{"id":850,"date":"2021-03-26T21:13:35","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T21:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.godaddy.com\/ventureforward\/?p=850"},"modified":"2026-04-07T14:47:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T21:47:31","slug":"business-website-creates-entrepreneur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.godaddy.com\/research\/business-website-creates-entrepreneur\/","title":{"rendered":"Building her website showed this artist and therapist she\u2019d been an entrepreneur all along"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For years, Thea Monye\u00e9 had been working as an artist and therapist. But it wasn\u2019t until 2018 that she began to see herself as an entrepreneur. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, Thea was employed full-time as a counselor on a college campus in Los Angeles. The only black therapist at the school, Thea was meeting with students all day, five days a week, and felt an enormous pressure to reach as many students as she could. \u201cThere\u2019s no way to facilitate the kind of care you want to give people in that kind of assembly line,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Thea began exploring what it would be like to define her work in a less rigid way. \u201cFor years, I felt like who I am needed some form of explaining,\u201d she says. This time, she decided to document all the aspects of her interests on a website, theamonyee<\/a>.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted a space to claim all of my identity. I am a therapist, an Oya priestess in the Ifa tradition. I\u2019m a writer. I podcast.\u201d<\/p>\"\"– Thea Monye\u00e9
entrepreneur<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor years I never came at it from the empowered position of being an entrepreneur,\u201d Thea says. \u201cThe website was my way of starting to test the waters and build a side business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Redefining her career as an entrepreneur <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The website has become a launchpad for a number of new professional initiatives that have transformed her career. Most are focused on mental health issues, specifically as they relate to the trauma experienced by Black people. While she still works two days a week counseling college students, she spends the rest of her time on the various educational, community-building and therapeutic activities that make up her business. In the process, she\u2019s been able to hire one full-time and one part-time employee, and relies on five others who work for her on a contract basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Thea’s journey is unique, her success mirrors that of millions of microbusiness owners who have helped strengthen their local economies<\/a>. New research by Venture Forward, based on an analysis of approximately 20 million online microbusinesses in the U.S., shows that a high concentration of microbusinesses lowers unemployment, as each new entrepreneur helps create two new jobs on average, in addition to their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Growing their microbusiness holds particular appeal to women and African Americans<\/a>, according to a GoDaddy survey of more than 2,000 microbusinesses. Both groups are more likely than average to rely on their microbusiness for supplemental income and are more likely to want to turn it into their main source of income, the survey found. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thea’s entrepreneurial journey includes the creation of MarleyAyo<\/a>, which she calls a \u201ccreative wellness\u201d consulting company and which offers training programs, consultation and development packages, and lectures focused on issues related to the harmful effects of colonization and enslavement. Through it, Thea has also been hired for a variety of speaking engagements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. \"\"<\/figure><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. \"\"<\/figure><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. \"\"<\/figure><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Her clients have included organizations like the Recording Academy\u2019s MusiCares<\/a>, which provides mental health support to people in the music industry; and big corporations like social media company Snap<\/a> and broadband provider Spectrum<\/a>, where she\u2019s held workshops on diversity and inclusion. \u201cI work with people who are ready to change,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Building a business online through the pandemic<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Growing her business online in the middle of a pandemic meant Thea had to adjust and learn what worked best as she went along. While she\u2019d started out holding Zoom webinars with anywhere from 200 to 500 participants at a time, she quickly realized she needed to shrink the size of the groups in order to better connect with people. Now she makes sure events are limited to 100 people. In March, she launched a virtual library of lectures and content that members can access through her site. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The business website also helped her create a forum for a community she was yearning to build. The Blacker the Brain<\/a> is an online space where a cohort of around 60 participants meets monthly via Zoom to discuss topics of joy, pleasure and mental health focused on the Black community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The website also gave her a chance to highlight the work she\u2019s started doing in other mediums. In the past year, Thea started a podcast called Shaping the Shift<\/a> that looks at topics around creativity, risk and balance for artists and entrepreneurs. In less than a year, the podcast has garnered nearly 30,000 followers across more than 40 countries. This year she also plans to add two new aspects of her work to her online platform: a not-for-profit organization and a forthcoming book on self-exploration called Blood & Bajareque<\/em>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cI wanted a space to claim all of my identity. I am a therapist, an Oya priestess in the Ifa tradition. I\u2019m a writer. I podcast,\u201d she says. \u201cI needed a place where all of me could exist and didn\u2019t have to be filtered.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    An online platform allowed Thea Monye\u00e9 to bring together the many aspects of her work and reach a broader audience <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":1097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-microbusiness-profile"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Creating a Business Website Matters | GoDaddy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Building a business website showed this artist and therapist she\u2019d been an entrepreneur all along by allowing her to reach a broader audience. 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