We were lucky to catch up with Rushauna Beckles recently and have shared our conversation below.

Rushauna, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

My mission is to support solo service providers to THINK bigger, to ASK bigger and to TAKE bigger action (T.A.T) by creating their own opportunities to make the impact that they desire!

I see so many small business owners/ solopreneurs playing “small” when they have so much potential to do bigger things but they don’t see themselves in that light or feel confident/ enough!

And I know that feeling all too well because when I had my gift basket business, Xpress Ur Self Gifts, there was so much that I wanted to do but I played “small”. I didn’t want to post pictures of myself on social media, I didn’t want to reach out to companies to offer my services, to “ask” for the sale, I used my shyness and introversion as excuses to not do things and the list goes on. Recently, I had an ahh moment, back in Guyana (that’s why I grew up), my mother used (and still does) to sell clothes and household items in front of our yard and I used to help her. I remember her buying a bunch of items that customers requested but then they wouldn’t buy them when she stocked it. I saw her trust people items (they would take the items and then say, “they’ll pay till next week”), she felt that she couldn’t raise her prices because people wouldn’t buy, business is slow and how people prefer to go to the shop down the street than to come to her etc. And unconsciously, I didn’t know that I was carrying around all those thoughts and experiences! This is why it’s so important for me to support others to take action and to create their own business opportunities.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a former Early Childhood Educator, I loved working with infants, being able to scaffold their learning/ development. The pandemic happened and then I said, “nahhhh, I don’t want to go back to working in a daycare” because we share EVERYTHING! The love and the boogers!!!! Then I decided to become a virtual assistant, trying to be and do everyone for everyone and it did not work out! Randomly, on IG, I posted a story that I was going to host a content planning session and one person signed up for it but she had an emergency and she couldn’t make it. So then, she reach out to me a few days later and asked to do a paid content planning session. And I’m like, “I don’t even offer this” but a coach at that time told me to do it, to charge $50 bucks and to knock her socks off. And that I did because she sent me another $50 dollars and she’s like, you should be charging more for this! Which led me to pivoting to being a content marketing consultant for Instagram. Thank you Sarah Albo from Novel HR.

And then IG was trying to become Tock Tock’s bigger brother during the summer of 2022 and I didn’t like that. I remember thinking that there’s so many different ways to market a business and people need to know that they have other options. Marketing has always intrigued me but because I didn’t have a degree which momentarily held me back for a bit. But then I said to myself, “we’re in a pandemic and life is short”. So I went for it and became a marketing strategy consultant where I just focused on marketing strategy oppose to marketing as a whole. Some months later I learnt that a lot of business owners don’t know what a “marketing strategy is” because they’re too focused on creating plans for social media. Which led me to doing a spontaneous 30 day visibility challenge and I had an “ahhhh moment” that business owners resonate more with being seen/ heard and needing to get visible. Bringing me to now being a visibility coach and navigator.

I support solo service providers to get visible by creating their own opportunities for growth (workshops, collaborations with other businesses, implementing those ideas that are begging to run loose from the back of your mind) to promote their services to get leads. There’s two aspects of what I offer: (1) Visibility Coaching: supporting one to get more visible. This can be for planning/ launching things and or build up one’s confidence to take action. (2) Visibility Navigation: identifying business collaborations/ partnerships to leverage other’s communities to promote one’s service.

I offer a digital visibility planner, “Going from Unknown to Known: Growing your Business Visibility in 90 Days”. It’s a 90 day planner to support solo business owners to create a system in growing their business’s visibility so that they can stop being the best kept secret there is!

My zone of genius is in ideation and I’m proud of all of the different recommendations that I can come up with for other businesses! I like to joke and say that I’m better then chatgbt49wq! What sets me apart is my energy and personality. My approach is to meet business owners where they’re at and to support them on what they want to do (goal they want to accomplish) while providing them with clarity and hyping them up so they know how AMAZE BALLS they already are!

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

I had reached out to an acquaintance at the time via IG messaging, we met from participating in the same program. I was at the point where I felt lonely on my entrepreneurship journey and I was on the verge of giving up! I asked the individual if she was available to chat and we hopped on a video call right on IG. We started talking about the challenges of business and how we’re both feeling! In the midst of it, I’m telling her the different things she could be doing to execute on her vision and she’s agreeing with me. Long story short, she tells me that she needs accountability, how I’m like a coach (at that time I didn’t see myself as a coach) and she wanted to know how much I was going to charge for a session. And I almost turned it down because I didn’t know what to charge and I didn’t feel like I was right for the “job”. I got a sale/ client from that call. where I wanted to give up on my business.

So the takeaway is not to be scared of sharing your vulnerability (being vulnerable can be seen as a bad thing) but to embrace it and to share what you feel comfortable with because majority of the time, others are feeling the same way as well!

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

I had to unlearn that business doesn’t have to be “hard” or getting clients doesn’t have to be hard nor take long!

I’ve grown up hearing how business is hard, only a certain group of people will make it, your own people will not support you, money is hard to come by etc. And then on my entrepreneur journey, I’ve been hearing and seeing other business owners speaking about business hardships and how the client journey takes time. I then believed that “business is hard” and that became my reality.

I’ve also been learning that I can have fun, joy and ease in my business! I get to create it on my own terms, not following other coaches’ “proven blueprint”/ the traditional way or buying into the stories that I need to “scale” to make millions of dollars!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.servedwithcreativity.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/servedwithcreativity
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rushauna-beckles-55b971218/