We recently connected with Nikki France and have shared our conversation below.

Nikki, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.

I MUST give the highest praises and acknowledge my parents, Shawn Janey (RIP) and Maria Shaner, for instilling superior work ethics and values in me at an early age.

My father lost both of his parents before the age of 19. He was forced to care for and support himself at an early age. His career path started as a teenager, as his older brothers had started their own families at this time.

Working and completing high school were his two primary focuses in life. Soon after he graduated, I was conceived and now he had a family to support as well.

My entire life, all I have known my father to do is work…working for family or working for the community. Whether it was his primary or secondary job, volunteering, coaching and mentoring at our local recreation center, he STAYED working.

He taught me early in life that nothing is free and that hard work yields success and results. “It’s what responsible, mature adults do, and if you want anything in life, you work hard for it”.

I have adopted his work ethic, as I myself have worked numerous jobs simultaneously in my adulthood. I am passionate about EVERY job that have ever I had, and I truly believe that when you love what you do, then it’s not work.

My mother is a big part of my success as well. As a teenager, she instilled the importance of good credit, saving money, paying bills on time and responsible money management. She is the reason why I have an extremely amount of financial savvy, as hard work and financial success has allowed my children and I to live a very blessed, fortunate life.

My mother instilled discipline, manners, respect, and the importance of education. She set the foundation of maintaining a long standing career, as she herself has been tenured numerous years with past and present employers. She always stressed the importance of obtaining a CAREER, not just a JOB.

I am forever grateful for the both of them; I truly believe that I would not be the successful business person that I am without the invaluable talks, lessons and examples that they have both set forth for me.

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?

Allow me to reintroduce myself…lol!!

I’m Nikki “Bad Kitty’ France, owner and creative designer of BLING! by Bad Kitty.

BLING is my “thing” and I can bling out just about anything…apparel, footwear, wine glasses, bottles, masks, accessories…the sky is the limit. I also design and create custom standard and graphic apparel, footwear, glassware, etc. as well. I cater to women, men, kids and pets as well. I also produce for groups, organizations, sports teams, family reunions, special events, etc.

I pride myself for having a creative mind and imagination; my designs are original, unique and definitely one of a kind. I absolutely love what I do and I love creating custom apparel for my customers! My relationships with customers have progressed to where they permit me to just “do my thing”, because they already have the assurance that I’m gonna go above and beyond for them. That’s the greatest “thank you” for me, to see the awe, shock, glee and absolute appreciation of my work…I can’t even begin to share how many times I’ve heard, “WOW, this is simply AMAZING! I would have NEVER thought to do that! OMG, I can’t WAIT to show this off! Yhis is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!” Knowing that I’m able to exceed my customer’s expectations makes what I do the highlight of my business.

I would say that my favorite orders are custom bling tennis/shoes, customizing wine glasses and bottles, and any rhinestone apparel. I have wayyyy too much fun with these, especially when I can go wild with the creativity!

Any advice for managing a team?

As a previous operations manager for a worldwide delivery company, I managed roughly 200 employees in various locations. I would say that above all else, one must understand the true meaning of LEADERSHIP versus MANAGEMENT.

Anyone can manage, delgate and instruct employees on the job, but a LEADER is humble, LISTENS to employees (not just hear them), shows integrity, rolls up their sleeves and jumps in the trenches when needed; a LEADER can admit they they DON’T know the answer to something (but will make the best effort to find an answer). A leader ADMITS when they are wrong about something; they can sincerely APOLOGIZE when found to be wrong or inaccurate about an issue. A leader doesn’t use their status or position to look down on others or assume they know everything because they make more money than you. A leader VALUES their employees and they understand that different people have different personalities and needs in the workplace; a “one size fits all’ approach doesn’t work when interacting with employees of different values, cultures, ethnicities, religious beliefs, mindsets and backgrounds.

Above all, you must RESPECT your employees and not interact with them as if they are inferior or unimportant. Respect and understanding goes a LONG way, and I feel that this is how I maintained positive and successful work realtionships in the workplace.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

As my husband taught me….”You have to get comfortable with getting uncomfortable”. He basically drilled this into me once I started to bowl in leagues, but this has been applied in my business as well.

Doing the same thing repeatedly becomes monotonous and you reach a point where you hit a wall, so to speak. Everything starts to look the same and you don’t get that same WOW factor when you complete a project.

So, trying something completely outside of your comfort zone, something that you can’t even imagine possibly doing could be the thing to revive your business or product. For example, when I first started working with apparel, I ALWAYS said that I’d NEVER work with shoes…because why??? Lol
A friend said to me one day, “You’re SO creative, why WOULDN’T you bling tennis/sneakers? That’s a market that you haven’t tapped yet”. One day, I said “ok, why not just try a pair, just to prove that I DON’T want to do it”. What happened? I actually blinged a pair of high tops and ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT! Now fast forward…custom bling tennis/sneakers are now my top sellers on my Etsy site…who knew?? LOL

So, yes, try something completely left field…who knows, that hesitancy could be preventing you from “leveling up” in your business!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.blingbybadkitty.etsy.com
• Instagram: @Blingbybadkitty
• Facebook: BLING! by Bad Kitty
• Other: Email: [email protected]