We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nina Caviggiola a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Nina thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

I started my “hobby” as a content creator back in 2014 when my husband I bought our first home. It was just him and I renovating, DIY’ing and then sharing our projects on Instagram and a blog. From 2014 to 2019 I build my social media platform and in the early days I did not have any intention in making it a full time business. As I shared more of my life and myself on social media I got a lot of traction with different brands who wanted to gift me product and some even pay me. That’s when I realized I held a lot of value in the space I was in. I put in endless hours of free work and content and it was all paying off. I built a community based on trust and personality.

In 2019 I got significantly busier and was booking paid collaborations consistently all while working full time as a ER nurse. I was approached by my now business manager, Cassidy, in 2019 asking to be me my “assistant.” My initial thoughts were that I did not need an assistant nor did I want to pay anyone when I could do it myself. Of course I had imposter syndrome thinking “who am I to need an assistant?” I kept putting her emails off and telling her to “check in with me later.” She stayed consistent and that intrigued me. Early 2020 I hired her as a part time contractor to assist me in social media tasks. It was about 4 months in, after hiring her, that I realized I made a mistake not hiring help sooner. Her taking things off of my plate allowed me to take on more projects and doors started opening left and right. My income doubled every year since hiring her. Not only was she assisting in tasks I assigned she had tight eyes on analytics and data that I didn’t have time to look at.

Hiring Cassidy up scaled my business in so many ways. Of course having her eyes, her organization skills, her critical thinking were a huge help but knowing that I had someone that believed in my business and my values in the social media space almost more than I believed in them myself was a big confidence boost. Together we built a business of now 7 employees and the old me would have never believed that. I have always been afraid of taking financial risks due to my past life of being poor with a single mom barely making ends meet. Hiring people for a small business is so scary; we had no idea where this business would go and if I could even sustain it. But because of the team I have built I am confident in our mission and future. I truly on see it going up from here.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am Nina, a mom, wife and friend. I started sharing my life on social media in 2014 when we bought our first home. I wanted to share our DIY projects and home renovation. I shared my life on social media very early when “influencer” was not even a term. In fact, I considered myself a blogger. For a few years it was a hobby and something I just loved doing. It was a creative outlet and a way to connect with people with similar creative interests. In 2017/2018 I shared more intimate moments of my life like getting married and having a baby which led to a rapid growth of followers on social media. It was then when I started to get paid collaborations from brands like Walmart, Target Baby and many other baby/motherhood brands. What made me stand out in the space as my raw, unfiltered honesty about motherhood and being a midsize woman. I often talk about the hardships in raising kids, marriage, body image and more. As I opened up more, my audience wanted to hear more about what I was doing for myself and specifically wanted to know how I build up my own confidence. My brand revolves around working with brands on a paid basis (marketing their products, affiliate marking like Amazon & LTK and digital products that I have created and now sell. I share a variety of products and services on my social media and it all boils down to self care and confidence. I want women to come to my page and to feel inspired to want to take care of themselves in any season of life. I want women to feel less alone. I want women to find confidence in the little things like moving their body, what products they use in their home, the people the surround themselves with and lastly the clothes that they wear. What we put in and on our bodies can play a huge role in our confidence. Currently I am sharing a series of doing “self care until I love myself again,” I share fashion and style for the busy, tired and realistic mom as a midsize woman and I share honest thoughts on marriage and friendships.

I have since started a nonprofit organization Nurtura Foundation, which aids families and people in need. We have raised over 100K which has gone toward helping teachers with supplies, families around the holidays and women’s mental health. I also have a podcast called Mama knows where I talk to experts about motherhood, parenting, mental health, marriage and more.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I genuinely believe that my reputation within my market was built on honest, raw and unfiltered truths. I have always been open and honest about the ups and downs of everything in my life. I shared my struggles in pregnancy, early motherhood and beyond, marriage and body image. I never have nor plan to sugar code my life. I don’t post only the perfect pretty things. I talk about obstacles in all relationships and what I am doing to over come them. I often invite my followers to share their struggles with me and we have private conversations which I think has truly nurtured and built up a trusting community.

Any advice for managing a team?

I am very close to my team and I believe it is because I have built and environment where I respect them and value their opinion, career goals and work life balance. We have weekly personalized meetings, monthly team meetings and I am regularly praising my employees for everything they’re doing. I give and ask for regular feedback. I am consistently offering opportunities for growth as well as bonus potential. I empower my team to take on roles where they get to call the shots and make decisions. We set realistic goals and expectations and evaluate them often; if there is a set back or a concern I provide resources and guidance on how to work through it. Most importantly I am empathetic toward my team and their personal life, I am genuinely interested in their lives.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.balkanina.com
• Instagram: balkanina
• Facebook: Balkanina
• Linkedin: Benina Caviggiola
• Youtube: balkaninacav
• Other: Podcast: Mama Knows Podcast

Image Credits

Image credits: EP Studios @ep.studio_