OWNER OF PLANT WHISPER

Monique Walker’s son has been a part of her business from the beginning; she had a dream about the products she would eventually create while pregnant with him. In 2016, she started production of the Plant Whisper line, with skin and hair care products for people and pets.

Monique acknowledges the challenges of being a parent entrepreneur. Her role as a mom comes first, so juggling everything often means staying up late. But Monique can already see her son thinking like an entrepreneur himself (he buys and re-sells goods), and she’s proud of what she’s teaching him. Monique shares what she’s learned and the problems she’s had to work through, and she’s modeling the hard work that goes into success as a business owner. At the same time, her son helps her maintain boundaries and stay grounded.

Monique respects that her son is his own person and that, despite facing obstacles in high school, he has pushed himself to succeed in AP courses, sports, and robotics and is considering joining the military or going to college down south. While her own father told her not to pursue certain passions because they weren’t economically viable, Monique wants to raise her son differently and use what she’s learned to help him someday build his own business around the things he loves.