Today we’d like to introduce you to Sheena Morgan.
Hi Sheena, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Combine tenacity, passion, and leadership, and here I am. I guess you could say I have always been on the entrepreneurship path; I just took the scenic route. I have served the small, minority, and woman business owner for 20 years. I have helped small, minority, and women-owned business owners realize their leverage through minority business programming and certificates and unleash it through strategic plans and strategies that support healthy, holistic, and solvent growth.
Before launching my business, Lengo Strategic Partners, LLC, I immersed myself in the supplier diversity and minority certification industry as the Executive Director of the South Central Texas Regional Certification Agency (San Antonio) and the North Central Texas Regional Certification Agency (Arlington). I managed the supplier diversity program for the largest natural gas provider in the nation, Atmos Energy.
I started noticing underutilization patterns, limited work-ready firms, and a vast disparity of minority businesses not being given a fair shake on local government contracting opportunities. I took the next ten years and developed strategies and techniques birthed from my experiences advising business owners on simple things that can set them up for success. I designed the FUNdamental approach that drills down to a business’s nuances, revealing all the keys necessary for success, and went to create later Leverage Unleashed, a masterclass for new entrepreneurs ready to build their empire.
I have helped small, minority, and women-owned business owners realize their leverage through minority business programming and certificates and unleash it through strategic plans and strategies that support healthy, holistic, and solvent growth. Watching entrepreneurs realize their potential and leverage it to build their dream is the most rewarding part of helping my clients.
I took a massive leap of faith and ran for Mayor of Glenn Heights in 2018, and while the campaign was not successful, I ended up in a run-off and had the best time meeting the wonderful folks of my community. I also served as Chair of the Planning and Zoning Commission for Glenn Heights, TX (2017-2020) and sat on various community boards. My philosophy for life is simple; you must celebrate the milestones as you prepare for the road ahead. Taking the time to fully appreciate the wins is what fuels you for the journey!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Could you genuinely call it a journey without challenges? When I launched, I was still running from the inevitable, building a brand that would change lives and support the community I was most passionate about. So, I created many of those challenges early on, doing things that I teach my clients not to do! However, I became a more focused owner and practitioner of the practices that would lend to success with each obstacle.
One major challenge that I faced was in the summer of 2019 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Here I was, a 38-year-old mother with a son in college, riding a wave of professional accomplishment and anticipating a promising future, and on June 6, 2019, my life forever changed. I didn’t know what breast cancer meant to my life as I knew it and couldn’t even consider my business’s impact. But, you know God has a way of preparing and working things out so you can focus on what is most important. I was fortunate enough to have a lull in my business, which allowed me to be unconcerned with client expectations, work, and focus on my healing. Now, getting back on that horse in mid-2020 was difficult. I felt like I have lost most of the traction I had gained and almost doubted my ability to reconnect with my target market. But, as it would happen, I haven’t missed a beat, and my business has seen a 67.7% increase in business in just the last eight months.
Aside from the substantial obstacles, realizing my value and power as a Black business owner and phenomenally agile woman in leadership had been an ongoing process. You know, we don’t struggle with acknowledging how intelligent and gifted we are to ourselves, but when you have to prove that to others, heck the world, we sometimes shrink like violets and dim our light. I have taken intentional steps to remain firm in my power as a black woman entrepreneur and rediscover my value every day! I created boundaries that I allow no one to cross. I honor my feelings and audit myself based on myself. I decided that I could no longer hold myself to the standards and expectations of others. This has been the most freeing experience for me during COVID and allowed me to pour into my business.
The bottom line is, in everything, there is a choice.
I have chosen to smile,
I have chosen to remain optimistic,
I have chosen to accept that I am enough,
I have chosen to accept that sometimes I am too much,
I have chosen to make a choice each day!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Lengo Strategic Partners helps minority, women entrepreneurs and B2B clients develop operational project strategies to maximize workflow optimization and performance, avoid contractual default, and increasing future contract awards.
Clients engage us when they are facing contractual default and need to mitigate remedies, recognize significant gaps in organizational or project-centric processes, realize significant communication issues that impact internal and external stakeholders, or simply need to augment their current processes to improve overall performance.
If your company is struggling with:
- Muddled communication and collaboration across your project teams,
- Dysfunctional processes straining performance and impact project efficiency,
- Misaligned employee expectations due to undeveloped objectives,
It’s time to agitate your status quo and align your processes!
We also assist clients with Disadvantaged, Minority, Women Business Certification Services. Clients can gain access to multi-year contracting opportunities. Minority, Small, Women-Owned, and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Certifications are the key to setting your company apart from the competition and providing access to diverse spend opportunities with corporations and government municipalities. Our services include application preparation, document submission, and process tracking until you receive the certification agency’s final decision.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
Working with me is easy! I am always available for discovery calls and clarity sessions. I am also seeking to expand my network and increase the Framework+Foundations Startup Business Program’s pragmatic partners to include more service professionals that support small business owners. So if you are an attorney, insurance agent, IT professional, brand strategist, CPA, financial strategist, banker, or SME, please reach out. I would love to meet you and see if there is some synergy and opportunity to collaborate!
Contact Info:
- Email: sheena@lengofocus.com
- Website: www.lengofocus.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/
lengofocus - Facebook: www.facebook.com/
lengofocus - Twitter: www.twitter.com/
lengofocus - LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/
sheenadmorgan
Image Credits
TGS Photography, Tre Suber Phoenix Michele Photography, Stephanie Bolton
