The Strong Black Woman Narrative Is Stunting Your Growth

You post the win. The launch.

The client result. The 40 under 40.

You skip the part where you were crying in the car. Because you a strong Black woman.

You got this. But what if being the strong one is the exact thing keeping your brand from growing?

This episode is about the strong Black woman narrative...where it came from, what a 2025 study found, and how we can tell start telling the true story. I walk through how the Strong Black Woman shows up in your business.

Links : Research I mentioned: The strong Black woman stereotype and identity shifting among Black women in academic and other professional spaces (Hall et al., 2025) → The Giscombe Superwoman Schema Questionnaire (Dr. Cheryl Woods-Giscombé) → Ready to stop performing?

Start With Self is a self-guided identity process. Six modules, one weekend.

Go back to who you were before the degrees, before corporate, before you learned how to shrink. Introductory rate: $97 → Which of the five is running your business right now?

Come tell me on Substack, where we go deeper on every episode: https://substack.com/@mellynated Watch on YouTube: Listen to more episodes: Your identity is the strategy. Timestamps : 1:31 The strong Black woman thing 1:55 Most disrespected, most resilient 2:59 76.8% of us claim it 3:16 The Superwoman Schema 4:30 Nobody checks on the strong one 5:45 The Black woman rest era 6:10 The stronger you are, the more you shift 8:20 You don't ask for help 9:36 You can absorb it 10:11 You can't say business is hard 11:25 You help everybody for free 12:25 Stay positive through everything 13:47 "Girl, I'm blessed" 14:08 Tell the real story 15:38 Ask for help 16:30 The takeaway