Emily Mills – How She Hustled

BY: ELLEN ROCKSON

“I don’t think I wanted to become an entrepreneur I kind of stumbled upon it.”

Those are the words of Emily Mills. An entrepreneur, wife, and mother of two.

Mills is the founder of the female-driven network, How She Hustles. The organization hosts events throughout Toronto and connects with thousandths via social media.

The Toronto native’s passion for RnB and Hip Hop led her to earn a degree in music from York University. Throughout her studies, she started her own blog and became a freelance writer. Freelancing opened up doors for her within the media industry. Mills was able to travel and interview artists, such as Mary J Blige, Jill Scott, and Kardinal Offishall. Freelancing was her first taste at being her own boss.

Passion to Purpose

Down the road, Mills landed a job at CBC. For seven years she worked behind the scenes creating social media and web content as well as planning high profile events. While working at CBC, Mills also worked for a non-profit organization and attended different events within Toronto. She shared, “I just rarely saw anybody who looked like me. There was so few black women in particular who were at the podium, who were speakers, who were in the audience and I just always felt like, am I the only one here, where is everybody?” The lack of diversity prompted a desire to connect with hard-working women from various backgrounds.

Making Connections

Juggling a busy schedule and family life, urged Mills to share her thoughts on social media regarding women hustling while balancing their personal lives. Her authentic post gained response from various women. This led to a meet up in May 2010 at Globe Bistro on the Danforth. In total, fifty women came together to eat brunch and converse. This was the beginning of How She Hustles.

“I am so thrilled that we’re almost in 2019 and there are still women who came to that first brunch event in 2010, who are still dear friends and supporters.

Vision into Reality

When Canada’s 150^th anniversary was approaching, Mills knew CBC would be making a public campaign. However, she says, “I wasn’t sure if young black women were going to be showcased so I said I’m not going to wait, I’m just going to build what I want to see.” Her drive to provide a platform and recognition for women of color sparked the concept behind HERstory. Mills says, “The idea was originally to take photos of 150 women who I thought were cool and doing really cool things in the city and then post it on social media.” But when she met with some of the women and felt the emotion behind their stories, she knew she needed to get CBC on board. Her pitch was accepted and from there, her passion project became HERstory in Black.  The project showcased photos of 150 women of color and became a one-hour television documentary.  It also won the highly recognized, CBC President’s Award. After the great success, she decided to leave her job at CBC and focus on How She Hustles full-time.

The Biggest Risk

“Sometimes the biggest risk is actually not leaving something that we know, the biggest risk is staying in something that we do know and not growing.”

It’s been almost a year since this businesswoman quit her nine to five. She says she didn’t expect to be a full-time entrepreneur after taking a leap of faith.

“I left on Friday and by Monday I was literally on Parliament hill, down the hall from the Prime Minister explain to the Chief of Staff who I was, what How She Hustles was and what HERstory in Black was. The momentum hasn’t stopped since.” Going forward, Mills plans to expand How She Hustles’ events across the GTA.

Though it is her sacrifice that got her to where she is, this businesswoman couldn’t have done it without the support of her husband, family, and close friends.

“My husband is awesome, I couldn’t do all this stuff and be all these places and get all these accomplishments, I don’t do it alone.”

When I asked Mills on her advice for aspiring black female entrepreneurs, here is what she had to say:

“Be good to the people who are good to you, prepare for adversity but plan for success and do things differently. We don’t need permission anymore to pursue our dreams so go for it.”