Stepping out on faith and not by fear: Genesis discusses religion, business, and womanhood 

At work, school, and in business there are two things you never want to discuss let alone display. Politics and religion. But what if your religion is apart of your identity? What if your morals, values, etc. are centered around your faith? Do you still leave that essential part of you out? Meet Genesis. Instead of hiding apart of who she was, she decided to center her business around her faith. Genesis Dorsey is a business coach that helps entrepreneurs build their tribes for ultimate conversion so that they can scale their dreams. She has worked with small businesses, pastors, and leaders from all over the world. She is also a passionate faith-based teacher of God’s Word. Check out our interview with her below:

1. What advice would you give to women who are looking to start their own business? Do your research. Don’t start until you have some kind of idea what you’re about to get yourself into. It’s just like dating but with more bills and sleepless nights that don’t involve a man. Many people don’t have a realistic view of having a business. Do three things: Research, Building Relationships, and Stack Money. Before you make any “announcement” that you’re a business owner, get those three things in order. Building relationships is key to success. Find someone already successful in the arena you want to be in. Don’t just look for a “celebrity” business owner. Find somebody that is killing the industry but isn’t in every magazine or newspaper. Find the hidden heroes of the industry. You’ll need a mentor and sometimes it won’t be a direct relationship. Many times it’s just simply watching them from afar. Network like crazy before you open your business. Everybody wants to build after the big announcement. Build before and watch you have a better launch when you open. Lastly, stack your money. Going into business broke is not a cute story for any woman. The more money you have when you start, the more you’ll have to invest. Try to have as much money that doesn’t include a loan or owing anyone anything. Sometimes, depending on your market, you may need to take out a loan because you need capital. Also, look into grants for female business owners as well as pitch contests and more. The money is out there.

2. Why do you feel as a girl boss it is hard to value our work and charge? As women, we have this maternal instinct even if we aren’t mothers. I believe God built this nurturing gene within us, even though I have friends who still need to discover it. Because of this, we want to help everyone at all times. In today’s society, women are built to have this “superwoman complex”. I think this is why it is hard when we begin to value who we are because we feel wrong for receiving our true dues. However, it isn’t hard to make that change because it’s all about choices. At some point you’re going to have to grow tired of being abused because that’s exactly what it is. Women are fighting to be paid their worth in the corporate world when it comes to the gender gap. Yet, when we get the final opportunity as a business owner to charge and define our pricing, we act as if we can’t do it. We must charge our worth because doing otherwise is neglecting our power.

3. A lot of businesses stray away from faith based products, mixing religion with business, etc. to avoid backlash. You center your business fearlessly around your faith. Why do you feel that is important? I believe that my faith is at the core of who I am as an individual. However, I always make sure that I’m not forcing my beliefs on anyone. I work with many backgrounds with different faiths. One of my favorite clients is an Atheist and I just signed on another client who is a Buddhist. My faith is important when it comes to my core values and how I carry my business. I once heard that the sign of a Christian shoemaker was not in putting a cross on all the shoes. It was in making good shoes. If you want to show love to the world, show it through how you help others.

4. What sets a successful business apart from one that fails after the first few years? You have to be careful on how you define failure. Every business fails. It’s just that some fail and don’t close their doors. What makes a successful business? Now, that’s a different question. What makes a successful business is split into three parts in my book: Fulfill, Scale, and Adapt. If you can’t do these three things, your business will die. You must first be able to fulfill a true need. You just can’t make up a need or void in the world because you want to go into business. You must truly find something that people want and not just a few but enough to actually launch and grow a business. That leads to the second word - scale. If you can’t expand operations and profit, your business will fade away. Success is seen in scaling. Everything must be able to grow or nothing will grow. In other words, you need a plan to go from a home office to a office building at some point. You need a plan to go from one machine to twenty machines. You need to go from you answering the phones to having an assistant and staff that grow as you grow. The last word is Adapt which is more important than ever. Not being able to adapt is what put Blockbuster out of business. Not being able to adapt is what put taxi companies in the dust as Uber and Lyft took off. You have to be able to adjust to customer needs as the world changes. Whatever doesn’t adapt will die. Don’t let your business be apart of being left in the dust. So many business owners become complacent and don’t study trends and customer behavior. They don’t know what’s coming next in the industry and they try to guess their way into success. Success is not about guessing. Even the best betters and gamblers in the world don’t depend on luck. They depend on numbers, probability, and patterns. You need to do the same.

5. What made you want to start your own business? My first business venture was becoming a freelance graphic designer. I was doing so much design work for a ministry that I started called Girls of Royalty. People kept on asking who was the designer. I decided to get started and the rest was history. There was a need. I filled it.

6. Any role models, coaches, or “girl bosses” you admire that every woman should follow? I believe that women should follow who best speaks into their heart. My #1 role model that is a woman is my mother. She is an entrepreneur and started her own school back in the early 2000’s. She is now focusing on launching multiple locations and down the road, I’ll be by her side completely to aid her in that. She’s letting me have fun establishing my own before I come back “into the fold” in the family business. She is the most hard working woman I know that has fought for me to have the best in life. She works late. She goes home late many times. She is passionate about what she does and has sacrificed more than people even know to keep her God-given dream in motion. I’m praying that God gives me that same grace to do what she has done and is continuing to do.

7. Does how a woman see herself impact how others see her business? I love this question because I teach on how low self-esteem ruins business owners. The question is true but not directly. How a woman sees herself impacts how she does business which in turn impact how others not just see her business but also how they interact with her business. When you’re not confident in who you are first as a person, you won’t go into rooms where your next level is. You won’t introduce yourself to your future and you’ll only entertain what you’re comfortable with. You won’t speak highly of yourself and if you do, it’s only for a moment. Why? Because you don’t believe in yourself. Many times we believe that all we need to do is believe in what we do. However, high self-esteem is key to being successful. Matter of fact, those who believe in themselves highly are usually seen as cocky, arrogant, and self-conceited. However, many times the real issue is the fact that the people around them have low self-esteem. You need to learn how to love who you are and stop trying to overcompensate for your faults. You can’t strengthen your weaknesses. Instead, you outsource them to people who have your weaknesses as their strengths. If you’re not good at money, hire an accountant. If you’re not good at sales, hire a sales team. Maybe you’re good at the behind-the-scenes creativity or the front end. Whatever it is you can’t do, work your butt off to hire out so that you can focus on what you’re good at. I’m a squirrel. I’m a creative that gets excited and has a 99% chance of becoming disorganized right after that excitement turns into 100 ideas. That’s what my assistant is for. I feel like calling her my assistant is a low word. I call her my brain because she sorts out everything that comes into that firecracker brain. Spend time with you. Date you. Love you. Marry you. Too many business owners or future ones don’t love themselves but think that they can sugarcoat it when they start telling others about their business. Your success is the result of your self-esteem. Those who really believe in what is inside of their brain and their creative abilities will produce greatness. To do otherwise would be offensive to their passion.

8. When you first started out, which method was most successful in bringing traffic to your website? When I first started out, I had no clue how to bring traffic. Then, I got into social media and collaborations. Awareness is everything. It is currency. The biggest thing you can do is expose your platform, no matter what you do, to bigger audiences. So partner, collaborate, network, on all channels, in person or online. I used social media to create serious leverage and create amazing partnerships. I didn’t wait for someone to put me on. I was the one initiating people to come onto my platforms so that’s how I learned how to create powerful platforms. It’s now what I coach people around the world how to do. Sooner than later, my name started being seen all over social media. Also if you’re an educator, coach, expert - start a YouTube Channel and put out content that people are searching for. YouTube is a huge part of my success for my personal brand. I did a video on starting a mug business and now it’s the #1 video hit when you search for starting a mug business. The hilarious part is that the video is on how to sell bulk amounts of mugs and via Dropshipping. When I did the video in 2016, I was just sharing amateur tips that I had learned by getting started. Now, after being in the e-commerce world since then, I’ve learned so much that now I share with more experience. Don’t be afraid to put your expertise or tips on display. People are looking for you and that’s another great way I built up traffic without even trying to. YouTube has brought me so many clients and online course students. I’m truly grateful.

9. What can people expect from your “Drop it like it’s Hot course”? So my “Drop it Like It’s Hot” online course has launched and it has been wonderful. The course is your ultimate E-Commerce course for Shopify as well as lessons on Dropshipping. Dropshipping is the ability for you to run an online store and not have to have any inventory in your home. It’s a method I am teaching to bloggers, authors, online e-commerce stores, and more who desire to launch t-shirts, mugs, and print based apparel. The online course is for not just those who have an online store but for those who are interested in launching one and need an all-in-one solution to teach them how. It’s a well-needed investment for many and I’m excited to say that over 50 students have enrolled. That’s huge!

10. When people come in contact with Genesis or your products what impact do you want to have? I want them to say that Genesis Dorsey pushed them to see more, produce more, and give back more. I’m really big into this movement I’ve started called Kingdom Patron where I’m encouraging entrepreneurs to have a deeper “why”. The reason why I started this movement is that as entrepreneurs we have to do something with the wealth that we’re building. I truly believe that God has blessed us to be a blessing to others. Whatever our soul aches for - the hurting, the broken, the abused, the misused, those that do not have enough to go after their dreams...we need to help them. How? Through the wealth and influence that comes into our hands as world changers. I want people to look back on my life and see that I sparked a fire that raged inside of other’s hearts to make a true impact and open up doors for others.