened, she figured that out like when I was 20 and this was happening after that, right, so what my point is that like my mom has just been so proud of me for so many things and so many years, and like, she may joke, like, you know, she is like, 'Where's my 15%? You know, she may joke about it, but the truth of the matter is, my mom just thinks I hung the moon, whether I am, she thought that when I was on food stamps. As she thinks that today, and it's the same, it really is the same kind of temper, temper of tone. It's interesting because she doesn't jump up and down when I'm like, oh, you know, I'm on CNN, or whatever. She's just like, that is so wonderful, that is so it's a saying, that is so wonderful as the other thing. And I think that I don't have any children, so I'm not going to try to act like I can give a lot of advice, but from the point of view of a child, of a child of a really wonderful person, I can tell you when I call her, there's never a time where I call my mother, I'm going to be 40, like I said this year, there's never a time where I call her where she does not say Arlen, I could have just talked to her the day before, and there's never a time where she doesn't make me feel like it is just the joy to know each other, and that helped in those hard times, you know. I don't remember, I don't care, or nor remember what the bank account looked like on day x of this and that. I really don't, what I care about is even when the lights were out. What I cared about was that she was, that she cared, that it, that it bothered her, that her, her children were not okay. It wasn't the fact that we, we didn't have it, we wouldn't, the fact that we couldn't get it, that didn't matter at the end of the day. It mattered how she felt about it, and what she let us see, you know, and that, so I think that's if you're going through stuff right now, where you feel like even my brother, a few Christmases ago, before I started making some money, he called me, he's so upset, and he has children, and he said, I can't get him anything for Christmas, I can't get him nothing for Christmas, and I said, Alfred, your father and my father were never there for any Christmas whatsoever, and you're there for all your kids for Christmas. That's all they care about. That's really all they care about. And you know, you can't go back three, go back three Christmases and tell me what you got,

Jamila Souffrant 22:02

right? Right.

Arlan Hamilton 22:04

So that's what you are to your children, that's what you are. And on the flip side, if the negative is permeating as well, they're seeing that as well.

Jamila Souffrant 22:13

That's great, Arlen. I'm glad you actually gave that example, because there are these invisible foundations that we internally have. It's hard to measure, like kind of pinpoint our success, and why our mindsets are the way, and why some successful people do the things they do, and have the confidence. And I'd say this: even if you don't have kids, one of the things that I've heard is that, like, without even having kids yourself, like, part of it is, if you didn't receive that yourself, like, you may be listening and say, 'Well, I didn't have that kind of support or that privilege, like, right, if we call that a privilege of having a parent who supported you, is that you can reparent yourself, like it's this thing where it's just like be that voice, be that kindness to you right now, that's going through whatever you're going through, right, like building a business, just surviving in this world, this crazy world, in this crazy time, is being like what the kind of mother, father that you would have wanted to have, speak to yourself in that way to give yourself that confidence.

Arlan Hamilton 23:03

Absolutely,

Jamila Souffrant 23:04

so now when it comes to, you know, building, so you now are investing, you are wanting to be kind of like the waterfall that springs forth and is able to fill up other little waterfalls and rivers and streams, right? Like, so you're like investing downward, not only in yourself but now to other companies and founders and people of color and all this amazing stuff, I love that you know you actually say there's like a danger though to pushing too hard and I find that in the financial like space like I'm in the financial independence world where a lot of it is okay I want to retire and like and really when they say retire it's like I just want to do what I want to do, maybe that's quit their job and start a business, and or travel the world, and so there is a balance between going after that goal, but like, how far do you want to push that limit, right? Like, how far you want to go for that, how hard are you willing to hustle, and so you talk about, and I feel like it's key, is that like hustling to that goal, like you have to be careful, because you can't fill other people's cups if your is yours is empty, so can we talk a little bit about how you are prioritizing your self care so that you can do more in the world? I think it'll be helpful for people right now who are personally trying to do that in their own life, like help others, but then still want to reach your own goals.

Arlan Hamilton 24:16

Yeah, I had a podcast episode, by the way, one, your podcast episode for your first million is one of our still one of our most listened

Speaker 2 24:25

to. Oh, wow, people

Arlan Hamilton 24:26

really got a lot from that. I think it was because we broke away from the raising a million dollars to, or having a million dollars to the when you hit your million download mark from this podcast, which

Jamila Souffrant 24:38

is

Arlan Hamilton 24:38

more recently I had a an episode that said who was taking care of the caretakers in this moment, and it was just me, kind of riffing and thinking about that, because so many get overlooked for the past maybe two two solid years, maybe a three year mark, right, I have been really. Really doubling down on the self care, not only preaching it, but practicing it, because I got burned out after I raised my first fund, which was about 1.2 million in 2015 16, and invested in my first 30 or so companies, so 25k each for the most part, 50k whatever, I didn't know what was going to happen next, and I had things had changed so much in that time, so that was just a really interesting time. I had been just on for so many years because I was in survival mode, and once I realized that there's only so much of me, of my energy, I hit a wall, and I hit it fast, and it was not good, and it was like medically not good, it was emotionally not good. I was having like a breakdown that was coming across physically, and so after that happened, I was like, I have to be more than a than a tweet, I have to be more than I have to be as good as or better than the tweets that I put out there that are positive, and I have to really look at what I'm doing, and so how that translates today is that my boundaries are like on point, they are so on point. I used to like really envy a couple of people in my life who, and both of them are black women who had really strong boundaries, and knew exactly what they're like. You, this is my time. This is what I'm willing to do. This is what I'm saying no to. This, and I didn't know that it was a skill that you could actually build upon, but it is. So, if you don't feel like you have good boundaries right now, I didn't have good boundaries for such a long time. I have really great boundaries, as far as I can see, compared to three years ago, and that has made all the difference. So that comes in, that it comes with what I will am willing to say yes to, when it comes to like how much time I give to something, how many, where, etc. What, what it is, what the topic is, and then it also comes with, like, the value I put on that time, like, you know, there's a whole chapter in the book where I talk about how I got my speaking fee to what it is today, which is my second highest revenue stream, and completely wouldn't have, I mean, there's two chapters, because one I had to get overstage right, and then the second was how I then turned that into what it is today, and you can't get from zero to where I've gotten in this short amount of time without having established some boundaries. So that's where it starts. That's where self-care really starts for me, and I am making sure that I don't stray from that, even during a pandemic. I mean, it's even more important.

Jamila Souffrant 27:42

Yeah, so I was gonna say that, and self-care can be free, right? Like, it doesn't have to be the elaborate, it can really just be taking space for yourself. If

Arlan Hamilton 27:49

there is a door in your apartment or home, if you have an apartment or home, again, I've been homeless too, so again, I'm checking my privilege everywhere I go, but if you have a door that locks anywhere that can be the first step to your self care. If you don't, or even if you do, but you want a different alternative. Headphones, headphones are self care, are part of self care. Take yourself away in a podcast, and an audio book, and a song, and a playlist that's you, you know, take yourself away from it all,

Jamila Souffrant 28:24

right now. I know we have to wrap up soon. I do want to just touch upon your personal financial goals, right? So, like, this is a personal finance podcast, and you know, we could talk about, like, reaching goals, whether it's payoff debt, saving, investing, whatever that is. Is there anything that you, right now, like, on your horizon, that you're like, you know, that's the next personal finance goal I want to meet.

Arlan Hamilton 28:44

Yeah, well, I have started investing in other people's funds, small investments, but very like an inflection point for them, and in fact, some of them were like the first investment, like someone did for me. So I, what I am dabbling in it now, and what I want to be able to do is on a yearly basis have a certain amount and a certain number of investments that I make into other funds, because I feel like that is where things really get cranked up, and I'm not just talking about like venture capital, more venture capital funds, I'm talking about funds that are hacked, like mine was, where it's, it may be a crowd equity site, it might be an angel group that got together of black women in South Carolina, you know, it may be this, this, and that. I think that when I'm able to flip that lever, I think that's when things really start getting interesting, and I'm hoping to be in that position. I think a few of the revenue streams will that I'm working on, will start helping, then I think within a year it'll be more of a professional structured fund that I have.

Jamila Souffrant 29:47

Yeah, okay, that's so amazing. I can't watch, I can't wait to see that all like unfold for you now. So, first, like, tell people where they can find your book and who it's for. It's like people in the tech world read this, or is this for everyone?

Arlan Hamilton 29:58

Oh, no, it's not just for. People in the tech world, it really, I mean, it, I know everybody said this for everybody, it is for everybody, it really is, I mean, this people have read it, critics have said the same, but the first group of people, I think, is if you're a woman of color, first group is if you're a woman of color from 25 to 45 and you have been sitting on an idea or something has fallen through, or you are in the middle of raising or building your company, and you want all the kind of, like, all the inspiration in the world, and all the tools in the world to make that happen. This is going to be perfect for you. Outside of that, any person of color, any woman across the board, anyone, and that goes for LGBTQ as well. In that first tier, anyone who feels underestimated right now, you're going to find something from it. Doesn't matter, it literally doesn't matter if you're, if you do data entry, if you work as on-demand driver, if you are doing a nine to, if you're doing like working at a restaurant, any of those things, all the things I've done, you're going to get, you're going to, you're going to find yourself along my journey, whether you are making $12 an hour or whether you have millions of dollars under management or as part of your wealth, there's something along the way on that journey that will speak to you, and and I've already seen it happen, I've seen a lot of guys get a lot from this, which surprised me to be honest with you, guys from all backgrounds, because it's not super aggressive, and I, you know, like a lot of these books that guys are reading that are in the inspirational space are like, yeah, you got to go hard or go home, you know, and you got to work out 50 hours a day. Mine is more like a softer touch, but at the same time it takes a lot of gumption, as you said, to do what I did, and I think that you'll feel that adrenaline rush from this book for sure.

Jamila Souffrant 31:53

Yeah, and so lastly, Where can they pick it up? What's your site? Where can they follow you?

Arlan Hamilton 31:56

You can go to It's About Damn time.com for everything. You can pick up the book, hardcover, you can get the, if you want it right now, you don't want to wait for shipping, just get that audio version, get the ebook version, do both, gift it, it's about damn time.com, is the hub, all

Jamila Souffrant 32:12

right, and I'll link all that in the episode show notes, thanks so much, Arlen, for this interview, I know it will inspire a lot of people, thank you,

Arlan Hamilton 32:19

thank you, I really appreciate it.

Jamila Souffrant 32:25

Okay, I really hope you enjoyed that interview, that conversation with Arlen. I know I did, and actually we did the video interview to this, so I know typically you guys are used to listening to me, but we actually recorded this on video, so you can check out the video interview on my YouTube channel. The links are going to be in the episode show notes. So I wanted to just give a little background on how I met Arlen in person, because I think that speaks to everything she's about in terms of having a thought in your mind or challenging what the norms are, and really inviting yourself, giving yourself your own invitation, which she talks more about in her book. It's about damn time, but really, this is how I met Ireland. I started to learn about her through the internets, on Twitter and Instagram. I would see, like, her, like, face pop up, and this, you know, this black woman who was in the venture capital world, breaking down barriers, and so I didn't know that much about her, but I started to start researching more about who she was, because her story intrigued me. So then I found out she had a podcast called Your First Million, and it was all about, well, the episodes that I started to listen to were all about reaching your first million in capital, something like with money, and I started to binge on all her episodes, and I really loved it, and I particularly loved her more personal episodes, where she talked about, like, how she became who she was, more the background, not just like the tech or the investing side of things, but like who she was as a person. Quite honestly, I get the most from people who share that part of their story, because I can then, like, pinpoint and look at how that relates to me, or what I can do better, or improve upon, so I remember listening and binging on her podcast, Your First Million, and she had an episode about getting over stage fright. I thought that was really good, because I, at that time, I had a, I had a speaking engagement happening, like the first big speaking engagement that I had, and so I thought that episode that she had was very helpful, and then I started to hear that she started to say on the podcast, "Hey, if you think you have a story to tell about your first million, it can be your first million of anything. Hit me up, like. And, like, she actually gave her email address in the episode, and honestly, when I first heard that, I didn't think of myself to reach out to her, because, you know, I don't have a million dollars, like, invested in cash or cash or anything like that, but I was approaching my 1 million download mark for the podcast late last year, and so I was listening to the podcast a bit more, and she said it again, and I said, "Wait a second. She said, "This could be any kind of first million. I wonder if she'd be interested in a million downloads as someone you know she'd want to talk to. Someone who's reaching a million downloads, like what that was like, starting from scratch, like her, who you know, started with really nothing. Me building this platform, Journey to Launch, from scratch. And so I heard it, and I said, you know, I'm gonna email her, I'm sure she gets a million emails and pitches to be on her show, but I'm gonna send her an email. And I sent her an email.

Jamila Souffrant 35:19

I remember I was cleaning up my closet, and I think I sent it like midnight, or it was really late, and I sent her the email, and I said to her it was personalized about what I loved about her show, and what I was able to do with Journey to Launch, and what I was basically the mission, and what I wanted to do, and impacting people, and it was also a short email, so I was able to convey that in a few sentences, just FYI, I know part of it is like how you reach out to people and get them to respond to you, so I was able to do that, and a couple, I think, I don't know if it was days or weeks later, someone on her team reached out, I believe it was Chacho who works with her, who was amazing, and he was just like, let's get on the phone and talk a bit, and so we talked first about like, who I was, what I was doing, and we set up a time for me to go on her show, and I was able to go and meet Arlan in person. She was going to be in New York City. We scheduled a time for me to go meet her. It was at a hotel room. I met Chacho. We talked a little bit, and it was really a great experience, because again, this was really one of those things where you know how maybe you have someone you admire or you follow, and you're kind of just like, how would I ever get into their world or them to know who I am? And it was surreal then, now being kind of looking at Arlen from, you know, a distance for a bit to now being in a space where I'm in a hotel room about to record an interview with her about podcasting about Journey to Launch, and so she was really nice. We recorded that episode, and really it was focused on how I can journey to launch to a million downloads, and I shared just like, you know, just some tactical things I did, and everything, and it was really a good interview. So, you're you heard her say in the episode that my episode actually is one of the top downloaded episodes of her entire podcast, and she's had one of the top episodes, not the top, not yet, maybe it will be one day, but she has had so many amazing guests on her show, from founders who have raised millions of dollars to high-profile, like actors, actresses, so to hear that my episode was one of her most listened to, is pretty amazing. So, I'm gonna link that episode in the episode show notes, my appearance on Arlen's show, but I wanted to bring that up because Arlen talks about in her book, and in her story, she would just like cold reach out to people, and we talked about it in the episode, but really like making it personable, but like, what about you? Like, would this person want to know about or learn about to want to meet you? And I think even in terms of just inviting yourself to the table, right? You know, you may have this idea, and you're thinking, well, you know who's gonna want me, or how can I fit in here, or that's for someone else, and I promise you that as long as you can see yourself right. I saw, like, when, when she said, "Hey, you can reach out for anything. If it's a million of, I don't know, why she didn't say peanuts, but a million of something. I actually saw myself talking to her, because I said, "Why wouldn't she want to learn about this podcast, this little podcast that could reach a million downloads? So it was me thinking that I was worth her time, and whoever her audience is, like them learning from me, that made me feel like I could be in the room with her. And so I feel like this applies to anything in life.

Jamila Souffrant 38:32

There is something you may be thinking about on the fence about, maybe you don't even see yourself in the situation, you know, like you're hearing all these amazing stories of people traveling the world and possibly starting businesses, and you see all this stuff on internet, and you're kind of feeling removed from it, like I'll just go back to my everyday life, which, by the way, everyday life is nothing wrong with that, but if you have a vision and you see something, know that you can do that too. All it takes is for you to put yourself in that situation, for you to believe in yourself. Belief in self is the foundation. Without it, nothing else matters. You know, I think most people get caught up because you have a desire, right? You have a desire that maybe you want to reach financial independence, travel the world, start a company, but then your belief in yourself or what you can do is not there, and that is where the angst, that is where the friction lies, because you have a desire that you want to do something, but you don't believe that you can do it, and I feel like so many get caught up in that whirlwind, and that's where you kind of get discouraged, because you really don't think you can have the things you want, and however you can build belief in yourself, do that, that confidence, that building within yourself. Arlen talks about educating yourself, so if there's something that you want to learn, you want to get into, read the books, listen to the podcast, follow those people, learn what they're doing, the skill sets and their personalities that led. Them to do the things they did, so not just the tactical stuff, but what allows someone to succeed in the way that you want to, you know. I wanted to share that little backstory with you on how I actually met Arlen in person, and why I think you should definitely, if you feel like you're someone who's underestimated, overlooked, pick up this book, one, but then just follow Arlen, continue following me, because I feel like I like her, want to be able to impact people in a way that's exponentially bigger than myself, right? Like, if I can plant a seed in you and into your friend or family member and other people, that you too can reach financial freedom and live the life you love, like then you can pass that on to your kids and their kids, and you know we can exponentially make an impact. So, thank you for tuning into that long story of how I met Arlen. Don't forget, you can get the episode show notes for this episode by going to Journey to launch.com or click the description of wherever you're listening to this, and you can still grab your Jump Start Guide for free to help you on your journey to financial freedom by going to Journey to launch.com/jump start. If you want to support me and the podcast and love the free content and information that you get here, here are four ways that you can support me in the show. One, make sure you're subscribed to the podcast wherever you listen, whether that's Apple Podcasts, that purple app on your phone, your Android device, YouTube, Spotify, wherever it is that you happen to listen, just subscribe, so you are not missing an episode. And if you're happening to listen to this in Apple Podcasts, rate, review, and subscribe there. I appreciate and read every single review. Number two, follow me on my social media accounts, I'm at Journey to Launch on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and I love, love, love interacting with journeyers there. Three support and check out the sponsors of this show. If you hear something that interests you, sponsors are the main ways we keep the podcast lights on here, so show them some love for supporting your girl. Four, and last but not least, share this episode, this podcast with a friend or family member or coworker, so that we can spread the message of Journey to Launch. All right, that's it until next week. Keep on journeying, journeyers.

Speaker 3 42:22

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Speaker 2 42:49

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Transcribed by https://otter.ai