Ep 54: Growth Series - Transforming Fear into Opportunity

Have you ever stood on the precipice of change, heart pounding with equal parts fear and excitement?

That's where I found myself back in November 2019, and it's a story I'm opening up about in the latest episode of NK Podcast Leading Her Way. Journey with me as I dissect the symbiotic relationship between growth and change.

In this episode, I'll navigate my inspiring transformation as a stationery designer who traded the struggle of in-house production for the freedom of scaling my business. Join me as I peel back the layers of self-discovery, learn how to value my skills, and make strategic adjustments that lead to a more profitable and balanced existence.

Your Three (3) Key Takeaways:
1. Embracing change unlocks doors to opportunities and personal reinvention.
2. Valuing your skills and making strategic adjustments can lead to a more profitable and balanced existence.
3. Feedback is a crucial stepping stone to greater heights, not a hurdle to overcome.

Help enrich the lives of others by sharing this episode with someone who needs to hear this special message today. Let's embrace change, unlock opportunities, and navigate the seas of transformation with confidence and clarity.

How to Work with Nikisha (Your Certified Business & Life Coach):

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• Finding Fulfilment in Your Brand

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Chapters

• 0:21 Embracing Change for Sustainable Growth
• 11:07 Transformation Through Growth
• 30:02 Embracing Feedback and Growth Opportunities

Transcript

Nikisha King: 0:21

Hello, gorgeous, welcome to NK Podcast Leading Her Way, where we see the human, evolving and resilient spirit in you. I am your host, nikisha, and welcome to the growth series. I am so excited for this series because it's the thing that has brought me to you. It's the growth that has brought me to a place where showing up on a podcast every week means something, in a way, I just couldn't explain. And starting a business or entrepreneur path 15 years ago I did not see this for myself in any capacity. I did not see this for myself in any capacity. So, in the growth series, I am so excited you are here with me and we'll be doing this together, because growing in a community is so much easier than doing it on your own. So, once and for all, today we're going to talk about how growth equals change. We're going to explore the transformative journey of your life as a business owner, as a mom, as a parent, as a daughter, as someone who's trying to figure it all out, and how embracing change leads to sustainable growth. Embracing change leads to sustainable growth and change is a word that there are so many people who don't enjoy that word. They don't enjoy it because it's uncomfortable for them and in having conversations about that, I understand how viewing change can be uncomfortable, how viewing change can be uncomfortable. But I want to show you the other side of change. I want to show you what change does every day and how rewarding it is in each and every one's life. So, before we dive into this episode, what I want to do is kind of define this concept episode. What I want to do is kind of define this concept. Growth equals change.

Nikisha King: 2:26

As entrepreneurs, growth isn't about expanding how much money we make. It's about the constant evolution, the adaptation and the willingness to change your processes In a dynamic landscape. Change isn't disruptive, right. It's the very essence of how we grow, how we thrive, how we become better on our journey. And, as you can see, I have a different hair color today. Right, that's a change, and sometimes it feels a little challenging because you're so used to something. But the way I see change is I embrace it. So I like trying new things even though I don't know how it's going to turn out. Even though I don't like it, I'm okay with it because I know I can change it again.

Nikisha King: 3:19

Change for me has been one of the best gifts. It allows me to morph and do things, audacious things that I didn't know I was even capable of doing. So as an entrepreneur in the business for 15 years, as a human being who's been on earth for over 40 years, change is inevitable. Change is what I need in order for me to help anyone. Without change, without my transformation, I couldn't be here to talk to you about your journey and to help you with great content to help you transform and develop and grow in your business.

Nikisha King: 4:07

So I'm going to share a story with you that happened to me in 2019 of November. This was maybe, if it's 2019, it's 10 years of being in my business. October 2019 was 10 year anniversary and it's so interesting because in me saying that to you, it meant something in November 2019, when my transformation happened. So it took me 10 years I call it hell, but it's not. 10 years of going through so much as a transitioning from a working person to a stay-at-home mom, transitioning into parenthood, transition into a partnership, with new human beings in our lives and not just us. 10 years of trying to grow a business without even knowing how to grow it, without even having a vision, with always seeing the possibility of failure in everything I did 10 years. That journey brought me to November 2019, where a couple had promoted this conference for stationers on the weekend and me being in the stationary world where I create invitations, branding, paper, goods I, for some reason, when they spoke to me in a community, in a group setting, where other people were when they were speaking, it landed on ears that was seeking something more.

Nikisha King: 5:43

Change usually comes about because you're seeking something, you're hungry for something. Sometimes can come about because there is no, there is a pressure point, but usually when something is stirring inside of you, that is when you're in the place of seeking something different, and that is change. So in 2019, I signed up. I don't know how much it was, I don't remember. I know that when they said the number, they call it sticker shock. I don't call it sticker shock. I mean, I get why it's sticker shock, but it was a thing where I went do I have this? And, of course, if I had a business, I had a credit card. So there was money there. But do I have it? Can I pay it back? Can I do what I need to do? So I signed up, I took the risk and I signed up.

Nikisha King: 6:35

10 years in business, education is still so important. So I signed up for this weekend Saturday and Sunday and the reason I signed up was because one of the things she was promoting was showing her quotes how she quote, how she price, and I was so curious on how other stationers were pricing because I felt like I was missing something. People are surviving and I'm not. What am I missing? Do you ever get that feeling like you're missing something in your business? You ever get that feeling like you're missing something in your business? I promise you you are. If you feel like it, you are missing something.

Nikisha King: 7:13

So I signed up for it and in this weekend seminar, weekend workshop the thing about it was on the first day, saturday, she was doing mindset work. She was teaching us not to be a tugboat. A tugboat where you have to tug people in to make a sale. A tugboat where you have to keep going out getting the boat and tug it back in. And if you keep doing that, people are not opting in for your service. It feels kind of like you have to force them and then, when they're in your service, when they have the product, they regret it because it's not the experience they wanted and in reality it's not the experience. You wanted to as the business owner, but it happens because you're pulling rather than allowing them to opt in, and the other opposite of a tugboat was a lighthouse. A lighthouse stays on land. It doesn't move. It has one purpose it has this light and it goes in a circular motion, and then people know how to find their way back to land because of this lighthouse. It's their guiding star, in other words, and in her seminar, when she taught that, of course, sitting there that day in November 2019, I had no clue what she was talking about. All I knew was the analogy she was using about being a tugboat and a lighthouse, but I didn't have any clue about mindset, but I didn't have any clue about mindset work. I didn't have a clue about lighthouse being abundant and I didn't have a clue about the tugboat being scarcity. I didn't know that was what we were talking about, but hindsight, today I understand what that is. So Saturday was a lot about mind work. It was about objections. Right, sunday was the day for me, because the day on Sunday is where she got down to the nitty gritty of her proposal.

Nikisha King: 9:18

Now let me share with you when I was doing proposals back in 2019, mind you, 2016, because that's where things started to jump off for me. I was on Thumbtack, I was putting quotes out there and people would bid on quotes and all this good stuff, and when I was doing that, I was doing shows like bridal event shows and selling at maybe $1,000 for 100 invitations, and it was just that process. Can $1,000 do anything for a family? And when it's sporadic and not a continuous flow? No, and I know you, I know you're hearing me, but listen, right now you could be charging $1,000 and I don't know what service it is, but I know right now it might not be helping you foster a lifestyle or a livelihood. Forget lifestyle, a livelihood, but you think at that number, people are going to say yes to you more than no, but you're not realizing no matter what you do, they still don't say yes enough for you to make a life like a livelihood, to survive. That's because money is never the issue, it's the value. So back to my story. In doing that $1,000 for 100 invitations this beautiful woman oh my gosh showed us. She did the save the dates, the invitations and the day of, and for everything she charged $10,000 and people paid her for that. And what she did is I think her invitations might've been five. Her day of maybe three has saved the dates around 2000. At that time and when I saw that, I was blown away. But let me tell you why I was truly blown away.

Nikisha King: 11:07

I, for $1,000 for 100 invitations, would sit at my beautiful computer. I would do three designs design one, design two, design three. Design one was always the crappiest because it's just the first one. Then my brain would just get up give it a day, come back, do another version and it's a little bit better. And then the third version was what I truly wanted to sell. And in doing three options, I would propose three options to my clients and then they would mix things up. But what they were doing they were designing something based on their likes, based on what they would normally pick and choose, and that was fine. And when that happened I was doing that work.

Nikisha King: 11:53

And then, after that putting in production, I was doing the printing in-house Such a crappy term. Now I can say that and someone's going to be offended, but it's okay. In-house means I am not going to spend money to send it to a print shop. So to keep more money in my pocket, I'm going to buy a printer and then print it in my house. But while I'm printing in my house, me by myself and not knowing how this printer work, it's going to eat up my envelopes, it's going to do something wrong. So I have to buy extra materials for the testing, which is normal in any print shop. But usually a print shop does that once and then systemize it right. No, we do this all the time.

Nikisha King: 12:39

I did this all the time, like every time I'm testing a new material, a new something, and I would sit at that printer and fight at 12 in the morning, at one in the morning, just to get the printing done in-house, because it was cheaper. It was cheaper because I didn't value my time. It was cheaper because I had no respect for me. So, yes, it was cheaper and it was the best way to go, because I kept telling myself I don't have money, I don't have money. The reason I didn't have money is I didn't charge people what was needed to cover the cost and put money in the pocket, in my pocket, so I can survive. So after doing the three mock-ups, after producing it at home, then I would have to address the envelopes, ship it to the client. Sometimes it went well, sometimes it didn't. It was a lot. It always felt like it went well.

Nikisha King: 13:38

I don't feel like I had that delivering, but I would sacrifice so much of me, my time and time with my family, to make sure the client was happy. Forget me, forget everyone else I loved. The client had to be happy because they were paying me a thousand dollars for a hundred invitations. So this wonderful human being who's charging 10,000 for a whole entire suite doing everything. She was working with a company that she would send design concepts to. They would then take their time because they're being paid for it and the pricing they give and mock up the design, send it back to her. She would then ask for tweaks if she needed to, before sending it to a client. Get that one design laid out and done, send it to the client. Client signs off on it. There's no mixing, no merging, no creating. Because they love what she created, the company would print it, assemble it, ship it to this person, this stationer. The stationer would put a stamp on it and put it in the mailbox for the client, meaning she would ship it out for them. In other words, she wasn't doing anything. She didn't design it, she didn't create it, she wasn't in-housing anything.

Nikisha King: 14:56

And my brain was like what, what is happening? What is happening? And I was like is this possible? Let me be honest with you. As a woman of color and this woman who was in front of me, this beautiful woman who was not of color, my first thought was she can do that. Because we were in Manhattan. I was like she can do that. I am not able to charge that much. I'm not able to do what she does. I am not capable of that. No one's going to want to pay me $10,000 to do anything. Okay, now, that thought I'm so grateful lasted maybe a minute, because I was like, no, what she did, I know I can do, because all of the work I'm doing now, oh my God, I'm really good at what I'm doing. I can do this.

Nikisha King: 15:57

So in that moment I had a small snippet of I'm not capable. And then the next moment, I knew I was capable and then I got ignited. I got really ignited. I got like my internals were on fire because after that Sunday they went to go hang out, but I wanted to go home because I was upset. I was on fire. I was very like I'm going to do this. I'm going to show everyone that was when I started to change. That is where I was always growing, because I'm always persistent. But that moment ignited me to change in a way that I've never done anything like before, like it was different. It was different because it wasn't me going. This is how I do it. I'm going to keep doing it, but tweak one thing I totally was done. So that change came about because inside of me, I was looking for something more. I was hungry, I desired something better for myself, for my family, but I wasn't sure what I had to do to get that. And in that moment, that beautiful human being exposed me to things that I didn't know was possible. But after her weekend seminar, my world opened up and that's where growth for me really, really started to happen.

Nikisha King: 17:32

And yes, today I charge around $10,000. And yes, today I make $21,000 in selling my stationery. I make $15,000. I make $18,000. And yes, I use the same printing company she use or she uses, I don't know if she still does. I use that printing company who does all my design work, all my printing, all my assembly, and send me envelopes and I ship them out. Yes, yes and yes and, yes, I love this story so much.

Nikisha King: 18:05

2019 transform me. 2022 is where the transformation was showing up in my life. And I tell you this story because, in those moments, growth equals change. If I stayed stagnant, if I didn't do anything different, if I didn't get upset, trust me, I would still be in that $1,000 field. And it wasn't easy because between 2019 and 2022, we had COVID, so no one was having events.

Nikisha King: 18:41

But I was still before COVID hit in March 2020, I was still speaking to creative partners or referral partners, planners, things of that nature about my price point and unfortunately, they didn't go through a change yet. They didn't have that life-changing moment. So my price point and my price point then was not 10,000. It was like 4,000. They couldn't even fathom $4,000 for invitations. I went from 1,000 to 4,000 just to invites. I didn't do say the dates or day of, just the invites. They couldn't fathom that because they as well was living in that scarcity mindset. So I was talking to them because I knew them. But I knew them because we all was in the same field, like the same area, and sometimes, when you're speaking to the wrong market, it's not your products that's wrong, it's the people you're speaking to Listen.

Nikisha King: 19:38

In order for you to grow, you have to be willing to change. You cannot sit there doing the same exact thing, maybe a little tweak here and there, and thinking that is going to be how you grow, that is going to be the thing that makes you successful, and when it doesn't, you cannot get upset and blame everything else that is outside of your control. That, to me, is asinine, and if that's what you're doing, I hope, I really hope, that this is stirring something in you. I hope you get upset with me. I hope you feel like she doesn't know what she's talking about. But deep down inside, you're going to do something different. You're going to change, because if you don't, what you're doing today, that's not bringing you joy, peace, life, livelihood, like the thing that you're doing has no benefit to you. You just feel like you're losing so much of who you are and you still have to do a nine to five to compensate and you cannot do this thing you know has value. Then listen, it makes no sense.

Nikisha King: 21:15

Change is required. You may not like the word change, guess what. You don't have to use it. Transformation is another way of saying it. Growth is another way of saying it. Growing 1% every day is another way of saying it. Don't make a label aka a word change make you shut down from doing something new. That will benefit you, will benefit the people around you, will benefit your clients.

Nikisha King: 21:54

Now, it's never easy. It's not supposed to be easy. When you're changing, it takes a lot of energy because you're so used to doing something over and over. It's a habit, an old habit. Change doesn't come in one second. It takes work. It takes work, it takes time.

Nikisha King: 22:22

Therefore, I want you to embrace three action steps. One embrace uncertainty. Yes, you know when you think about this change. And then, for instance, let me use my story I was uncertain that I could charge $10,000 for invitations. I was uncertain because I didn't feel like I had what that person had. I didn't have the partnerships, I didn't have the location. I thought that wasn't possible for me. But I was willing to do things, not know how they would turn out, but I was willing to go or walk through uncertainty. I was willing to. I don't want to say fear the change, but I was open to the change. I was open to the fear. That's what it is. I was open to the fear and I had the support for that. My husband was a support for that. He always has my back so I can take risk. I was learning that in 2021.

Nikisha King: 23:36

I had one day at my desk this epiphany why are you so safe when you have someone who's been carrying you for 10 years and you're playing it safe and you're not doing anything? It's like you're literally playing it safe and they're risking everything and you're not. So stop feeling sorry for yourself, stop feeling like you're not contributing and play big and risk it because they got your back. When that epiphany came on me, I was like forget this and I played big. And it feels so good to play big because I can survive, I can feed my kids, I can do extracurricular activities with my family, I can do the things I value, and that's part of being a business owner. That's not the reason. That's part of it.

Nikisha King: 24:30

So embrace uncertainty Rather than fearing change. I want you to embrace it. Embrace inevitable parts of your industry trends of seeking out mentorship, people who can help you change. Be with you through your change. So when you try to go back to comfort, they keep pulling you forward. Seek out a coach, a mentor. I raise my hand, but I only raise my hand for people who desire change. Once again, I'm not a tugboat, I'm a lighthouse. So when people in my community you anywhere see something I can offer, I'm happy to raise my hand. But I will not tug you. I would allow you to come in and make the decision. So, seek mentorship, seek coaching.

Nikisha King: 25:26

Invest in acquiring new skills. Yes, skills on creating an action plan for your business. Skills on creating a lead process, a production process. On creating a lead process, a production process. Skills that allows you to use the systems that are available to you. That wasn't available to me when I started in 2009. Use all of the things you have. Yes, they cost something. Why do you keep thinking everything should be free? Half of the time, you do get free, but you still complain. Definitely, invest in acquiring skills and material and resources that will help you grow.

Nikisha King: 26:09

Business is not about being cheap. Business is not about not spending. Business is about creating value from the instruments you use for other people to use. Therefore, you need to invest. Everything is not expensive. It just is that number because someone knows their worth. And view challenges as opportunity for growth rather than setbacks. Yes, view challenges as an opportunity for your growth and not a setback. I promise you, if you change the way you look at growth, your life will be different. Oh my gosh. Growth for me is amazing. Setbacks they hurt, but every time they happen my brain goes what can we do for this not to happen again? How can we be better? And the mentors I have. My coaches I have, my systems I have. They support me. My business manager, aka COO, support me tremendously.

Nikisha King: 27:23

Second, continuous learning. Hello, you are a human being. You will always learn. You learn when you fall on your face. You learn not to wear those shoes again because that didn't work the first time. Learn Always. Have continuous learning in your life. Commit to lifelong learning and personal development.

Nikisha King: 27:46

When I chose to commit and invest $21,000 into my coaching certification a certification I did not need because I was coaching before it that continuous education brought me. How can I say further than anything? And when I say that, when my husband lost his job because he was laid off in 2023 of October, the way I showed up? I only showed up because of my $21,000 investment in my coaching in November of 2022. One year after, when my husband had to face something and he had to make a decision to invest in himself $25,000 when he didn't have revenue coming in. Guess who was 100% supporting him rather than telling him don't do it because we don't have anything. Oh man, best, best moment in my life, and I'm grateful for it in every way, because now it's a testimony to how continuous learning has supported my growth as a human being.

Nikisha King: 29:07

Continue learning, invest in your personal development because you are worth it. And third, iterate and innovate. Yes, you have a product. You may have more than one product. When we have products, they become stagnant or they're not serving our market well needs, but you've never asked the market what they need. In other words, as you're doing your business and service, check in with the people you're serving. Create not a survey, not a review, but create a closing call. Say with them after you work with them, you want to have a call and if you have a VA, if you have someone who can help, you can let them do it.

Nikisha King: 30:02

If you're scared of feedback, I'm not scared of feedback. I love feedback. It's like it makes me so happy, even if it's not good, because it makes me better. Remember what I said setbacks are not challenges, they're growth opportunities. So find a way to get feedback from the people you serve the good and the bad ones, the ones you don't like, the ones you love so you can learn how to show up better, how to innovate your products, how to update them so they can serve at a higher place, because that's growth. Growth is about serving at different levels and making the levels better for the people who are experiencing.

Nikisha King: 30:43

You. Listen, I love growth. Growth is one of the things that is mandatory in life and everyone does it, unconsciously and consciously. You don't actually have a choice. I promise you, even after listening to this podcast, you just grow 1% today because some idea popped up in your mind and you're about to implement it. So you're welcome because I'm going to take that. So listen, go out there, do something different today. Follow those three simple action steps Embrace uncertainty, continuous learning, iterate and innovate, because you are worth it.

Nikisha King: 31:30

Thank you so much for joining me on Leading Her Way podcast, where we always see the human, evolving and resilient spirit in you, and I will see you next week. Hey, before you go, I got a golden opportunity for you. Yes, you. It's a chance that's too good to pass up a chance to work with me one-on-one, practically for free. Imagine waving a magic wand and saying goodbye to feeling completely overwhelmed, anxious and all those feelings that keep you stuck from selling your services.

Nikisha King: 32:08

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