We were lucky to catch up with Toccara Nicole recently and have shared our conversation below.

Toccara, appreciate you joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

I love sharing this story. Back in 2014, on my way home, I had a chat with God. I told Him that I wanted to make sure that the name of my business represented the legacy within my family. My last name is Steele and I am the last woman who holds this name. I wanted to make sure that I honored my husband so I promised myself that I would not hyphenate my name.

I then heard, “VOS,” Vault of Steele. I loved it. Now, at this time I had no clue on what I was going to do as an entrepreneur. I just knew I was going to be one someday.

Let’s talk about the meaning of the business name. Since my last name is Steele, my logo is a steel vault with fire coming out of it. Within my business, I help my clients to ignite this fire within their vaults to build the life they desire. We all have treasures within our vaults…everyone is gifted. The difference is that some people don’t quite know how to cultivate their gifts to build the life they desire. Some have unlearned behaviors and limiting beliefs that are stopping them from building their life according to their identity blueprint! This is where I come in!

To date, I have been using the VOS logo to brand myself within almost everything I do.
Vault Life Apparel
Vault Talks, Women Share: The Livestream Experience
VOS Consulting and Publishing International

When coming up with your brand name, make sure it can run with you for a life time and even beyond you. This is what we call, “legacy.”

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 don’t know about you but when people would ask me “who I am,” I would struggle something serious. Oh, but now… after some pruning and digging, it’s an honor to share with all of you who I am, yet most of all, how did I arrive to embrace who I am. It takes digging and hard work to understand who you are. It’s a decision which comes with more decisions and even more decisions. The key word is DECISION. I had to do some hard work to make the decision to uncover elements of me that I didn’t like yet tolerated. I had to make the decision to say “No” to elements that made me feel good yet weren’t for my good. I had to do some digging in seasons alone to understand and to rebuild a foundation I could truly build from!

I have been a creative as long as I can remember. As a child, I remember creating books, plays and even businesses. To make my lunch every day, I pretended I had my own cooking show as I hated the task of making a lunch. I loved making friendship bracelets, so I started selling them at the end of my driveway. I remember using my creativity to build buildings out of blocks and Legos. One of the elements I learned as a child was that I had the gift to build. As an adult, I learned to embrace my differences and treasures to own my “Identity Blueprint!”

I am Toccara Nicole, AKA “The Identity Architect,” as I work with Christian female entrepreneurs to build books, businesses, brands, and themselves to discover what’s in their vault to unlock their personal and marketplace identity. This is done by using powerful insight, discernment, and sensitivity! I love standing strong in my superpower of being a midwife by igniting the fire within my clients. As they own the gems within their vaults it allows them to give birth to their many gifts.

I urge you to be D.O.P.E. (Directed On Purpose Everyday) as it changes your life!

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

I indeed turned my side hustle into my main hustle and it’s been quite the journey. In 2017, I founded VOS Consulting International where I helped my clients to build out their concepts to build the life they desire based on the gifts they possess. At the time of birthing the business, I was working full-time, that I loved!

In 2018, I started to notice the love for my career was shifting. I started loving my side hustle more. I couldn’t wait to get off work to spend time with clients along with spending my weekends assisting my clients build their life’s vision according to their identity.

In 2019, that was the year that God told me it was time to come off my job to work my side hustle full-time. Even though I was super excited, I was fearful as well. For seven years, I worked a job that I loved, met amazing people, impacted lives all while using my gifts. God showed me within a 72 hour period it was time to shift.

In 2020, I combined my second business with the first to create, VOS Consulting and Publishing International where I am known as, “The Identity Architect,” as I am a 12-time author along with being a 2-time Amazon Best Selling author. I assist Christian Women Entrepreneurs to women to build books, businesses, brands and themselves. As being the architect to authors, VOS Consulting and Publishing International creates, cultivates, and launches authors, entrepreneurs, and storytellers into position to monetize their genius. I equip my clients to shift the “ship” by introducing authorship as a form of entrepreneurship!

Today, I am happy I did as I have started other streams of income and elated to be living a life on purpose, full of purpose.

One of the biggest milestones I had to overcome was the lack of support from people I loved dearly. Many thought I was nuts for leaving my job to become a full-time entrepreneur. I had to press pass their negative words and lack of support to build what I knew was in me to execute.

Another milestone I had to face was my mindset. For years, I had a 9 to 5 mindset. Shifting the mindset was quite the challenge at first as there are many elements within this mindset you have to unlearn and simply throw away. Then, you have to do the work to create a mindset that is conducive to you being productive and active in what you were created to build.

Last but not least, live a life on purpose. Don’t be afraid to start the business, write the book, launch the book club, or create the podcast. I had to learn how to press through to get to! It’s worth it all and trust me…you learn a lot of golden nuggets about yourself that will keep you encouraged with your journey called, “Your Life!”

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Authenticity and getting visible!

I am very real! I don’t sugar coat anything. I share my life, the good and the bad with the world, freely. I had to get to a point in my life where I did the work to own my freedom. I had to unlearn some behaviors that I picked up based on my abandonment and rejection issues that were causing me to hide behind a huge mask. These elements caused for me to be fake and phony with myself.

After going to therapy and creating a journey to heal myself, I learned that my life matters. Someone can learn from what I have gone through. Why should I hide or be shameful of what happened to me? I came to an understanding that I was creating tall walls that didn’t allow for me to be me.

After I learned and accepted that my voice mattered…I share my life with the world, freely.

Contact Info:

• Website: yourauthorsauthority.com
• Instagram: 2cara_nicole
• Facebook: iamtoccaranicole
• Linkedin: toccaranicole
• Other: Second website: toccaranicole.com

Image Credits
Toccara Nicole