The Queer MBA
A Group Coaching Program for Queer Small Business Owners
The Queer MBA
A Group Coaching Program for Queer Small Business Owners
Take your business from scrappy to stable with a gaggle of friends.
Enrolling GrowHorts (small groups) for January 2027!
What is The Queer MBA?
A Queer Meaningful Business Approach
Graduates of The Queer MBA don’t just leave with a business plan they might use someday… They walk away with a Meaningful Business Approach and a loving community of support that makes running their business more fun and successful - forever.
How do I manage the daily wobble of running a business?
Build a clear vision - Create a sustainable plan aligned with your values. A clear guide to move past familiar worries and doubts when they inevitably show up.
Set up simple marketing systems - Make it easy for your people to find you, book you, and receive your magic.
Steward your finances with ease - Navigate the ebbs and flows of sales to bring more stability and predictability to your offerings and revenue.
Run your business on your terms - Clear the other BS out of the way so you can be yourself and do great work.
We co-create real, grounded community connection and support from day one. To do that, each GrowHort course is capped at eight business owners.
Stop waiting for your chaotic calendar to magically clear up before you look at your operations. Spoiler: it won't. 😉
Why do folks sign up for The Queer MBA?
So often big hearted visionary leaders take the leap to self employment only to find themselves facing new and unfamiliar challenges, alone.
Building a business is not for the light of heart! It can be lonelier than we imagined.
If you are struggling to build a structure for yourself to find clients, sell your work, and take care of yourself, this program is designed to support you to become a successful business owner.
Queer MBA members usually sign up because they are feeling overwhelmed and struggling with:
❌ Burnout, distraction, worries & doubts are running the show.
❌ Self promotion and marketing feels icky or forced.
❌ Too much decision fatigue and overwhelm to take consistent action.
❌ Doom scrolling and dread consume the schedule.
What is a queer small business group coaching program, and what skills will I walk away with?
By going on this adventure with a group of committed queer small business owners (your GrowHort), you will be supported to build your business, on your terms.
How does The Queer MBA help me navigate overwhelm and decision fatigue?
Participants walk away with the practical tools to navigate their daily operations. Inside our group workspace, you will practice how to:
🚀 Listen to your voice of wisdom - Learn how to show up and be of service without letting your worries & doubts run the show.
🚀 Move from scrappy to stable - Build and maintain a business model that pays you a consistent salary and actually works for you and your life.
🚀 Break the analysis paralysis loop - Practice making great decisions and taking small sweet steps with confidence.
🚀 Say the thing with grace - Learn how to navigate crucial conversations with your clients, teammates, or hired contractors with ease and connection.
Create a business that is in service to the world you know is possible.
When is the next enrollment deadline
for the group cohort?
Our next GrowHorts (small groups) launch January 27th, 2027!
How the onboarding and application process works:
This application is the first step to discovering if this program is right for you:
Fill Out the Application: Take 5 minutes to tell me about your business, your current stage, and your vision. Everything is completely confidential.
Attend a Free Q&A on Zoom: November 12th, 2pm PT, December 10th, 12pm PT, or January 11th, 12pm PT.
Schedule your free 1-1 with Slam!: Ask any remaining questions, identify the right course for you, and set your goals for the program.
What do graduates say about the Queer MBA program?
"I love how kind and supportive everyone is."
"Slam has a way of making even the most dreaded biz tasks into something accessible, playful, and soulful"
"I feel extremely held and seen and then subsequently freed from big insecurity"
How is The Queer MBA group program structured?
What is included in the 4-month small business group coaching schedule?
Before you choose your specific container focus, take 5 minutes to walk through this logistics breakdown video with me, Slam!
This short overview reviews our whole coaching model - explaining exactly how your GrowHort works, what to expect inside our Monday Huddles, and how we run the Monthly Money Party to clear your financial anxiety. I also break down the difference between the Get More Clients course and the Lead with Love course so you can see which group fits your current business setup.
What is the weekly time commitment for The Queer MBA program?
When you look at how our community calls and coaching blocks map out each month, your regular calendar setup includes a bi-weekly Group Coaching session, a weekly Monday Huddle, and an optional monthly Money Party:
Bi-weekly group coaching! Meets every other week for 90 minutes of focused coaching in your small group.
(3 hours/month, starting January 27th, 2027)
The Weekly Huddle is a 60-minute container for training, guest speakers, and live co-working. We use this time to do the curriculum work together. (4 hours/month)
The Monthly Money Party is part financial literacy and part co-working. Bring clarity, focus, ease & grace to how you use your money! (90 minutes/month)
How many hours a month does the group coaching calendar require?
All of the calls add up to roughly eight hours a month. The bi-weekly GrowHort calls, plus the first Monday Huddle of the month, are required. All other calls are optional.
The optional co-working calls are designed to give you dedicated time to complete the evergreen course and build your operations alongside your peers.
A visual map of your monthly group coaching workspace calendar
Choose your focus container:
Three customized courses for January 2027
Which QMBA GrowHort course fits your current business stage?
Now that you know how the schedule maps out, choose the exact group container that matches your business needs:
Launches in January and September
Perfect for the early stage of business when you are focusing on the foundational tools to start enrolling clients with ease, spreading the word, and delivering services directly from your heart.
Launch in January only
Perfect for the business owner who is ready to stop avoiding their finances and start building a money practice that feels easeful, sustainable, and aligned with who they are.
Launches in September only
Designed for established business owners navigating the operational challenges of leadership, managing contracts, setting boundaries, and handling relationships with employees, contractors, or clients.
Inside the Get More Clients Curriculum Course
What skills do you learn in the early stage small business cohort?
Ensure that your business is creating something of value. We do this by identifying your ideal client and preparing to connect with them. You will declare (or refine) a niche that is safe enough to try for your next 10-100 clients.
Craft an invitation that you are proud to share with potential clients (a conversation, website, email, etc). Your business will be a welcome environment for your clients (and you) to thrive.
Enroll stakeholders (clients, teammates, investors, etc) with more confidence and consent. You will build a consensual environment where you partner with your clients right away and develop tools that allow you stay grounded even when it is new or uncomfortable
Establish systems that allow you to do this for the long haul. You will design a business model that works for your clients, your business, and YOU!
Guarantee your finances are supporting your business. You will set your rates with ease, use your time & revenue to best support your business, and declare a relevant business goal.
Inside the Love Your Money Curriculum Course
How do I nurture a relationship with money that works for me?
Explore the stories, family lessons, and inherited beliefs that shape how you relate to money, then decide which ones you want to keep. Together we'll support you to rebuild your foundation with your own hands
Your time, your purpose, and the money that flows into your life are all elements of loving your money. Get clear on your vision, goals, taxes, and the relationship you want to have with money.
By taking small sweet steps with lots of support, you’ll build a tracking practice that shows you exactly what’s coming in and going out. Align your spending with your values and resource the things you most care about.
Build your emergency fund, choose a debt payoff strategy, and explore resource sharing in community. Then fill your “champagne tower” of savings goals in the order that matters to you, so your money can grow in ways you feel good about.
Money is more fun with people to share it with! Discover and stabilize your capacity for generosity, mutual support, and caretaking, Walk away with the skills, systems, and support to keep loving your money long after the course ends.
Inside the Lead with Love Curriculum Course
How do you build team culture and handle small business leadership challenges?
Authentic Leadership requires that you both know yourself and like yourself. This module empowers you to lead your team to success by bringing out your all star team and supporting each other to thrive.
Bring your team onto the same playing field with a shared focus, empowering everyone to stay connected and engaged regardless of the obstacle at hand.
It's easy to avoid what feels daunting and complicated, this module focuses on simple and fun ways to prepare and build confidence around crucial conversations. End results: you and your conversation partner walk away in a better place, with connection, clarity, and alignment.
Whether this is around agreements, shared practices, or alignment, this module will support you to enroll your team in a shared vision and action plan that you can all lean on when times get tough.
Sometimes we can’t do everything and saying no with grace is a skill that one develops instead of inherits. This module will ensure you have the clarity and focus to know what you are saying yes to, making it way easier to say no with grace.
What do people say about the Queer MBA business coaching program?
"Wow, I not only got exactly what I hoped for but had so many unexpected wins throughout The GrowHort. I feel prepared for my parental leave and so does my new hire! Both the group coaching and 1:1 sessions with Slam have been really eye opening."
Nat Begej
Bookkeeper
"Slam is an incredibly caring, thoughtful, heartfilled and enthusiastic coach. I really felt like they were on my team throughout our time working together. They gave clear exercises, tools and imagery that gave me insight on how to work on the emotional and logistical challenges of being a small queer business owner. I feel more confident and clear on my next steps and very highly recommend Slam!"
Niksen Kurtz
Esalen Massage
"Slam has a way of making even the most dreaded biz dvlpt tasks into something accessible, playful, and soulful. Her social and emotional fluency has helped me to see business development as part of my personal growth journey. The QueerMBA was a perfect container for taking clear steps towards building a more stable and integrated business. I loved workshopping shared challenges, celebrating wins, and having an empathic and brilliant group to take this journey with."
Elias Serras
ecosomabe
What is included in the Live Queer MBA 2027 GrowHort container?
Starts January 27th, 2027!
Evergreen Learning Modules
Relevant, Videos, PDFs, and Exercises
LIVE Small Group Coaching Calls
Weekly Huddles with training + guests
Peer Support: Connect with a Buddy & thrive
How much does the Queer MBA cost?
January GrowHort Pricing:
Early Bird: $1,234!
Available until November 16th, 2026
Want extra eyes on your specific operational systems? You can add three individual, private 1-on-1 coaching sessions with Slam! for $450 to deeply refine your business model and contracts.
Who is the small business coach behind The Queer MBA and Nimble Roots Coaching?
Meet Rose Slam! Johnson - your partner on the path from scrappy to stable!
Since 2009, I’ve worn a lot of different hats in food, finance, and events production across the San Francisco Bay Area — learning most of my lessons the hard way after hitting a massive wall of burnout in my first few businesses.
As a queer community organizer and small business advocate here in Oakland, I play with leaders, makers, and healers who are ready to take their business from scrappy to stable.
Together, we look at the big picture of your business and design operations around your unique capacity and vision, so that you don't have to face it alone.
Want to read the whole backstory on some of my earlier businesses, including a bicycle with a kitchen on the back and how I finally learned to slow down?
What kind of real business results can I expect?
"Participating in The Queer MBA helped me start my year with accountability and support. I got clear on the vision that I have for my business and have already started to implement some really meaningful changes."
Jamil Moises Liban-Ortanez
Pahingalay
"Slam! is awesome at distilling huge amounts of knowledge into manageable, easy to follow chunks! That, combined with the power of community, this program gave me a really deep learning and transformational experience. "
Péter Várnai
Tech Consultant
Frequently Asked Questions
The next group starts January 27th, 2027 and goes through the end of May.
Your GrowHort (small group) will meet every other week for a 90-minute live coaching session. Love Your Money meets at 9:30 AM on Wednesdays; Get More Clients meets at 1:30 PM on Wednesdays.
The Monday Huddle, a 90-minute call, is offered weekly. The first Monday of every month is required, all other Monday huddles are open to all members and strongly encouraged. The calls feature guest presenters, co-working, and The Money Party.
Co-working is designed to make space for the evergreen course.
This maps out to roughly 5-9 hours a month, all depending on how many Monday Huddles you choose to attend.
If you show up to the calls, you are doing the work.
Your GrowHort will meet on Zoom, every other week for 90 minutes for live coaching.
You will bring questions & challenges to discover, gain insights, and take action on what is most important to you! Sometimes you will sit in the coaching seat and sometimes you will support others to see something more clearly.
Life happens — we get it. Sessions are recorded and available to all GrowHort members. That said, the magic of this program is in the live room. The more you show up, the more you get out of it.
Badass queer small business owners!
Your GrowHort is a small group of 4–8 queer small business owners at a similar stage of business.
Past cohorts have included nutritionists, therapists, bookkeepers, CPAs, coaches, and teaching artists — people building real businesses across all kinds of industries.
Everyone in the room is navigating the joys and challenges of running a business as a unique, sensitive, and passionate person, and showing up to do the work together.
A GrowHort is a small, committed group of queer (or allied) business owners going on this adventure together. You can bring any of your business struggles and meet others who are navigating something similar or who have been here before.
Get More Clients is perfect for the early days of business where you are spreading the word and delivering your services from your heart. Runs in January and September.
Love Your Money is perfect for the business owner who is ready to stop avoiding their finances and start building a money practice that feels easeful, sustainable, and aligned with who they are. Runs in January only.
Lead with Love is designed for leaders navigating relationships with employees, contractors, or clients. The way you are with your people matters. Runs in September only.
That’s what the Q&A is for! Come to any upcoming Q&A and Slam will help you find your fit.
Here are the upcoming Q&A’s:
November 12th, 2pm
December 10th, 12pm
January 11th, 12pm
This program might be right for you if:
🌈 You are a small business owner with a viable service or product (sales might be low, but the people who buy your service/product really like it)
🌈 You are queer (or business-queer, queer adjacent, or re-inventing a new world through your business)
🌈 You have a few messy systems (onboarding new clients, retention, inconsistent sales/income, inconsistent money tracking), and want to bring your business into the next level of stability
🌈 You are clear on your path as a business owner (or clear enough to reignite it in this group) and excited to meet more small business owners
This program is not for you if:
❌ You want a new job, not a new business
❌ You want a get rich quick scheme
❌ You value money more than your joy
❌ You want someone to solve a specific problem for you
❌ You want to run a business, but don’t know what yet
You get customized support to build your business, on your terms, mapped directly to your values and current capacity.
You can add individual coaching sessions with Slam! to zoom into any specific business questions or challenges that are specific to your business industry.
All three courses introduce financial systems that support your business. Through the Monthly Money Party, strategic learning modules, and direct work with your numbers, each course will support you to look at the real data of cash flow, set your rates with confidence, and move from a scrappy survival space into tidy, predictable revenue that pays you a consistent salary.
The Queer MBA is offered at three price points depending on when you enroll:
Earliest Bird: $1,234 — available through November 16th, 2026
Early Bird: $1,555 — available through December 31st, 2026
Full Price: $1,777— available through January 27th, 2027
Payment plans are available.
You can read more about my scholarship program here.
Joining The Queer MBA is a collaborative, relationship-centered community, designed to provide valuable support inside our small-group GrowHorts. Instead of a high-pressure sales process (no thank you!) you are welcome to walk through this three-step process to determine if this is the right fit for you.
Step 1: Apply! (5-10 Minutes): Click any of the Enroll Now! buttons on this page to open the application form. This brief form helps you zoom out and articulate where your small business operations are currently wobbling.
Step 2: Attend a Q&A (55-minutes): The moment you hit submit, your form confirmation screen will display the link to schedule your Queer MBA Q&A call. This gives you a sense of the community, answers any questions you might have about the program, and clarifies what you can expect from the program.
Step 3: Choose your course (30 Minutes): If you like the Q&A and want to take the next step, you will schedule a 1-1 with Slam to identify the right course and set your goals for the program.
No — but you do need to have a business (or be actively building one). The Queer MBA is designed for people who are in it, not just thinking about it. If you’re not sure whether you’re ready, come to a Q&A and Slam will help you figure it out.
Here are the upcoming Q&A’s:
November 12th, 2pm
December 10th, 12pm
January 11th, 12pm
As a small business owner, you have to do a lot of things yourself, but you don’t have to do it all alone.
Come join us!
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