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

Hi Nikki , thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Thanks for having me! My personal mission is simply to be well and to serve well. This deeply influences everything I do, including the mission of my operations consulting firm, Thrive Business Support.

I grew up surrounded by family, friends, and community members with immense talent and incredible business potential. Sure, they started businesses and sold their wares, but never reached the level of sustainability all entrepreneurs aspire towards. With a lack of access to capital, underutilized business resources, and no team to power these businesses, they often did not reach their full potential. I built Thrive Business Support to free businesses like these from mere survival and empower them to thrive! Not just for today, but for the generations to come.

That’s why Thrive Business Support exists. The core mission is to enable generational time, health, & financial wealth to Christian creatives of color so historically marginalized communities build scalable businesses and lucrative legacies; to God’s glory and for His purposes.

We believe that with increased capacity, multi-hyphenate Christian creatives can live a testimony of abundance, use their talents for reverberating Kingdom impact, and leave a legacy of holistic wealth for future generations.

Our current mission-driven offerings of strategic planning, project management, and operations consulting are designed to provide our clients with a comprehensive introduction to business operations that will allow them to scale on a solid foundation.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Absolutely! So in it’s simplest form, I am just an artistic, hyper-organized, deeply nuanced servant-leader. (Simple, right? lol)

I am equal parts “dreamer” + “planner”. You are as likely to find me scribbling down poetry and prose or performing a concert of one in the bathroom mirror for hours on end as you are to find me re-organizing a friend’s pantry. I am just as silly as I am serious, although only close friends are privy to the depths of my silliness. For as long as I have known myself, I have moved through the world in the duality of this multi-faceted personality. I love all things organization and create efficiencies in every container, group, company, and situation I come in contact with. I also am creative to my core, indulging in as many of the arts as I can as often as I can.

So I suppose the transition to entrepreneur seems a predictable path for me. I worked abroad between high school and college and studied Education, Human Resource Management, and Nonprofit Management during my collegiate years. I worked as a Leasing Professional, HR Manager. Event Planner, and Administrative Assistant before founding my operations consulting firm, Thrive Business Support.

Along this path, I have become a certified Director of Operations. That certification enhanced my skills and powers my mission to empower creative founders, visionaries, and CEOs to live abundantly, serve impactfully, and leave legacies of holistic wealth for future generations. Anyone who has met me can tell you that I am passionate about supporting those who are on mission.

At my Houston, TX based operations consulting firm, Thrive Business Support, I am elated to steward the people, projects, and processes of multi-hyphenate, mission driven visionaries who typically excel at creating and marketing but need support with turning their visions into reality in an organized and sustainable way. My firm can support the singular creative entrepreneur, the growing team, or the scaling small business.

When I’m not crafting a strategic calendar or clarifying someone’s deepest ‘why’, I am stewarding my most important missions as a wife, a mom to two toddlers, and a disciple of Christ breaking generational curses. I also host The Thrive Support Podcast to make operations support more accessible to the people and brands who need it.

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

The main lesson I have had to unlearn in business is waiting for permission. I spent much too much time waiting for someone to say it was ok for me to pursue this mission, that I was “qualified” to apply to that opportunity or “allowed” to attend this event or that one. What I have learned is that those who move forward are those who are not waiting for some imaginary “them” to invite them. Once I stopped putting so much stock in what “they” would think (real or imagined), I was able to experience growth, success, and fulfillment in and through my business like never before. Key takeaway: stop waiting for permission.

Any advice for managing a team?

A team is so vital for any visionary who aims to experience sustainable growth and expanded impact. My advice for managing and developing a strong team is to be really intentional during the hiring phase and beyond. Strong teams are possible when leaders hire well (i.e with focus, intention and prior prep) and support them well (i.e. give them the tools to succeed). Before ever making your first hire or signing with your first contractor, it is important that you discover what your business truly needs, what your expectations are, what skills are vital for a person to have already vs. what skills can be taught, and what the realistic budget and timeframe are. Hiring well truly is step one to how you manage well. Once the team member is onboarded, you want to be sure they are properly trained, they have Standard Operating Procedures by which to perform common tasks, and they are connected with someone in the organization they can go to with questions and requests for additional support. Continued training beyond the initial 90 days is crucial. If you want someone to work diligently for you and pour their skills and time into your mission, you should be prepared to pour time and resources into that person and their role.