Dr. Michelle Thomas with The Exceptional Woman Enterprise

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Stone Payton: Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. Please join me in welcoming back to the Business RadioX microphone. Author, speaker, coach with The Exceptional Woman Enterprise Dr. Michelle Thomas. How are you?

Dr. Michelle Thomas: I am doing amazing. How are you? Stone, thank you for having me back.

Stone Payton: I am doing well. It’s absolutely my pleasure. What a delight to have you back on the broadcast. We had so much fun last time when you were in studio. I’m really looking forward to this conversation. I know there’s an upcoming event that we want to dive into in a few moments, but I’m thinking to get things going, maybe remind us, give us a little bit of primer about your work mission. Purpose. What are you and your team really out there trying to do for folks?

Dr. Michelle Thomas: So the Exceptional Woman Enterprise is a parent company of multiple subsidiaries that focus primarily on ensuring that women entrepreneurs, especially women of color entrepreneurs, receive the resources, the funding, the support and the networking community that they need to be able to achieve sustainable success. And so we focused in on this because statistically, I’m a data person. Right. And so research tells us that starting in the Covid era 2020, 2021, we saw a record number of women of color entrepreneurs to launch their businesses. Well, what a lot of people don’t know is the IRS has its own litmus test, right, of what they consider the difference between a hobby business and a successful business. And so the loose terms of it is, if you are in business five years or more, but you have to be profitable for the IRS to consider your business a true business, uh, mature business. Well, statistically, uh, a lot of women entrepreneurs launch their businesses, but within the first 12 to 24 months are forced to prematurely close before they can even realize their success because they don’t have the right access. It’s not just about money, it’s about access. And so the Exceptional Woman Enterprise, we have multiple different entities that help you achieve the access that you need to achieve the growth that you want to do. That’s the brief overview of what we do.

Stone Payton: What a marvelous and noble pursuit. I know I asked this the last time we talked, but remind us of what got you going down this path. Aside from the obvious need, how in the world did you find yourself in this, in this line of work?

Dr. Michelle Thomas: By pure accident? Let me say let me say how this happened. So, um, back in 2017, um, my husband and I are a blended family, and we have seven kids, six boys, one girl, um, two dogs, two cats. A partridge in a pear tree. If you look deep enough. I’m just saying, that’s just how my house be rocking. Okay. So now you know our kids are grown. But back in 2017, um, June 15th, 2017, we lost one of our babies. He was 19, we lost him to a car accident. And so immediately everyone flooded me with these grief books and things about loss or whatever. And I wasn’t ready for it. Right. So what I did in my own little cubby is I took my laptop and I wrote about what I knew, I just I wrote about blending the family because when my husband and I first got together, I called it the corporate merger because we were two business people that had kids. So it wasn’t just like the regular get together type of thing. You got two really strong, bullheaded leaders that now have to live in one house. It’s the corporate merger. Like there was a negotiation table just to get this to work, right. And so between the seven kids, multiple different last names, whatever, no one on the outside knew that we were blended family because that’s how we structured our family.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: And so when we had this tragic loss and Bryant was our middle kid with the biggest personality, he was like the sales person for my business, one of my businesses. And like, he was just that kid. And when we when we had that loss, it impacted my family tremendously. And because I have a house full of males, it was important for me to make sure that they were able to process their feelings. So I started writing in my own way about the experience of blending of family. So this little, this little journal thing that I created, a friend of mine was like, oh, you need to turn this into a book. So I reluctantly like the bad child. Reluctantly, I reluctantly published it, but I knew that we guaranteed was going to have eight copies sold, and that was it, right? Because I wrote my family, wrote eight deep just in this in itself. And so my mom and daddy was going to buy a copy. So, okay, that’s ten. We got ten copies to be sold and then we’ll let this go. Stone it went global. Um, I had especially what was really profound for me is I had more men to reach out to me and say thank you. If I had had this book, I probably wouldn’t be divorced now because I never understood and looked at it from that perspective.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: So that began me speaking. People were calling me around the globe to do these conferences and do these speaking engagements. As I’m in the space and in these conferences, people begin, especially women begin to ask me about my professional career and how did I get there? How did I get with the Mark Cuban’s? How did I get with all of the Dan Gilbert’s and the Eric Thomases and the Tony Robbins? And how did I get in those spaces? And so I just would have these conversations. It wasn’t a business. I was just having these conversations. And it eventually the first entity that I created was the Exceptional Woman Tour, which was my event division, where we would go around from city to city. Instead of having people to pay to come to me, I would incur the cost to go from city to city and find the the, the women that were in that city that were hungry for professional growth and, and so what what began as just kind of a it was my own process of grief. And I actually spoke because I was giving Bryant voice. I wasn’t speaking for me. I wanted to give him voice because he thought that his mother was a superhero. And so I didn’t feel like a superhero, but because my kid thought I was a superhero, I’m gonna get out here and I’m going to keep this kid’s life going.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: Well, it turned into so much demand for ethical, vetted, true business principles. That’s what we stand upon. We stand upon not just the hype or the drip campaign or the funnel campaign type of information. We stand upon true business practices that transcends any type of trends or fads or anything we process on the true business cycle. And and what I found was that a lot of people and a lot of women, this was a man thing. Most men, you guys do this organically, but from a women’s women’s perspective, we usually focus on the emotion of it instead of the hard core business principles. And so my three plus decades of executive leadership turned into the exceptional woman enterprise where I want before I take my last breath, I want to see sustainable, permanent change for us as women entrepreneurs to stand upon so we no longer have to keep looking backwards for the next six generations. That’s my goal, the foundation that we that we build through the exceptional woman enterprise. I want women, young women, young entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs to be able to stand on this new, strong foundation for the next six generations. And then my my work will be done.

Stone Payton: What a marvelous story and inspiring path. I got to ask, what was it like? Especially in the early days of becoming a professional speaker, where were you intimidated at all? Did you have to learn some, I don’t know, skills tactics on how to deliver your message effectively in that medium as well?

Dr. Michelle Thomas: So for me, it was offered. I tried that stone, I really did, I tried, I tried to go and do the master classes and figure out whatever, but it didn’t fit. It didn’t feel right. I come, I come to my audience with a conversation. I want to make sure that I’m not. Whether you pay me to be the keynote or whatever my title is on stage. I want every person who sits in that office and that audience to feel like that. It’s just me and them having a conversation because I found that that resonates better than me leading with my expertise, me leading with my bank account, me leading with I’m all this. That’s kind of stuff in this day and time, because everybody has instant access. You can Google.

Speaker4: Anything if.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: If, if I’m gonna take the time out to go and get dressed and go to an event or go to a conference, I need that conference to deliver to me something I cannot Google. Does that make sense?

Speaker4: Yeah.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: And so for me, I didn’t want to resemble everyone else on stage. I wanted that by the time we left that event, or whoever walked out of that space that I was in walked away understanding that whatever they think they can do, they actually can do.

Stone Payton: It seems to me, for outside looking in, you’ve got so many irons in the fire, so many plates spinning. But they include, uh, I want to make sure this is accurate above and beyond the writing and the speaking and providing all these resources in a, in a variety of ways for people to access them. Am I right? Do you also find yourself in direct coaching relationships with individuals and groups, as well as part of your practice?

Dr. Michelle Thomas: Absolutely. One of my we actually own two corporate office and one of my corporate office, which is called Success Industries. We named it after our six kids at the time, but it spells six six Success industries is a minority consultant firm where we go into small, midsize and corporations, and we dive into the operations of that to help them to streamline and better create an effective operations so that they can achieve money to the bottom line. So we spend our time really in multiple industries, different industries. Um, but we drill down to what the problem is, and then we offer the solutions so that instead of you having to throw money at the problem, we find out where the core of the problem is so that you can strategically place your resources where they need to be so that you can get a result. So we do consulting, I do coaching. We also have now started, um, we haven’t launched the Universe Personal. Hear about it. We’re going to be launching an academy called Melanated Moguls Academy, where from people around the country who have experienced their success and their growth, but also understand the barriers that are still out there, the micro biases that we all experience. Um, I wanted to pull together an academy that just didn’t focus in on women, but focused in strategically on professional growth. So you don’t have to be an entrepreneur. But if you want to grow yourself to the VP status or the C-suite status, the Melanated Moguls Academy is going to get you not only the mentorship that you need, but the resources that you need to grow.

Stone Payton: So you touched on this earlier in the conversation, but I wonder if you would would say some more about your decision to specifically focus on serving women, and particularly women of color. I mean, because some of this is surely strategic, some of it is certainly born of the heart. But say a little bit more about that decision.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: So through my research, I found that a lot of people only did surface level research of what was actually causing women of color businesses to fail, and they always wanted to equate it to our financial stability and the lack of funding that we got. Well, here’s the thing about business. Business doesn’t really care what color you are. Business doesn’t care what gender you are. All business. The big cog of business has been around for centuries. All it cares about is that you can do what you say you can do, right? That’s how business works. That’s the bottom line principle. And so for women, what was happening because it’s so few of us that actually have these C-suite positions and actually watch how business actually works from behind the scenes. We don’t have access to those tables, so we tend to enter in our entrepreneurial journey or our small business journey from the experience and the mindset of an employee. Even if you were a manager or a leader in it, you still make employee type decisions because someone else gave you it was a pass down effect. You learn what you needed to do because it came from the owner or the key person that you never got a chance to sit with. So what I do is I take my 30 plus years of experience at those tables with some of the most prominent people, and I convert it into language and operations and strategic movement that is tailored for a specific entrepreneur and a small business owner. So I convert that corporate lingo and that corporate operation and move it into a space that any entrepreneur, in any small business owner, can grab on to implement into their process and achieve big business success.

Stone Payton: So now that this work has snowballed like it has and you’re clearly have hit your your stride at this point, what is the what’s the most rewarding? What’s the most fun about it for you these days?

Dr. Michelle Thomas: To be able to hear the stories of people or meet people that I may have met five years ago, six years ago, maybe they attended one of my conferences. Maybe they heard me speak somewhere that I have never physically met before. But when I’m in a space and they get a chance to actually come and tell me their story, and I hear the shift and the impact that that conversation that I had, not directly with them, but they received it and were able to achieve success that they weren’t ever able to dream of. Because a lot of us are first generation, right? We are sitting in spaces and we’re navigating in in spaces that our parents or no one in our family has ever stepped into. This is a venture that we can’t call our uncles or aunts and be able to say and ask, how did they do this? Because we’re first generation. And so when, when, when when it’s that group of people, the underrepresented communities. My joy comes from taking a person that statistically has been led to believe that they could never have this level of success and watch them blossom into their true self, utilizing the very skills that they were born with. They just need to sharpen them a little bit and get a little bit more business experience and watch this person achieve something that no one ever believed that they could do.

Stone Payton: Well, that has to feel good. You must sleep incredibly well at night, not just as a product of all your work, but the the impact that your that your work is having. That’s fantastic. All right I want to hear about this event. You’ve got one coming up in in August. Walk us through it. What can we expect to see there.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: Oh my goodness. The 2024 Growth Business Conference is going to be and what I call home, um, in Dallas, Texas, August 1st and second. Um, I called Dallas home because I spent 16 years in Dallas. Uh, most of my kids were born in Dallas. And so I grew up from a business perspective in Dallas. Dallas took a broken girl from North Carolina that drove in with no job and no money, and taught me how to own my space, not try to skate off of it, but really own my space. And so coming back to Dallas is really important for me. And so the 2024 Growth Business Conference is going to focus in on getting our entrepreneurs and our attendees to not only learn the essential resources that they need, but we are actually implementing in every step that we’re doing, action items that they’re going to implement during the conference. Here’s what I find out. During conferences, we make people feel invisible for one, two, three, or four days, right? When you’re in that energy, you’re in that space. You feel like that you can accomplish anything that you want to.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: But then the next Tuesday, when you’re at home and all the bills are coming in and everybody’s pulling and tugging at you, see, somehow something happens with that energy, it dissipates real quick. And now you’re trying to figure out how to get that back. Well, what we’re going to do is while you’re in the seat, while you’re in the presence of the experts, you’re going to execute it in your own business. Bring your laptop, bring your phones, bring everything that you got, because we’re going to implement it right there so that you can become the expert of the skill. And when you go back to your office or go back home, you can now sustain it and grow it. That’s the key. You don’t walk away confused. My guarantee for all of my conferences is that you walk away with three resources and steps that you can implement immediately, and receive results from those things. We don’t do drip campaigns. We’re not giving you anything that you got to pay me more money to find out more about. We give it all. We give.

Speaker4: It all.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: On stage two days. Day one is the first day is the general session where our speakers, our experts are pouring all type of financial knowledge, operational knowledge and people knowledge. That’s sales, that’s customers, that’s your employees. We’re going to pour all that into you. Day two, August 2nd is strictly to drill down what you learn on day one and to break out sessions so that we can really answer your questions and really implement that and instill it into your operations. And so our conferences have a different experience to them. And I’m not saying that because it’s mine. I’m saying that because that’s the feedback that I get from everyone in attendance, that it’s a whole different experience than they’ve ever had. So this year is going to be August 1st and second. It’s going to be at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Conference Center. I’m encouraging every entrepreneur, every business professional to attend this conference. But we did something different, Stone, that we haven’t done in the other five years of doing this. We are going to have a business expo and we’re going to have an Authors Corner. So I want to speak right now to those business owners who need customers, who need to get their businesses out there, who want to find the people who need the products and services that they are selling. Get a vendor booth here. We are going to strategically drive sales to you. That’s our job for our indie authors out there. If you have publications, if you have a book that you’re putting out there, if you have, if you just want to poll the audience to find out if your concept is going to work, get your indie author book booth so that you now can meet the very people who are going to buy your publication and your book, and your best seller.

Stone Payton: I love it because while you are clearly the the grand master of this, uh, this this event, it’s not the Doctor Michelle show You have people with specific expertise and experience in these different domains. So they’re getting the best of the best, and they’re getting a platform to practice application in a safe environment. And they’re getting an opportunity to share their own stories and promote their own work while they’re there, aren’t they?

Dr. Michelle Thomas: Absolutely. And when I say, I mean, you hit the nail on the head, it is not. I warn my audience, people, you might find me sitting beside you because I take more notes than I am on stage. I because again, I want to make sure that people understand that we at the Exceptional Woman Enterprise, we walk our talk. I’m not going to stand there and tell you I know everything, but what I do really well is position my business and position myself around people that have more skills and strengths in areas that I am weak in. And I make sure that we are shored up in that way, so that the experts who need to be able to pour into you are the people that are talking to you. So this is how we strategically place this conference, so that if I don’t have an answer for you, there is someone in the room that has an answer for you. But it’s more than just you sitting in the seat taking notes. I want you to feel involved and action oriented. So there’s going to be a portion of this conference. I’m letting everybody know because you’re my friends. Don’t nobody else knows about this where we’re actually in the middle of the conference. We’re going to stop everything and we’re going to help you find your next customer, your next employee, your next business partner. Right in the middle of the conference, you’re going to walk away with some work. You’re going to walk away with a sale. You’re going to walk away with a new business partner during this conference.

Stone Payton: Wow. Okay. So at this point in early July and this thing is in early August, there’s still some registration available. There’s still, uh, booth space available. Yes.

Speaker4: Yes. Okay. Yes.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: So I, um, I actually put this in the chat so you could share it with everyone, but everyone can go to Growth Conference, dot live, live. And you can secure your vendor booth, your author, your indie author author book. You can get our VIP pass, which will give you a whole lot of access to our experts and some expert things that really behind the scene, things that you’re going to get as a founder or someone that wants to be in that VIP room. Um, our general session. But we even broke our tickets down this year because I know not everybody may have two days to spare to a conference. Right.

Speaker4: So you get to choose.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: You can a la carte however you want to attend this conference to things that are specific to what you need. So you make that choice. And I wanted to make sure that I got on your show, and I talked to people globally to make sure that if you need to be in this space, we have a room for you.

Stone Payton: All right. Let’s make sure that we give them that website once again, and let’s give them some coordinates to tap into your work in general. And maybe at some point, if they want to have a substantive conversation with you or someone on your team, let’s leave them with some of those coordinates as well.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: Absolutely. So the website for the conference is Growth Conference Dot live. And you can get all the information about the conference there. If you want to connect with me, you can connect with me through Exceptional Woman Network.com and all of our information. If you want coaching, mentorship, if you need someone, if you want to do specific coaching packages through me, then you can email email me at ashaunna a s h a w n a. That’s a s h a w n a at Michelle s Thomas comm. That’s m I c h e l l e the letter s as in Sam t h o m a s com. So I’ll get all of this information to you soon so that if they needed it, they missed it on the the live. You guys can post it, but find me if you want to find everything out about me, you can look at Exceptional woman Network.com. And you’ll always. They’ll get you to me. And we’ll find the resources that you specifically need to get your business where it needs to go. And again, I just want to plug in. This conference is for people who are tired of the predatory like promises that are plaguing us so much about I can make you rich in 37 days, those type of things. This is not that conference. This is not the get rich quick conference. This is true business principles that you can rinse and repeat throughout any industry to help you grow.

Stone Payton: Doctor Michelle, this has been, as I knew it would, an absolute delight. I’m so glad that we had you back on the broadcast. Thank you for your insight, your perspective, your enthusiasm, and the the nature of your work and the impact that you’re creating. You are doing such important work and we sure appreciate you.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: Thank you so much, Simon. And anytime. Listen, I’m all I love being on your show. This is amazing.

Stone Payton: Absolutely. My pleasure. All right, until next time. This is Stone Payton for Doctor Michelle Thomas with the exceptional woman Enterprise and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying, we’ll see you in the fast lane.