Ep. 13: Striking Out (Part 2)

Welcome back to another episode of Black Girl Fly. I'm your girl Tenisha Nicole. And I'm Tashaunda Dixon. And today we're talking about part two of this episode of striking out. So in the last episode, we didn't get to delve into all of the, you know, kind of adventures or ventures as you want to call them that we have explored over the years. But that really is the continuation of of that conversation. And so last week talked to Shawna was sharing with us about some of the work she was doing in financial services for about seven to eight years where it really was like some of your passion work. Yeah, it was definitely in in that I learned a lot about myself about what I liked what I didn't like, and I realized that I didn't have a passion for any of the work that was done in my nine to five And so, at that point in my life, it was really figuring out how to do more of that. And I made a plan that I was going to get out of my nine to five and go full time into financial services.

Yeah. And my journey I got into photography in hire me. So I started in high school that is true. And then I kind of explored it throughout college, but I ended up getting a job in college as one of my side hustles but when I graduated college, I started doing it for myself in the it was really crazy to me. But what I realized is that once I put a monetary value on my art and my passion, I didn't want to do it anymore. Really. Yeah. Like it was because you have to serve a client to the clients want some time, your vision. Yeah. Sometimes at the detriment to your art and your craft. Yeah. So So, you know, I did photography for total for about 10 years, but I did it on and off because, you know, I would lose the passion for it and lose to like drive and desire to like become a better photographer, just because I wasn't excited about the projects I was doing. Or, you know, I just was doing it at a certain point to make money. Yeah. And yeah, so, at this point, I've actually sold pretty much all of my photography equipment, which my sister was very shocked. She said, my family photographer, guys, you know, iPhones are amazing. So now I tell her, we got to take some photos, but I see the pictures on iPhones. But yeah, I really, you know, at this point, I feel like I've closed the chapter on that, but, but yeah, that really, it really started to turn me off once I started having to charge people for my work. Yeah. It's so funny that you mention that because when I think about my work in financial services, the biggest issue that I had his I would meet so many people who couldn't pay me. And I was really torn because I was like, I want to help them. But I'm not being compensated for my time and it's not sustainable for me. Yeah, so I did like, during that time, I was doing a lot of like training at churches, and really talking to large groups of people. And in that some of the things that I would find would be devastating, like people who were supposed to retire in a year, who would lose their houses with the plan that they had moving forward. And I had a problem with that I really wanted to help the people, but it wasn't paying the bills. Yeah, I'm like your business, you don't have a business. You don't have money coming in. It really is just a hobby at that point. And you have to do something that is getting you money in the door so that you can pay all of the bills that you have, you know, your student loans, your house and whatever else you have. So So what did you do after photography so photography is dead to you because people are telling you how to change yard Well, I mean, I stuck in it for like 10 years. So I did many other things while I was doing photography, okay, because I was still like, I want to do photography for the art of it for the fun of it. And I don't want the cost to be the driving factor. So I tried to supplement it with other so right now you're so now you're doing a full time job. You're doing your love photography, and you're putting other stuff in there and I'm pretty sure I had a side hustle. Also probably still working at the restaurant. still living my best life traveling the world still go to happy hour. But what was the next thing that I got into? Oh, I started creating events for a purpose. And so I had been, I don't know, I run in many different types of circles, but I like to take the best ideas from the circles and kind of melded into one. Yeah. Okay. And so I came up with this concept of like, you know, we're gathering for an event but that event is also benefiting a group of people. All right, we're not just coming to party to party. And so I hosted a number of events. But my first one, my favorite one was really we got some tables from the local boys and girls. And I hosted a paint and sip event. And so the idea was that people would come, they would be able to do a paint and sip night, but it wasn't you making you know, a picture on a canvas for you to take home for yourself? Because that's selfish, right? No, but it was us creating art to live on these broken down tables that are at the Boys and Girls Club to inspire them to dream. Yeah, right. And so the event turned out better than I could have ever ever imagined. Like, so many people came out and I'm with an artist. Yes. Although there was beautiful what came together with a bunch of people who were not artists, right? And a bunch of people who didn't know each other. And so they would get in groups of like, Five or six. And as a group of five or six, you had to collectively decide on a design that you will put on here. And it will represent your group, even though y'all just met each other. But what is the lasting image y'all want to make on this table for this group of kids that you have no idea about? And so literally right before the event, y'all I was literally I picked up the tables by myself. I had a u haul. It was a hot mess, we put it together. But I parked outside the venue and literally this guy walked by, in the event space was in a isn't se, which is not a great part of DC is it was in the process of being gentrified at the time. But anyways, it was still a little hood. So this guy walks by a guy walks by, I'm in the back of the U haul, painting the tables the base color, and he sees me He's like, Yo, what are you like, oh, Just prepping for this event I have in a couple of hours. He was like, oh dope, like, I would love to come out in support whatever I was like, Yeah, that would be wonderful love to see you there, gave him the information. And fast forward like we're putting together two groups. He came, he showed up, he was in one of these groups, and the team he was undecided on the design. And come to find out this man was an artist. He's up here. They decided to do a flowers. This man is drawing these the most beautiful flowers you have ever seen. Like, I was just like, it was just amazing. The whole night came together. But like I wanted to create events like that, that would impact people and like resonate with people and help people right. And you know, I love art. So what better way to impact lives with art. So that was a long ramble, but I created events like that, you know, typical events, you will have a sip of paint and sip event that was so common at the time, but to me it didn't have meaning. So I wanted to Put a little purpose, purpose spin on it. Yeah. So was it something that you were able to monetize? I was not that successful in monetizing it just because the cost of my events were not sustainable. I didn't have a marketing budget. Yeah. But I think it would have been successful if I had. It was literally just me. Yeah. I needed to mobilize the team. Yeah. Yeah. So going through that you think through kind of what what what did you do next? And what information Did you take from that experience? On to the next thing? I feel like I'm in the hot seat. Let's go back to you. Well, I think about you. So after you were doing financial services, and you could help people couldn't help people, or you couldn't help the people that you really wanted to? What did you do? Yeah, so I would say that I did a lot of things but my transition came more out of okay. At this time when I ended my financial service career I had grown this business with my ex. So the financial service business was the partnership with my ex. And everything that we had grown all our relationships with as a couple. And so during the time where I really should have tried to get a bit Rocky, why there's so many more things that I've done, but kind of skipping over a couple little things that I've done, I really saw an area and I realized that my strength was in in looking at a business and kind of just being able to help people get past the hump or to see something they didn't see before. And so while I was in the financial service business, I did a lot of cysteine or mentoring people in the growth of their business. And so I've helped people from someone who had a summer feeding camp where they were nonprofit, mostly funded by the government, and they would feed students kids in school age throughout the whole summer. So I helped her to get the word out and do bit more marketing. She wasn't familiar in that area. So it was more about hey, we're out here because she actually got paid On the number of students that she had to participate, then there was a cleaning service actually that my sister, my brother in law moving site moving. No, it was cleaning and moving. Oh, yeah, they started they did. So that's actually by the way where I'm going with it. So they were really like, oh, we're gonna do this, we're gonna, we're gonna start this business, but they had no business experience. So I actually helped them set up the LLC and do all the filings to make sure all their stuff was in order for running the business. And then they're like, okay, we're going to do it. And so throughout the I would say, they've had this, they still have this business. So it's probably been 20 years in this business. And I would actually go on to get them to remove the cleaning portion of the business because they were more focused on the movement, and it was easier. They had built a more sustainable process for maintaining that business. And so I really went through this timeframe where I was more of watching everyone else and helping them get through the hurdles and the humps and the things that they were experiencing. And also collectively, I think from a family perspective, we We're off maneuvers, and we decided that we kind of wanted to do some things together. So during this time also we did organization called you gain that was actually centered in Memphis, Tennessee, because we had my mom at the time lived in Memphis, my uncle, and we had put together a group of people to help do this, this program that would kind of help children again, from an more of an educational perspective, from there I had, so I would see business models kind of out and about. So shoedazzle was something that I saw. And so I really, I recreated kind of a shoedazzle concept, and did that for a little bit. I really done everything. Yeah, we've done the gamut. Yeah. But when I look at all those things, just from bear to then And that's not all yet, but as I look at that, what I realized is that I had a passion and it went back to the education portion. I am a person still naturally, who I look at a problem and I analyze it to death. Yes, yes, yeah, this is true. That all came in my career. So for my professional career in corporate America, I transitioned from that financial service space to be more of a technical analyst. And so that even that transition in my career came from people seeing that about me. And so that was another one of those things that are in my skill tool chest that I just do naturally. Right. And so I ended up always revising, and moving in and talking about strategy and approach in business. That's so interesting. When I reflect on mine, it's like, I have learned that I'm not great. So I've learned that I work well on myself. Right. And so I have, you know, tried to do so from like, I call it tradespace. So from the events with the purpose, I went on to do many things, but I will volunteer with nonprofits to you know, Where I managed large teams, yes. Which I did not enjoy. And I was like, well, maybe teams is not the solution for me. Yeah. So then I started focusing on systems and processes. I'm like, Well, if I'm going to be in a business by myself, then how is it that I can run an entire business as a single person? Yeah, that means I need to create systems and processes that, you know, I am not the bottleneck of. So I work a lot with contractors. And I have been doing that for years to help the different aspects of business that I don't like doing. Yeah, goodness, have done. Yeah. And so we did a couple of family ventures as well. But I realized I'm literally I'm like, good when I'm by myself. That's funny. So I'm the exact opposite, though. Like, I am more a visionary and I could I can energize a group of people to get an initiative completed. Yeah. Yeah, that's so true. And so and that came from I told you, I was working with businesses. owners and I'm saying hey, this is what you do. Go execute. And and in that I created this kind of system with those people. Yeah. And I ended up doing a similar thing because my photography, business business started doing graphic design. But in graphic design, I would do it for small businesses. And they will want me to do more for them because I could see when I look at a business, I could see things that could be fixed. Yeah, but I hated working with small businesses because they don't know business. I mean, I'm generalizing here, but the ones that I was working with, their knowledge was so limited in their capacity was also limited because most of them were also working nine to five. Yeah. But like I would pour my heart out in like trying to build a system and trying to help them and they would go around and do none of it because they didn't have the capacity or the willpower to do it. And I was just like, this is a waste of my time. I did have that similar experience to you. But what I decided to do so at first I was like, go Do this, go do this go to this. And if they didn't do it, I was like, I'm done. You just showed me what it is that one either you have a lack of trust and lack of faith and what I'm telling you or two, you don't actually have the desire to do the things you said you want to do. Yeah. And and so for me, that was just cause for me decide to exit. Yeah, and I mean, for me, I had gotten burned so many times on that I was just like, I'm gonna stop wasting my energy on other people and do my own. Yeah, so now I went to venture on my own and I created like a bridal accessory business, where I you know, wanted to do the system wanted to create the process, but it completely collapsed because I didn't want to do the work. Okay, I like I think that's what it came down to. And for me, I think it was because it didn't have that purpose in that meaning that is so important to me. Yeah. And so, so yeah, that's kind of where I am today. Like I'm a person of system. I'm a person of process but I'm also I need to be doing something that means Feeling deeply to me? Yeah, so So a couple things though. So when I left financial service business, I actually left because I was having issues in my marriage. And I decided that I was going to let him continue our financial service business as a lead contact. And I was going to go into my own venture. So I actually owned and operated a nail salon. Which by the way, if anyone knows me, I am not a male person. This all happened out of spite, essentially, at the time, I had been going to a nail salon weekly, to get services done or whatever. And I was there was an Asian nail salon. And I've been going there for like three years, faithfully, like every other week for three years. And couple things happen. So she was buying a house I remember wanting to excuse buying a house, and it was really nice house in a really nice neighborhood. And she was she was she's secretive like like, first of all, she tried to tell me she didn't own the nails. Anyone knows me knows I'm an investigator, she'll nail salon. Um, and then when she was like, she was kind of like, Oh, I'm better than you with this whole house thing. And I was like, dude, I could buy that house too, but you don't know me. So. So. So that was something. And then we were having a conversation, I was asking her just general questions like, it wasn't really anything to it. But I was asking her about owning the nail salon and kind of operating it hard and why so many Asian people do this and whatnot. And she literally said to me, after three years of seeing me every other week, it should matter to you. Black people don't own nail salons. And I was like, wow, at this point, I spent thousands with this lady. It's true. I mean, it's true nowadays that you see a lot more black nail salons, but it wasn't that from that I didn't get that she was saying that. It just not something she was like you guys don't belong. Here's what I got. Um, oh, that's interest. And And the thing about it is when I looked around. There were only black women, right? I noticed, you know, Asian people getting their nails done. And I was like, wow, I'm going to show you. So literally, the next month, I found a location. I found contractors. And I was open three months later, I never went back to that space again. I started the nail salon because of that. And the whole point of the nail salon was, if we're going to spend our money here, we're going to spend it with our own. And so I went through this and that was probably the hardest that I've ever worked because I had a point to prove. I literally had a great nail tech out of Dallas. And she was like, I'm gonna work with you. I see this mission and it was something that was important to her. So she was able to join me in that mission. And then I actually had a business partner in my college roommate. And when we were like, we're gonna do this. And we went at it hard. Yeah, I guess I think it was the comment. Have seen my work ethic and then the relationships that I've developed, that my mom was like best looks cool. Let me get back into this. And so with my mom and I, we decided to open a thrift store next door to the nail salon, when we ran the thrift store MNL salon, all the way through that period, and I ultimately got a divorce. And then my mom actually got diagnosed with stage four cancer. And that's when we close because we had some life changes to make. But it was a great experience, tons of work. And from there, I was my first encounter with really having to manage a ton of employees, employees who had to have specialized skills and licenses Yeah, and their commitment and not commitment, and kind of that whole thing. And it was hard. Yeah, it was hard. I learned how to do nails. That's like one of my lessons is I mean, have a business where all the crap hits the fan. You can do it yourself. can deliver the service are definitely being being is what I'd have to say there. Yeah. And I think I've taken that, that lesson to heart in everything I've done moving forward. But I had to be able to do it myself. Yeah, I'm there. So we still have a lot to talk about, but we have guys going over time. So you want to save the rest for part three? Yes. So in part three, we're really going to talk about the lesson we've learned. A couple more ventures. Yeah, couple more. So until next time, I'm Tashaunda Dixon, and I'm Tenisha Nicole, and we are Black Girl Fly.