197- How Monique Greenwood Grew the Akwaaba Bed & Breakfast Inns Empire
Side Hustle Pro
Nicaila Matthews Okome | Side Hustle Pro Media
4.8 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 22 April 2020
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today in the Side Hustle Pro guest chair, we welcome Monique Greenwood, owner and CEO (Chief Enjoyment Officer) of Akwaaba Bed & Breakfast Inns, a collection of upscale B&Bs in Brooklyn, NY; Washington, DC; Cape May, NJ; Philadelphia, PA and a boutique resort in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains.
After graduating from Howard University, Greenwood became a fashion journalist, eventually becoming an intrapreneur while working for Women’s Wear Daily by launching her own magazine about children’s fashion. And after a six-year stretch at Essence, leading her to Editor-in-Chief, Monique took on her side hustle, Akwaaba Bed & Breakfast Inns, and made it her main source of income. After 25 years, she’s expanded, now, with five locations, and hasn’t looked back since. In addition to talking about her journey to being a successful entrepreneur, we also talk about her journey from experiencing early professional success in magazine publishing and overcoming difficult moments like opening a Bed & Breakfast property in New Orleans right before Hurricane Katrina hit, how she’s tackling the COVID-19 crisis of 2020, and more.
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Social Media Info
Akwaaba Bed & Breakfast Inns (Instagram) – @akwaabainns
Akwaaba Bed & Breakfast Inns (Facebook) – @akwaabainns
Monique Greenwood (Twitter) – @moniqueakwaaba
Side Hustle Pro – @sidehustlepro
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Everyone has a story to tell so you become good at telling your story and people will |
| 0:08.8 | want to hear it and in different forms so you remain open. |
| 0:15.0 | You're listening to Side Hustle Pro, |
| 0:17.0 | the podcast that teaches you to build and grow your Side Hustle |
| 0:21.0 | from Passion Project to profitable business business and I'm your host |
| 0:24.3 | Michaela Matthew Zocome. So let's get started. Today in the guest chair we have |
| 0:30.9 | Monique Greenwood Monique is owner and CEO that's chief enjoyment |
| 0:36.2 | officer of Aquaba Bed and Breakfast Ends, a collection of upscale B&Bs in Brooklyn, |
| 0:42.2 | New York, Washington, D.C. |
| 0:44.0 | Cape Main, New Jersey, Philadelphia, PA, |
| 0:46.3 | and a boutique resort in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains. |
| 0:50.5 | Monique also has a story career in journalism and is former editor-in-chief of Essence magazine. |
| 0:57.0 | Even while enjoying great success in publishing, Monique was always determined to develop her own business empire. |
| 1:05.0 | She opened her first bed and breakfast over 20 years ago with the purchase of a dilapidated mansion in the Bedford-Stavicent section of Brooklyn, and together with her husband, |
| 1:14.9 | restored that jewel, then bought another nearby property to open a 72-seat restaurant |
| 1:21.0 | called a Quaba Cafe. She is passionate about economically empowering our |
| 1:26.0 | communities and encouraging others to dream and live on purpose. In today's |
| 1:31.2 | episode we talk about her journey from experiencing early |
| 1:35.0 | professional success in magazine publishing to being recruited by |
| 1:38.8 | Essence magazine to serve as both Lifestyle and Style Director, to ultimately being promoted to editor-in-chief of essence |
| 1:46.4 | succeeding iconic editor Susan Taylor and serving a monthly readership of nearly 2 million. |
| 1:52.9 | Monique also shares how she has overcome difficult moments |
... |
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