We recently connected with Kadina Grant and have shared our conversation below.

Kadina , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.

I know we all rolled our eyes at our parents for being strict and having certain rules and expectations of us but as a young lady I now can look back and thank them for their teachings. My parents made sure I always kept my grades up and have my chores done before I even thought about asking for something like hanging out with friends, which translated to me being able to build disciplined and learning how to prioritize certain tasks that may be important and needs to get done by a certain time before chilling and/or going out. In my opinion it can be difficult to grow your self disciplined as an adult especially if it wasn’t shown in your environment in your upbringing, hey I still struggle with building up self disciplined now but that’s why I’ll always be grateful that I learned the foundation and I am able to takeaway the idea of discipline from my child/teen years and apply it to my adulthood

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?

So I created an online sunglasses boutique called Envymeshades, we sell 3 different styles of shades and they all included a lip gloss + velvet microfiber cloth ! I decided to open up my sunglass boutique because I am in love with eyewear , knew eventually I would love to create my own designs & create a community that uplifts one another, the goal is every time you accessorize with us you feel like that girl !
launched last year in May and it was great, I was so happy to finally have push myself to see it through and to get started . I didn’t sell out immediately on my first day but that didn’t discourage me since we all have to start somewhere . Now for the upcoming year I’m putting my focus on how to rebrand envymeshades to be more one of one, to truly push out authentic designs by me and also learning new marketing skills to expand & bring more attraction to my brand so stay tuned for ‘23-‘24 you don’t want to miss !

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

So when I was looking to launch my business I also was getting more into audiobooks and podcasts because I was already working on changing my mindset but I wanted to surround myself with success stories and not just only success but also the trials and tribulations it comes with going down the entrepreneurial path . The first audiobook I actually enjoyed and learned from was Rich dad, poor dad . I finished the audio book in 3 days and it was a wonderful takeaway on showing the perspective of two people and how different their thoughts were surrounding money which then made me take a look at my perspective and that opened up about me learning about the way I think about money, how do I affirm it in my life, is it in a negative or positive way ? and what does my relationship with money looks like

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

I understand the appeal of using Amazon or Etsy because of the reach that is readily available but that comes with fees and competition of other sellers on the same exact site as you . I use Shopify till this day, to me it’s great because you have all the control on how you want your website to look like, your domain name, if you want any email/marketing list, you can add pop ups of deals you’re having, everything you can think of you get to make it custom to your liking . Who knows your customers/clients best and what they would find aesthetically pleasing other than you ?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.envymeshades.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/invites/contact/?i=zbubpuuvalif&utm_content=3z4l6ez
• Other: https://kadinag.my.canva.site https://www.tiktok.com/@kadinag_?_t=8YyVx1mNFpi&_r=1