We recently connected with Nakeitra Burse and have shared our conversation below.

Nakeitra, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

I am not creative when it comes to business names, particularly names that have to grow with you. Early on, I was advised not to use my name as a part of my business, so that ruled out me taking the easy route. But, when I was in graduate school I learned about the six dimensions of health (physical, mental, spiritual, vocational, social, and environmental). The way the professor explained these dimensions of health from a behavioral health perspective was that, like a Rubik’s Cube, we come into the world with all of these areas balanced- i.e. all of the colors on all sides were in alignment. But, as we navigate through life, those colors won’t always have have that perfect balance/alignment. Therefore, we have to work to create balance among each of the dimensions based upon our immediate and long term needs. So, there may be times when one dimension is fully balanced, while the others are less balanced.

This resonated with me immensely. As I began conducting community presentations on health and well being, I would take a Rubik’s Cube with me and meticulously explain to participants that perfection is not the goal, but that we should work to find balance and understand what areas/dimensions of our life needed additional work.

Then when I started Six Dimensions, I knew that I wanted to carry those same principles with my work and within the internal values of the company. We aren’t “fixing” people, because they are not broken, but we are rather working to ensure that communities have the resources needed for people to find balance in all dimensions of their life. That is how we became Six Dimensions

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a wife, mother, Christian, entrepreneur that is dedicated to improving the health of our communities. The heart of my work is rooted in health and equity and social justice while working to improve maternal health outcomes. Six Dimensions was started in 2012 as a health and wellness company. In our early years, we focused on personal training and bootcamps for women. For several years, I researched gyms and fitness companies, gained personal trainer and group fitness certifications. I even worked at different types of fitness centers to understand their model and determine how I could build a successful business with severely limited resources. I landed on doing “mobile” fitness for women, to avoid costly overhead fees. I trained clients in their homes. I also started community bootcamps for women only at local parks and other locations that would give me a discount on fees. During this time, I realized that 1) I made more money than I did at the fitness center; 2) I removed the middle man (the employer); and most importantly, 3) I could build community among Black women, help them get healthy, and be a trusted resource. I like to believe that I was ahead of my time. As I transitioned out of training (after having children), I began to see many trainers taking a similar approach.

During my time as a fitness instructor, I was also working full time in the nonprofit world, fulfilling my other passion-teaching, training, and leading. I got the opportunity to learn grant writing skills, leadership, and other public health skills. I also made invaluable connections in the community. This job also awarded me the opportunity travel and expand my network nationwide. But, I wanted more, I had moved as far up as I could in the organization. I wanted more freedom, I wanted to narrow my focus to maternal health and I wanted to help train public health professionals to address the grim maternal health outcomes faced in our communities. So, I quit my full time job and became a full-time entrepreneur. Four years after starting, I transitioned the business to a public health consulting company.

As we currently exist, Six Dimensions focuses on four key areas:

1) Research & Evaluation: We aim to ensure that research and evaluation efforts: are rooted in equity with respect to historical trauma; uplift the voice of the community; and are translated into quality practice and advocacy strategies.

2) Training & Development: Our training aims to ensure that early career professionals and seasoned practitioners have the knowledge and skills to address maternal health through an equity lens.

3) Art & Film: We aim to not only ensure that Black women have an opportunity and safe space to tell their stories, but we also use storytelling as a strategy to address issues in maternal health. Our film Laboring with Hope has been the primary vehicle for our art & film efforts.

4) Outreach & Advocacy: This how we maintain our connection to community. We attend community events and we also collaborate on state level policy issues that affect Black women (i.e. Medicaid expansion, postpartum Medicaid extension, etc).

I am most proud of our short documentary, Laboring with Hope. The film highlights the issues of maternal morbidity and mortality among Black women. The idea for this film came from several unfortunate losses in my family. My aunt died 5 days after giving birth; my sister-in-law died about a month after giving birth; and my sister had a severe case of preeclampsia, resulting in her baby being in the NICU and ultimately passing away. Their stories and the experiences of other Black women are why I do this work.

Laboring with Hope is being used as a call to action to implement, support, and uplift strategies that aim to improve maternal health and birth outcomes. Laboring with Hope has been shown all over the country reaching more than 5,000 individuals. We have been featured in a variety of settings, including Soledad O’Brien’s Disrupt and Dismantle series on BET, the Kelly Clarkson Show, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, and other local and national media outlets.

At our core, everything we do is to improve maternal health outcomes for Black women. We are unapologetically Black and we own that in every aspect of our business model.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Listen. Be flexible. Be open to learning.

I have worked very hard to create an environment that I would like to work in myself. I thrive in environments that allow me to be creative and flexible… and there are not many traditional work environments that offer that. So, I constantly evaluate the way we work and the way my team and I interact. We are primarily remote with an office space that is available for use by anyone on our team who needs it. Being remote has worked very well for our team, our communication and our productivity.

I learned early on in my leadership journey that listening to the team when they bring ideas is critical. I had a team member years ago, prior to becoming a full time entrepreneur, that said “I don’t even bring my ideas anymore because nothing is going to happen with them.” I did not take that as a shot to my leadership, but it made me more aware of how I could help them better refine their ideas and make them more appealing to my superiors. Simply communicating that the idea will not move forward to action is not enough, but the communication around why it will not move forward makes all the difference.

I have brought that same principle over into my current business. Because I can see the whole picture of our work, I have a better perspective on why an idea in its initial stages may not work. But, it is my responsibility to communicate clearly and support the team in understanding the big picture to better refine an idea to work for our company. When people come onto our team, no matter the capacity, I lead with “this is an environment of creativity, so if you have an idea, bring it.” That has helped in managing our team as well as maintaining high morale.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Similar to my previous response, I have had to learn and create what remote looks like for our company. In 2020, I became a full time entrepreneur. I know you’re probably wondering “now didn’t she say she left her job in 2016 to work for Six Dimensions full time?” Well, yes, I did. But about 6 months into my full time entrepreneurial journey, I was approached to come work part time at a local university. I took the opportunity because it provided steady income and only required me to work 20 hours per week. So, I spent the rest of my time building the business. Well, in 2020, the pandemic hit and sent us all home. As many organizations did, my part time job reassessed their staff and financial needs and decided not to renew my contract. So, then I became a “real” full time employee of Six Dimensions. This was perfect timing because the company was growing and gaining traction in the field. I had been building a team of contractors who work with me consistently, not just on a project-by-project basis, therefore, I needed to prepare myself for bringing people on full time.

In 2022, we hired our first full time employee and that forced me to unlearn what I knew about full time employment and create an environment that people wanted to work in. I knew that the traditional work day of 8-5 was conducive to my lifestyle, as I have a family with small children. But, I also knew that some days you just don’t work all 8 hours. So, I had to force myself to think about their employment by their productivity, rather than if they were sitting at a desk for 8 hours/day.

Hiring full time people naturally made me want to be more structured because I’m paying for 40 hours of your time per week, and I need to make sure I am being a good steward of my finances as a small business. But, it also made me look at those 8 hours differently. So, instead of drilling in and honing in on 8-5 I started to think differently. We require our team to be available from 8-5, but we have created an environment of trust and communication. Therefore, if someone needs to handle personal business during the work day, there is no reprimand or requirement to use their PTO. But, there is still the expectation to get the work done first.

All in all, I have had to create a balanced environment that works for my team and I. The beauty of this is that we have the continuous flexibility to amend it as we see fit.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sixdims.com
• Instagram: @sixdims
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sixdims
• Twitter: @sixdims

Image Credits
FullofFava Photography Soul Focus Productions