Today we’d like to introduce you to Jasira Monique.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jasira. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I first became an entrepreneur as a new author. I originally published my first book of poetry, Bruised Kisses, while I was living in Aurora, Colorado in 2009, After publishing, I did a small book tour throughout the Midwest in Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico and then, I moved to the East Coast starting at my alma mater Howard University in Washington, D.C. and finally brought it home to West Palm Beach, Florida.
I was excited to see people light up as they read my work and how it connected with fans of every hue. I did many book signings in my home town and quickly started laying the groundwork for my second book, ‘Woman on the Move: Unapologetic Poetry’. I’ve always been an out the box thinker and for my second publication, I didn’t want to have a typical book launch, I wanted to do something unexpected so I wrote a short stage-play and worked with a Fort Lauderdale based production company, Godz Sun Productions and we brought it to life for my book launch of Woman on the Move.
My unconventional book launch helped show my peers that I was serious about creating art and work that challenged the status quo, that I was committed with showcasing local talent and dedicated to collaborating with local business owners to create a shift in the culture. I think that’s what has helped me and ‘Woman on the Move’ “the movement” stay relevant today. I’m a mompreneur as well. My son is a young entrepreneur of a business called Young Kings where we worked together and designed a mobile app to empower Black male youth. I’ve been very committed to making sure that I expose my son to greatness and now he’s taking that same energy and helping his peers. Empowerment starts at home.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
There have been many challenges. I think many entrepreneurs like myself are zealous about fulfilling their mission or purpose, but may not be equipped with all the know-how to make their business sustainable over time. I hit the ground running, but fell flat on my face many times. I was so excited as a new author, did a ton of market research and invested a lot of resources into my book. However, in the beginning, you’re doing everything for the most part: marketing, advertising, identifying book signing opportunities, coordinating the book tour and paying all of your travel expenses and more. It’s expensive and depending what type of notoriety or buzz you have in different markets you might not make anywhere near you’ve hoped after all that travel. I met a ton of amazing people and had incredible experiences but the bottom line wasn’t where I needed it to be at my first attempt at entrepreneurship. I added a few streams of income such as public speaking, professional writing services, and travel consultation, but I lacked the strategy to make the machine give me more than what I brought in from a corporate job. I took time away from the main business, traveled internationally, worked on re-evaluating what I enjoyed doing the most and focused on reinventing myself and my brand.
Woman on the Move Enterprises LLC – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
In 2017, I launched a new business Woman on the Move Enterprises LLC which consists of the global virtual network, live mastermind events, virtual programming, digital content, and social media management. The company’s mission is to help women achieve their dreams through the strategic use of social media and its unlimited resources.
One thing I’ve learned for sure over the past ten years is that if you’re committed to achieving your dreams and connect with the right people via social media, you’ll be able to do anything because they’ll equip you with the tools and connections to make those things happen. Through social media connections, I was empowered with information on how to budget travel internationally, make passive income while traveling, I learned how to become a playwright and produce a micro-stage play, win top pageant placements, model internationally and I’ve had a curriculum debuted in Nairobi, Kenya. I’ve shared tips with hundreds of women through social media and my travel eBook was downloaded over 4,500 times. I’m most known for sharing resources with women to help them achieve their dreams.
I’ve identified several things that I’ve consistently done with social media networking over the years to help me achieve my goals and I’ve committed myself to ensure that I not only share the ‘how’ behind those things but the ‘who’ as well. So, the live mastermind panels and virtual events are unique because many of the people I feature are people who’ve I’ve collected over the years. They’ve stood out to me because of their brilliance, boldness, diligence, and desire to empower others. I think it’s important to share those visionaries with as many people as you can so that you can make that spirit of winning contagious. I’ve experienced a lot of loss of loved ones over the years and I realize that all wish they had more time to achieve their dreams, so my mission is to cut down the time it takes to get a person from idea to actualization with Woman on the Move. I want to see women live full lives so they can live freely.
We’ve been very fortunate to hear many guests describe their experiences as life transforming, inspiring and truly heartfelt while at our events. We’ve seen several successful collaborations happen in such a short amount of time from women attending our events and staying in touch on and offline. We’ve had a top U.S. Trademark and Patent attorney, mobile app developer, expats who’ve traveled to over 40 countries, top branding and marketing experts and many more present to our women from Bangkok, Thailand to Topeka, Kansas. We’re committed to providing access to insight from the best of the best to our members. We create experiences that embrace femininity, stimulate the senses and are beautiful to see because we want women to feel loved on the moment they see our brand or enter into a Woman on the Move space.
What do you know now that you wish you knew when you were just starting out?
I would’ve had a powerful team of successful businessmen and women to guide me through development and implementation, documenting stages and scaling. Scaling is something that wasn’t discussed enough when I first got started and that should have been the first conversation. I was too happy with the bare small successes. I would’ve sent out more invoices! Invoices are like gold. I would tell any entrepreneur to always remember unless you heard a ‘no’ the sale isn’t off the table and to keep pushing. I gave up too quickly with the least bit of resistance because I took rejection personally. In business, you have to get super used to hearing ‘No’ and be relentless until that ‘yes’ comes along. The people who are relentless are usually the ones who take home the biggest prize because they keep their egos and feelings far away from their wallets.
Pricing:
- Tickets to our next event are on sale for $20 via cashapp $womanonthemove
- Annual Membership to Woman on the Move is available for $120
- We have sponsorship opportunities that are available from $250 to $1,000
Contact Info:
- Address: www.jasiramonique.com (Personal website)
- Website: www.womanonthemoveenterprises.com
- Phone: 2402576387
- Email: contact@womanonthemoveenterprises.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womanonthemovegroup/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/womanonthemovegroup/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/womanonthemove_
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/woman-on-the-move-enterprises/
Image Credit:
HS Photography (the one image of me), Daniel Fortune of CreativDept (All of the event photos), A1A Print USA (Woman on the Move book cover)
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