We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kei Ross a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Kei thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.
Back in April 2020 I launched my Professional Cleaning Service called Keitiqued Care. After being in business for over 2 years I have encountered so much along the way. From starting off doing pretty much anything because the hustler in me wanted to get a name out there for myself. Til now, I’m cleaning janitorial commercial buildings full time. I clean things like colleges, clinics, and churches to name a few. Not only has business grown by the clients I have. But I also launched a mobile application where I provide daily motivations too many people all over. I have a Podcast, Vlog, and I send out monthly inspirations every month. But today I’m not here to discuss that because you’ve heard that before. Today I’d like to talk about the new services I now offer under a branch of my business and give the back story on how it all came about.
Take a walk with me back to a year ago…
I was on a call with one of my favorite friends, my sister Loniesha and she was talking to me about helping her get back to working out and asked if I could call and wake her up in the mornings and remind her to go to the gym. I told her I would and I did that for a while. I would even send her workouts to do when she went to the gym. As time went on she told me you know you’re going to be doing this for other people one day. My response was no ma’am lol.
Months and months went past and every time we talked she would always joke about this. Along with this every time I went to the gym to workout I was stopped by people asking me was I a trainer and my answer was no. Somewhere in all of this I’d workout with my friend Rahjai and make up workouts for us to do and when she couldn’t make it to workout with me I’d send them to her.
I’d continue to go any and everywhere and be asked about training. This one particular time I went to workout with my friend Rahjai and I saw one of my elementary class mates. Yes elementary…. He asked me of course you know “ was I a trainer “ … my reply this time was different than all the others and I said yes then immediately caught myself and said no I’m not I just like to workout and I train my friends. His reply was well you look good you should look into doing that! In my head I’m like here we go again….
It was this day I was literally sitting in my quiet time later that day and praying and journaling and just prayed and told God whatever he had for me to do I’d do it. No excuses no more stalling I’d get it done. Not even a day later, I’m at the gym with my friends Ree and Rahjai and as we all are talking Ree says “ and why aren’t you training “… I could have screamed! Me and Rahjai immediately looked at each other and I said you know what I am. I’m a do it Lord. Saying that out of my mouth and still holding on to so many doubts in my head. The next week I was scheduled to have a meeting with my life coach Mel. It was this meeting that really just put the icing on the cake for me.
I had an idea of how our zoom call would go but how things played out my thoughts did not compare! My life coach Mel had no idea about any fitness things I’d been struggling to wrap my head around doing and what all had been going on. When I say she read me from beginning to end. At the end of the call she gave me a timeframe and said I’ll be checking back in with you and by this time you should be up and running. If my eyes could have popped out my head the would have…
And here we are today. I’m working doing professional cleaning Keitiqued Care and as a fitness coach with Kei Fitness!
My fitness journey goes much deeper than the outer appearance others see. While I definitely want to look good, it’s deeper than just looks for me. It’s about being emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and even financially fit. Things that I’ve struggles with many times. Throughout my journey of entrepreneurship I’ve experienced many tough situations. What I learned is that I have to take care of me. Listen to my body, stay true to my purpose and most importantly follow God! It’s important to feed my mind, body, and spirit things that helps it grow and not hinder it. What I’ve learned is your output into this world is a direct reflection of your input
Being successful at anything in life causes you to understand that your plan may fail. As a entrepreneur you learn as my good friend told me that you have lessons not losses.
You have to be prepared for what you’re praying for, so that means doing the research, in some cases working longer hours, making connections and knowing how to communicate effectively.
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
My name is Kei . Formally known to some as Keidra. This season and moving forward I’ve dropped the “ dra “ from my name. Last season was rough for me! While it came with many ups it also had downs too. I went through a season of growth and plucking and pruning in my personal life. On my journey I’ve allowed myself to be manipulated and accept things in my life and allow myself to be apart of things that just aren’t me or for me. All because of my own outlook of myself at that time trying to fill a void in that moment. But, as I continued to grow and allowed God to fill those voids and heal the places and areas of my life I was able to detach from those things…
Okay enough of that.. Growing up I always new I wanted to be a entrepreneur. At the time I loved and I mean loved doing hair. I was around 10 or so and I would redo my hair after my mom would do it for me. Once I was 16 I got my first job at my Aunt Lucy’s salon. She was my moms longtime beautician and she trained me to be her shampoo girl. Once I was 18 went to Cosmetology School. Graduated passed my test and begin working in salons across the KC area. I worked in this field for the next 15 years. As time went on I lost me oldest brother due to him going into a diabetic coma and I transitioned into the medical field. His passing along with other family history of medical issues had my heart set on wanting to know and serve others in a deeper way. During my internship to exit out of medical school I was offered a position with some of the top orthopedic doctors. I accepted the position and worked there for the next 5 years. At the same time I picked up part one job and would do private duty with some patients at their homes. While I loved my job and had heart and passion to help and serve my patients and getting to know the ends and outs of all things health. My father fell very sick and I had to step away from working so much and become his full time care taker. Along the way he had to had a below the knee amputation and I took on a lot in his care and it really broke me down. Especially when you are fighting so hard for someone to live and they could care less if they live themselves. As my father became somewhat better he went back to his joke and took over caring for himself again. Around this time the pandemic was in the beginning and I was going through a lot at my job when I was there. Being harassed and mistreated, over worked and under paid. So I began to pray and journal and just ask God for direction and to release me from my job and that atmosphere. I’m the midst of this I applies to be transferred to another facility within the company at a urgent care clinic. While this went on for about 6 months or so I’d encounter a patient who wanted to kill himself. He came in with cuts all over his wrist and the sight of this really took my breath away. While in the room with him and his parents God placed it on my heart to pray for him. While I knew this was something I could potentially get in trouble for I didn’t care I asked if I could pray with them and the mother answered yes we’d love that. After this incident another one would occur a few weeks later. I was working and the Dr. I was working with kept being rude to me. This wasn’t anything new but this particular day I had had it, I asked her why she was so mean to me and she replied she was jealous of me. I was shocked of the reply and asked why? She said you’re so strong, no matter what your facing you always seem to be strong and smiling and happy. I explained to her that I’m only strong because of God and the same strength in me she sees she has access to that too through God. Because without him I’m definitely weak and wouldn’t be who I was. She apologized to me and we hugged it out and not long after this my boss in that office would be harassing me. I simply pulled lil momma to the side one day and said you know one day I’m a walk in here and you gone fire me and I will walk out smiling. So by this time I had had it! Like God you really don’t see me down here going through can I be done with this job already lol. But he reminded me that that job wasn’t just a job it was also my assignment so I wouldn’t be release until the assignment was complete. About a month or so later I went into work and had clocked in. As I say at my desk getting things prepared for the day my boss called me to the break room. In my mind I was chanting today was the day. And I was right! Y’all k tuned her out all I remember is she tries to fire me for one thing and her boss sitting next to her said well you can’t fire her for that so she switched it up and fires me for something completely different. Which still made no sense but I didn’t care. My day had finally come….
So now I’m unemployed with income and I’m like okay what’s next Lord…throughout all of this I was on the maintenance crew at my church and I would clean before service and after and through the week . So weeks went on and I one day in prayer and God spoke to me to start my cleaning service. I’m like okayyyy and what am I going to call it. I began journaling and I heard the words critiqued and Keidra. I’m like okay God elaborate. What he said to me was. Critiqued because that’s what you do you when you clean you critique things. And it you who are doing it so take Kei and add that in front. I was mind blown. Then my mission statement or motto as some say is “ Cleansing your enviroment and lightening the burdens of your soul..”. From the day I launched up until now I’ve been living this out. God has places so many amazing people along my path. Cleaning is much deeper than just cleaning for me. As I’m cleaning God places different things on my heart and they aren’t just for me.
Along with cleaning, I’ve always loved to journal and be organized. I notice how much more affective one can be by having a clean and declutter enviroment and mind and I take that same thing and apply it wherever I go. And with whomever I come in contact with.
As a entrepreneur you have to be disciplined and goal oriented and really self motivated to get things done. You have to understand that every day won’t be a good day. And starting out you won’t have all that you need and you won’t have all the answers but what important is that you start. When God places something on your heart to do it important not to get caught up in the details because as you walk out your purpose it will all come together and begin to make sense.
Keitiqued Care offers commercial cleaning services. And Luxury Home Cleaning services. With the cleaning services I offer: Move In and Out Cleanings, Routine Cleanings, Organization and Declutter Services, Carpet Cleaning, Upholstery Cleaning, Second Pass Disinfectant Care. I also have my own all natural hand sanitizer. It’s soft on your hand and keeps them moisturized and doesn’t dry them out.
Kei Fitness offers fitness training to help you become physically, emotionally, and spiritually fit. While we all love to look good on the outside many times we fail to do the core work inside to truly get the results we are desiring to see. With my program it aims to help you better yourself and your enviroment around you. To live a better life and be fit in all areas to push you to your next phase of life throughout your constant journey.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Building a reputation in your market as a new entrepreneur can be scary to say the least. When I started my Cleaning Company I literally launched on Facebook and just began. I believe what has been vital and a major part of my success throughout the whole process is being authentic and understanding my purpose in this and what I Kei bring to the table and what I have to offer my clients. Understanding that I am not in competition with anyone because I am in my own lane.
What has helped me build a strong reputation is marketing heavily on social media. I literally ran adds every day of the week to get my name out there. Also, wearing my company T shirt and word of mouth.
I gained majority of my clients through my adds I ran on Facebook and they would tell others about the experience they had with me and how pleased they were with the services I provided.
That’s another thing right there. When people come in contact with you what are they experiencing? As a business owner that something you have to keep at the forefront of your mind and be conscious and intentional about everything you do.
Ian’s please understand I’m not saying you will always beg it right. Just learn from the mistakes when you don’t and adjust accordingly….
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson I’ve had to learn on my journey is sticking with what works for me. Understanding that money is good to make but money for me isn’t everything. What I’ve learned over the years on my journey is that the experiences and time I spend with my loves ones and those placed in my life is just as valuable. On my journey starting out I had the perfect equation and it balanced out just right. But as time went on and I began to grow I came to realize that it’s okay to say no and not every single job out there is for me. Working all day and night isn’t for me. Not being able to be present in my home with my partner and my kids and my other family isn’t for me. As a entrepreneur having the balance between work life and personal life is big for me. I know that working is not all I’m placed on this earth to do. The places I go and the people I am able to interact with and the experiences and memories I am able to create are much more tangible for me. Now don’t get me wrong money is good! But there has to be priorities in place as you structure your business and as you grown you have to stick to that structure.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/keitiqued-care/id1606000735
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keitiquedcare
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keitiquedbykeidra/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCDWIYzimDOdpSKYg_osSe-g
Image Credits
Thank you to my dear friend Rahjai for capturing the shots of me for this article.