We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Keisha Tower a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Keisha, thanks for joining us today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry? Any stories or anecdotes that illustrate why this matters?

The majority of Corporate America does not care about their employees. I say the majority because there are absolutely some companies that invest in their employees and care about their health and well being. I also fully believe it’s not the corporation as a whole, but the management in which the employees work under that play a huge part in making employees lives really good, really okay, or really shitty.

Listen, with a very extensive accounting background, I get it, the bottom line for companies is all that really matters. If the company is making money, all is well. If the company is not making money, then something has to give.

Employees spend more time at work than they do at home and with their families. I understand work is work, but also, as a corporation or as management, don’t you want to make your employees time at work as manageable and happy as you can, so you get the best output from your employees? Happy employees will come to work happy, do their jobs, and do it well. When people feel like their efforts matter and their efforts are recognized, they will continue to put in the work and go above and beyond. This goes for a person on the production line, all the way up to executive level employees. People don’t need to be coddled, but they do need to feel seen and heard and like they have a voice, if they want to have a voice.

Employees that are visibly going through something, or if the boss walks by them every day without acknowledging them, or even worse, if they voice a concern personally or work related and they do not feel seen or heard, they will shut down. They will be on auto pilot. They will do their job, but they will not care. When your employees stop caring, it’s pretty much over. They are there for their paycheck and nothing else. And I understand that’s what a lot of people are there for. Just a paycheck. But whenever those same unresolved issues keep popping up, the employees will either ignore the issues or start searching for a new job.

Sure, there is a level of turnover that is to be expected and that cannot be avoided or controlled. BUT, why wouldn’t you want to make your employees experience in Corporate America as good and as manageable as you possibly can to retain employees, especially good employees?

Boomers will call my millennial generation soft. So whenever you have a boomer running a company or managing people, OF COURSE, they don’t care about their employees. They are there to work 7a-5p, everyday, until they retire, because that’s what they were taught. You know what my millennial generation wants? For the boomer generation to realize that we can the job done in 4 hours. We don’t need your 10 hour work day. We are fast, and efficient, and accurate, and go getters, and the majority of us don’t need to be coddled, but we would like you to acknowledge us.

This is where the problem lies, we are asking an emotionally inept generation to see and hear and acknowledge a millennial generation that is full of emotions and we are asking this boomer generation to get out of their own way and acknowledge that we get the job done better than what they ever could and faster than they ever could. We are asking a generation to have insight, which is humanly impossible unless they have done any type of emotional reworking or therapy. The pull between these two generations is so hard, and so real, and so apparent.

This is not a blanket statement for all people that are classified in the boomer generation. Of course, there are some that have insight and do the right things and run their companies well and take care of their employees. I am biased, because that’s not been my experience.

Mark my words, watch as this boomer generation exits the workforce, and watch as my generation turns the workforce completely around.

Keisha, 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?

I am a single mom of three smart, unique, beautiful girls, and I am also trying to pave my own way in this world as an entrepreneur. I’m trying to show myself, my children, as well as other people that we are allowed to go against the grain in the world and literally do whatever we want in life. I am trying to show my children that college isn’t always the answer, even as someone who has four college degrees. I am trying to show my children that working a 9-5 isn’t always the answer, even though I had a 9-5 for 23 years of my life. (I started working when I was 14 years old). I have been dabbling in entrepreneurship for many years now. I made a living for several years owning my own bookkeeping business. Then I had kids and I pivoted. I had a very successful career and worked my way up the corporate ladder and realized it was the complete opposite of what I wanted in life. I have been trying to leave my 9-5 for many years. And then I finally lost my job and it gave me the space to be able to go full force into entrepreneurship.

I currently own a CrossFit gym and a mobile coffee shop, and preparing for more business ventures.

With the gym, I am most proud of what I stand for and the culture within the gym. We offer a safe space for women, mom’s, kids, to walk into that gym, leave their worries at the door, and have the best hour of their day. I cater to women, pregnant women, postpartum women, mom’s, kids, teens, etc. so they aren’t scared of building muscle and becoming the best version of themselves, mentally, emotionally, and physically. We are not a competitive gym, but we do hit PR’s, and we do watch people do shit they never thought they could do, we watch lifelong friendships form, and we watch people turn into better versions of themselves.

With the coffee truck, I am most proud of the connections I’ve made. With the gym already established, I already had a long list of people who were willing to support me. That felt really good. And as new connections come along, I am always in awe that people want to support me.

With both, I have had to overcome a lot of physical labor that I was very unsure how to do. I am very capable of the physical labor, however, I am was very unsure how to fix a bubble in the gym floors, how to put boards back on the walls at the gym, how to hook up a trailer to my truck, how to drive a trailer for that matter. All of those things scared me more than the actual act of opening a business, and getting the funding, and putting a business plan together, and running social media accounts. I am good at all of those things. Those are in my wheel house. I had to ask for a lot of help, which is not something I’m good at. But, I’m also learning, that people want to help me. And when I let people help me, it makes them happy.

What I am most proud of is following my gut instinct, even when it doesn’t make sense. Something I really tend to live by is, “Listen to your gut, even if it doesn’t make any sense. You can sort out the details later.” And that in itself has never steered me in the wrong direction. Avoiding my gut, ignoring my gut has left me confused and heartbroken on many occasions. When I honor that gut instinct, I am in the best alignment with my higher self and higher calling. Everything is figure-out-able. Literally everything.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

The most recent pivot that I had to make as well as the biggest pivot I’ve had to make was in September of 2024 when I lost my very secure, corporate, 9-5 job. I could see it coming from a mile away while also being simultaneously blindsided. In hindsight, there were so many indicators that it was going to happen, but I was SURE because of the work I did and my tenure with the company, I would never lose my job. I knew the business in and out. I did mostly feel very secure there. And in the blink of an eye, I was on my way to drop the kids off to school one day, I got a call from my boss saying he needed to intercept me before I came into the building and I immediately knew what was going to happen.

I’ll never forget the first emotion that came up…relieved. I was so relieved to not have the job anymore. I would have kept it way longer than necessary because, you know, single mom, single income, all of those things…

Now, I was given the opportunity to do exactly what I wanted to do. Be a full time entrepreneur. I gave myself the first couple of weeks to digest the magnitude of the situation, and then I got to work. At the time, I had already had the gym for 3 1/2 years. The gym paid for itself, and I did not draw any money off of it. I was okay with that because my loans that I took out to acquire the gym were going to be paid off in about 18 months. Until then, I needed to figure out something to cash flow me some money.

I did not have any intention on buying a mobile coffee trailer, but the opportunity presented itself, the financials made sense, so I bought it. With some risk analysis on my end, and also dropping to my gut, it was one of the easier decisions that I’ve made. It felt very similar to the gym. Just a knowing that it was going to work out. A knowing that it was something I would enjoy doing and it would financially make sense.

So far, it’s been a fantastic decision. I would even venture to say that losing my corporate job was one of the best things to ever happen to me.

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

I wish I could tell you the funding was the hard part, but the funding for both businesses has, by far, been the easiest part of the process.

I needed a pretty large amount to open the gym, almost 6 figures. As much as I would like to tell you that I just had the money sitting around, I definitely did not. I was looking for funding in January 2021. Covid was still very much a thing, and the SBA was overwhelmed with loan applications to start a business. I was told by the SBA that I would potentially have to wait 6 months to a year. I didn’t have the kind of time. I am pretty sure I just did a quick google search and I found a company that basically got loans for you and then they got a small percentage of the loan they got for you. Was it ideal? Absolutely not. I did not want to give someone money to get me money. But I did. And I got all the money I needed within two weeks. And I do not regret it for a single second and I would do it all over again the same way. Getting my funding quickly allowed me to purchase all the equipment I needed fast, and get members in the door quickly to start paying off loans.

The process to get funding for my coffee trailer was even easier and I did it on my own through a private lender and got the money within a couple of business days. The amount I requested was much, much less, but alas, I still did not have the money lying around anywhere. I probably could have asked for five times the amount I originally needed and I feel certain they would have given it to me.

I think it’s very important to state that I have a great credit score with great payment history on all outstanding loans that are reported to my credit report so this was very important in me getting the money I asked for with zero pushback.

Contact Info:

• Website: crossfitgoldenwarrior.com fuelandflowcc.com
• Instagram: keishanicolet; crossfitgoldenwarrior; fuelandflowcc

Image Credits

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