The serial entrepreneur on ownership, time management and what actually holds women back
If you’ve been on TikTok or Instagram lately, you’ve probably seen it. A mom posts her baby bump for the lyric “strong enough to bear the children,” then cuts straight to her postpartum snapback and business for “then get back to business” from Beyoncé’s Run the World (Girls). Angelica Whaley-Mudiay has been that woman before the trend had a sound.
She skipped college, moved to Atlanta at 17 with $1,200 from babysitting, built a medical staffing agency from her high-rise apartment as a one-woman show, and never really stopped. More than a decade later, she runs multiple businesses, mentors women entrepreneurs and is now stepping into the media space with a book and podcast on the way.
What led you to entrepreneurship?
I wish I had some glitz and glamour story where it was like, I just woke up one day and wanted to innovate something. No, I fell into entrepreneurship in the best description possible. I literally told myself in the 10th grade, as well as told my parent, that I wouldn’t be attending college. She was like, “you’ll be going to school and getting that piece of paper.”
That decision alone basically catapulted me, five to seven years later, into entrepreneurship, because it was like, you have to do something to establish yourself, make some money for yourself and just set a foundation.
I moved to Atlanta, Georgia, in 2007, after the 12th grade year, with no plan, with about $1,200 to my name from babysitting, and I had one goal, and that was to make money. I was 17 years old, I got my first lease, I had my big girl bills, all my friends were off at college doing the thing that they were supposed to be doing at their age, while Angelica was paying big girl bills.
I worked at Nordstrom for a little while. Victoria’s Secret was one of my first jobs as well. Landed a job inside of a real estate office because one of the women that used to shop with me at Nordstrom was like, I like the way you’re well-spoken, come work in my office. I played her secretary for two or three years.
By age 23, I told myself I needed a change. I moved to Dallas, Texas. Now I’m operating in my genius. Everything’s bigger. There are people here, and the wealth factor is very different. What can I do and start that will sustain me as well as create a presence as a woman entrepreneur?
That’s when I started my medical staffing agency. I’m in rooms with 45 and up Caucasian white males, sitting at the same table as them, and they’re looking at me like I’m crazy. We did temporary placement for medical professionals in the industry. We started from CNAs all the way up to BSNs. We’re staffing nurses, but you have to secure your contracts, you have to negotiate your terms, you have to do coordination with your nurses. And I was sitting at these tables as a one-man show. From 2013 all the way until 2016.
What do you think is the biggest thing holding women back from starting or scaling their own businesses?
The main thing that hinders women that I have seen is worrying about what other people think.
I’ve sat down with brilliant women. Women that have everything going for them, every resource, tangible. Most of the women that I have mentored over the years have been either in the workforce or in education for 10+ years. Now they’re wanting to create businesses, and they are worried if Nene and Tika and their cousin and their mama are gonna like it, approve of it, and buy it.
Your customer is not your friends and family. When I started that staffing agency, I didn’t have any friends that needed a nurse. All they could do is perhaps tell a nurse friend, “hey, I have a friend with a staffing agency, would you like to work for her?” And some people didn’t even do that. I didn’t take it personally, they are not my customer.
It’s usually not capital. Women typically play it more safely than men. A lot of women don’t even think of becoming an entrepreneur or starting a business until they have over six months of savings, until they have seed money. These women are not really risky. They are very logical, very financially stable, very financially responsible before they even think of starting a business. It’s never financial. Women are so brilliant.
What would you tell a woman who feels like she can’t pursue entrepreneurship, motherhood and ownership all at once?
Time management. Your time management is going to make or break you. I love my husband, love my kids, but I don’t want to wake up to them. I want to wake up to God. I want to wake up to me. I want to wake up to peace and quiet. By myself, my journaling time, my meditation, my prayer time. I want all these things for me way before I see those beautiful little faces. That is time management. What does that look like now? 5 a.m. 4 a.m.
I’m in the bed typically at 9:30, 10. The phone is away from me in a whole other room. I go to bed, because I have to wake up at 4/5 in the morning to understand and know time management.
For the woman right now who’s trying to navigate starting a business, having a husband, and the kids, your time management is going to be the most important thing. On Sundays, I come home and meal prep. Everything is cut, marinated, seasoned, stored away, frozen. That is how I preserve my time when it comes to being able to prepare meals for my children by a certain time, so they can get in the bed, so I can then get in bed. If I don’t prioritize my time, I have no time for business. The email won’t get opened.
You’re moving into thought leadership with a book and a podcast. What can we expect?
I started writing a book in 2013. I have the copy, I just haven’t pressed go on it. Over the years, my perspective on the book has definitely changed. I look to be an author no later than October of 2026.
I wanted to make my space feel like my own at my fulfillment center in Dallas. It’s all pink, it has a pink couch in it. I told my cousin we’ll start the podcast right in that fulfillment space. I’m going to record in the final portion of April, and I think I will be successful at launching a podcast no later than mid-May.
Don’t be discouraged. The amount of people I hear saying we don’t need another mic in anybody’s face? Yes, somebody does. Somebody needs to hear what I have to say.
Where can people follow you and stay connected?
I’m @angelicalwhaley on Instagram. That’s where I’m most active, that’s where everyone gets the daily stories from me. I make sure that it’s like a daily vlog inside of my stories. TikTok, I’m active as well, I’m @angelicalwhaley_ and YouTube under Love, Angelica. I just want the actual podcast to be an extension of that YouTube. Those are the two places, especially YouTube and Instagram, where I’ll be giving those updates and teasers.
