We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Iniki Franklin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Iniki below.

Iniki, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

From 2018-2019, I volunteered in creative spaces often and one of the things that I noticed was that a lot of visionaries or creative thinkers struggled with mapping out their goals. So many wanted to go from point A to point Z without looking at the details in between, or simply didn’t know where to start. In identifying this gap, I was able to identify an administrative need and that is how I got my target demographic. On January 1,2020 the name for my business came to my mind so clearly. I was riding in the car heading down to Statesboro and I clearly heard “WildflowerKulture LLC.” and I instantly felt peace. Around March 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic was in full force and I began to dream more. It was during the middle of the pandemic that I gained the most vision for my business. I researched SBA.gov and IRS.gov to learn more. I got a business coach to learn what to do and how to start. I registered my name, got a logo made and trademarked it with the state of Georgia. I opened a business bank account, made a website, and other marketing materials. I had a couple of tester clients that I worked with to see if my methodology worked. I embraced the journey to business ownership, but there was just one thing that still existed– my 9-5pm job. Leaving my job to pursue full time entrepreneurship was such a huge leap and risk for me. I had such a clear professional path and idea in mind that the thought of leaving my job was daunting even with the passion I felt for starting a business. I wrestled with leaving for a while, and in April of 2021 informed my old job that I was resigning. By July 2021 I entered into full time entrepreneurship and have been running my business full time ever since.

Iniki, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hi, I am Iniki Franklin and I am the Founder and Creator of WildflowerKulture LLC. For as long as I can remember, I have always been categorized as a “helper”. Whether I was assisting my grandmother with basic house chores or listening to a friend pour their heart out– helping and caring about how others felt made me come alive. So I guess you could say my story of being a professional helper began long before I realized just how impactful it would be.

I am an Atlanta native, born in Southwest Atlanta. I matriculated through the Atlanta Public Schools system and went on to college at the University of West Georgia where I majored in Psychology. To backtrack a bit, I thought I was going to be a clinical psychologist. I chose to major in Psychology because, I then believed, that it would be a good way to help individuals dig into their issues and come up with realistic solutions. I had such a clear-cut path in my mind that derailed right around my sophomore year of college. All of my friends decided to add minors to their degree, and after speaking with my advisor, she actually recommended that I do the same. Since I’ve always been a person that was interested in how people think, act and feel collectively, I decided to minor in Sociology. I took so many different classes that were all interesting but still not what I ultimately wanted to do. It was not until my junior year of college that I started to take minor classes focused on Social Work. It was like my eyes were opened to a whole new world the moment I took my “Introduction to Social Work” course. From that moment forward, I switched gears and began to seriously consider a career as a social worker.

After much prayer and contemplation, I decided that my educational journey would not end after four years, and I went on to get a Master’s degree in Social Work at Clark Atlanta University. I can honestly say it was one of the best educational/professional decisions that I made. My journey as a social worker landed me some pretty great internship and volunteership opportunities. I could list those, but the most prominent internship opportunity that served as a catalyst for being a social entrepreneur, a project administrator and planner, a business owner– was serving with Ladies of Favor Inc. This internship taught me the ins and outs of social work through a social entrepreneurship lens. It showed me how to stretch my degree from a macro perspective to make a broader reach. It was from that internship that I realized my organizational and administrative skills were not merely common, but a gift. How my brain worked in structuring individuals’ goals was not something that just came to others, even though I didn’t initially see the strength in it. I just thought it was how I was.

The idea of owning my own business was not new, it just looked different than initially envisioned. I began planning aspects of my business around 2014 and I still have journals and digital documents with bits and pieces of the vision written on them. It was always in the back of my mind, but in 2020 I began to realize that it was actually time to implement my vision. On January 1, 2020, the official name for my business dropped in my mind so heavily: WildflowerKulture LLC. It was time to activate my ideas. It was time to actually take a leap of faith. I went through all of the steps of organizing my business with the state of Georgia. I held my process pretty close to my heart; I did not discuss it with a lot of people. I worked with tester clients within the year of 2020 to see what I should offer and where my strengths lied. My essential planning questions were ‘What would be most effective? How can I help others? How can I encourage and uplift them? What services should I offer to the visionary that needs help getting their goals on a page to take action? As these questions swirled through my mind, I began to write things out as they came to me until I had a solid business plan, a solid website and a solid strategic plan. There were a lot of revisions, doubts, fear, but also a lot of creativity, faith, and hope in what I was building. In July 2021, I launched into full-time entrepreneurship. I can honestly say that my journey, my story, is ongoing. My mission is to help creative visionaries organize and structure their goals through project administration and planning services as well as virtual assistant support. I want to cheer them on as they cultivate, bloom and thrive in their prospective lanes.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

I keep in touch with my clients through 1:1 relationship. Since my business is growing, I’ve been able to maintain direct contact with my clients. Because of my relationship with them and past work experience in helping them achieve their goals there is mutual trust. I provide excellence in all that I do and I go the extra mile to ensure that my clients have what they need to the best of my ability. Excellent work + relationship yields trust. Clients that trust their vendors remain loyal to their brand.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

My clientele is still growing, but the most effective strategy has been relationship building and social media. People want to know that you are real, authentic and care. They also want to see you doing the work in the social realm. They want to know that who they are investing in is worth it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wildflowerkulture.com
• Instagram: wildflowerkulturellc
• Facebook: WildflowerKulture
• Linkedin: WildflowerKulture