Hustle Grind Shine & Reignite: Episode 8 with Nakeya Bennett

Drive, focus and determination are core to Nakeya Bennett’s pursuit of excellence in life, even when things didn’t always turn out as she meticulously planned. In addition to being a seasoned and talented, digital marketing strategist, Nakeya Bennett is also the owner and CEO of TRM Designs & Co., a full service interior design firm currently focused on residential, commercial, and event design. In this episode, we journey with Nakeya from childhood through early career where she made her plans and worked those plans until circumstances left her as a solo mom with a toddler, up to the present where she’s successfully navigating a thriving corporate career in consulting with a burgeoning boutique business that merges her passion and love for design and project management. 

In this episode we cover:

• The importance of having great mentors that believe in you and push your potential, even when you don’t see it yourself just yet
• The sacrifices and hard decisions that single mothers navigate between career and their children
• How you can successfully navigate two hustles that you are passionate about to fuel your technical and creative desires

Check out Nakeya’s interior design firm, TRM Designs & Co

About Nakeya Bennett

Nakeya Bennett is a digital marketing executive, and works as Senior Manager at Accenture. In her role, she partners with large, global companies around the world to help them understand the digital landscape, the strategic role of content and how they should leverage both to tell their product or service story. She’s also a passionate diversity, equity and inclusion advocate and ally. Nakeya also owns and operates The Riley Method Designs also known affectionately as TRM Designs & Co. The boutique firm currently focuses on residential, commercial, and event design. She is passionate about transforming houses into chic functional spaces her clients and their families will enjoy and love for years to come.  She believes in clean, classic designs that won’t become outdated. She believes that design should add to the character and value of the home rather than take away from it. Nakeya also owns TRM Designs Home offering quality affordable furniture and décor direct to the consumer. 

Transcript

Jessica Hartley: 0:01

Welcome to the hustle grind shine and reignite podcast. I'm your host Jessica Hartley. Join me on another journey with amazing and talented professionals of color, laugh and cry and take notes. But most of all be inspired all of this and more on our next episode of hustles, grind, shine, and blisko Hello, and welcome to another episode of hustle grind, shine and reignite. I am your host Jessica Hartley, and it is my pleasure to welcome you to another episode. My guest today is Nikki of Bennett. She is a longtime friend of mine. She is a senior manager in digital at Accenture. She's also the co founder and all around badass sister kicking butt and taking names when it comes to interior design for both residential commercial and events. I am so excited to welcome you to the show. Hey girl,

Nakeya Bennett: 1:06

having me. Hi, Lou. Ginger.

Jessica Hartley: 1:11

Thank you. Thank you. Yes, no, I mean, listen, I know so many amazing women that are just doing great things not only for themselves, but also for their families and their communities. And it was just really important for me in the landscape of 1000s of podcasts that launch every year to not only share my voice, but share the voices of amazing journeys and fantastic just stories as well. And so I'm excited to dig in with you and a little bit of your journey today. So we will start with the first question of where we start with everyone, which is give us a little bit of insight and talk a little bit about little Nicaea growing up little Kia I think is a lot of your friends, friends and family call you talk a little bit about growing up. What were some sort of catalysts or inspirational moments for you? And what did you want to be when you were a little kid growing up?

Nakeya Bennett: 2:06

It's funny because I feel like I've always been this so little kid was a tomboy for sure. I was all about climbing trees and I was a daredevil and I've always, I think been very headstrong, very ambitious. I mean, down to like high school like I was, I knew what colleges I wanted to apply for. I knew you know, in high school, I was dual degree. So I'm gonna get vocational plus college prep, because I want to make sure I take all the business classes, and I was a student athlete because I knew I needed you know certain things on my resume to get into the schools that I wanted to get into it. I wanted to be early acceptance and

Jessica Hartley: 2:47

wow, you check boxes early girl.

Nakeya Bennett: 2:51

I was not like the high school girl that was like into boys. I was like, Okay, I need to be a key club. I need to do that show beta. I need to be in Spanish honor society. So like I've always just been like, I don't know, just like always knew that I wanted to be successful. I always knew that I wanted to be a businesswoman. I didn't for a long time know what that meant. And one day actually my aunt was she worked for at&t issue was an executive. I don't necessarily I can't tell you what she did. But she was an executive. And she took me and my sister to take Your Daughter to Work Day.

Jessica Hartley: 3:25

Oh my god, can we just pause for a moment? Us? Us Millennials are you know CUSP errs? You know? Gen Xers like Take Your Daughter to Work Day does not get the recognition is good for the impact for so many young girls at the time, particularly young girls of color. Same for me, my godmother, same thing. She was an executive at Avon and flew me to New York, which was also a big deal. And did take Your Daughter to Work Day. But just to your point of seeing women and women like us in these executive roles. I mean transfor mation also shout out to take Your Daughter to Work Day.

Nakeya Bennett: 4:15

And not only that just COVID it was like I have it specifically as being like, and I will start taking 14 at the time. But for me it was like the first time I had remember being in like downtown Atlanta. So like going up being in the city being present in the city. The first time I remember seeing, you know, like tall office buildings and headquarters the first time like walking through and seeing cubicles and like people busy at work. And it really always stuck with me. It was like wow, like I just had this moment of just lightbulb and Epiphany of like, I want to be a businesswoman and I always knew like from that day I really wanted to be a bit This this format again did not know what that was going to look like. But she was very instrumental in like, once we did that, take your daughter to work day like we she would show me what was it like Occupational Outlook Handbook? Do you remember that? So I was like the high schooler reading Occupational Outlook Handbook, like, Okay, what career? What's the salary? what degree do I need to get to do it. And I was always looking for like programs and opportunities. And I don't know that it stemmed from just like not having as a child, because what I'll say is, I had a really good childhood, I'm not a rich or luxury childhood. But, you know, I had great family, my mom was great, but we didn't have a lot. So maybe it stemmed from that or like, I want to live a different life, or I want to live like a life of abundance. Like, I don't know where it came from. I've always known that I wanted that. And I think everything that I did from a very young age can be attributed to that. Or that I want more, and I want more.

Jessica Hartley: 6:07

And it's okay to want more. I mean, this week, I had this I think over the weekend, and earlier this week, I had this epiphany, I was like, I want more. And that's Oh, K, it's okay to recognize and acknowledge your desires, and things that you want. And it's okay to want more. Obviously, there are all the other things that come along with do you need it in versus wanting? You know, can you afford it? Do Are you never happy, right? We're not gonna go there's not a therapy session. But right, it's okay to want. I think that's okay to want more. And we've always I feel like carry a little bit of guilt with wanting more. So tell me you're mapping out plans 14.

Nakeya Bennett: 6:53

Salary that I saw in the book had everything to do with computers, right? Yeah. So I'm going to be a computer engineer, like, that's what I'm going to do. So I went down the path of I'm going to be a computer engineer, I took every single business class that I could in high school, I was in all of the clubs, I learned how to use all of the software. With my business teacher, she was amazing. So like, you know, I'm graduating, knowing, you know, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, like extensively all everything back then. And I graduated in 99. So when Microsoft was the thing, yeah, everything. I knew how to use it when I graduated. And I was in a work study program as well. So my first jobs were business related. Mostly I didn't do like one retail job. But like, when I joined work study as part of my senior year, I worked for the travel exchange and the airport and I worked for Delta was doing data entry. So always something more basic. I always knew like I was going to be in this business field. So I went to college. I majored in computer engineering.

Jessica Hartley: 8:01

Okay, continuing that theme, computer engineer. Yes, there.

Nakeya Bennett: 8:05

So graduated, got my first row. It was Compaq, computers and Alpharetta. I was working as a help desk analyst. Wow. I think I was probably working while I was going to school. Because for many of us and our families like we are having to support ourselves or like pay for our own degrees or like, you know, help augment our parents salaries. A lot of us have, you know, our first generation I wasn't first generation but you know, well, in my immediate family I was first generation my mom isn't college educated my dad, neither is my dad. But yeah, so I worked full time to pay for school. And I was always doing work study as well to help pay for school. So just I've always just been very driven and very career focused. So I got that job hated it.

Jessica Hartley: 8:59

What did you hate about it? Because you know, when I am advising particularly young people, but even folks where it you know, I've been doing this 1520 years, sometimes I tell people sometimes a job is also a good lesson to learn what you don't want to Alright, so talk to us a little bit about you know, maybe even just like your expectations going in and whether or not it sort of met that and realizing that you didn't like that job. How was that the catalyst and deciding of where to go next?

Nakeya Bennett: 9:30

I think that one it just didn't feel like I didn't feel like at home in the row. And this is still probably true for many of us as you climb the ladder but like I was always the youngest. A lot of times the only woman of course the only black woman many times almost 98% of the time and working with you know mostly men mostly, you know, other nationalities and just felt lonely. It's very lonely. And then like your I wasn't able to really be creative. And you know, this wish you guys will learn. Like this. You know, I like creating things. I like talking to people. I like relationships, and I wasn't able to like grasp that. And I seen technology can be like very black and white, much more serious. Yeah, that's just how it felt. I didn't like it. I didn't feel like it was you know where I was supposed to be?

Jessica Hartley: 10:26

Got it. So then you knew that wasn't it? What did you decide after that?

Nakeya Bennett: 10:32

Oh, man, I got I actually my best boss ever. To this day, I got a job at the Arthritis Foundation. And I was this executive assistant Group Vice President of Marketing. So he ran marketing on all channels. So digital mail program, so like events, experiential stuff, across the board, so everything for the foundation, he ran, and he, like, manage the budgets that he had 14. And so that's really what I didn't take any marketing classes in school. So I didn't really know, you know, what marketing was, I had never gotten any exposure to the industry. And the first time that I got that exposure, and I love data, he loves me, he really, really did. This is the time where I was like, 23. Living my best life, living the best life yet setting, I was like, Yeah, I will call him from my Hawaii, because like, my boyfriend would took me on a trip. And I would be like, I'm not going to be in today. He like treated me like a daughter, he really would be like, you know, I understand that you're young here. But like, this is your career, like you have responsible, I needed you today, you have to show up. And he was very, like, tough love, for me really understand, like accountability. And like, you know, I can't just blow this off to do this. You're young, you make dumb decisions. So he started to like, give me more responsibility. And let me run like marketing programs, like he let me be over the arthritis walk, which was one of the big, you know, large walks that we did every single year, and the marketing for it. He let me help and sit in on meetings to like, make decisions about our email marketing program or our print campaign. You know, how were we sending too many? It was the first time that I got to be a part of like, marketing strategy. Yeah, yeah. And so that never left me and I really loved it. Right. I held on to that. But me being my Busybody self, like I'm still always looking for like, what's the next thing? What's the next industry? What's the so I got I started studying for PMP certification. I started studying for LSAT, because then okay, I'm going to law school. Oh, my goodness. And I miss my LSAT twice. Don't ask

Jessica Hartley: 12:55

me living your best life, right? Like I was like, girl, why No.

Nakeya Bennett: 13:00

Nice. But I did ended up end up getting my project management certification for us. PMP certified pretty young. Yeah, I was about 26. When I got that. And that really opened up a lot of doors. I took that certification date more for me than my master's, I eventually did get my master's. But my project management certification like by way of it really like put a stamp on being able to build top dollar being like people that and it was during the time when people like really started paying attention to certifications, me in the door for a lot of roles. So I ended up leaving the Arthritis Foundation because I was offered a row at Blue Cross Blue Shield. I had to move to Jacksonville for it. But I was at a time where like, I was like, I'm all in like I'm young, to get my career going. I'm willing to do you know, whatever profession to get myself to where I want to be professionally. Yeah, so I picked the role, beautiful campus, but coming from Atlanta at 2526 to Jacksonville, like different slow homes. Yeah. And this is the time where I'm like, and this isn't everybody, but like I was very social. So like I'm out every night, but then I'm still at work in the morning. And so like I was away from like, all of my family isn't Atlanta where I am now. But all of my friends, like away from everyone, like I had serious FOMO like I'm missing everything I'm missing. But again, like it's a struggle because you want to be responsible and you know, like you want more you want to go next level. So you got to do the things to get to the next level. And everybody was sometimes and that requires sacrifice, right? Yeah. Bullying, so I sacrifice to and I moved and like my family because nobody's ever like moved away for work for real. So it was yeah, that scared and I'm like, I'm like at a fearless time. We're like, oh, yeah, I'll do what I need to do because to do something different to get something different, right? Absolutely. But I was there for three months.

Jessica Hartley: 15:03

Not three years, y'all three months.

Nakeya Bennett: 15:08

On Valentine's Day, I would leave work on Friday 5pm on the dot drive to Atlanta get to Atlanta and

Jessica Hartley: 15:18

I and that's a word for our five hour drive. For five hour drive, depending on the traffic, yes,

Nakeya Bennett: 15:26

I would get home party have an amazing power. My family. See everybody all weekend. Get up at 5am on Monday morning Nicaea and drive back to Jacksonville. NBA goes straight to work. After that, most weekends. Wow.

Jessica Hartley: 15:45

That's burden a lot of candidates. No Candler, not even both.

Nakeya Bennett: 15:49

Thank God, I was young and I still had this energy. I just was really homesick. Oh, it has side, I maybe didn't give it a fair chance. But I ended up looking for another role. And finding another project management role in Atlanta.

Jessica Hartley: 16:06

So you went into project management, which then got you you started working at advertising and marketing agencies. And that eventually

Nakeya Bennett: 16:15

got so big. So how I got into the marketing agencies, I went and got my MBA, I went to night school, got my MBA with a concentration in marketing. Honestly, the PMP helped me get my first advertising agency role. Wow, the director, it was at digit house, Atlanta, they were opening the Atlanta office, and my manager was a he was VP of project management, and delivery in Boston. And he himself was PMP certified. He everyone who had been sending in their resumes weren't. And he was like, I was so like, impressed that you were already PMP certified, because I'm trying to get the people in the ad agency to like understand project management. You know, like, if you work in advertising, like a traditional does not work?

Jessica Hartley: 17:04

No, it's hard. It's hard. So many twists and turns and changes. And then we layer on trying to manage the resources and the budgets and timelines. Oh, god bless project

Nakeya Bennett: 17:15

managers. So I was used to IT projects. I see projects are very, the date is the date. Yeah. If you don't deliver it, then the date gets pushed. I got my first role. So he hired me. So I was like the senior most delivery person in the Atlanta office. It did not go well. And here's why. I knew that this was the environment that I wanted to be in, like, I came in an advertising agency, like it was young people, and everyone was creative. And I didn't have to like, you know, dress a certain way I could like come in and be myself. And we had fun every day. And everybody was it was just great. Like I love. I love the work that I was doing. Yeah, but I had in my mind project management is project management. I was taught from the PIM Bock, and the steps are the steps, the dependencies are the dependencies. If you don't do this, you can't get that not really understanding the advertising world and the marketing. And understanding that if this banner ad doesn't run, our client is using 1000s Losing 1000s of dollars. And yes,

Jessica Hartley: 18:30

it's very different bank account a different form of responsibility and accountability, right in a service capacity.

Nakeya Bennett: 18:36

So I had no idea. Yeah, he tried to coach me and help me through it. But it didn't go well. Yeah. And I eventually absolutely got it. And and of course, because I'm still in marketing and in advertising, but that was like a learning curve for me. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, so that's how I got into it. I got that role that digital house, and then I never left the digital ad

Jessica Hartley: 19:00

world. Nevertheless, nevertheless. So then let's talk about how you got to Accenture because you've spent a while now at Accenture there and sort of working your way through projects and that is a shift that I've I'll transparency worked at Accenture as well, coming from advertising and going into that world and there are absolutely similarities around customer service client service, that sort of thing. Definitely a little bit more rigor when it comes to project management and accountability responsibility. But let's talk about just a little bit of the work that you've done with clients while you've been at Accenture

Nakeya Bennett: 19:39

yeah so leaving dishes house so I left it just house they kind of like restructured and we need it what do you just ask me that we had a lot of like work work, work, work work, they brought in and hired more. So I was more senior level right? So more stress and less doing so they brought in more doers, but I continued on to like go to other areas. agencies, I started my own like boutique consulting firm. So I would go and work for like work on a campaign or work on a project and I would move on. And at that time, I was really chasing like salary like I want to be at a certain salary. I want to be at a certain bill rate. So I would get that experience and then charge the next project. Yes, more. No, you're worth Yes. So I was doing that for quite some time. And I was recruited by so sapient just because you were at safety and as well, I was nitro Atlanta. I think his safety and Razorfish are now or maybe fully raised officially

Jessica Hartley: 20:36

listed, I can make mixes and remixes and remixes to the remixes. I can't, I can't even

Nakeya Bennett: 20:43

Yeah, I went there. And I was there for three years. And honestly, like that was the longest. This is me coming from like, I wouldn't say anywhere for more than six months. So when I went to sapient, they recruited me from LinkedIn, I believe I went there, and I was there for three years. And it was the first time that I had and life changes, right, I got married I had. I was in a space where I was still 28 I think at the time 2027 28, something like that. But my life had changed. So I need more security. And I needed, you know, to slow down. So when they offered me a full time role, I accepted it. And that was the first time where I had been anywhere for more than six more months for years. Yeah, years and years and years a huge transition. That was a huge transition. But what I learned was the value of being steel in a company, the value of building relationships and people knowing who you are and getting involved with like things that matter like diversity and inclusion within the organization and women's empowerment and building those relationships and having co workers and work husbands and you know that you're going to lunch with and you know that you know you guys love each other and you're going to each other's birthdays, and missing that hopping from from agency to agency to agency. So that was just a great thing for me. I was so happy and essential actually recruited me.

Jessica Hartley: 22:15

They were doing some heavy recruiting. They were so excited to poach people from safety. And it was an interesting time. Yeah.

Nakeya Bennett: 22:24

So at that time, and here's how that happened. I was on the board for National Black MBA Association, like I was, you know, doing all these philanthropic things, and I was more settled, and I was really happy. And I went I like on a whim just uploaded my resume, because I'm like, I'm going to the conference. Like why not? Let me just see what's out there. Yeah, these interviews like big companies like Microsoft, Nike, L'Oreal, Samsung target, like I had all these interviews and never heard anything back from anybody on that point where I was manager slash senior manager, so and they were looking for more, you know, like, fresh out of college. Right, right. But essentially, I was looking for, you know, more seasoned people. And they caught me, I think, maybe a month after the conference, this is what I meant, just because you guys are not my recruiter, but she interviewed me.

Jessica Hartley: 23:16

And my goodness, I forgot about that. I did. I did Nicaea, you just reminded me.

Nakeya Bennett: 23:25

I think you are my second interview. So Jessica was like my only in person interview. This was the second time a central recruited me before like, I was like, I'm not going anywhere. Like I love my company. But I went to an event. This was a turning point, I went to an event as part of like me being a part of like boards, and like my board service, I went to an event. And at that event, I met Chloe bars a and Tracy Dunn, and they were these amazing black.

Jessica Hartley: 23:56

They amazing women that will hopefully join us at some point on this conversation. But yes, they are tremendous.

Nakeya Bennett: 24:03

Lee, like they spoke so highly of the organization. And they you know, both had had very, very long and successful careers at the organization. And this was at a time where I was trying to get to the next level at my company. I was three years in I was trying to get to the next level. And I started to notice, you know some things around just like culture and lack of diversity. And I tried to have like conversations about my you know, how I was feeling and they didn't necessarily go overwhelming. I didn't necessarily feel supported. And so, at the time, where I essentially started reaching out, it was oh, like I just went to this event and these two, you know, black women have very senior positions at the company and where I am I'm not seeing any black women that you know, that look like me that are directors or that are anywhere past, you know, manager level and senior manager and then direct During could that even happen because I'm not seeing you here. But I went to this event and they spoke so highly of it. And so my actual career counselor now like Yolanda was one of my, the first people to interview me. And then just because so it continued the theme, right of me saying, like, these amazing women of color, and like, everyone was just so great and so smart and like, a personalities are great. And that's when I started to be like, okay, like, I'm open to be them. Yeah. But it was still very hard. And it was hard. Because essentially, when you think about consulting, right, so I'm going from an agency world to like, young, vibrant, fun, like I'm wearing jeans, and I'm ready for happy hour. As soon as I leave work, like I'm, you know, you dress you have fun to like, Oh, this is a consulting firm.

Jessica Hartley: 25:50

Yes. He hasn't used

Nakeya Bennett: 25:56

to be but three years since I'm like, Yeah, so I went and bought all these suits. So I made the decision to move over. And it was very hard like I was, it was a very emotional decision. Because if you think about it, like, it was the first place that I had been for, for a long period of time, so I had these, you know, just really great relationships. So it was very hard to leave those. But yeah, came over to a censure best career decision, hands down. And it was hard to make that decision, not only because of the shift and culture, but also consulting was heavy travel. And when I'm when I'm interviewing, it was always at percent travel. I was newly divorced. My son was three or four at the time. Yeah. It's like, how the heck and yes, I sat my mom down. I had a conversation with her. And at first, you know, old school mama. She's like, No, you can't accept that role. Like, yeah, not a role for a single mother, like your son is young. And, and then like, so you know, I was going back and forth. I'm stalling the recruiter. Like, I don't know what to do. But I knew like, I was at a point where I was starting to become unhappy with where I was, yeah. And not seeing, like, Where else can I grow from here. And so she came back maybe a week later. Because I was like, I don't know what I'm gonna do. And she said, you know, you're like, My daughter, who has always, like, done the right thing, like, have worked hard. Use, like sacrifice to get where you are. And you know, I help everybody else do pull out of like holes or like from wrong things that they've done. And you're coming to me because you want to do something, right? You're trying to change your career, and you're trying to, you know, make more money. And so she was like, I'll support you.

Jessica Hartley: 27:48

So shout out, Mom, we love you. We love our moms and parentals who are who show up for us, you know, when you talked about the village, without you went too extensive. But I want to make sure we don't lose time to talk about, yes, this sort of rise in corporate career in the decisions that you make. But you also made a decision pretty early on with all of that 20s energy to start a design company as well, you obviously were doing the consulting from a business side, but talk to me a little bit about the inspiration to say hey, I have this corporate career, which we know sucks. It takes a lot of time just sort of sucks a lot of our lives into you know, mental space, health space, all of the things just committed to corporate career. A lot of that to your point is about stability, and wealth building and laying a solid foundation for our children and the generations to come. But we always still like to do some making can never make it easy. Talk to you about that too.

Nakeya Bennett: 28:50

I have always or something else. I don't think there's ever been a time where I didn't in high school. I was going to pick her up on sales like for for many for prom, always always always done something else. And now we call it multiple streams of income but I just knew I wanted more money. I didn't know I didn't know what streams of income I didn't know that that's what it was called. But I just knew that I wanted more money right? Yeah, yeah. And I've always been willing to work for you know the life I want the lifestyle that I want. And I feel like even out I'll tell myself No, which is I don't know if that's good or bad. For myself, No, I just figure out like, okay, what are you going to do Nikki? Like, what extra Are you going to do to get it? So yeah, so high school, pick her ponytails, makeup for prom. that entrepreneurial spirit has always been a thing. It's always been there. I started the Reilly method LLC in 2007. And I've held on to it I've always you know, filed my taxes I've always made sure you know I was in good standing with the state of Georgia. I'd like written off I think I have my EIN. So I've always done that. And I've allowed it to be whatever I needed it to be right. It's gone from being. So I worked for mac cosmetics. I was a freelance makeup artists for them. So like that, then I like funnel that into being like freelance makeup artists for other people. So I did that for a while. I was 1099. So courts the court with when I was doing freelance work, so yeah, I've always just allowed it to just flow out the PR. For a while that was more so like fashion PR. But it was more so like taking my the marketing and the content skills that I had from corporate and using that for offices, like helping, you know, I've had it for quite some time I've allowed it to like, be and grow and evolve with my interest. Yeah, I so well, when was this till 2016? When I was at sapient. I was I think really pretty much focused on sapient. And then, when I was at Accenture my first couple of years I was 100% focused at Accenture because you it's a lot. It's a lot of work. Yes. And I think once I kind of got comfortable enough to feel like okay, I have some free time to move around. And, you know, I know that I'm still the entrepreneur at heart. So what can I do with it? What do I want to do next? And it kind of just fell into my lap. Honestly, I bought a new house. My first house post divorce. I was decorating it. And somebody on Instagram was like, Oh, can you help me decorate my house.

Jessica Hartley: 31:43

And I was just like that power of influence on social media. Wow.

Nakeya Bennett: 31:48

And I was literally just like sharing, just like, oh, I bought this piece of art or I got this couch and like just sharing like just, you know, me decorating my own home. And they asked and I ended up decorating five spaces in her home. It was it was a couple with two boys. Yeah. And they had just bought this beautiful new house in Covington. And I decorated five spaces in their home. And it was literally myself. And one contractor. The wife had scheduled a housewarming party.

Jessica Hartley: 32:23

So you had a deadline. Talk about that. PMP went into overdrive.

Nakeya Bennett: 32:29

I was at her house from 9am One day to 11am the next day. Yeah, we'll work through like four hours of work. Yeah, but I finished. I have of course since gotten smaller, out smarter. And I of course have built a bigger team now. But it was then that I was like, Oh, like this could really be a big I didn't know I didn't know. I had no idea like about the industry. I'm new. And I'm self taught right? I've always had a knack for interior design. And how that happened is my mom used to work actually at Home Depot. So our house when I was in high school she we were always doing something to it. home rental projects, big about like making the house a home. So our home has always been like beautifully decorated. But we like did a lot of stuff ourselves. Like we hung our own wallpaper. The like chair railing. I remember in the dining room, we upgraded one of the bathrooms and put like new vanity new toilet wallpaper in there changed our lighting and mirrors. Every season she would like take us to like Sears or JC Penney and let us like pick new bedding, new drapes, so nostalgic, like paying our furniture like she would be like y'all need to refresh but we can't afford to buy new furniture. So like let's just paint this. So we would like paying our furniture and it will be getting new bedding and they are wrong. Like looks brand new. So I attribute the skills to that. And it has grown out since 2016. So over five years now wow. Yes, five years, five years. Four a long time, I was still just working by myself. And what started to happen is that I didn't have because I never started my business to exit corporate like I love my corporate career. I love marketing. I love digital. So I wanted to do both like it was like a side hustle like something I was really good at and like a passion project. But yeah, now it's to the point where like, I'm gonna have to make a decision probably soon. But what I've been trying to do is hire more people so that I can like do the client relationship piece. And the okay I'm gonna onboard you and like tell you how we do this, this and how I want you to interact with clients and like our Randy and you know how we design and like teach you how to do what needs to be done, but allow you to execute, so that I can still have this corporate career. I don't know how it's gonna play out. But that's what I've been trying to be able to honestly, for now. I started hiring last year. So a lot of my people are celebrating like one year anniversaries. Eight now, yeah,

Jessica Hartley: 35:26

that's a big thing.

Nakeya Bennett: 35:27

I have an operations person gonna be my CEO, oh, I have a PM, helping to get like our tools and systems that I'm set up to where like, our project management software, if you will, so that like I can assign tasks to the team and like, full accountability and timelines and get better and more efficient. I have one intern she graduated now I think so. Congratulations. Like, stay on. I have one design assistant who's amazing. And then I have one junior designer, and then one senior designer. Wow. Yeah, so I'm looking for more interior design assistants that can, you know, I've done this design, I put it to paper, the client has approved it. Now. Can I hand it over you to like do the orders and like, so that's what I'm doing now. So I'm like interviewing and hiring people to do that. But yeah, and business as you can imagine, like with everyone staying home during COVID business, yeah. Yeah. Are in their homes. And they, you know, are noticed and like I don't like I actually have to spend time here now, right

Jessica Hartley: 36:40

around you looking around saying is this place, reflective of what I want. So as we wrap up, talk to me about how you take care of makiya, now you have a son, he's preteen our children sort of have that. So parallel lives there in terms of age, or my oldest at least, and you have this full year, you've got two jobs. You know, the corporate career as well as the entrepreneurial and your entrepreneurial is not one person plus a hot dog on a shoestring. As I like to say, I mean, you have a full blown team. So how do you rest in disconnect? And what advice do you have for others? I shoot? What advice do you have for me, other women out here who, you know, have obviously personal responsibilities, family, children, parents, pets, that they have to take care of, they are have a corporate career and sort of track and that foundation and stability and wealth building, but also have another literally another career in Job, you know, that sort of fills the cup when it comes to passion and purpose? How do you refill your your cup?

Nakeya Bennett: 37:54

So I think one is just perspective, right? Like my attitude every day, like, I wake up every day and feel so blessed to be low, right? To live in, like both my corporate career and have that be successful, and be able to mentor and be an example, but also be you know, entrepreneur, and live in that as well and show people that you can do both, you can't have both, you know, it's hard. Sometimes I have sleepless nights, but you can do it if you want to do it. And I wake up every day, just like, you know, wow, like, in gratitude, like, I get to do this, versus I have to get this done. And like, you know, I do have those days, and I'm like, I'm so tired, but I'm gonna lay down for five minutes, and then I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna attack today. Yeah, yeah. So that's how I approach it. I approach it as like, you know, this is what I prayed for, this is what I've wanted. This is what I've worked so hard for and I'm seeing the success and I'm seeing the money come in, I'm not only changing my own life, I have this whole team that I'm able to pay, you know, and change their lives and they're able to eat and feed their families. And I take a lot of pride in that. And so I think for me, it was one to true to ambitious perfectionist type a women all across the world,

Jessica Hartley: 39:21

calling me out calling us all out.

Nakeya Bennett: 39:24

To learn to like, I don't have to do it all and I had to learn to like trust other people that get it done. And to hand stuff over. I hired this person for a reason. Is this a good use of Nikias time? No, it's not. Okay, I can assign it to this person. I also just if it's not a good use of my time, I do not do it. Yeah, I started to have to like relinquish, like you know, we can't kill ourselves. There's like moms and housewives and thank God I don't have the husband so I don't have like that. It's like I'm sure but I don't have that extra layer. So that's a form of myself.

Jessica Hartley: 40:08

No, not an episode. Metaphor.

Nakeya Bennett: 40:16

My ex husband and I have a really great co parenting relationship for sure. So as my son gets older, he's spending more time with dad. And you know, it can be sad because he's my only child, but like, he's getting older, he needs to spend more time with his dad. So when the time with his dad, I, you know, really learn to appreciate and enjoy that time and take that time for me and for myself to do something that I enjoy, or, you know, get a massage or go on a trip. I really embrace that time. And I really appreciate it, you know, things around the house, I started hiring people. I don't have time, like, yeah, I started, what is it normalizing luxury? And yes, I have my cleaning service coming to clean, you know, they come they clean the house, but I'm doing something that's making money. So that, but it frees them doing that and coming home to a clean home was like, that was one of the biggest things for me. And I used to feel guilty, like I'm sitting here at the desk like working on while they're cleaning my house, but no, I'm able to pay them. It's, you know, they're a family owned business. And then, you know, I'm hoping to keep them in business and also taking something off my plate, you know, yes. And one big thing also was just learning to ask for help, like the other day, I had been traveling, and like I just couldn't get a handle on like laundry and like just cleaning up my closet and like organizing, and I call the cleaning service. And I said hey, like you guys do organize and like, I just really need some help. Yeah. And she said, Yeah, I'll be there in an hour. And she looked at that. And she like and it Yeah, it took her three hours because like that's how much like stuff I needed to do. It was like, you know how you like say, Oh, I'm just gonna save it for Sunday. And then Sunday comes in you're so exhausted like

Jessica Hartley: 42:10

UK recovering from the week and all the hard work that you put in yeah, like

Nakeya Bennett: 42:15

I didn't have it me to do more work or to do housework. I literally want to just lay here and watch my favorite TV show. And you know, like, yes. So those types of things, asking for help welcoming to help being delegating, more or less. Yeah, kind of do every single thing myself really relying on my team. Yeah.

Jessica Hartley: 42:36

I love that. Thank you. Nikia. I appreciate that so much. And I am receiving and imbibing that message from myself as well. It takes a village to raise children but it also takes a village to survive and, and be successful and you can support and impact the lives of others by delegating and getting help. So thank you Nikias, so much for this conversation. You and I, and so many of my guests, we could talk for three hours. I'm so excited to continue to watch you grow and shine, corporate career entrepreneurial career, and I look forward to having you back on the show soon. It's on all the great things. So thank you for the time to hear. All right, see you soon. And that wraps another episode of hustle grind, shine and reignite. Thank you for listening to another episode of hustle, grind, shine and reignite. If you liked this episode, like, subscribe and share on all your favorite podcasts. I hope you'll tune in to the next episode featuring another amazing and talented professional. In the meantime, Chiang Rai