Shelly's $2 million pole fitness business is something to flaunt about

“I just made $108,000 in 3 months!”

I remember when graduate of our Million Dollar Women program Shelly Murdock messaged me that, three months into the pandemic. It was more than she had ever made in a year.

Now she’s on the path to making $2M per year (and fun fact… her Fit 2 Flaunt dance pole and app is popular with celebrities like Cardi B and Kelly Rowland!). Watch Shelly talk about what she is building in a short video here.

When Shelly signed up for Million Dollar Women, she wanted to take her company to the next level but as the first entrepreneur in her family and living in Florida, had no access to role models or mentors. During one of Million Dollar Women’s breakout sessions, she realized her classes could be easily accessed as an app. She built Fit 2 Flaunt, where people can choose from a variety of classes, and she could ship them an easy-to-assemble pole. The poles blew up on social media (especially during lockdown) and suddenly she was making over more money than she ever thought possible while doing what she loved.

Million Dollar Women gives women like Shelly who have big dreams but little access to coaching or mentorship the tools to create a more scalable and profitable version of their company. We want to make THIS question easy to answer:   

“Have you ever met a woman who has built a multi-million-dollar business?”

Let me ask you: have YOU ever met a woman who has built a multi-million-dollar business?

If your answer is no, and you are a women or identify as a woman, it's not surprising.

Fewer than 3% of women-owned businesses generate revenues of $1 million or more so there are still too few of us out there. What makes this number even more astonishing is the fact that women-owned businesses account for nearly 40% of all privately led firms, and this number is growing every year. In 2021, 50% of new startups were founded by women! More women started businesses in the last two years than in the last two decades... the "Great Resignation" also led to the "Great Incorporation" with over two million new women-led businesses created.

Despite all of this momentum, why are so many women still struggling to reach the million-dollar revenue milestone?

Reality check: 90% of women who run businesses in the U.S. are generating less than $100K in revenues per year and have zero employees.

There are several reasons women are not scaling up, but let’s start with the obvious: women are still underrepresented founders and when you add in BIPOC, age, or being in a rural or remote area, the hurdles are even higher. It’s much more challenging to build a multi-million-dollar business or allow yourself to dream big if you’ve never seen someone you can relate to successfully do it. Living outside a major cosmopolitan or business hub like New York City or Los Angeles makes it much more difficult to meet mentors, industry leaders and decision, and other female founders who can support and relate to your entrepreneurial journey.

But in 2022, that shouldn’t be the reality we live in. I created Million Dollar Women to change that and with our board, advisors, mentors, coaches and leadership team we have already helped thousands of women to make more money and create more scalable, profitable businesses. We launched our nonprofit arm, Million Dollar Women Fund , a few years ago so we can provide scholarships to women of color, and have awarded over 90 scholarships since then.

Our signature program (the one Shelly took, with a scholarship) is an intensive, 12-week online class that teaches women how to scale their business up to $1 million and beyond. In taking the program, women find the money-making machine at the center of their business and through accountability, new tools, mindset shifts and access to capital and mentors they start to execute quickly on their new vision. Plus they can do it right from their computers or phones, without missing a day in their business.

The program is focused on the four key things entrepreneurs needs to get right: Mindset, Strategy, Money, and Team.

Our women go step-by-step through critical financial concepts, so they leave the Million Dollar Women course knowing how to read an income statement, manage cash flow, create financial projections, raise capital and get bank loans. They also attend weekly small group coaching session on Zoom where we go more in-depth on the go big mindset, sales strategies, pricing, setting up the right systems and hiring.

One of the reasons Million Dollar Women programs are so transformative for participants is mentors. Our 30 mentors are entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-dollar businesses from scratch and want to help others do the same by paying it forward. Just one conversation with them is often a game changer for the mentee, most of whom have never had access to someone who built a multimillion dollar business.

Shelly’s mentor was Brittany Stovall, co-founder and CEO of Assured Quality Systems, who interviewed in a recent Go Big Now Live Show. Brittany's mentorship helped Shelly to know she was on the right track and figure out the next steps to start building the more scalable version of her business. Plus Shelly appreciated having a Black woman mentor (fewer than 1% of women of color get to $1 million) and they stayed in touch well beyond her stint in the program.

If you’re interested in joining Million Dollar Women Accelerator, learning more about our network for women going big and joining as a mentor, or just want to say hello, feel free to shoot me a DM.

Shelly tells her own story in a short video here!