An interview with Dr. Rasheda Weaver, Founder and CEO of Weaver's Social Enterprise Directory, Inc. Rasheda has taught enterpreneurship to over 1,000 students globally.
Dr. Rasheda Weaver is the founder of Weaver's Social Enterprise Directory and a leading expert on social entrepreneurship. She was the first Assistant Professor for the Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Iona University in 2017. Dr. Weaver's book, "Social Entrepreneurship: a Practical Introduction," is a seminal work in the field of social entrepreneurship.
Dr. Weaver's shared her story of growing up as a first generation American, a daughter of Jamaican parents who are each half Cuban and half Jamaican. Rasheda's family had limited financial means but a limitless belief in opportunity.
In our conversation, Rasheda walked us through her journey from attending a business high school in Manhattan, to participating in a summer program, Youth About Business, at Columbia University, to studying psychology in college, to writing her PhD thesis on social entrepreneurship, to helping Iona University launch a $15 million Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
"Accomplishments aren't everything. Awards aren't everything. Degrees aren't everything. Even marriage (isn't everything). I think more than anything, you have to be happy and be able to sleep at night with your decisions and have a fulfilled life. And so you could look like you have it all to everyone else. But if you are not happy with it inside your heart, it doesn't really matter; it's not good for you. And you have to listen to what's happening in your soul and your spirit." Dr. Rasheda Weaver
Key takeaways:
- You might have crazy ideas, but maybe they can come true. Rasheda remembers being 6 years old, and sitting on her stoop in the Bronx, and having what felt like an epiphany that she and her family did not have to live the way they were living, that it was actually a choice to accept the status quo.
When she was 14, she made a conscious decision NOT to attend high school locally. Instead, she enrolled in a business high school, located in the Murray Hill section of Manhattan, so that she could learn to be an entrepreneur and how to earn money.
It was on her walk to school along Park Avenue, which she refers to as her “happy place”, that she would look up at all the skyscrapers and think that it must have seemed insane to build a skyscraper when someone first thought of it. What a crazy idea!! Yet crazy ideas can come true!
- If you can’t find what you’re looking for, create it yourself. Rasheda grew up in the Bronx, surrounded by immigrants who were struggling to make ends meet. She became interested in creating a business that had a social impact, where she could hire immigrants and provide a sustainable wage for people and to help them gain the skills that they needed.
She discovered that there was a field called social entrepreneurship but when she went to learn more about it she discovered that there was very little information available. Rasheda decided, during her PhD program, to do a large scale case study of social enterprises throughout the United States.
She created a database of over 1,000 entities, answering questions like: How do they make money? Where do they get their money from? Where do they get their startup financing from? How are they doing good? These answers and others she published in her book, Social Entrepreneurship, A Practical Introduction.
- Ask for what you need. Rasheda was accepted into her PhD program but the acceptance did NOT include funding. Her mother had taught her that this is the land of opportunity, so she reached out to her department chair and, after advocating for herself, the university found the money for her to be able to attend. Rasheda had a belief in herself, and that she was worth investing in.
About the guest:
Dr. Rasheda L. Weaver is a global expert on social entrepreneurship. In 2023, she joined the Global African Descent Social Entrepreneurship Network sponsored by the Biden-Harris Administration. She conducted the first large-scale empirical study on the social, economic, and legal activities of social enterprises in the U.S. and is the Founder of Weaver's Social Enterprise Directory. She was the first Assistant Professor for the Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Iona University in 2017. Dr. Weaver’s book “Social Entrepreneurship: A Practical Introduction” is a seminal work in the field of social entrepreneurship.
Website: http://www.socialenterprisedirectory.com/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rasheda-weaver-phd-1a842b1a4/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/socialenterprisedirectory/
Resources: Social Enterprise Bootcamp
Email address: rweaver@socialenterprisedirectory.com
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Rasheda Weaver
Accomplishments aren't everything. Awards aren't everything. Degrees aren't everything. Even marriage. I think more than anything, you have to be happy and be able to sleep at night with your decisions and have a fulfilled life. And so you could, you know, look like you have it all to everyone else. But if you are not happy with it inside your heart, It doesn't really matter.
It's not good for you. And you have to listen to what's happening in your soul and your spirit.
Narrator
Welcome to making change with your money, a podcast that highlights the stories and strategies of women who experienced a big life transition and overcame challenges as they redefined financial success for themselves.
Now here's your host certified financial planner. Laura Rotter.
Laura Rotter
I am so excited to have as my guest today, Dr. Rashida Weaver. She is the founder of Weaver's Social Enterprise Directory and a leading expert on social entrepreneurship.She was the first assistant professor for the Heinz Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Iona University in 2017.
Dr. Weaver's book, social entrepreneurship, a practical introduction is a seminal work in the field of social entrepreneurship. So welcome Rashida to the making change with your money podcast.
Rasheda Weaver
Thank you so much for having me, Laura.
Laura Rotter
Gonna start like I always do. My first question, Rashida, is what was money like in your family growing up?
Rasheda Weaver
Money in my family growing up, it was very interesting. So I have a really interesting background. My grandparents were Cuban refugees. Who fled to Jamaica and my parents were born in Jamaica. So they're both half Cuban and half Jamaican because both my grandmothers are Cuban and both my grandfathers are Jamaican.
And then, so I'm the first generation American. So I'm the first person in my family born in the United States. And so when you ask about money and what's family money like, the main reason my mom wanted to come to the United States, she said she wouldn't have kids unless she came here because she knew if she had a daughter that her daughter would face certain challenges and wouldn't necessarily have ownership of her life.
She would have to depend on a man. And so for me, money was. Coming to America. I was always told that this is the land of opportunity and I felt like I could do anything and we didn't have much money, but I always knew that I could acquire it here. And so that's that's been my relationship with money is being born as an American woman, and I'm having my Jamaican and Cuban values, but being here.
I could do anything and become anything I wanted. And I honestly feel like I've been able to do
that.
Laura Rotter
What a great message you got from, from both your parents or specifically
your mother?
Rasheda Weaver
Both, but especially my mom, because she felt like I had opportunities that she didn't have.
Laura Rotter
Do you have siblings?
Rasheda Weaver
I do have a brother and two sisters, but my sister, Um, one of my sisters grew up in Alabama and my other sister grew up in Jamaica. So she didn't come here until I was 19. So I had no real contact with her. Well, on the phone, but she was just different space.
Laura Rotter
Was she, so she's a lot older than you?
Rasheda Weaver
She's 10 years older. Yeah. So it's been an interesting experience.
Laura Rotter
But what a great, great message to grow up with that. You have the whole world and choices in front of you. And so how did that translate as you grew up?
Rasheda Weaver
It was really interesting because so my mom was telling me this all the time, like you're born in the land of opportunity. You can do anything. But we didn't have lots of money. Right. And so I just knew that either I would have to be in the right place. Or I'd have to create opportunities or find opportunities or welcome them that would then allow me to live the life I really can envision in my mind, because I always knew that when I was growing up in the Bronx, I wouldn't say like, like super poor, but like, there was a lot of poverty around me because I feel like my parents did a really good job of just making sure we had everything we needed.
But for example, my mom would send me on vacation and she would not go. My parents would never go with us on vacation because they couldn't afford it. But they just, they wanted us to have that experience. So they sacrificed a lot. But for me, I always knew that I could just, you know, just really be open minded in terms of. You know, the ways in which money would come to me or I would have to go and get it.
Laura Rotter
And and you said that you knew you would sort of have to be. I'm translating the catalyst for how you envisioned your life. So could you just share what that vision was? Obviously you were younger and.
Rasheda Weaver
It was interesting. When I was six years old, I had this epiphany and I remember it was like almost like an outer body experience. I was sitting, we had stoops in the Bronx, grew up in the Bronx, and I was sitting on the stoop and there was just all these people around me, my friends, my family, and in my head I was just thinking, like, we don't have to live like this.
Like that, that just came in my head. It's like, people don't actually have to live like this. Like this is actually a choice. And it was a powerful moment because it was something I never forgot. And the next year I went to modeling school in midtown Manhattan and I was surrounded by rich people. Right.
So Hotel Pennsylvania, they were poodle shows. That's how rich it was. It was like poodle shows. And it was just so fancy. And I remember just that thought again, like, yeah, people, some people live this way and some people don't. So how do I get to be where those people are? Fast forward, when I was 14 years old, I went to high school a few blocks from Hotel Pennsylvania and to Norman Thomas Business High School to learn about how to become an entrepreneur so that I can make money and be where the poodles are.
Laura Rotter
I love that. Be where the poodles are.
How did you hear of that high school? How did you get into that school? How'd you know about it?
Rasheda Weaver
Well, I didn't want to stay in the Bronx, so I knew I was going to go somewhere else. And then I sat with my dad and they, my middle school gave us a book. I don't know if they gave us a book or if my dad got the book, but we had a book of high schools in New York and in different boroughs.
And my dad and I said, okay, I'm only going to school in Manhattan. So let's find one. Yeah. And I actually got into Brooklyn tech, which was one of the top schools in New York city. But I really wanted to go to a business school. And so I decided, okay, 33rd and park Avenue. I was familiar with the area for when I went to modeling school and park Avenue is actually like very just personally, like inspirational for me.
It's, I call it one of my happy places. When I need inspiration, I go to park Avenue. I go right back to 33rd and park where my school was. And I just walked from there to 42nd street grand central. And it's one of the most inspirational walks because what I would tell myself as I did this walk, I would look up and I'd be like.
Somebody created these buildings, right? If you think about it, like this is skyscrapers. That's an insane idea. Who thinks of that to, you know, can you imagine like when the first person thought of building a skyscraper, they must have sounded really crazy. And so I remind myself by walking there that, you know, you might have crazy ideas, but maybe they can come true.
Laura Rotter
So Rashida, you've mentioned build it. several times, educational achievements, academic achievements. So how did that play out for you? You're in this special high school in 33rd and Park, a magical place. And how did it play out?
Rasheda Weaver
It was really interesting. You know, it's, it's really funny, like how your journey takes you to places where you don't really expect to go because I did the business high school and I was really fortunate because I had to go to Columbia University for a summer and learn how to do business acquisitions.
I was in a program called Youth About Business and we literally had to stay on the campus, do the dorms, And had to actually do a business merger and negotiate to the point where we couldn't sleep at night because we were still deliberating between the different businesses and it was a real life like merger and I did that and I was so excited to do business but then I also had this social component because I grew up in the Bronx and with my family history, I always wanted to do something good for other people and I saw so many people, particularly immigrants in the Bronx struggling just to make ends meet.
And so I wanted to create Some kind of business that had a social impact where I could hire the immigrants that I saw growing up, right? Like I could provide a sustainable wage for other people so that they could, you know, just gain the skills that they needed. And they have so many challenges to like, no one can understand my parents, right?
Like, if you think that they have strong accents that you can understand me perfectly. But when it meets my parents, they're like, most people can't. Understand them here and so that limits job opportunities. And so I wanted to be able to help people that were in similar situations. And so I started studying psychology, the impact of poverty on mental health, and just social interactions in general, I ended up going to college and getting a psychology degreeand then and why you and then when I went to and why you for graduate school.
That is where I learned about social entrepreneurship, where this idea that I had of both wanting to make money. I don't want to be poor, right? I want to maximize my opportunities. I'm born in this amazing country. And then at the same time, I want to do something good. And these are two very different Ideas for most people, you want to do something really good for your community, but you also want to make lots of money sounds too fantastical.
But then I went to N. Y. U. and discovered this an entire field about this called social entrepreneurship and. When I discovered that, I kind of just ran with the idea, and so that's how, that's how my mind works. I'm like, okay, so now that I know that this exists and I'm not crazy, there's other people doing this, I wanted to find as much information as I could, and I couldn't find much information because it didn't exist.
There were like lots of solo social entrepreneurs and there were case studies on them that I could find, but I couldn't find a large scale study that said, if you want to start a social enterprise, these are the different business models that you can do to both make money and do good. So I decided to do that when I got to my PhD program.
And so now that's actually the information from that research study that I did. My program is actually found in my new book, social entrepreneurship, a practical introduction. So I study for 4 years, 115 social enterprises throughout the United States actually created a database of over 1000, but I studied 115 in depth and I found out.
Simple. The answer is a simple questions. How do they make money? Where do they get their money from? Where to get their startup financing from? How are they doing good? What are different ways that they do good? And I found 10 different models, main strategies and and what's their legal structure and what is the importance of their legal structure?
Like, how does this help them or hinder them from being able to be sustainable? And so that has been helping me. Just an amazing experience, and it's really helped my career. Academically. I think the question you asked me about was academically. When I graduated from my program, I had 5 universities reach out and invite me to apply to be a professor there because no 1 had this knowledge.
So, like I said, there was no information on this. I did the 1st research study, a large scale study of these organizations in America. And then I started teaching it in college at the University of Vermont, which was amazing. I spent a year there. And the beautiful thing about Vermont is that pretty much the whole state is very socially conscious.
And I really love that about it. It's very tranquil and, and they do social entrepreneurship really well. I've actually, if you want to learn about it from an experiential perspective, go to Vermont and go around. Yeah. Especially Burlington. There's so many.
Laura Rotter
I was going to say, so you're based in University of Vermont is based in Burlington.
Yes. It's like somewhere up in the North Shore, somewhere near the North Pole.
Rasheda Weaver
It's cold over there for a year. I don't know if I could have made it to a very beautiful place. And then I went to Iona University, which used to be called Iona College, and I went there and help them launch a 15 million.
Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation was a brand new institute. And they said, develop the teaching, the research and the service foundation. And I did that for four years, worked with over a thousand students. And it was an amazing and beautiful experience because there I was able to literally help students start businesses, whether social or just regular commercial businesses, and just see their lives transformed from that.
Because they're making money and they're realizing that. Like they would take my class and at first they would say, like, this sounds like a great idea, or I don't know if I could do this. And then by the end they're actually making money. And they're like, wow, like I can, like, I'm, I'm smart. I could do this.
Like, I'm like, you have everything you need. You just needed me to pull it out of you.So that's my job. That's what I consider my job. I pull the greatness out of other people so that they can see it for themselves. And like, you already had this.
Laura Rotter
I can see that you must be an amazing Professor, because you bring so much energy, not only knowledge, of course, but energy and belief, faith into the work you do.
And you see, thank you and other people. We should have a question before I then start asking questions about your actual work, which is how did you fund your academic growth?
Rasheda Weaver
So my PhD or the professor, like the research,
Laura Rotter
I thought they were linked, but maybe even just starting with graduate school, you know, graduate school.
Rasheda Weaver
So that's, that was interesting. And I'm so glad you asked me this question because I feel like the answer is really important, especially for women. Uh, when I got into my PhD program, I got accepted. I actually didn't get accepted with funding. So I was supposed to pay out of pocket. I, I'm a little, a little crazy.
My mom told me this is the land of opportunity. So I went to the department chair and I told her that I needed funding and that if I didn't get funding, it'd be a big mistake because I'm going to do really great things one day. And you really want me in your program and it worked. And so it actually worked.
I ended up getting 25, 000 a year in each year for the PhD program. And I ended up getting two additional sources of funding, but simply advocating for myself and just saying, I believe in me and I let me show you what I can do. And, and you won't, you won't regret it. And they didn't.
Laura Rotter
And so what these grants from the actual university or outside grants?
Rasheda Weaver
One was from outside and two were from one was from a community leadership center at Rutgers university.
And another was from just a department. They somehow found the money because they had eight students and they funded two. And then I was the third one that they funded. Because I advocated. And so I believe women, and I, throughout my whole career, just Advocating for myself and believing in myself and showing people what I can do and saying, you know, because I know once you see what I can do, you're going to benefit.
I know that I'm I'm a really hard worker. I might be a little bit of a people pleaser, so I'm going to want to please you.
Laura Rotter
Yeah, that's one of the things that women, you know, works for us. But works against us, the people pleasing. Yeah.
Rasheda Weaver
I've learned how to make it work in business, right? Cause if you're empathetic in business and you can assess someone's needs, then you can meet their needs, but you have to still have those boundaries and know what your desires are and your needs are too.
Yes. Yeah. And one of my needs were funding.
Laura Rotter
Thank you for clarifying that and clarifying that with a very important message to our listeners. And I'm going to attribute it to your mother, but, you know, this sort of sense of self belief.
Yeah. Of, you know, knowing your core and that you are worth investing in.
Rasheda Weaver
You know, what's interesting about that?
And I think I think a lot of people do this with their kids. I feel like she gave me a lot of confidence in myself, but didn't necessarily have it in herself. And maybe that's just because of her upbringing, but it's like, It's almost like she gave me what she should have also given herself, you know, and I'm glad she gave it to me.
But like, now that I have my own daughter, I see the same way I do that. Like, I have a lot of confidence, but then there's certain areas where I'm like weaken. And now that I have a daughter, she's just four years old, but. there's certain things I wouldn't allow her to do. And as I don't allow her to do them, I realized, Oh, why am I not protecting myself from this?
But I think it's something we do with our kids.
Laura Rotter
Yeah. Yeah. It's aspirational, right? Yeah. That's the next generation. And we project a lot onto our kids. Rashida, our listeners are women who are in a life transition and perhaps contemplating starting a business. So can you share with us some practical learnings you have taken away from all the studies you did and continue to be involved in?
Rasheda Weaver
Practical learnings, let's see, and women in transition in business. What I have learned is that And this is so important for women. You are more capable than, you know, and you give yourself credit for. And I really think that women have to stop and sit down and literally go over their resumes and look at all of their professional accomplishments and literally write them out and remember who you are.
Like actually, I don't know if it's remembering, I think it's acknowledging who you are and that's the resume component, but however. There's also a life component, right? Just you as an individual and all that you have overcome, all the positive decisions that you've made, all the mistakes that you've made that you have also overcome, because a lot of times we'll beat ourselves up for the mistakes that we make, but not realizing that we also overcame them.
And we learned something from them and they were essential to our growth and well being, right? And so you wouldn't be where you are today without those mistakes. Those are just learning opportunities for you. This guy is with some pain, you know, but I really think that's the number one thing I've learned both in academia and now transitioning to being a social entrepreneur myself.
The number one issue that I have with women is that they just often don't know their worth. They beat themselves up way too much and I feel like they don't know their worth in like we don't know our worth in relationships and business in life in general. We are so much. more valuable than we give ourselves credit for.
Laura Rotter
I love that message. And I, in it, I heard you say something that I've heard echoed from like, you know, some of the exercise teachers I know, which is like, we've all lived through our worst days. And to remember that we've all made it through our, our worst moments. And that's a message that can give us strength.
And I'm wondering though, From the work you've done, you said you've identified by going deeply into, I think it was 115 social enterprises. What was it, what are the variables that help people to succeed as, as a takeaway as, you know, you, you're on now your social entrepreneurship journey and perhaps others listening?
Rasheda Weaver
Yes, so. Everyone always talks about startup funding. That's like the number one thing everybody wants. And that's not the number one thing that will help you succeed, but will help you succeed as believing in yourself. You have to believe in yourself. And if you believe in yourself, you would just figure out ways to make things happen because it's like something is going on in your brain.
Like I'm going to succeed. And so every challenge that comes your way, it's like it bounces off of you and you might fall down, but you're going to get back up because you already told yourself. That you're going to succeed. And so that's also something I noticed as a professor as well. I just knew certain students were going to be successful because they just had that, that aura.
Like, they just like, I'm, I'm just going to be successful. You just knew that they were going to go off and do something great. And then there's other people who going back to the work piece and the value, they don't really. They're doing such amazing work for other people if they just put a little bit of the work that they did for others into their themselves.
If they just worked, you know, there's people literally working 40, 50, 60 hours for a company if they just put 20 of those hours for themselves, they would be so, so successful. I was literally talking about it today about one of my coaching clients, She's making like crazy amounts of money per month because she has 20, she has, she, she's has her own coaching clients and, but she quit being an academic and then just everything just took off for her.
And she's not working as many hours as she did as a professor. She's just working less. She focused on her health, yoga and eating and really just poured herself into coaching. And it's just taken off because she finally just realized her worth.
Laura Rotter
Well, what gets in our way? Of realizing our worth, which I know is a big question.
What have you seen?
Rasheda Weaver
Society and not thinking everybody's our friend. I think, I think one lesson I've had to learn that was painful is that everyone that's nice to you isn't actually being nice to you and everyone that's mean to you isn't actually being mean to you. And so I'll give you an example. Well, well, someone might say something to you, like, stop being so nice, but they'll say it in a mean way.
But that's actually not bad advice. What they're telling you is not to let people take advantage of you. But it sounds mean, you know, where somebody could be nice to you all the time and they're just happy that you're a pushover, you know? And so it's just like, I think. We have to really, really literally sit down and just think about our lives more and think about our emotional well being.
How do you feel when you talk to someone? How do you feel when you leave that person's presence? I had to. This has been a like a huge awakening year for me as I left academia because in many for many academics. It's just, it's a grueling experience, and there's a lot of emotional, intellectual abuse, unfortunately, and I think that has to do with being a woman, being a woman of color, also being a first generation American, there's certain things I didn't understand because it's just a whole different culture, and, you know, having stepped away from that world and really prioritized Going to therapy, doing my yoga, healing, reading self help books.
I've learned so much more about just how to take care of my emotional wellbeing. And now I can pour that into my own clients, but I, and I can see it. I can spot the signs, even if they don't tell me what we're going through. I can spot the signs of challenges that they're going through. And then they're like, you're so perceptive.
And I'm like, I've been there and I read about it, but that's the beauty. And like, I think that's also like going back to the beauty of women, right. Wisdom. We go through so much and I feel like we hold on to it. We don't share because we're like ashamed. We're ashamed to tell other people what we've gone through.
And really, I feel like a lot of the experiences that we're going through are meant to just help us help other people.
Laura Rotter
So how did you make the decision to leave academia? What led up to it?
Rasheda Weaver
Oh, yeah, I feel like a lot led up to it. Um, it was hard. It was a really, really hard decision. And I think the two things I miss are my students because they just have such good energy and they're young and they're just fearless.
And, um, and I love the college campus. But what it really, it almost felt like fate in a, in a way because. My book was about to come out. I was having a lot of challenges at work. I just felt like it was I was teaching four classes. It's hard enough to teach one and I was working there for four years. And I was the only faculty member.
Whereas in most apartments, there's about 10 right? At least 6. And so I had, I was doing way too much work and, and then on top of it, my book coming, I got started getting a lot of speaking engagements. I'm a mom to two young children and I really wanted to, I was married and then I was going through a divorce and it just all literally came to a head and I was like, something has to give.
And also this is not making me happy. And so I literally took a leap of faith. I just, it was like a specific incident. And then I said, you know what? I don't have to deal with this. I quit going back to knowing your worth. I had a friend tell me, she said, if you get paid that much to do speaking engagements, then why are you an academic?
She's like, why are you being a professor and going through all this stress that you keep telling me about? And I said, well, because of tenure. And, and then she said, well, if you are under so much stress, now you have tenure, you have this job for life. What do you think will happen in five years after being under this much stress?
It's just going to compound. And she said, when you can literally just speak, get paid enough to pay your bills. And live a much easier life. And I was like, that's a good point.
Laura Rotter
I mean, as you said, Rashida, there's definitely trade offs. You enjoy teaching.
Rasheda Weaver
Absolutely.
Laura Rotter
And there's a vibrancy available on a university campus and.
It's important not to take years off your life with stress, and I know there's a lot of politics on university campuses, I don't know if that's specifically what you were dealing with, but, you know.
Rasheda Weaver
Politics and overwork. It's just, you know, I think it's just not hiring more faculty to help, and then when you do, they leave because of all the other, the same reasons I left.
And so, you know, I feel like it was a beautiful experience and I'm, I may go back to academia in the future, but I don't think as a professor, maybe as a director, because I have, I have just so many ideas and projects and I'm really in love with what I'm doing right now. So I know I want to focus on this right now because I'm happy.
So, you know, I think that's actually the most important thing is like, I'm really happy. I'm loving it and I'm growing. It's really exciting. Wow.
Laura Rotter
Can you please share with us a little bit of what, what is it that you're doing right now? Heard a bit about speaking.
Rasheda Weaver
Yes. And so I wrote, um, social entrepreneurship, a practical introduction.
It launched in December, 2022. And about three months after that, I received an email from the Biden administration saying, well, we have a copy of your book. Please come to DC and Baltimore and join this organization. They have put together a program called AdSense, African descent, social entrepreneurship network, and it's a hundred people, social entrepreneurs.
Of African descent from 25 different countries, and we're working together for two years, and we get to go to Europe and Africa and help each other work on different social enterprise projects. So, possibly just developing new social enterprises and also just advocating for policy for social entrepreneurship globally.
And so that has been amazing and unexpected. Lots of speaking engagements have also come up. So that's, and that's one of my first passions, right? That's like being in the classroom is speaking and more book opportunities, podcast opportunities. So there's, it's just, it's a very beautiful time. I've done my ready, set, launch social price bootcamp, which is basically my book and training the training to my book.
It's a five step guide to developing a social enterprise. I just launched that in, I launched it online first. And that was amazing. And then I did an installment in Italy in July. It's amazing. So I feel like the sky's the limit and I can do anything right now. And so I'm open, I think. And that's, that's a beautiful place.
It's just like, I'm open to what comes or what I can creatively think of.
Laura Rotter
Rashida, you mentioned a coaching client or you're doing coaching and what kind of coaching, what kind of client?
Rasheda Weaver
Oh, I'm doing coaching. That is the fastest growing part of my business is coaching, which I'm shocked about because I almost didn't do it.
But then after I did the bootcamp, the people in the bootcamp, the participants wanted me to do coaching because they said the bootcamp is amazing. You train us on a business. We are making money. But. Racism, sexism, imposter syndrome, being a first generation American, being the first in my family to go to college, like all these challenges are flooding their minds and I help them overcome them.
And also a common issue also among entrepreneurs, which I saw with my students, but I'm really seeing with my coaching clients is just elevating, you know, the challenges you get as you become an entrepreneur, most people are not like you, right? Most people work for someone else. And your friends start to fall off, this can have issues in your relationships, and I help them overcome those issues.
Laura Rotter
Interesting. So you work one on one with social entrepreneurs? Yes. And help them. Can you give us an example of a project, either that, You know, you've worked on or someone else's worked on.
Rasheda Weaver
Oh, there's so many. Okay. This one client, which I think this is so fascinating, just to broaden your mind about what social entrepreneurship could be.
So one of my clients runs a school called in schools. It's in a school for immigrants on helping immigrants acclimate to the life in the United States. So helping them apply for citizenship, helping them learn how to speak English, helping them learn etiquette, helping them learn just literally social.
You know, common social norms and that that there's she created a whole school for that. And now it's in Jersey. Philadelphia. And I believe one is in Texas. So that's one example of a social enterprise. I'll give you another example.
Laura Rotter
And that's a for profit enterprise. Sorry to interrupt.
Rasheda Weaver
So that one's nonprofit, but I do have a few for profits working for me as well.
The majority of people that work for me are for profit. That's what I would have thought. Yeah. One is a physical therapist. Which is really cool because I'm learning a lot as well, but he's a physical therapist and she works with women on their sex life and postpartum, you know, care, vaginal care and all that.
And so that's been exciting as well, because I think that's something we don't often, you know, think about in terms of social entrepreneurship, but it is, it's a, it's a social thing and women's health matters.
Laura Rotter
Like I've hear, I've been hearing more and more conversations about, right, menopause and how it hasn't been addressed and that's certainly a social cause.
Rashida, as we get, you know, closer to the end of our conversation, I always like toask how your definition of success, it sounds like when you were younger, success was? You know, having financial means, I'm sure that hasn't gone away entirely, but how has your definition of success evolved?
Rasheda Weaver
Oh, it's evolved so much, you know, before I was 30 years old, I accomplished a great deal,you know, just really had so much success.
And what I realized, what it taught me is that money isn't everything. Accomplishments aren't everything. Awards aren't everything. Degrees aren't everything, even marriage. I think more than anything, you have to be happy and be able to sleep at night with your decisions and have a fulfilled life. And so you could, you know, look like you have it all to everyone else, but if you are not happy with it inside your heart.
It doesn't really matter. It's not good for you. And you have to listen to what's happening in your soul and your spirit. And I had to get rid of a lot of things in my life to really realize what mattered most in life. I had to acquire them first and then say, Oh, actually, this isn't, this isn't what I wanted, or maybe it is, but it's not with the right people.
You know, and it's hard, it's such a hard decision, but for me, success right now, freedom, flexibility, a good home, family is everything to me, love, family, a healthy relationship, romantic relationship, genuinely happy and satisfied. In all areas of my life, I feel like that's success, not necessarily having an abundance of things, but just being happy with what I have and you say it.
Laura Rotter
You started it with just being happy with what you have. Well, you know, I think that's the hardest thing, right? We look at our culture. You know, certainly the culture, the capitalist culture in the U. S. and, you know, what is enough is a big, big question and not particularly easy to answer. So, I love what you said and, and I, I wouldn't put a just in front of it.
You know, being happy with what you have is a great goal. Yes. And Rashida, I'm curious, what role, if any, has faith played in your life?
Rasheda Weaver
Yeah, you know, I'm so glad you asked me this question. Before, my faith simply came from within. Like, I believe both my parents did a really good job of giving me confidence.
I would second that. I remember my mom sitting me down one day and saying that It doesn't matter what anyone says about you like you have to like yourself and you have to if you feel something is good, then it's good. You don't don't look for validation out there. And my mom really said that and it stuck with me because she also she said she said, you know, some people, some people times they're just jealous and they say mean things.
About you and you can't let that affect you because you have to know who you are, you know, and she really taught me that. And as life went on, I took that with me. Andthen I remember just going through life challenges. I had so much faith in myself, but then I think I had. Lost faith in outside people after you go through, you know, betrayals and hardships and toxic work environments and all that.
And that's when I really, really started to lean on God, because to be honest with you, I feel like there were certain challenges I went through in my life. And I give God all the credit. I give God all the credit for it because I was just like, I don't know how I'm going to overcome this. And I would just take one step at a time, but I really relied on God for my faith and praying and thankfully picking up meditation earlier this year, but also just knowing that there's like something out there guiding me, because I felt like even though I was going through immense challenges, it just seemed like things kept working out for me.
And so I just had to attribute that to a higher power. Because it didn't make sense.
Laura Rotter
And it sounds like that really gives you comfort, having a sense that God is out there for you. Is there anything else you'd like to share that you think it's important for us to hear?
Rasheda Weaver
Yes. My favorite quote. The most powerful weapon on earth is a human soul on fire.
So I always say, no matter what happens to you in life, you blaze past them. You set your soul on fire, you blaze past any of the challenges and you continue to shine and burn, you know, let your flame shine.
Laura Rotter
Love that quote. And I'm sitting here. I know most of you are listening to this on a podcast, but you know, Rashida's face is shining.
You clearly get so much. Energy from the work that you're doing and then you put that energy out in the world and it lights others on fire for the work that they are doing. I know you, you mentioned your book. Are there any other resources you've said to you? Are you still running the boot camp for?
Rasheda Weaver
Yes.
I'm so glad you asked that. So in January, we have a three day boot camp coming up. It's in Jersey. It's in Montclair, New Jersey. So a very beautiful town and very commutable from Manhattan. Yes. And we'll be visiting two social enterprises and we'll be working on the goals for the year. Outlining your goals and creating a 90 day action plan to make sure you're in the position to achieve them.
Laura Rotter
So how do we find out about that bootcamp? Is there a link on your website?
Rasheda Weaver
Social enterprise directory. com. And I'm also always open to coaching, taking coaching clients. I have a book and the bootcamp is an experience. Unlike any other, there's actually no program in the world like it. And I know that because I've done one of the largest studies in the world on social entrepreneurship.
And you will love it. It's a great community of, um, entrepreneurs and five step process to really designing a social enterprise that's sustainable. And also that meets your dreams, right? Cause it's like, you know, even like I mentioned doing the bootcamp in Italy earlier this year. That was one of my dreams, and so I really teach others how to you.
I want you to live the life of your dreams. I want you to be personally, socially, and financially successful.
Laura Rotter
What a lovely blessing.
Rasheda Weaver
Yes.
Laura Rotter
Thank you so much for being my guest, Rashida. You have a, a very important message to get out and
I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Rashida Weaver, founder and CEO of Weaver's Social Enterprise directory. And some of my takeaways are you might have a crazy idea, but maybe it can come true.Rashida remembers being six years old and sitting on her stoop in the Bronx and having what felt like an epiphany that she and her family did not have to live the way they were living.
That it was actually a choice to accept the status quo. When she was 14 years old, she made a conscious decision not to attend high school locally. Instead, she enrolled in a business high school located in the Murray Hills section of Manhattan so that she could learn to be an entrepreneur and how to earn money.
It was on her walk to school along Park Avenue, which she refers to as her happy place, that she would look up at all the skyscrapers and think that it must have seemed insane to build a skyscraper when someone first thought of it. What a crazy idea! Yet crazy ideas can come true. Which leads her to another takeaway.
If you can't find what you're looking for create it yourself. Rashida grew up in the Bronx, surrounded by immigrants who were struggling to make ends meet. She became interested in creating a business that had a social impact, where she could hire immigrants and provide a sustainable wage for people, and help them gain the skills that they needed.
She discovered that there was a field called social entrepreneurship, but when she went to learn more about it, she discovered that there was very little information available. She decided, during her PhD program, to do a large scale case study of social enterprises throughout the United States. She created a database of over a thousand entities, answering questions like, How do they make money?
Where do they get their money from? Where do they get their startup financing from? How are they doing? These answers and others she published in her book, Social Entrepreneurship, Practical Introduction. A final takeaway that I've gotten is ask for what you need. Rashida was accepted into her PhD program, but the acceptance did not include funding.
Her mother had taught her. That this is the land of opportunity. So she reached out to her department chair, and after advocating for herself, the university found the money for her to be able to attend.Rashida had a belief in herself, and that she was worth investing in. Are you enjoying this podcast?
Don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss next week's episode. And if you're enjoying the show, a rating and a review will help other women like you to find it. Thank you so much.
Narrator
Thanks for listening to making change with your money. Certified financial planner, Laura Rotter, specializes in helping people just like you, organized, clarify, and invest their money in order to support a life of purpose and meaning. Go to www. trueabundanceadvisors. com forward slash
workbook for a free resource to help you on your journey.
Disclaimer, please remember that the information shared by this podcast does not constitute accounting, legal, tax, investment, or financial advice. It's for information purposes only. You should seek appropriate professional advice for your specific information.