- Ole Miss alum Morgan Lee Stanley shares her secrets to helping others flourish.
It’s a sobering statistic: only 1.9 percent of women entrepreneurs surpass the $1 million mark in revenue.
Ole Miss alum Morgan Lee Stanley is striving to help more women break that barrier.
Stanley returned to the Oxford campus November 7 as a keynote speaker at the University of Mississippi Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s (CIE) sixth annual REDe Entrepreneurship Summit.
“We’ve already had 30 percent of our membership surpass a million,” said Stanley, co-founder and president of BrainTrust, a membership organization that gives women equal opportunity to build financial independence, wealth, and influence.
Building Confidence
Nashville, Tennessee-based BrainTrust has 260 members.
To join BrainTrust, women entrepreneurs must have $100,000 in revenue, own at least 25 percent of the business, and produce profit-and-loss statements. If revenue is less than $1 million, membership costs $249 monthly. If revenue exceeds $1 million, it’s $349 monthly.
A unique twist in the business model: members mandatorily meet monthly in person in Nashville or Charlotte.
“We have women flying in from all over for four hours of concentrated work on their business in what we like to call a vault,” explained Stanley. “It’s like a mastermind group getting together! They bring their challenges to the table, discuss opportunities, and share experiences.”
The top three issues facing members: HR, marketing, and finance.
“Concerning HR, common questions might be: when should I make my first hire? Should I hire a 1099 contract worker instead? When it comes to marketing, it’s a complex issue, especially with social media. Then there are always financial concerns. Less than 2 percent of funding goes to women,” said Stanley.
BrainTrust connects members to resources in various ways. For example, the company works with local subject matter experts — an HR professional, attorney, banker, CPA, marketer, et cetera – who may lead workshops or host webinars.
Members represent diverse industries, including healthcare, professional services, hospitality, and music.
Overcoming Statistics
Like many emerging, struggling young businesses, BrainTrust almost closed its doors two years ago.
Sherry Deutschmann founded BrainTrust in 2019. Previously, she established and was CEO of LetterLogic Inc., a company she grew to $40 million and sold in 2016. For 10 consecutive years, LetterLogic was named an Inc. 5000 company (one of the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the U.S.). In 2022, Deutschmann added Stanley to the three-person team as director of business development.
“About six months in, the president of the company decided to leave, and it left the two of us to run the company,” Stanley recalled. “Sherry was considering closing the company. I told her we had something so special to empower women, that no other company was doing anything quite like it. She agreed to keep the company going. We picked up the pieces and did everything, just the two of us.”
BrainTrust now has a team of eight professionals and plans to expand nationwide. In August, the company opened an office in Charlotte, North Carolina, which already has 30 members. Stanley hinted as upcoming possibilities opening offices in Austin, Texas, Denver, Colorado, or Tampa, Florida.
Adjusting the Journey
Interestingly, Stanley did a U-turn of sorts to land at BrainTrust. After earning a degree in marketing and corporate relations from Ole Miss in 2018, she joined a business coaching firm in Nashville, Tenn., to help companies scale. She logged 139 flights in 2019, traversing the globe, to meet with clients in person for strategy sessions.
“I was on my way to South Africa and had a trip lined up to Australia when COVID hit,” she recalled.
For the most part, the business coaching firm altered its business model to a virtual one.
“Even then, some clients only wanted to see us in person, and we were sometimes the only people on the plane,” she said. “I was really burned out on travel and not fulfilled because I knew I really wanted to focus on helping women.”
That’s when Stanley transitioned to BrainTrust.
“I like that women are helping each other,” she said. “That’s the real power in the community. Mentorship and networking happen organically. But we’re not a mentor or networking group. We’re here to create equal opportunities for women to build financial independence and wealth and influence.”
Lynne Jeter
