Akilah S. Richards

Katrina M. Harrell and Akilah S. Richards have a collective abundance of life and business anecdotes from their personal and professional experiences. One common thread among their stories is the lack of harmony between sound business strategies and real emotional wellness. Work-Life balance chasing aside, many women entrepreneurs, particularly black women, are enslaved to their purposes, and suffer in their business and personal lives from what Harrell and Richards dubbed "The inner B.I.T.C.H.". The acronym illustrates the five primary ways women lose sight of their charge to lead as entrepreneurs, and get trapped working for their businesses. As a Business and Life Strategist, Harrell saw first-hand how the lack of business models and structures left her clients, most of whom were black women, without the necessary skills to consistently increase their income over a reasonable period of time. Richards, a Life Design Practitioner and Certified Emotional Wellness Educator served black women who were usually doing well in their business, but lacked a deeper connection to their work, leaving them unfulfilled, burned out, overweight, and in an overall place of disharmony. This misalignment with strategy and soulwork is examined and resolved in How She Got Free. In their Spiritual Business Manual Harrell and Richards tackle the tough, frequently dodged topics such as: --- How lack of core business knowledge (standards, structures, and systems) leaves black business without the skills to excel in both digital and brick and mortar businesses. --- The necessary mindset shift from “brand-building” to “business operations” --- How black women are looking to their white counterparts for models that will not work for their own potential markets --- How intuition + structure = steady business growth x more personal fulfillment ...among others. Their mutual experiences with "Black Lack" as they call it, led them to call on their inner freedom fighters and create an easy-to-follow guide, part fictional narrative, part business manual, that gives black women the 5-step strategy and soulwork blueprint to free their inner B.I.T.C.H.es, and live emotionally and financially sustainable lives.