JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — As a Jacksonville native, Tia Coleman noticed something missing in the city's business landscape.
"There was a lack of events that consistently motivated leaders and entrepreneurs who were those of color," she said.
A regular supply of such gatherings would allow "individuals to garner the tools needed to be authentically themselves … to be the business owners they saw themselves being," she said.
So entrepreneur Coleman, 27, founded Manifesting Over Mimosas, a networking event for North Florida women professionals and entrepreneurs of color. The first session was in 2019, and the second is Saturday at the Fraternal Order of Police on Beach Boulevard in Jacksonville.
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The 300 or so people expected to attend will hear from Jacksonville-based speakers Cynthia Smith, founder of Minds of the Future Academy, a local private school; Courtney Matthews, a certified life coach; Jasmine "Jay Dee" Daniels, a "sexuality educator" and author of "The Vagina Liberator" and founder of the related business; and Janay White, founder of J. White Enterprises, a former social worker and fraud investigator who now has a credit consulting company.
Also planned are a vendor marketplace, entertainment and a gourmet brunch including the foundation of mimosas — champagne.
First event led to 100 new businesses
Coleman, a 2016 graduate of Florida A&M University, said she wants to not only inspire individuals to "achieve their full potential" but "harness the economic power of women." And she hopes the vendor marketplace and networking will "promote social inclusion" of diverse women.
Her vision for Manifesting Over Mimosas is a "space where you not only network but network with a community of people who will not just collect your business card, but will support you," she said. "To me this is a touchpoint in being successful.
"When we look around Jacksonville, there aren't a lot of people that are flourishing within this city that look like I do," in part because "there is no platform that showcases what we do," Coleman said.
Coleman is founder and CEO of TiavsFancyCash, a coaching and training company that helps entrepreneurs and professionals develop and execute business plans. She also is the host of the TiavsFancyCash podcast and is a member of IMPACTJax, the young professionals organization of the JAX Chamber.
She even created a business called The Sweetest Sisters for her two daughters, Mackenzie, 5, and Makayla, 2, passing on her family's 25-year-old legacy in the snow cone and concessions business.
"I would like for this event to show all women that it is OK to support one another, to learn and grow without fear," she said. "I hope there will be a day that inclusivity will happen naturally. The space is already created, it is just up to the overall community to have a seat at the open table."
The first year of Manifesting Over Mimosas, in 2019, ultimately transformed about 100 participants into new business owners. Coleman said she expects Saturday's second event to "create an unstoppable momentum. … an influx of business leaders that will indeed help nurture the economic sector."
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'Go from dreaming to implementing'
One of the people who attended that first gathering was Shechinah Butler, who was there primarily in support of her friend Coleman. She did not anticipate a life-changing experience but had one just the same.
At the time, an idea was germinating in her head, a way to use her status as a childhood liver-transplant recipient to help other people facing or living with transplants.
"I wanted to do something, but I didn't feel like I had the guts," Butler said.
What she learned at Coleman's event — and in the time she honed her idea during the COVID-19 pandemic that began a short time after — led her to establish a "platform" on Instagram in 2020 and a podcast in 2021. Called Concealed SCARS, the theme was "your scars are someone else’s signs of hope."
"People can tell their stories … to help someone else," Butler said. Transplants are "not something a lot of people talked about. I wanted to bring something to the table," she said.
She later realized that she had a special voice not only as a transplant survivor but as a young, Black woman. So the topics up for discussion have expanded.
Two years later, Butler is a bit stunned at how that first networking session steered her life.
"I wanted to learn, I did have an idea," she said. "I came in support of her, not realizing it was going to make as much of an impact as it did."
Coleman was not surprised at the outcome of the 2019 event, for Butler and all the others.
"There is a strong need in North Florida to inspire, develop and create the next generational game-changers," she said. "This event gives people the opportunity to go from dreaming to implementing."
The stories of Coleman and the other speakers can help inspire women to take that next step toward becoming entrepreneurs. The speaker lineup "represents a realistic range — from being a start-up to having 10 or more years invested in their business," she said.
"All are successful in their own ways, but all are honest about the journey it took to get to where they are today," she said.
bcravey@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4109
MANIFESTING OVER MIMOSAS
The event will be 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday at the Fraternal Order of Police, 5530 Beach Blvd. in Jacksonville. In-person tickets are $80, virtual tickets are $45. Seating is limited and COVID-19 guidelines will be in place. To purchase tickets or sponsorships or get more information, go to manifestingovermimosas.com.