Side Hustle Spotlight
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Side Hustle Spotlight Doreen Motton has the ultimate motivator: “Every time I want to get down on myself, I remember living in my car, living in a bottle, and losing my son to the system. God didn’t bring me all this way for me to give up now,” she says.
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Doreen Motton Doreen Motton has the ultimate motivator: “Every time I want to get down on myself, I remember living in my car, living in a bottle, and losing my son to the system. God didn’t bring me all this way for me to give up now,” she says. |
Doreen’s journey up the ranks to Citigroup vice president and then taking the entrepreneur plunge at age fifty included one major obstacle: Herself. “I was always told I was never going to be anything, but deep down I knew I was destined to be something else. I always wanted to be bigger than I was. And I knew I had something to offer. But in the back of my head I was struggling with who I was and who I wanted to be,” she says. What she did know is that whatever insecurities she had disappeared when she had a drink in her hand. A “functional addict” for years, Doreen always had a job, and even a few side hustles. After graduating from Northeastern, she worked for Dun and Bradstreet, a financial research firm for several years. During that time, her boyfriend’s father was a distributor for Seagrams and her side hustle was to try to get patrons to try it and get stores and bars to buy more the product. “It was a promotion business called Liquid Assets and I hired some people who would organize and sponsor happy hours. But I was always too wasted to hold a meeting or get the staff together, so it fell apart within a year. I had lost my credibility and people didn’t trust me. But, you know what, I had my own demons and they were my friends.” Doreen transformed her life struggles into a formula for perseverance and success in her business. She shares these hard-earned lessons with you:
Face the truth about your life If there are any women reading this that are struggling within themselves, I’m here to tell you that there’s a way out of the way you think and how you live. I made a conscious decision to do something about my life and how I viewed myself. And then everyday I lived it! One day at a time.
Recognize your gifts
When life is trying to tell you something…listen A little while later I was unemployed. I made a few of my satin pillowcases, monogrammed them, and gave them away as Christmas gifts. Everyone loved them. Then, one day I was on my way home from the salon and the idea about the satin pillow cases as an actual business came to me in a voice. I knew they worked for me, I knew others liked them and I could use my experience and talents. I was open and receptive to the message. When my 50th birthday came, it was a real epiphany for me. I realized that I had more years behind me than ahead of me, so whatever I was going to do I needed to do it now.
Get your tools of the trade
Give it your all
Research relentlessly
Start small
Then I started small, selling within organizations, to friends and family, and going to local Black expos and other vending events.
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