I had such a great time at Karen Taylor Bass’ Power Brunch event last week. She’s a PR badass!

As a Queens girl that is tired of having to trek to Manhattan for a little culture and sophistication, I was so impressed by Bass’ choice of venue—Pa-nash, a Caribbean restaurant with an exquisite layout and reasonable prices right in the heart of Rosedale, Queens.

I was sold.

Le Hubs and I will be planning our next frugal and fabulous date night there with their $2 for 1 drinks. Here is a link to the site if you are interested in finding out more.

But back to the event. I loved it! There were so many interesting, hungry, and collaborative women entrepreneurs in that room. On top of that, Karen interviewed a powerful, creative, and funny local business owner, Cece Bryan, owner of Whipped Treats, a smoothie and juice bar in Elmont, New York, about what it takes to be successful in life and business.

Bryan believed that there are three things:

1. Have Faith in Yourself: Prior to being a business owner, Bryan (unhappily) worked on Wall Street. In one of those existential moments, she stopped and asked herself, “Is this all to life?” As a spiritual woman, she prayed for an answer to this question and was confident that God would reveal the answers to her. The answer came when she started to have health problems, learned that her diet and work lifestyle were contributing to her disease, and decided to leave the wolves on Wall Street to open up Whipped Treats to bring the wellness and healing that saved her to members of her community.

2. Do What You Love: We have all heard this advice, but how many of us live in this wisdom. She instructed us to stop and take time to find out what you love doing. But she wanted us to be clear that finding your calling does not mean that you will have a stress-free life or that all the stars will line up once you know your truth. During the early days of Whipped Treats, Bryan only had herself and a blender. There were months where she could not pay the rent. There were days that she was so tired that she would collapse on the floor. But she continued because she knew that she was supposed to be doing what she was doing.

3. Great Customer Service: Can we get an amen for this? In addition to the spiritual components of business, you have to have a bottom line. Happy customers=more business. Period. Bryan is known for paying attention to each customer that walks through her doors. In order to whip up badass smoothies that not only taste good but also do good for the body, Bryan likes to find out what health concerns her customers have as to inform her smoothie and juice recommendations.

In addition to these nuggets, we also heard from Marcia Beckford, a representative of Prudential, the company that also sponsored the event. Ms. Beckford had such exuberance and confidence. As a financial advisor, she spoke about the importance of establishing and following through with long-term financial goals. Her research found that we, as black women, all too often expend all of our resources (emotional and financial) and energy taking care of others to that point that we do not have anything to give to ourselves when retirement comes. (And ya’ll know how I feel about that: pay yourself first. Your older self is depending on your younger self to make that happen.)

In particular, she said that we are great at day-to-day planning (i.e. paying for clothes, school fees, and money for fun), but we fall waaay behind other groups when it comes to laying a strong financial foundation that includes investments and adequate/appropriate insurance.

Have you started making the necessary phone calls and emails to link up with a financial advisor so you can get your long-term financial plans started?

If not, schedule a time tomorrow to get that done. It cannot wait.