We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kiyaa Hider. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kiyaa below.
Alright, Kiyaa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One of the toughest things about entrepreneurship is that there is almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?
One of the most unexpected problems I found in my business was having to bounce back from a challenging life situation that was out of my control. Having gone through busting my butt for so long in my business and then to have all of that effort and sweat equity feel like it was frozen. Man, that was a lot.
It started with the birth of my 4th child, Zoie in November 2018. Having built my business from scratch while raising my other 3 kiddos with my husband, I felt I had mompreneur-life mastered. I even had difficult, high-risk pregnancies with each child and still was able to continue my client business consulting and development work over the years. I planned to take a few weeks off after Zoie was born and then would slowly transition to resuming new client work and finishing off existing client deliverables.
Well, everything changed when Zoie was born with a hole in her lung, to start which landed her on the first trip to the NICU. That was unexpected, but I was familiar with NICU situations since 2 of my other children also had to spend time in the NICU. (The stress of having any child in a NICU is nothing to take lightly, it is heart-wrenching at times.) After 7 long days in the NICU, we were able to bring Zoie home to the rest of the family. For a few weeks, I thought we were getting back to our groove and I could enjoy maternity leave and my family. I actually started transitioning back into work mode with client check-ins and light engagement.
Then at 2 months old Zoie had difficulty breathing and we were rushed to the NICU at Children’s Hospital in an ambulance. That began a year-long journey of continued hospital stays (the longest one was living at the hospital for 5 weeks with Zoie). Everything was completely unexpected. No one could figure out what was happening with her and why she was limp and had difficulty breathing all the time. All of 2019 was appointments, leading to emergency room visits and immediate hospital stays.
My business was not growing, (but I was able to maintain my loyal client base). I remember one of my low points living at the hospital with my youngest, I was in the hallway crying. I felt trapped and guilty for crying about my business. About all the work I had put into it and I absolutely did not see any of this coming. I couldn’t share with anyone close to me that not only was I upset about my family and our situation, but I was also heartbroken over my other baby (my business.)
Before all of this happened I was just about to bring on additional support, but waited. (gasp). Hindsight…. Midway through 2019 we started to gain more answers about Zoie and found out that she had a rare genetic disorder that she would have for the rest of her life. It was very new, so they do not have much information to go on. Having so many emergency moments taught me to shift all of my internal operations to the cloud and to continue open communications with my clients.
Now, I have created a virtual ‘bench’ of support partners I can rely on to maintain continuity of operations. I always travel to my daughter’s appointments with a change of clothes, toothbrush, power cords, tablet, phone, and notepad & pen. I stay ready.
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.
Growing up, I was always a creative, expressive individual. I loved color, art, music, dance, and figuring out how to solve problems in unique ways. I graduated with a B.S. in Psychology. After undergrad, I entered the corporate world (federal contracting). I shifted from financial (business operations) into the business development and strategy world. I started to take a serious interest in how businesses worked to create new opportunities and strategies for innovation.
I went back to school for my M.B.A. and fell into the rabbit hole of strategic thinking even more. I started to see business strategy and development as artistic tools that could be shaped and molded. I was heavily involved in small business development in my day job, while in 2008 I started my first business on the side providing graphic design and some local marketing. I continued my education by starting my doctoral journey in pursuit of a DBA in Strategy & Innovation. With 2 years under my belt, I was diving into partnering and alliances. I paused that part of my journey to take care of life challenges.
Equipped with fresh research and inspiration, I continued my work in corporate business development and in 2014 decided to leave corporate and go into full-time entrepreneurship. I was able to provide full business development strategic support, proposal writing, product creation, and marketing support to my clients. It was that year I transitioned from a la carte services to a single-unique revenue design solution which I have refined over the years.
I design, build, and grow individual economies for micro & small business owners through a single ‘proprietary’ solution with a multitude of revenue streams. I create everything from design, branding, pricing, implementation, website, launching the prototype), and growing your solution with strategic opportunity planning & proposal creation. I eliminate imposter syndrome and tap fully into my client’s imagination by creating and building a solution only they can deliver. My process increases their business value and the value they provide to their customers.
One of my core values is “there is no NO.” Everything and anything can be created. You just have to have the guts, grit, and follow-through to make it happen. I’m here to help. I am most proud of being able to deliver the vision each client desired to create, pushing them even further past their imagination. I have worked with numerous industries, product business owners, coaches, musicians, lawyers, law enforcement, beauty industry professionals, and the list goes on. I’ve created full solutions and gotten them funding for those new solutions.
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
As I mentioned before, I started my business doing a la carte marketing & design services out of wanting to create unique designs for businesses. I created a local presence by providing unique marketing and also tapping into giving new ideas for revenue. Once I had my third child I felt it was time to leave corporate and go forward full-time.
The first milestone was sitting with myself and my family to talk it through and really understand what that would look like financially, emotionally, and mentally. Then I really dove into what I wanted to do and how I wanted to deliver. I transitioned into creating a single solution that cost way more than I charged a la carte. Went to value-based pricing versus the time & material pricing model. By doing this approach it gave me the freedom to customize and tweak my revenue-design solution as I delivered to different clients.
Another milestone I had to conquer was online marketing and engagement which moved my business global and out of local. However, I had to figure out my voice and how I wanted to show up. I followed all the trends and went through feeling inferior looking at all of the other businesses who had large followings and ‘seemed’ they were blowing up. When I decided to forget about numbers and follows and just enjoyed engaging and connecting with people genuinely. That’s when I started to have meaningful connections that translated to clients and great collaborations. I still don’t have large numbers, but I am pleased with my engagement and results.
The internal systems & operation model is also another super important milestone that has been integral in the progress of my business. One of the main decisions I am grateful I did start off was creating my internal processes that were manual at first. I feel you have to establish your processes (onboarding, delivery, offboarding, development, etc.) before investing in systems to streamline. I’ve tried several systems over the years and have finally found a suite of systems that I love and my clients enjoy.
The biggest takeaway is, Do YOU! Create a business you love.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
One of the lessons I had to unlearn and still occasionally remind myself, is everyone is your customer. In the beginning, I was trying to serve everyone. Providing everything to EVERYONE. An example of this is when I had a particular client who I initially worked with (they were a referral). I felt I could help them with everything they had in their vision. Which I could and did (down to ghostwriting and publishing their book), however, the experience was challenging. I was overstretched, they kept adding more to the scope (which I allowed). They did not understand what was done for them, and I was people-pleasing.
Unfortunately, trying to please everyone by saying yes to everything, almost cost me one of my most valued customers and peace of mind. I completed that project, and repaired my relationship with my other customers. Now I stay with my solution and within the parameters, I have established. I have different levels of offers for where people are. Narrowing down and streamlining what I offer, even more, gives me peace of mind and my clients get what they need.
Win-Win!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thincdesignstudio.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thincdesignstudio/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiyaa-l-hider-93aa4a32/
- Other: www.kiyaahider.com
Image Credits
Kiyaa Hider