SG: We all need to hold each other accountable, even if we’re operating our own business. Q: Tell us about your Money Monsters 30-Day Challenge, and how it expands upon the academy. Currently, 7,000 young women are enrolled in the program learning these essentials. I also teach students negotiation skills to get the best prices. SG:I show entrepreneurs how to make similar connections to the ones I connected with during my career (incuding great connections in China), as well a cut out the middleman to directly source their own raw materials, and have more control over logistics regardless of whether the aspiring entrepreneur’s desired business is fashion, beauty and skincare, hair, or interior design. Q: What are some key elements and strategies you teach participants in the program? The pandemic gave me the time to structure my thoughts, ideas, and methods I used into a single program that would explain the process and steps to others in an accessible way. I was so busy that I never found the time to explain to my students and followers about how all of those things I did added up to success. On top of that, I was being a mom, and constantly pushing myself forward. SG: I think it was because of the fact that while I was teaching microblading, I was also filming some of the seminars and demonstrations. Q: How did your early success define the core of the Money Monsters Academy? I love to motivate women to “boss up” by teaching them how to use all the same tools and resources I used on my journey to become a millionaire. That alone propelled me to start my “Money Monsters Academy,” an educational program which teaches young women the basics on starting their own business. Sierra Gates: During the pandemic, I was not able to teach women how to do my microblading technique because the whole world shut town. Q: What was the ‘Ah-ha!’? moment that led you to create Money Monsters Academy? And now that I have more followers, I have made the kind of contacts that will allow me to connect to even more people than just making in-person appearances to discuss microblading techniques and give business advice such as reinvesting profits to get a steady cash flow, building your business around your passion, looking at the big picture, and marketing yourself in positive ways to the public.”Īlthough Gates’ other goals include opening a restaurant and launching a beauty school, she is taking a little bit of time to celebrate how one of her greatest passions-working as a makeup artist-segued into her own product line, including her aptly named ‘Bo$$ Up, Babe’ palette inspired by daughter, Paris, and intended to encourage anybody who uses it to put her best face forward. “The lockdown also helped me build up my digital platform. “The ironic thing about the lockdown during the worst part of the pandemic is that Zoom enabled me to reach out and touch more people than I would have otherwise…even more so than when I had been traveling the world before the pandemic,” says Gates. It’s also safe to say that Gates’ life leading up to the COVID-19 lockdown more than prepared her for this and other make-or-break moments. She’s keen on helping women with similar life experiences embrace challenges and make even the hardest life lessons an empowering experience. In less than two decades, she’s evolved from a teen mom who experienced homelessness, naysayers, and a torrent of negativity to a successful business person ultimately not content on being successful alone. However, the numbers that count are her business bottom line in terms of making smart decisions that add up as well as women who like her are learning to turn extreme adversity into enriching opportunity. She has big numbers of followers (to the tune of two million looking to her successful beauty industry businesses and fashionable looks) on Instagram and elsewhere. However, Atlanta-native entrepreneur and television personality Sierra Gates can tell you precisely who she wants to influence, how she’s influencing those followers, and why. Have you ever said or heard a word so many times that it no longer makes sense? For some, “influencer” can be that word because there are so many out there and their motivations for fame and exposure are all over the map. While some public figures exist to influence, ‘Love & Hip Hop Atlanta’s’ Sierra Gates chooses to lead by example through her off-camera projects and message of self-reliance.
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