We recently connected with Imani Winfield and have shared our conversation below.

Imani, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Making the decision to become an entrepreneur alone, is a huge risk. Even while working a 9-5 I was committing myself to working to build someone else’s dream, while building my own dream, simultaneously. Early mornings and late nights ran together, sleep, free-time, and sometimes self-care was sacrificed. That alone is a big risk to take, but deciding to take the risk of becoming a full time entrepreneur, with no 9-5 was a huge, life changing risk that I never thought I had the courage to do… but I did it!

For years, I contemplated and hesitated on walking away from consistent and stable income, and a job that made me feel safe economically. I loved what I did, and I loved my co-workers, the company mission, etc. So walking away from that was harder than I thought.

June of 2022 I decided to take a leap of faith and do the unthinkable. I prayed, and developed an exit plan that included a business plan, and savings plan… and executed that plan when the time felt right. With an extra boost of support from friends and family, I made the decision to trust my skill, my knowledge, and talent to focus on building my dream. Although it was exciting once the decision was made, I quickly realized that it isn’t easy.

There were more learning curves, personal and professional development that I have experienced since going full time entrepreneur. I have had influx in sales, and some weeks with no sales or movement. These times were scary and tough, but the most important thing I learned was to keep going. Keep working, keep having faith, keep giving my best, keep learning, and to keep growing.

“You’ll never know how high you will fly until you take the leap of faith and fly!” This experience has been humbling and worth it, because I learned the real work and the real faith it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. The ups and the downs, makes it all worth it when you’re able to be your own boss, set your own goals and be the one to conquer them; when you see the difference it makes in customer’s lives, and also the world’s… one customer at a time.

Imani, 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?

My name is Imani Winfield and I am 29 years old, from Greenville, North Carolina. I am the oldest of a clan of 13, and have always strived to be the best example that I can be for my siblings. I am a person who believes in leaving love, and light everywhere that I go and with every interaction. I like to encourage and motivate others to feel good, and be their best selves. Coming from a small town, it’s always been my dream to be successful to give back to my community, and to inspire others, show them success is possible. The ambition led me to attend North Carolina Central University with a major in Business Administration and minor in Marketing. This is where my burning desire for entrepreneurship began.

One morning of 2015, in the shower before heading to my telecommunications job, I got the idea of making T-Shirts for birthday parties and events. I knew that I could use my “Myspace” graphic designing days to create designs that people would want to see on a T-Shirt. I purchased a printer, a heat press machine, and made T-Shirts. My creative juices began flowing in multiple directions. I took a step back, analyzed what my passion was…and decided to focus on graphics.

As I begin to focus on graphics I noticed a trend, a pattern of the type of clients/customers I would get; aspiring business owners. They wanted flyers for their business as well as logo designs. I had no clue what I was doing, but I would put together cool graphics with words and eventually blew up with making logos and flyers. It was then I realized, this was becoming more than just a hobby, but a profitable business.

I decided to launch The Perfect Touch Printing & Graphics and began my personal entrepreneurial journey while helping others on theirs. The Perfect Touch Printing & Graphics became bigger than I imagined with serving over 3,000 customers in less than 3 years. With time, I learned more, my skill grew, and my niche for helping business owners grew as well. I researched, and learned that I had a keen and creative eye for full branding and marketing.

I then decided to rebrand into a full on agency, Metamorf Branding & Marketing that helps businesses transition from a “start-up/small” business that has just a logo, to a full on branding package to establish brand consistency and brand trust. We grow and transform businesses by way of creative branding and marketing. This of course elevates their business in ways beyond their imagining just by having a solid brand. We assist with logos, websites, social media marketing, traditional marketing material designing and printing for businesses all over the USA.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I built my audience on social media using different marketing strategies: Giveaways, Sales/Discounts, Posting Reviews, and consistently posting projects! I was expecting people from my hometown, family, and friends to support me but it turned out to be complete strangers nationwide that supported me the most.

My advice for those just starting to build social media presence is to be consistent. Define your mission, find your voice and stay consistent and getting that message to other people. Don’t be afraid to showcase your work and your mission. Keep posting, encouraging engagement to be able to engage with your followers. Develop a relationship with them by being authentic and transparent.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

One of my favorite marketing stories is going viral on Tik Tok. I have always put so much effort into going viral, spending so much time recording and editing, just to “accidentally” go viral in my sleep! I posted a video, then went to sleep and woke up to thousands of messages, likes, shares, and comments.

At the time, my prices were super low so that meant waking up to thousands of sales. It was just me at the time working on all of these projects in so little time, unexpectedly so it was scary but I did my best and that is what boosted my business!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.metamorfbranding.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/metamorfbranding
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/metamorfbranding
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/imaniwinfield/
• Other: Tik Tok: @metamorfbranding