We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Melkia Ames . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Melkia below.
Alright, Melkia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
In 2015, I had a burning desire to empower women to be the best version of themselves and to pursue their dreams and big goals. I knew why I wanted to do this. I just didn’t know how I was going to do this. Every day I would think about talking to a room full of women and giving them information, they could use to change their situation. I would meditate and pray daily on what my next step would be and how I would execute this.
Then, one day in mid-October, after arriving home from work, like any other day after my long commute home, I laid down for a quick power nap. You see, power naps were part of my normal routine that helped me rejuvenate my mind and body so I can continue doing what I needed to get done. But the power nap that day was different, because during my nap, I had a dream of me showing a woman how to create a vision board. And while I was walking her through the steps, I heard a voice say, “write the vision and make it plain on tablets, so the one who reads it will run after it.” I woke up saying that bible scripture and I knew that God was speaking to me on how to start empowering women. I jumped out of bed, grabbed my journal and wrote down the dream. I also wrote in my journal two words, “vision board.”
In that moment it clicked because since a young girl, I’ve used images to visualize what I wanted to achieve. I would either cut pictures out of magazines or draw pictures that represented my goals. Then, I would look at these images often to stay reminded of my goals and to help keep me on track. A vision board was a planning tool that was part of my toolbox for success that worked for me. I realized in that moment of self-reflection, that I could show women how to create and use a vision board. I just knew this would work because it was an underutilized tool. I also felt that a person would have a greater connection to their vision when they created a visual representation of it. So, my strategic approach to vision boarding truly allows women to participate in goal setting while establishing a foundation that guides them through visualization and forward action. I started my coaching and empowerment business in December 2015 and launched my first vision board class in January 2016.
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?
I am Melkia Ames “The Unleasher” and I go by The Unleasher, because I’m the queen of unleashing things. If you connect with me, your gifts, purpose and destiny will be unleashed! I’m a girl from Baltimore, Maryland who grew up in poverty and used images to change the course of my life. I went from being a teenage mother, to being a first generation college graduate. I crushed poverty and stopped living paycheck to paycheck.
I started Melkia Ames, LLC to provide coaching and consulting services that help women transform their mindset, get unstuck and create personalized strategies to achieve new levels of success in their lives, careers, and businesses. I am the creator of Vision Board Unleashed Mastery Class™, a master class that teaches you how to effectively create and use a vision board to achieve your dreams and goals. I also created Unleash The Real You Coaching Program™, where I help people identify and put into motion tailor made strategies to advance their life.
I am most proud of the goals that my clients accomplish when they trust me as their coach or complete my online program. My brand is not one size fit all; however, my brand is uniquely tailored to everyone’s goals and clients can work at their pace to succeed.
I have served in leadership positions for over 20 years where I have coached and mentored women of all ages to unleash their God given purpose, new careers, businesses, community initiatives and side hustles that’s created personal growth, personal satisfaction and financial freedom. In addition, I am a public servant and have enjoyed a rewarding career in in the areas of recruitment, human capital management, policy and planning, and diversity, equity and inclusion. I am a Cornell Certified Diversity Professional/Advanced Practitioner and is passionate about the work I do to ensure leaders leverage diversity, embrace equity, and create inclusive spaces for people to be their authentic selves and belong.
I am also a Christian minister, an honor I hold dear to my heart. I love God, I love the word of God and I strive daily to be a beacon of hope by spreading love and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. I do what I do because, I want young girls and women to know that they don’t have to allow their circumstances to dictate their outcome. If I would have allowed being poor, becoming pregnant at fifteen years old, losing a sister from a tragic death and facing mountains of challenges in life dictate my dreams, I would have given up a long time ago. And I’m so glad I didn’t because I am able to allow my gifts and talents to help others.
Yes, I wear many hats, including wife, mother, and grandmother; and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
One thing I love about what I do, is the opportunity to connect with women in-person. So, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020 and the virus isolated us from one another, it impacted my entire business model. Everything I did required me to be in-person to deliver my content. Whether it was conducting a coaching session, holding a discussion, or facilitating a vision board class, it required me to physically be in a room with people. Not knowing how long we would be in a pandemic, I realized that I needed to leverage technology more to offer my services.
Prior to the pandemic, I was using technology for basic things like emails, video messages and social media posts. But for me to stay relevant, I needed to figure out how to use technology to provide my services virtually. And that’s exactly what I did. I attended online marketing classes, watched YouTube videos, got an online marketing coach and taught myself how to create and use critical technology tools and systems needed for online presence. I spent long evenings and weekends figuring things out. The bottom line is, I did whatever it took to learn how to do business differently and then applied what I learned.
There were times during this process when I was very proud of myself, like when I set up the email automation and it worked. But, there were also days when I was frustrated because the pieces weren’t coming together, like when I was trying to figure out video editing. I was determined not to give up no matter how difficult it was, no matter how frustrated I became, including the times I had to start over from scratch. And months later, I had systems and software in place that not only allowed me to do my coaching program and vision board class virtually, but also market my products and services online.
I’ve learned that adversity can help you reinvent who you are and really show you that there’s more untapped potential inside of you, when you are open to embrace change.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
The first thing I will say is that my team doesn’t work for me, they work with me; and I’m only as good as my team. I create a space where my team can be their whole authentic selves, so they can truly provide creative and innovative solutions to the problems we’re trying to solve. I have a thriving team because I leverage my team’s diversity of thoughts, perspectives, experiences, and skill sets to identify the best way to accomplish tasks. I learned a long time ago, that the collective thoughts of the team out ways the thought of the smartest person in the room. Now, I’m not saying that I’m the smartest person in the room, because trust me, I am not! What I am saying is as a leader, if you operate like you are the smartest person in the room and your team’s thoughts don’t matter, then you are going to slow down performance.
Keep in mind that your team wants to succeed just as much as you do, so be open to listen to their ideas and implement them. And when you decide not to go with their idea, just talk to them and explain why. Being transparent and having open communications will help build trust with your team. Lastly, celebrate your people and take care of them. Love on them, recognize them, appreciate their contributions and efforts. One thing I know for sure is that when you take care of your people, they will deliver the results and they will take care of you.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melkiaames/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melkia.ames
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kia-ames-27b64713/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/melkiaames
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUkx5Fy_FF8cukM193oDhsA
- Other: https://melkia-ames.mykajabi.com/visionboard
Image Credits
Ivy Baker (Bravo21)