Meet Stephanie Montgomery

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Stephanie Montgomery a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Stephanie , so happy you were able to devote some time to sharing your thoughts and wisdom with our community. So, we’ve always admired how you have seemingly never let nay-sayers or haters keep you down. Can you talk to us about how to persist despite the negative energy that so often is thrown at folks trying to do something special with their lives?

I persist because I have always felt that I am on this earth to do something HUGE that will benefit others. I persist because I am not doing anything for the approval of a human being. I am a woman of the Christian Faith and NOW I believe I am here for a reason… a higher purpose. I have always been a perfectionist when it comes to my life. Some would say to the point of being very annoying at times. I started my work life at 15 years old. I worked as a cashier in a supermarket in the Bronx part time while going to high school. After I graduated high school and left my parents’ very strict religious household all I wanted to do was have fun. Even then at that young age of 18 I knew I still had to be responsible so I went to trade school and learned the skills necessary to get a job as a legal secretary. My internal voice (which I now know to be God speaking to me even when I was not thinking so much about Him) was telling me I had to do more. I decided to enroll in College and then Law School. I worked many years (driven by the inner voice) as a legal secretary and then an attorney in New York. Many would say earning a six figure salary and the status of attorney means you have arrived. Still this was not enough so even with very limited support of family and friends I founded a women’s empowerment organization called SestraNow LLC. SestraNow’s mission is to unite and empower women mentally, physically and financially to be their best selves. I was very excited about launching SestraNow and thought to myself we are going to change the world by uniting women of all backgrounds and cultures. Many told me the organization would not be successful because there are so many women’s empowerment organizations in the world. We started SestraNow as a Facebook Group over four years ago and now have over 5000 followers worldwide. We have women in our organization that have grown very close and developed sisterly bonds. Our goal to monetize SestraNow did not happen until this year… four years later. If I would have listened to the naysayers and ignore that inner voice SestraNow would have been over many years ago because it was not making any money and women would come and go. We also received very little support from friends and family. So I persist by not listening to what any human being says to me.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am the Founder and CEO of SestraNow LLC an international women’s empowerment organization. Our mission is to unite and empower women globally to be their best selves mentally, physically and financially. SestraNow facilitates this mission via its own recently launched social media App for women. The App houses a Marketplace that showcases the business products and services of our members. Anyone can purchase from our women business owners on the App Marketplace which can be downloaded via our website www.sestranow.com, the Google Play Store or the Apple Store. The App also has a message board so that our members may communicate with each other in a this safe environment created especially for women and girls. The App also has an Event and very special Challenge Functionality. Women may post events that they are hosting and host or participate in Challenges that further Sestranow’s mission of empowering them mentally, physically and financially. The Challenge functionality monitors the participants’ progress in a given challenge, i.e. water consumption or step challenge. We continue our efforts to build out the App to appeal to women and girls all over the world. Our goal is to grow our App to one million subscribers by the end of 2024. We want to show the world what women may accomplish if they unite and proactively help each other by giving of their individual gifts, talents and abilities.

SestraNow also has a Community Service Division. Our goal is to open homes for women victims of domestic violence so that they may have a safe and peaceful place to escape their abuser and the resources to start a new life. Although SestraNow is U.S. based we also actively assist women in other countries that are in need of our assistance. We recently launched a Community Center in Pakistan, India. We provide food to women and children. We are also teaching the women English so that they may take part in job training and earn money to be self sufficient. We have partners in Kenya as well and plan to duplicate this community center model in that country as well.

SestraNow recently partnered with UBCTV Network and this new media partner will also facilitate our mission of helping women and children globally. UBCTV launched on ROKU and gave SestraNow its own show entitled Women in Business. We believe every women is worthy of the world hearing her story.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I believe that what was most impactful in my journey is my unwavering integrity, drive to be my best self and genuine desire to help others. If you are not a good person everything else will be negatively impacted by who you are. Anyone may pretend to have integrity, good character, to be a hard worker or to care for others but eventually their true selves will be revealed. What matters most are actions and not words. I have lived in a 3 bedroom 3 bathroom house and I have lived in my car. Through all of these life challenges I maintained my integrity and was good to others.

My advice to others would be to strive to do good and to help others and everything else will always fall into place. How you treat others is all that matters and it will determine the quality of the legacy you leave behind.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

Sestranow is always looking to collaborate and partner with women. Our name says it all – Sestra means Sister in Slavic language and NOW means Network of Women. We call each other Sestras and encourage our members to treat each other as Sisters. We proactively promote and support each other. An example is via our Sisters Promoting Sisters Week. Every third week of the month we promote one Sestra and her business each day. Sestras share the highlighted members profile to their personal social media page to promote her business, product or service.

We seek to connect and collaborate with other women that are driven and passionate about living their best life but helping others while doing it. My organization SestraNow via an initiative we call the Sestrahood Alliance seeks to unite with other women’s organizations and Sisterhoods for the greater good of Womankind. I believe that although we may be successful on our own we can do so much more when we unite and pool our resources. I am looking to connect with women that share my values, drive and that truly believe in collaboration over competition. Too many times I have reached out to women in a good faith effort to collaborate but found out that they only wanted to find out what I am doing and steal the ideas to use in their own business. SestraNow monetizes its App by charging women business owners an annual membership fee to promote their business. We are open to sharing our resources and providing a share of the fees to approved affiliate partners. Together we can grow an extremely powerful network of women on the App for women and still maintain our autonomy. We understand that everyone may not want to be a Sestra but we may support each other in our respective missions and level up quicker together. Also not all women business owners or organizations have a community service division or its own App. Therefore, by partnering with SestraNow you may take advantage of the resources that it took us many years to build.

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