LYNN — Two Black women shared their experiences of growing up in Lynn and their paths to entrepreneurship during a virtual panel discussion Wednesday morning.
Shanel Anderson, founder of Soul City Yoga, and Mikki Wilson, founder of Dot Connector Consulting LLC, both spoke at the event, which was hosted by Lynn Museum/LynnArts Director Doneeca Thurston.
“It’s important to have events that elevate voices of color, and specifically Black female voices, because oftentimes these voices and stories have been silenced or overlooked,” said Thurston.
“Now, more than ever, our community and our country is seeing firsthand how people of color have been and continue to be treated, and how we persevere and remain resilient in spite of that.”
Wilson grew up on Vine Street where she was exposed to a diverse cultural experience and later moved to West Lynn.
“A lot of Black families lived between the brickyard,” said Wilson. “Growing up, it was very positive because I was surrounded by a lot of faces that looked like mine.”
She said that she had never considered opening a business, because it was so outside of her realm of experience.
“My mom was a home health aide, and my dad was the crane operator at GE, so I just wanted to be a good worker,” she said. “I was always an overachiever but I didn’t have anyone in my immediate family who was a business owner. I don’t think that I thought it was impossible, but I didn’t have any exposure or education about it.”
She graduated college — the first in her immediate family to do so — and began working in corporate America as a wealth manager, before leaving the job to take care of her sick father. After acting as a full-time caregiver for her father for six months, she said that her “inner hustle” kicked in and she started to look into entrepreneurship.
“I didn’t even know what an LLC was when I first started,” she said. “Nobody taught me that in any school I went to.”
She applied for a Limited Liability Company (LLC), a business structure in which the owners are not personally liable for the company’s debts, and began her company, Dot Connector Consulting LLC, which provides virtual assistance solutions for small business owners.
“I just didn’t love the idea of working for a white person for the rest of my life,” she said. “When I started this business I realized that I was here for a greater purpose, not to lay the path because I think that that was done before me, but to continue paving the path for people of color.”
The focus on supporting Black-owned businesses in the wake of the George Floyd killing was a huge boost to her young business.
“That explosion of supporting Black-owned businesses caught me off-guard. All of a sudden, I’m getting all these likes and all these follows,” she said. “Now I’m being embraced as a Black business owner.”
Anderson, the child of immigrants from Barbados, grew up in Lynn.
“There was a lot of new cultural influx,” she said. “I’m blessed to have a lot of exposure to different cultures and communities.”
Like Wilson, Anderson did not come to entrepreneurship until later in life — she originally planned on becoming a doctor.
“I have been fired from or quit every job I’ve ever had,” she said. “And I realized what it is is that I have an entrepreneurial spirit.”
In 2010, she helped her husband open a successful pizza restaurant in Gloucester, which set her on the path to entrepreneurship.
“Once I saw that happen, I thought wait a minute, you can make a living doing your own thing,” she said.
While pregnant with her second child, she discovered prenatal yoga, which she found to be helpful and fulfilling. She got certified as a yoga instructor, and began teaching classes in the basement of St. Stephen’s Church.
She was inspired by the owner of the studio to start her own place, Soul City Yoga, in the Lydia Pinkham building.
“It has definitely impacted the business,” said Anderson of the increased focus on supporting Black-owned businesses. “It has been refreshing to have that spotlight. Some of it has been performative though. I think that people are going to do what they are made to do. The pressure has to stay on.”
The program was part of Lynn Museum’s M.E.S.A. (Museum Enrichment Series for All) program, which covers a variety of topics from wellness, genealogy, and current events, with lectures from and talks with local experts, community members, and museum staff.
“It’s important to show our young people of color what they are capable of and the dreams they can achieve,” said Thurston. “As Mikki and Shanel both pointed out, they didn’t know that entrepreneurship and starting a business was something that they were able to do until after going to college and trying to work a 9 to 5. By having events where we celebrate and empower Black women, we are making them and their stories more visible.”