We were lucky to catch up with Nikki Brooks-seevers recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Nikki, thanks for joining us today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you as a business owner?

Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, I used to work at the Department of Veterans Affairs as an IT Project Manager. I was on a team of ROCK STARS. I had two leaders, my supervisor Dr. Vance and my Team Lead, Jeff. The most significant lesson I learned from both of them is ACCOUNTABILITY. There were two instances that forever stand out in my mind:

1. Jeff was known for being stellar at everything he does. He’s a great strategic thinker, self-aware and an empathetic leader-respected among his peers. In our weekly team meetings, I remember how Jeff would always OWN IT when he dropped the ball on something. Until this point, I had only seen leaders that projected perfection and face saving. I found that him owning mistakes made me trust him more and cemented my respect in him as a leader. I knew that was the type of leader I wanted to be.
2. A similar story is when we were launching a new system that we planned out meticulously for over a year. Long story short, launch day comes and the system fails in a few different areas. We forgot obvious details like the forgot password button, the servers couldn’t handle the user load in real time and so on. My supervisor, Dr. Vance showed me that a leader falls on the sword. He had each of us articulate what happened and resolutions. It of course wasn’t his direct job to do those things, it was ours. However, when it was time to answer to the higher level executives, he took ownership and we watched him get eviscerated over speakerphone. The lesson for me was: A LEADER PROTECTS THEIR TEAM and does not blame shift.

So as things go wrong in entrepreneurship, I never blame my team. I hold them accountable behind closed doors, but I will also assume responsibility for anything that goes wrong under my watch.

Nikki, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

The Foundation:
As a little girl, I spent a lot of time playing in my grandmothers’ vanities. I played with their perfumes and powders and added flowers and milk to my bubble baths and so on! My grandmothers both encouraged that interest. However, by the time I grew up, I had settled into being an IT Project Manager. I still had a piece of that creativity that needed to get out. It manifested in gifting perfumes and toiletries to loved ones. When I’d visit friends, I always ran to their toiletries to see what they were wearing. Learning about their scent profiles and beauty rituals has always been a form of intimacy for me.

THE WHY:
In 2014, I applied to Robert Morris University’s doctoral program. At the time, my good government job offered tuition assistance. But by the time the program started, we lost it. So, I had to figure out a way to pay for my degree because I had already begun to fall in love with the way my mind was being trained to think. Enter ZEN IN A JAR. I was able to take my love of fragrance and body care and turn it into something to help me go to school.

Soon, ZIJ took on a life of it’s own. What started out as body scrubs and candles has grown into an indie beauty brand boasting 17 home and body care products and a custom fragrance repertoire of 250+ blends. We are sold worldwide and featured on retail shelves throughout the US with a brick and mortar location in District Heights, MD.

What sets us apart is three fold:
1. The products are designed with ingredients you can get right out of your kitchen. We do not use preservatives.

2. The fragrances are for the culture. Fragrance names are inspired by my life and experiences as a black girl in the world, an 80’s baby and someone who LOVES Pop Culture. For example, Bamboo Earrings, Sundress Vibes and Plastic Off The Sofa are just a few nods to the culture. IYKYK!

3. I travel the world to explore and celebrate beauty rituals from various cultures and respectfully integrate them into ZIJ’s repertoire.

WHAT WE OFFER:
We specialize in the POWER of Body Chemistry. We create products for the person that wants to OWN THE ROOM when they walk in. We make products that are essential to your self-care ritual.

In addition to the black culture influence on the fragrance names, I’m also dedicated to the culture philanthropically.. I provide internships for young women in my community, serve on the board of The Black Girl Tribe, provide personal hygiene workshops at local schools and sponsor donations of toiletries to Calvary Women’s Shelter’s Spa Day for Women in Transition.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

TWO THINGS:

1. I spent 19 years working in IT in the federal government. To succeed in that world, I was taught to water myself down and speak around what I want so that I am not labeled as aggressive, assertive and so on. As a black woman, you have to be quite “nuanced” in how you present or you will be labeled difficult to work with and will not grow in your career.

While, I found success in government, I also found that it worked to my detriment in entrepreneurship. I was in an endless loop of frustration and hiring and firing because employees would not follow my directions, but once I went to therapy, I realized that I was the problem. I wasn’t being clear about what I wanted from anyone. I expected staff to read my mind and assume what I needed done. It was so natural to me that I had no idea I was doing it.
Once I accepted that I was the issue, I easily self-corrected and began being clear.

2. The second significant thing I had to unlearn was that I needed more structure in the workplace. When I was in my government career, I was taught to be straight laced. For example, simple and straight hairstyles, simple nails and accessories, pencil skirts, etc. So when I created a workplace environment of my own, I was very much focused on employing black girls and encouraging them to be free and not feel restricted or watered down. I wanted to give them autonomy so that they didn’t feel micromanaged. Turns out, I was over correcting some of the things that I found hurtful, discriminatory or dismissive in my previous career. And my employees were having a party and not taking their jobs seriously. At all. I had to process my pain and then shed it all. Next, I had to create a more structured work environment for my staff.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I invested over $20,000 with a contractor to renovate my brick and mortar. I was way too trusting and he ended up taking advantage of me and not completing the job. I had to recover from that financial blow and then learned that most of the work he did do had to demolished and redone properly. It was a very expensive journey. I suffered a lot of personal pain and embarrassment. It took me some time to rebuild and prepare to open. Two years later, I am proud of myself. I didn’t give up. This was a hard series of lessons and some of the things he did improperly still reveal themselves present day. I am grateful that this happened at the $20K level as opposed to the $200K level. I am grateful that I will never approach business in that way again. Lesson learned.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.zeninajar.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zeninajar
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zeninajar
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zeninajar/