Welcome to a special season of Pitch Makeover, recorded at the Native Women’s Business Summit. In this episode, Natalia is joined by Cherylee Francis of Native Women Entrepreneurs of Arizona, and CF Productions, a visual storyteller focused on uplifting Native businesses. Plus, Jaime Gloshay joins us for the Investor Take.

The Native Women’s Business Summit returns April 5th and 6th. Tickets and more info at NativeWomenLead.org.

 

 

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Gina: Welcome back to a special edition of Pitch Makeover, recorded at the Native Women’s Business Summit. I’m Executive Producer Gina Delvac. Here at Pitch Makeover, we’ve introduced a land acknowledgment practice, who is Woodland Cree, and Chief of Staff at Pipeline Angels.

The Native Women’s Business Summit was held, and these episodes were recorded, on Pueblos land, due to white colonizers. To learn more and find out whose stolen land you’re on, search for the Native Land app.

We’re grateful to Anisa for guiding the creation of this land acknowledgment, which we’ll include in this special edition and future seasons of Pitch Makeover.

For this episode, Natalia is joined by entrepreneur Cherylee Francis, who is Navajo. Now, here are Natalia and Cherylee at the Native Women’s Business Summit.

Natalia: Hi everyone, it’s Natalia, creator and host of Pitch Makeover. We’re back and I’m in Albuquerque. I’m getting to feature another entrepreneur that I met at yesterday’s Native Women’s Business Summit. Here in the studio I’m joined by Cherylee Francis who is the founder of Native American Women Entrepreneurs in Arizona and is also the founder of CF Productions. Welcome, Cherylee.

Cherylee: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Natalia: We are so excited to have you here. You will be pitching about a mini-series that you’re working on and are you ready to start your one minute pitch?

Cherylee: Let’s give it a shot, and hopefully I can do this.

Natalia: Awesome. Ready? Set? Go!

Cherylee: Okay. So the mini-series I would like to pitch: it’s creating economic development on the Navajo nation through innovative storytelling. The issues and problems that are very important about this mini-series I want to put together, it has to do with – you know, for centuries Indigenous communities had been thriving on an economic system based on bartering and trading but the capitalism concept of profit presents a whole new set of learning skills for Native peoples. You know, learning about money management, reading balance sheets, income statements, such and such about financial life, but then we discuss about, like, all the issues happening on the reservation, you know? High poverty, lack of afterschool programs, we’re dealing with diabetes and health disparities.

So what I want to focus on in this mini-series is discussing about my tribal government. Are they increasing privately and tribally owned businesses on our nation? And how does money circulate on the reservation? How long does it stay there? Also, are policy makers enacting like a Buy Indian Act, encouraging tribal governments to patronize tribally owned businesses? And just finding out these questions is what I really want to find out.

And that’s terrible because it’s over a minute and I’m still not making it.

Natalia: Hey! So you were timing yourself?

Cherylee: Heck yeah! [Laughs]

Natalia: I’m like, that’s what I do over here!

Cherylee: I’m just going to cut it off because I didn’t even finish it. I had so much story! [Laughs]

Natalia: One minute and twelve – hey! Well you’re a storyteller, right?

Cherylee: Oh my goodness. There’s just so much information and I do need to cut it down. I do know what this is about. I’m producing myself.

Natalia: I love this because I was going to say before we produce you…so before we go there, I’d just love to take a little a moment and talk a little bit more because – well, you said “creating economic development in Navajo nation through storytelling.” You know, that caught my attention right away, right? I’d love to learn a little bit more about is just tell me how – why are you the right person? There’s, you know, CF Productions, right?

Cherylee: Right. And there’s…

Natalia: So, tell me about CF Productions.

Cherylee: Oh my goodness. I’m a Native American woman-owned small business. You know? I’ve been doing what I’ve been doing for over seventeen years. I’ve worked in commercial, non-commercial entities, radio stations, TV stations, I actually started off in PBS. And so the passion that I have when I learned the skills that I learned years ago, it came back to actually a very profound moment when I was on the border in the Tohono Oʼodham reservation and we were in night goggles with the border patrol on our hands and knees and are looking for the migrants travelling over the border. Eventually we found a group that came from Mexico and I saw the faces of these young people that had left their country with nothing to live for and they travelled to live for something better here in America. And it was just amazing to hear them, to hear their struggles, and why they wanted to come here.

 

It just hit me, and I thought, well what’s a Navajo woman doing down here in southern Arizona? Where am I at with the border patrol down here and listening to these stories with my PBS crew and I started to think about my home. What about those stories that aren’t being told on my reservation. Who’s paying attention to them? All reservations are underserved communities. They get the last of everything. The difficulty to do any kind of infrastructure to improve their communities takes several steps, approvals all the way from, you know, whatever entity: the state, the county, the tribal system, federal government. So it’s just constantly slow and economic development is so important. People have to drive hours just to go to the grocery store. People have to drive hours to take – they take their money off the reservation, it doesn’t even stay on the reservation. So, what about those stories? Who’s paying attention to them? You know, we only have one newspaper. You know, one radio station. But they’re not focused on those stories that will probably help bridge that gap of understanding not only just for the community locally but nationally. You know? People – just the other day I found out that people thought Native Americans didn’t exist anymore. You know? We exist and we’re going to keep on going.

 

Natalia: I’m still thinking about those goggles that you mentioned, the night vision goggles, the border and when you use that word I can hardly say no to an opportunity to quote another #WiseLatina so I’m going to obviously quote Eva Longoria and I think it was in 2016 at the Democratic National Convention she said something that it was like, “we didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us.”

Cherylee: Yes it did.

Natalia: Especially when we’re talking about stolen land which is another important conversation we’re having.

Cherylee: It’s huge. Especially, you know, with right now with Tohono Oʼodham, they live on both sides, you know, of this imaginary border that now exists and they – you know, just the other week there was a gentleman who was arrested who only speaks Oʼodham and border patrol took him back to Mexico because he doesn’t speak Spanish or English. So who was to communicate with him? And now they won’t let him back over. And so you’re dealing with all of these international laws that prevent tribal people that have been in areas for centuries and yet this little political line decides their life.

Natalia: I want to ask you to share a little bit more about economic development and what that means to you because I get the storytelling aspect, right? I get all that aspect. Tell me more about – okay so through storytelling, what is that vision? You know, when you say “creating economic development,” what does that mean? Is it like creating jobs through storytelling?

Cherylee: So I’m not creating any – as far as, like, an actual job. What I’m trying to pass onto the audience, what they can take away from what they’re going to see, is the process on how other individuals – how other successful businesses that are established have ventured and had to overcome their challenges doing their businesses on the reservation. And so being – earlier you said I’m the founder of the Native Women Entrepreneurs Group in Arizona, you know we located about a good thirty, forty actually established, established, women-owned business owners – Native women business owners – and people in Arizona didn’t even know that we existed. We’re not start-ups and we’re not in incubator level, we have been in business incorporated, we have our papers all set up and everything.

So, what happens is, I want to focus this mini-series on those women, and particularly women business owners. Again, we’re a population that never gets highlighted even though my nation is a matrilineal society a lot of it seems to focus on the patrilineal side and so men have all the business. Men – the traders that came in, they were all men.

And so I want to focus on how is my tribe helping, you know, in a sense women entrepreneurs, but all entrepreneurs? Are they increasing that number of privately and tribally owned businesses on the Navajo nation? And how long does money really circulate? I want to talk about, you know, we have these border towns where people get paid. That money is going right off the reservation. It didn’t even sit. And reservation economies, you know, they rapidly lose their money because of that. So identifying those businesses on Navajo but offering a variety of goods and services. So this would help in actually keeping that money. But who are those companies? Or who are those businesses? And we don’t know that.

And a lot of this, of what I’m trying to do with this mini-series, it’s also, I’m learning. It helps me to understand this process as we produce, as we story tell, we’re also trying to find the answers. And that’s who we are, we’re the questions people. We’re: “Why? Why? How does this work?” So we can help our audience understand.

Natalia: Are you ready for your Pitch Makeover? I believe you are.

Cherylee: I will do my best.

Natalia: Be open to the experience!

Cherylee: [Laughs]

Natalia: I’d say when it comes to the Keep, totally keep the “creating economic development in Navajo nation through storytelling.” It was a very attention-grabbing phrase.

Keep – you mentioned capitalism, the concept of profit. Those three words: “capitalism, concepts, and profit,” is a really keen way of underscoring that we’re talking about terms. Terms that for someone outside of tribal lands, maybe they don’t think twice about the mainstream status quo understanding of capitalism and profit is very different than, you know, the communities that you are serving and that you want to uplift. Let’s keep that.

And then the third Keep is increasing privately owned companies in tribal land because it came across as that is your goal and it was a very focused goal which is really helpful. We can have lots of different goals for – to start different, sort of, initiatives, start-ups.

Cherylee: Okay, and that’s the goal. There we go.

Natalia: And then in terms of Delete, I would say: delete the overview of issues.

Cherylee: Yes. [Laughs]

Natalia: It’s helpful to know, like, and oh my gosh there’s so many issues, right? However, they’re not necessarily as applicable to what your goal is. Right? Like, in terms of this mini-series. So just focus on the issues, the key issues, and then, you know, maybe your second mini-series is about, you know, the health disparities, or you know, like your third mini-series is about these other important issues. I do have some stuff to add, Cherylee. I have three things to add.

Cherylee: Of course. Go for it.

Natalia: I loved how you just, like, name-dropped PBS. You know, like, that’s amazing. That should be one of the first things that you include because often times it’s investors are interested in better understanding who are the founders, why are they the right people to be launching either a product, or concept, and you know in this case a mini-series. And so really shining a light on your experience, your background, the fact that you worked at PBS. You have that under your belt.

The second thing that I would say what you’re doing with this mini-series and why it’s so powerful and exciting is that it’s education plus entertainment and it’s kind of like, how are you making it fun? There’s a reason that you said “mini-series” and not a documentary!

Cherylee: Oh, heck yeah!

Natalia: I’m being a little bit cheeky!

Cherylee: Yes! [Laughs]

Natalia: [Laughs] You mentioned the moving pictures, right? So what is it that we’re going to be seeing? Right? Describe a little bit. Give an example of, like, what you will be watching. This is what the mini-series will be covering, because then it stops being something abstract and intellectual and it actually becomes a real mini-series that I will be downloading, you know, to my phone so I can check it out while I’m travelling.

Cherylee: Okay.

Natalia: Okay. So are you ready to do your do-over?

Cherylee: I’m going to do my best.

Natalia: Stretching? Stretching, to get ready?

Ready? Set? Go!

Cherylee: So, I want to create a mini-series consisting of five thirty-minute episodes focusing on economic development on the Navajo nation. Highlighting fifteen Navajo women entrepreneurs.

Centuries before Indigenous communities have had a thriving economic system based on bartering and trading, but the capitalism concept of profit presents a whole new set of learning skills for Native peoples.

So my goal through this mini-series is to identify and increase the number of privately and tribally owned businesses on the Navajo nation. And what makes me set apart from other video production companies is I am a Native woman-owned small business that owns her own production company, I have the tools and skills to know how the story should be developed, I am from the Navajo nation so therefore I’m even more prune to access to information, but most importantly I want people to see the importance of how this mini-series can impact small business owners on the Navajo nation.

Natalia: It was, I think, fifty-eight to fifty-nine seconds.

Cherylee: Oh my god! [Laughs]

Natalia: I’m so proud of you!

Cherylee: So weird!

Natalia: Congrats!

Cherylee: Oh my goodness. And some things I still didn’t even like what I said, but…it came out.

Natalia: Deconstruct that a little bit. What didn’t you like about it? And what did you feel was better?

Cherylee: The part about why am I the person? That is the thing in most – what I find even difficult is highlighting my attributes, my uniqueness, what makes me qualified. Like, that is a difficulty for myself. I am not a person who talks a lot about my awards, or my “this,” or what I do. I’m about trying to talk about other people. So when that part about when I had to transition about what makes me set differently from other people to fulfill this project, gosh, that just threw me because I’m like [laughs]…how do I express that? But I know that’s the part. So…if you have tips on how that can easily be a better flow? And all of this – it’s a great exercise. This is what people need to do all the time, and that’s what we’re doing is developing. This is how people find seed money and this is how angel investing works. It’s just constant practice like anything else. It’s tough to let your ideas out but they need to breathe and they need to flow.

So – but when it comes to the Native women entrepreneurs, I’m very passionate because I am one, but it’s something that it’s something that it’s long overdue to highlight those stories and especially about women, we really need to uplift them. And it’s not for us, it’s not for our generation, we’re – I’m thinking of the next generation and the next one because those young women who are going to come in our shoes, they’re going to say, you know, “who’s going to help us?” Or, “what happened? Didn’t somebody start something?” because that’s what I asked when I got here. Nobody was there and I only have the teachings of my mother and the teachings of her mother and her grandmother and the mothers before that help guide me to where I am, to help, you know, let’s make a change.

Natalia: Cherylee you just said so many deep heavy-duty things, like your accomplishments. It’s something that is very gendered, you know, we often talk about how, like, women and femmes have a harder time promoting themselves. You know? And I’m not even talking about race, ethnicity. We’re saying your accomplishments. At the end of the day your accomplishments are also who you are and I think for some of us, you know – and especially the gendered part – is that accomplishments might feel separate versus it’s part of our story, it’s part of who we are, we earned them. You know, it’s our lived experience. So maybe if I even – even thinking about, like, what is our lived experience.

There’s an exercise that the Op-Ed Project – and for anyone who’s interested in writing more op-eds, especially if you’re a woman, a nonbinary person, or a man of color, please check them out – they have an exercise with their participants: each participant tell us what you’re an expert in. And the participants have such a hard time saying what they’re an expert in. And as soon as they change the word to resource: what are you a resource on? Perceiving ourselves as resources apparently is easier than perceiving ourselves as experts. The reason I’m bringing this up is because, like, what are those – you know, you mentioned – what are tips to make it, you know, easier?

Cherylee: [Laughs]

Natalia: And maybe it’s like if we talk about, like why– you know, why are you a resource? How can you – because then it becomes, like, how can you help? Right?

Cherylee: Yes.

Natalia: And the other part of it is – and a word that was used at the Native Women’s Business Summit which is such a powerful one was – a vessel, and even a bridge. How can you position yourself, you know, to really be able to succeed with this mini-series? Because you want to succeed, because by succeeding you’re giving this opportunity to your community. And so in some ways…actually, you know, sharing your expertise and actually talking about your experience, you are serving as a bridge to open up so many more opportunities to so many more Native women entrepreneurs which is who you’re committed to.

Cherylee: And, you know, I kind of short-changed the scope on this mini-series. You know, I specifically was just highlighting Navajo nation but, you know, I need to highlight also the rest of the tribes that are representative of the women in the entrepreneurs group and they come from Hopi, they come from Hualapai, White Mountain Apaches, Tohono Oʼodham. So in some regard doing this pitch, this little exercise – it is a good exercise – which will help me, you know, go back to the drawing board basically and really find a better word to be inclusive of those strong women entrepreneurs because I want to identify too, yes it would be easier to just go back to highlighting the tribe that I’m from, the nation that I’m from, but what even would be better and would help the collective is to also highlight the rest of the members in our group that come from those different Indigenous tribes of Arizona.

Natalia: I loved how you used the word “set apart from others.” What sets you apart, you know? What is your value add? And you mentioned both tools and resources and so something that I hadn’t even thought about that you mentioned through your company is like you have equipment.

Cherylee: Yes.

Natalia: You know? And oftentimes there are so many people who are like asking for funding and, like, a huge part –

Cherylee: To buy.

Natalia: Exactly. So you’re already saying, like –

Cherylee: I have the tools, I have everything ready to go and I just need to also just…you know, I also need to eat and I need to look ahead on figuring out how I want to pay for something like all this besides focusing on my clients who, you know, help me do that.

So there’s a difference between having to be CF Productions and, you know, pitch my product, my services, to my clients versus now I’m going to be on the other end. I’m going to do this whole other mini-series. After this mini-series, there’s more to do, finding a distributor. Who does it go to? Where is it going to be broadcast? Who’s going to pick it up? Where can I showcase it? There’s all the advertising and marketing that goes into that which is a whole other thing. I don’t want it to be, like, a film circuit – film festival circuit type of a deal – it can, but this is immediate and this is something that needs, you know, people can just have access to and just get it out there. So.

Natalia: Well I’m glad that you said that it can because why take yourself out?

Cherylee: Yeah. Yes!

Natalia: You know? Like…

Cherylee: Why not, I’ll just do that too.

Natalia: Yeah! Right? Yeah, let’s do it!

Today’s Pitch Makeover Tip is uplift your lived experience. And, this goes back to yes we talked about the PBS part, the other part is the fact that are from the tribe and the reservation that you want to work in and that’s also important. You know, like, the lived experience. Yes, it can be those, like, as we were saying the name drops. So you’re like, “oh my gosh name dropping, name dropping.” It is also about what else? What else have we experienced? What else have we lived that has made us the expert? Or if it’s easier to, like, if people feel it easier or more comfortable using the word “resource,” like, that has made us a resource. You know, and has made us – and maybe we finish off with Nilofer Merchant’s, you know, only-ness. You know, like, what is it that – what is our only-ness and let’s uplift that only-ness because it’s going to serve as that vessel, that bridge, to then help others and help the communities that we want to uplift. But uplifting ourselves we’re going to be able to uplift more people.

[Music plays]

Natalia: Hi everyone, it’s Natalia, I’m in the studio for our Investor Take with Jaime Gloshay. Jaime is White Mountain Apache, Diné-Navajo, and Kiowa, and Jaime is a co-founder of the Native Women’s Business Summit so I’m super thrilled to have Jaime in the studio with us. So, hey Jaime!

Jaime: Hi, thank you for having me. I’m so happy to be here.

Natalia: Tell us about your Investor Take for this episode. What tip do you have for entrepreneurs?

Jaime: The ideation phase of starting your business is so important. Really understanding who, what, why, when, where, answering those questions. You know, when you’re building your business, who is this for? Who is your market? Who are you? How does your identity, I guess, spark interest or passion? Really, how does it transform your business? And what is it you’re going to do or make? What is it you’re going to manifest? Why is this needed? What’s your purpose? What’s the mission? What’s the point of your business?

Also, when? I feel like relevance is very…very essential when you’re looking at growing a business, the timing. You know, do you have the necessary support? The connections? It kind of gives you an idea, a framework, a structure, to work through.

And where? You want to consider, is this something that you’re going to do on a local level? Is it regional? How are you going to source your products? How are you going to create jobs? Where are you going to create jobs? Where are you going to market?

[Music plays]

Natalia: We are back in the studio with Cherylee Francis, founder of CF Productions and founder of Native American Women Entrepreneurs in Arizona.

So, Cherylee, tell me about the first time that you ever pitched; your first-ever pitch, ever.

Cherylee: My very first-ever pitch ever happened about seven years ago. I was so nervous about it because I had just moved back to northern Arizona from southern Arizona and I didn’t have any clients because all my clients were down in southern Arizona and I needed to figure out how I do what I do and make a living out of it and make some money because I had, you know, bills to pay. So I approached a company and it was very nerve wracking to try to pitch what I was trying to say, what I do. And, you know, other than giving them the long version because I am that storyteller, I tell things so much longer than they need to be, you know, that’s what we’re learning at this podcast. I need to condense things and just cut it off. It took forever.

Natalia: This is going to be a special extended episode.

Cherylee: [Laughs] I know! It took a long time for me to pitch even what I did, back then, as a provider – a service provider as a video production contractor. Today I just say, “I’m a video/audio production contractor.

And, “what do you do?”

“I make commercials for companies.”

And that’s, kind of, how it starts and they turn because that word – just the one word of “commercials” it makes people’s heads so like “what does that mean?” And then that conversation keeps going.

And so, I’m like, “I’m here to help you market and promote whatever it is, product, service, training video, that you need and I help develop it and so you can use it for your website or for your social media accounts. Anything you need, put it out there. Put it on a monitor at a tradeshow table and let people know so you don’t have to keep, you know, recycling and using paper to put your printed materials out. You know? And people love TV, so…and that’s kind of how I interest people. And then I stop my sentence and then they’re like, “hmmm” and then they go on and ask another question.

Natalia: I love that because, you know, Dana Goldstein, the founder of PhilanTech – which was the first ever Pipeline Angels Portfolio Company exited, you know, got acquired by Altum – she says that the pitching is the start of a conversation and you found that keyword “commercial.” You found that keyword that grabs people’s attentions and then they’re like, “please tell me more,” and then you’re ready. It’s almost like you’re positioning them. You’re already –

Cherylee: It’s like chess.

Natalia: [Laughs] Yes! I love that. And so you’re already ready for the next plays, right? You’re already ready for the next moves. You’re already ready for the questions. And then –

Cherylee: It’s a keyword, you have to – because, “commercials, what does that mean? Is that like for TV? You mean it goes on the TV?” Like they really think – they say that.

I said, “It goes anywhere. It goes in movie theatres, it goes in ads, it goes anywhere you want it to be, that’s where it goes. Thirty seconds, sixty seconds, book ends fifteen seconds each.” You know.

And they’re like, “wow.” So.

And then I throw in, you know, “just go to my website and see my finished product and then you can decide if this is something you want to get into.”

Natalia: And that’s also part of the pitch, having something to showcase. Right? The fact that you have a deliverable.

Cherylee: I do.

Natalia: I would say the other thing that surprised me is that you moved – I thought you were going to tell me, like, you moved, like, a huge, super huge long distance and actually you moved from – so you moved from southern Arizona to northern Arizona and then, like, your entire business, you know, shifted in terms of customers, clientele. Is it because it’s very location sensitive, what you do? Tell me more about, like, why that made such a big difference.

Cherylee: So when I was in southern Arizona I had a team of people that I used to work with. Each person was delegated a specific job. Whether they were the audio engineer, specifically, lighting, so you don’t touch each other’s job position and what they do. Everybody had their purpose and I was at the time an associate producer working with our group. But because I was trained at PBS I knew every aspect of every level of production: pre-production, production, through post, so I’m an editor all – I finished the product all the way. But what happened was they focused a lot on high-end commercials or when, like, the History channel would come in or the Discovery channel would come in, they focused on those individuals and those companies. What set me apart and why I decided to do what I did was I wanted to – I wanted to tell stories. My mom was a very good storyteller and she told stories all of her life and it stayed with me and I thought, wouldn’t it be great if we started to capture? And we should archive and preserve those stories for the next generation. So I wanted to become a documentarian. Early on I found out as an altruistic belief that yeah, I want to do this and maybe I can tell these other stories, but you need the money. You need to learn how to live. You need to figure out how to turn that switch in your brain and say, “okay, how can I do what I love to do?” But I had to be creative and that’s what all of this is about. So I wanted to highlight and work with Native-American businesses that are an underserved population that don’t get high-end marketing products when it comes to media and technology. So it would help highlight what they do. So I focused it and said okay that’s what I should focus on.

Natalia: Well and then the other thing that even though you haven’t spelled it out so I’m going to spell it out, you moved from southern Arizona to northern Arizona, you also moved, you moved from corporate to entrepreneur. I think that’s also what happened.

Cherylee: Oh I did. Yes, I guess so.

Natalia: [Laughs] It’s like read between – you buried the lead!

Cherylee: I did. I did.

Natalia: And so this is like a great reminder also in terms of that pitching, you know, is something that is done, you know, for different audiences. And so by becoming an entrepreneur and then when you moved and then you had to learn how to pitch to customers because in corporate the customers were already there, hypothetically.

Cherylee: They were already there.

Natalia: So you just execute it.

Cherylee: What’s difficult in my industry is it’s a male-dominated industry. My mentors – because I have mentors which is very important when you’re an entrepreneur you have to find that team that’s going to help support you, figure out ideas, and who you can have a sounding board with. But all of them were practically male. So when I moved, like that team was gone, that support mechanism and when you go to northern Arizona and it becomes more rural and it’s not so much a large city, I do live in Flagstaff but my focus of trying to help my clients, they’re on the reservation. Not just on Navajo, they’re across the country. Not having a woman mentor in video production to see, like, “oh I can do that.” That wasn’t there. It didn’t exist. I’ve always been that one person. I was in – when I worked at PBS I was the only Native person working, Native woman working, amongst everybody at PBS. Almost at every station I was still that one person still. So there was not another likeness like me to, like, we could buddy up and that’s something that I think the next generation will have…they will have it now, you know? They will have somebody to ask questions to and look up to and if that’s something that I can be a part of and pass on that information, you know, that’s why I’m doing what I do.

Natalia: And…you know, I quoted earlier Eva Longoria from, like – was it the 2016 Democratic National Convention – there was also someone else who spoke at that Convention, US First Lady Michelle Obama and I think it was then at the time that she mentioned, you know, like, that she had walked through the door and she wanted to leave the door open, so more of us could come in. That’s what you’re doing which is really powerful. That experience of not having women mentors, I wonder how that influenced you when it came to launching and founding the Native American Women Entrepreneurs in Arizona?

Cherylee: I think I approached it like I have approached everything. I just had to do it. But, I cannot get credit. I mean, I had – if it wasn’t in production that I didn’t have that mentor, my number one mentor was my mother. I mean, she taught me how to be a woman, how to, you know, be who I am as a Navajo woman, and along that line the other woman that I really looked up to in my tribe – at the Navajo nation – was Annie Wauneka. Annie Wauneka was – she is an awesome figure in our – among our people and she helped navigate awareness when tuberculosis was rampant around the reservation and she advocated for the people and she was always travelling and she was a council member and she worked in the healthcare field and she was always constantly travelling, you know? She was a huge figure and just even discussing Annie Wauneka, now that’s another podcast that I’d love to discover and to talk about and honor. And her family are people that I know and I cherish every moment when they have shared a story with me about her and it’s so amazing because those values that she had were the same that my mother had. So, it’s just that strength I have to apply it to what I do and that’s that thing that will stay with me in anything that I accomplish or try to accomplish and any challenge in front of me, I have them to stand on. So, I know who I am and where I come from because of them.

Natalia: Have you ever pitched Native American Women Entrepreneurs in Arizona in any context?

Cherylee: Just to the members and trying to collect –

Natalia: So tell me about the first ever pitch that you did for that group.

Cherylee: [Laughs] It was such an odd experience. It was like this, kind of, very difficult because I didn’t know what we were doing.  I didn’t know there were so many women, so how can we connect?

Eventually I was able to convince three individuals and we ended up meeting in Phoenix and what happened is there turned out to be five of us and we all actually met because of our connection through our Chamber of Commerce in Arizona and we had similar – we’re all federal contractors, we’ve been groomed to be, you know, having our DUNS number and our SAM CAGE CODE, you know, trying to become sub-contractors or contractors with the federal government. So we had that understanding.

But then when we started inviting more members to, kind of, come…you know, one of our main…vision or the purpose of our group is advancing Native women entrepreneurs. You know, that’s our goal is trying to help uplift each one, each of us.

Natalia: Something that struck me was you mentioned those first three members that you were able to recruit, you all came from the Chamber of Commerce in Arizona and, by finding that connection you were able to start, you know, just developing that group. And then obviously, like, those three might have different sorts of experiences than you do, so they brought on, like, you know you grew that network and I wanted to congratulate you on that and thanks so much for joining us on Pitch Makeover, Cherylee.

Cherylee: I had a great time, actually. This was a good exercise. I’m don’t normally…I’m not in front of the camera, I’m not in front of the mic, I am behind it. I’m very good at doing that so when I have to be challenged and place myself in this area it is a practice for me. Even me.

Natalia: Well thanks for storytelling with us and thanks for being a storyteller and thanks for creating more avenues for more of us and more of your communities to be the storytellers that they are and give them that opportunity.

Cherylee: On a last ending thing I wanted to know if there was a possibility to even highlight the women entrepreneurs that are in Arizona at some point? Because they are a great group of women and I think they deserve – the only thing we can do is help advertise and promote each other and that’s what I’m always willing to do because they’re just awesome. They empower me and that’s what makes me also, you know, get energized. So I think if that’s something I can pass onto them I’d love to do it.

Natalia: Cherylee, are you hinting at the possibility of yet another special edition of Pitch Makeover in Arizona? Let’s find that – let’s…if anyone is interested in sponsoring that special edition: info@pipelinesangels.com and let’s make it happen.

Thanks so much and thanks for continuing to be that bridge and that vessel to get other people in the room!

Cherylee: Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you so much Natalia.

Natalia: Bye!

[music plays]

Vanessa Roanhorse: Hi, I’m Vanessa Roanhorse with the Native Women’s Business Summit. This year’s event is coming up April 5th and 6th at the Isleta Resort and Casino on Isleta Pueblo, 15 miles from the City of Albuquerque. For tickets and more information, please visit nativewomenlead.org. We hope to see you there.