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

Krystal, appreciate you joining us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

At the time of this publication, I have 4 businesses and my ability to operate on this level definitely did not happen overnight. Starting a business is one thing. Growing and scaling a business takes a different level of skills, determination, grit, and resilience. When I started my longest running business, Divas & Dolls Fitness, LLC, a pole and sensual dance studio back in 2014, I was still working my 9-5 job. I worked at my 9-5 during the day and I ran my studio in the evenings and on the weekends. It was not an easy task, the hours were grueling, I was there 7 days per week and I was exhausted. During the first few years, I wasn’t making nearly as much money as I wanted to make, not to mention my family was less than supportive. Despite all of this, I didn’t give up.

I just knew that there had to be someone out there making this thing work and if I could just find them, I could perhaps learn what I needed to be successful. One of the biggest mistakes I made in the beginning was thinking that I could do everything alone. Entrepreneurship in itself can be lonely but trying to build your business alone without any support or guidance is torture. In 2016, I joined my first mentorship group and shortly after hired my first business coach and that literally changed my life. This mentorship group had a biannual conference and I made it a point to show-up in person. The leadership, camaraderie and support was invaluable. I learned one of the most important lessons and keys to success in entrepreneurship during that time, which was the importance of being surrounded by like-minded people as well as coaching and mentorship.

In order to scale, I invested back in my business through the money I made at my full-time job. Any additional money, savings, etc. went to my business. I grew my business month-over-month, year-over-year, through as series of “scary” investments (at the time) in retail space improvements, training, travel, software, marketing, etc. I did whatever it took for my business to get to the next level. It was during this time I realized how much mindset played a role in having a successful business. It was then that I learned from my second biggest mistake of keeping negative people in your life and thinking it won’t affect your business.

I had big goals for my business and I wanted to be a full-time entrepreneur. I wanted the ability to have time-freedom, financial freedom and just the ability to live a life of my own design. Unfortunately, my mother and my ex-husband had different plans for my life. The entire time I was trying to build my business, they were telling me I couldn’t do it, I shouldn’t do it, I’m wasting my time, my business will never amount to anything, it’s just an expensive hobby, I’m a terrible person, I’m a terrible wife, the list just went on and on of daily unsolicited feedback and insults. Both my mother and ex-husband are narcissists and trying to do anything, let alone scale a business, was an enormous task and took a huge mindset shift. I can’t stress enough the importance of being around people that lift you up versus tearing you down.

I had come so far that I wasn’t about to give up now and I’m so glad I continued to pursue my dreams. I turned my business that was barely making it into a multi-six figure business and it is still continuing to grow. I’ve transitioned to full-time entrepreneurship and I’ve started 3 more businesses. One of which is my business coaching and brand strategy firm-Simply SHE, where I teach coaches, consultants and online service providers how to monetize their expertise, create multiple income streams so that they can build profitable and sustainable businesses.

My experience and everything I went through allowed me to create a framework, The Brand BuildHER BlueprintTM that I now teach other entrepreneurs to help them grow and scale their business. My entrepreneurship journey and scaling my businesses was anything but glamorous but I wouldn’t change a thing. It’s not about the experiences that we go through in life, it’s about the lessons we learn and what we do with them that ultimately matters.

Krystal, 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 serial womenpreneur, author, speaker, business coach and brand strategist. I own Divas & Dolls Fitness, a pole and sensual dance studio; Cirque Sensual, a sensual aerial dance brand; Simply SHE, a coaching and consulting firm and Krystal Vernee’ is my personal brand. An engineer by trade, I knew that entrepreneurship was the ultimate goal early in my professional career. I have always been passionate about empowering women, creating a safe space for them to unapologetically be themselves and providing the support they need to transform their passion into profits. I encourage others to tap into her zone of genius through my signature coaching program, courses, podcast and tv show: The Brand BuildHER BlueprintTM. I teach coaches and consultants how to monetize their expertise and create multiple streams of income so that they can build a profitable and sustainable business.

The Brand BuildHER Blueprint Coaching Program is for coaches, consultants, and online service providers that are serious about scaling to a million dollar business and building a powerhouse brand. The program teaches entrepreneurs how to build a thriving business from the ground-up and offers topics such as:
1. Million dollar branding
2. Social media marketing (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Clubhouse and more.)
3. Traditional and SEO marketing
4. Lead generation
5. How to monetize social media
6. How to build a brand community
7. Sales systems
8. Automation and more.

This program is the ambitious and high-achieving entrepreneurs guide to creating multiple income streams and building a profitable and sustainable business.

In addition, as a consulting firm, Simply SHE helps companies analyze, streamline, and transform the way they do business. Whether it’s through changing the relationship between your employees, resources and technology or turning your workflows into repeatable systems, we want to see your business succeed.

We believe operational excellence is one of the key ingredients to building a powerhouse brand. We help you incorporate systems, technology, automation, people, processes, and metrics into your business so that you can become an industry leader.

Different stages in business require different strategies. No matter what stage of business you’re in today, you will find that Simply SHE’s approach to streamlining your operations and increasing revenue will be beneficial.

See the list of our current Business Operations Consulting Services below:
• Business Strategy (Revenue generation)
• Sales and Marketing (Social media, Traditional and Non-traditional Strategies)
• Business Development (Government Contracts, Grants)
• Project and Program Management
• IT Project Management (Agile, Scrum and Kanban)
• Project Management Office Implementation
• Process and Workflow Documentation
• Workflow and Automation Implementation
• Team-building
• Data, Metrics and Reporting Development
• Systems and Software Implementation

I am most proud of my clients and the way that they have taken control of their businesses to be full-time entrepreneurs. I am also proud of my resilience as an entrepreneur and as a woman. My brand, Simply SHE (Simply Slay Hard Everyday), represents excellence and women empowerment in entrepreneurship. When clients work with me, they go from being their industry’s best kept secret, to the “go-to” expert. I want to see women win! The Simply SHE Team and I are dedicated to making that happen for our clients.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One lesson that I had to unlearn in my business was the thought that I had to always be available for clients. I had a very fast-paced 9-5 work environment that unfortunately spilled over in my business that resulted in me answering emails well into the early morning hours, taking phone calls anytime, and just never taking a break. This resulting in me experiencing burnout and not being able to function effectively during business hours.

In order to grow a successful business in a healthy way, you have to establish boundaries in your business. Even if your business is online, operating hours and customer service hours needs to be established and communicated so that proper expectations are set for when clients will receive responses. (Note: Just because your business is online doesn’t mean it should be 24/7.)

How did you build your audience on social media?

I built my audience on social media by posting, showing up consistently and asking for feedback regularly. Social media wants us to be social, so I also intentionally engaged with industry authorities in my niche, potential clients and collaborators on a regular basis. This doesn’t mean cold DM people, but it does mean engage with content you find helpful, meaningful and interesting. If the goal is for you to be an industry authority, you have to act like one. The key to having your presence felt, is to be present. I also studied the platforms where I really wanted to grow my presence so that I could have an understanding of what worked and what didn’t.

For entrepreneurs just starting on social media, posting consistently will be key so that your audience can get used to seeing your content. Be intentional about cultivating and building your following. Don’t just have anyone and everyone follow you. The goal is to build a following that is majority made of interested and engaged clients and potential clients Don’t get caught up in the vanity metrics of number of followers but focus on delivering quality content that your audience will engage with and leads them to take action in your business.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.isimplyshe.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/i_simply_she
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/isimplyshe
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/krystalvernee
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/krystalvernee