How to Lead Your Business Into Its Next Chapter
Lead your business into its next chapter. What changes when a business enters its next stage, how to tell when your role needs to shift, and how to make confident decisions when there is no obvious right answer.
You Built It. Now What?
Lead Your Business Into Its Next Chapter
Building a business and leading one are two different jobs. As a business grows, the habits, decisions, and daily involvement that made it work in the early days can start to hold it back. In this moderated conversation, a business owner and a small business coach talk honestly about what changes when a business enters its next stage, how to tell when your role needs to shift, and how to make confident decisions when there is no obvious right answer. Whether you are feeling like the bottleneck in your own business, rethinking what you should still be doing yourself, or deciding which opportunities are worth saying yes to, this session will help you lead your business into what comes next.
Meet the Experts
Jamila Wright
Jamila Wright was born in Atlanta, Georgia, a place where warm greetings and energetic banter were a part of the culture. She credits the company’s success in customer service to her roots in Southern hospitality.
After graduating summa cum laude from Spelman College in 2010, she became an elementary school teacher in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, NY. While pursuing her Master’s in Early Childhood Development, Jamila rose to become Dean of Students. Later, she took an education consultant position at NYC’s Department of Education. It was through her experience as an educator that she came to understand the value of building and maintaining strong culture and positive spaces through replicable systems and training.
In 2017, she launched Brooklyn Tea as an online business with her now husband, Ali (pronounced Ah-lee) Wright. The two spent the first year participating in street festivals, pop-ups, and private events to get the company’s name out there. In December of 2018, they opened their first brick and mortar, becoming one of only two Black-owned tearooms in NYC.
Since then the company has been featured in New York Magazine, Oprah Daily, ABC News, Self Magazine, Goop Magazine, USA Today, News 12, Channel 2 News, a Shonda Rhimes tweet, Beyonce’s Black Parade list of curated Black businesses, and others. They opened a location at the JFK Delta Terminal in January 2026 and are looking forward to growing their global footprint. Their company empowers people to explore healthy alternatives and to commune deeply with themselves or others, using tea as the conduit.
Stay in touch with Jamila
- Website: https://brooklyntea.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brooklyntea
Joy M. Hutton
Joy M. Hutton is an entrepreneur, executive coach, speaker, and media personality passionate about helping leaders and founders build impactful businesses and brands. She is the Founder of jmh and co., a management consulting firm specializing in executive coaching and leadership development, and on the go GLAM™, a tech-enabled beauty-on-demand platform. She also serves as the COO and Co-Founder of Dellstar VR Wellness & Co., a virtual reality wellness company focused on mental health and workforce development solutions.
A strong advocate for entrepreneurs and women in business, Joy launched the LeadHERship Fund to support women-led ventures and currently serves as the Small Business Consultant for the Healthy Food Business Intensive. She was named to Inc. Magazine’s 2022 Female Founders 100 List, honored with “Joy M. Hutton Day” by the City of Houston, and formerly served on the Harris County Women’s Commission.
Stay in touch with Joy:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joymhutton/
- AOF Advising: https://aofund.org/resources/business-advising/
Topics Discussed Include:
- How do you know your business has entered a new stage and needs something different from you as the owner?
- How do you know that the strategy that helped you build the business is not the strategy that will help you grow the business moving forward?
- Why is it so difficult for business owners to change their approach, even when they know the current way of working is no longer sustainable?
- As an owner who feels pulled in ten different directions, how can I identify the one or two changes that would have the greatest impact?
- As your business becomes more complex, how do you decide what do, dump and delegate effectively and strategically?
- What are examples of decisions that might make you feel uncertain or uncomfortable but ultimately helped move the business into its next chapter?
- How can I, a business owner, make stronger decisions when there is no obvious right answer and I am worried about making the wrong move?
- How do I decide what the next chapter of my business looks like, and how do I decide which opportunities fit the business I want to build?
- As a business owner who knows something needs to change but feels overwhelmed about where to begin, what is one practical step I can take this week?
