We were lucky to catch up with Kadina Grant recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kadina thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Often the greatest growth and the biggest wins come right after a defeat. Other times the failure serves as a lesson that’s helpful later in your journey. We’d appreciate if you could open up about a time you’ve failed.

So actually I failed a couple of times on launching my business Envymeshades last year. I came up with the idea of what I wanted to sell back in May 2021 and quickly started to watch Youtube videos and business coaches on Instagram and set out a deadline to launch my store by November of 2021. I truly believed 7 months was enough time to save up a little capital and to create a concrete plan and it is honestly but at the current time the job I had did not provide enough stable income that allowed me to save for rainy days and to launch a small ecommerce business. It seemed like every time I would put away a certain amount, a set of circumstance will show up in my life and I would have to choose between what was the priority in the current moment or saving for inventory/ad spent etc but each time I was setback it just reminded how much more I wanted to create my brand.

Kadina, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

If you have not heard about me just yet, my name is Kadina Grant but I like for people to call me dina since it is easier for some to pronounce lol. I am a 22 year old aspiring entrepreneur and I recently just started my online business Envymeshades and selling journals through amazon kdp. Now I always knew I wanted to be the boss of my own company ever since I was little, I was into fashion designing and wanted my own line and honestly I was pretty good at drawing, I was able to make it to advance arts throughout middle school but my interest started to change as I started to grow up and got into high school. By the time I was in highschool I got my first job and of course that shaped my young mindset into thinking I need to keep a job, losing the very vision I had for myself. From there I worked in at least 15 different places in the food and hospitality/customer service industry and about the age of 20 I knew I no longer wanted to work 40+ hours a week . So I decided to get my real estate license at the beginning of 2020 so I can become my own boss but I quickly learned if you want to survive in Miami’s real estate game then you truly need the passion, the vision and connections which I honestly lacked at the time. Having to come back to the workforce once again, it completely drained me and made me look within on finding a way out and that is how my brand Envymeshades was born!
I knew I would genuinely love and enjoy to build this brand up and to eventually create my own custom designs for my own shades one day and since living in the sunshine state I figured this is a perfect idea, the perfect duo.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Whew what a good question because most of the time we talk about the things we had to overcome and the teaching behind that experience but this question allows us to show a different perspective on what we are learning about ourselves. Now I am going to be completely transparent, one of the biggest lessons I had to unlearn and still am unlearning was thinking it can not happen for me, thinking anything good or grand can’t show up in my life or be created by me.
I have major imposter syndrome meaning I find myself doubting what I can accomplish even though I have already achieved so much within my personal goals. Its frightening at times especially when you do not have a big support system telling you how proud and great you are and you truly depend on your vision, disciplined and affirmations to get yourself where you would like to be.
That’s why I feel like its important to surround yourself with positivity, if you were to see my room the amount of affirmations that is written on posted notes and taped onto my dresser mirror can be a whole self help book lol just kidding but I also keep vision boards on my walls and the lock screen of my phone, I also set daily notifications of affirmations, every night I write how grateful I am for the opportunities that are here and on the way and I listened to podcasts that help uplift me and brings me motivation. As long as we are trying to acknowledge and change the things that hinder us then we should feel worthy of anything because we are doing work.
Now it is a constant battle of hard work on trying to rewire and unlearn the negative feelings you have towards yourself but at the end I truly believe it will be worth it.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Just how I mentioned earlier I suffered with negative self talk and the feeling of imposter syndrome and how sometimes those thoughts do get really heavy and overwhelming and it will try to tell you to give up, something in me will always tell me to keep going. It does not matter if I get knock down 10 times you better get up the 11th, I can fail miserably, I can start over 100 times and there can be a million of anxious thoughts in my head but the strength of my faith pulls me up every time. There’s times I feel so alone and feel like I have no one that understands me and what I am feeling and that’s when the only person you can turn to is your faith and that right there builds my resilience. No matter what I see in my current reality, no matter the circumstances and the problems that I am facing, praying and trying everyday to believe in something good and in myself helps strengthens me and my resilience.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.envymeshades.com
• Instagram: theenvymeshades & kadina__
• Facebook: Envymeshades
• Linkedin: Kadina Grant