Jasmine | Built by a Baddie

The Hire That Changed Everything (And What I Wish I Knew Before)

Jasmine | Built by a Baddie — Wed, 06 May 2026 00:22:55 GMT

My first hire was family.

I know. I know.

At the time it made sense. I needed help customizing binders and I needed someone I could trust. Family felt like the obvious answer. What I did not account for was the part where trust and reliability are not the same thing.

We were still working out of my home at this point. My living room was the warehouse, the packing station, and the customization studio all at once. I needed someone who could show up, roll up their sleeves, and get to work. Instead, I found myself constantly begging them to come through. Not asking. Begging. And there is something uniquely exhausting about having to chase down someone who is supposed to be helping you, especially when that someone shares your last name.

That hire did not work out. And I learned my first real lesson about building a team: love for a person does not translate into work ethic for your business.

So I went to Facebook.

New Here? Start With These 5 Posts

Jasmine | Built by a Baddie — Tue, 05 May 2026 00:51:08 GMT

Welcome to Built by a Baddie.

If you just found this newsletter, here is everything you need to know: this is the unfiltered, behind the scenes story of building Baddies and Budgets as a Black woman entrepreneur. No highlight reel. No gatekeeping. Just the real work.

I am Jaz. I bootstrapped a brand from a stimulus check and built it into a multi 7 figure business. This is the story I did not post on Instagram.

Here are the five posts to read first:

1. Welcome to the Messy Middle (Why I'm Doing This)
The introduction to Built by a Baddie and why I started sharing the real story.

2. The Room They Didn't Want Me In (And How I Built My Own)
My origin story as a Black, plus size woman entrepreneur who built from nothing.

3. The Black Friday That Almost Broke Me
What my first BFCM launch taught me about scaling and outsourcing.

4. The Hire That Changed Everything (And What I Wish I Knew Before)
From hiring family, to Facebook contractors, to working out of a storage unit in the cold.

5. The Day I Almost Quit (And Why I Didn't)
Four years of nonstop hustle, burnout, mental health, and what I did differently when I came back.

After you read those, subscribe to stay in the loop. New posts drop every week.

And if you are an ambitious woman building something of your own, drop a comment and introduce yourself. I want to know what you are working on.

Talk soon,
Jaz

The Black Friday That Almost Broke Me

Jasmine | Built by a Baddie — Tue, 05 May 2026 00:04:12 GMT

Look at the photos below.

Those were taken at 5:18 AM. Binders stacked in every available corner. Plastic bins overflowing. The words "Still Working" stamped across the screen.

That was my living room during my very first Black Friday launch.

The Room They Didn't Want Me In (And How I Built My Own)

Jasmine | Built by a Baddie — Mon, 04 May 2026 23:48:34 GMT

There wasn't one single, dramatic moment that made me realize the business world wasn't built for me. It was a slow burn. It was a hundred small moments.

It was walking into business development seminars and realizing I was the only person in the room who looked like me. It was stepping into rooms of wealth and power and realizing that the people making the decisions, writing the checks, and giving the advice did not understand my reality.

They didn't understand what it meant to be a Black woman trying to build an empire. They definitely didn't understand what it meant to be a plus size Black woman doing it.

I learned early on that if I wanted a seat at the table, I was going to have to build the table myself. And the chairs. And the whole damn room.

So I did.

I bootstrapped Baddies and Budgets. I didn't have angel investors. I didn't have venture capital backing. I didn't have a rich uncle or a trust fund.

Welcome to the Messy Middle (Why I'm Doing This)

Jasmine | Built by a Baddie — Mon, 04 May 2026 23:42:53 GMT

If you follow Baddies and Budgets on Instagram, you see the polished version of my life. You see the sold out planners, the glowing testimonials, and the aesthetic reels. You see a brand running like a well oiled machine.

What you don't see is me staring at my laptop at 2 AM wondering if a new product launch is going to completely flop. You don't see the stress of managing a team, the legal headaches, or the days where imposter syndrome hits so hard I want to hide under my covers.

You see the highlight reel. You don't see the messy middle.

And honestly? I am tired of only sharing the highlights.

Welcome to Built by a Baddie.