Faithing It: Wisdom from a ten year entrepreneurial journey
Keshelle Davis
In 2008 Keshelle was at a cross roads. She had just read the book “You Squared” by Price Pritchett which taught her about two risks. The risk of staying small and not fulfilling what it is that you were born to fulfill and the risk of going after what it is that you want and of course not achieving it. She looked at each path and decided that the latter was far more appealing and left her “good government job” to take the leap into entrepreneurship
Keshelle recently celebrated her tenth year in entrepreneurship and through all the rocky roads, broke days, sleepless nights, feeling stuck or unsure of the next step she says she knew God was confirming and ordering her steps. Opening doors and providing favor.
“I think the majority of my journey over these past 10 years was more that than anything else, And overall it was and has been a very rewarding 10 year journey. I do not regret. I've never regretted it, to be honest with you. Even the difficult times. It really just has taught me so much about the process and that's why I'm so passionate about entrepreneurship and helping people who have that desire.”
Though some may see it as a negative quality Keshelle credits her stubbornness as the quality that caused her not to give up on her entrepreneurial career.
During her first year in business her car was repossessed three times. She said,
“That was a very difficult year for me, but I never regretted leaving. I never looked at it from a point of wanting to give up. But it was really a defining year, difficult yes, but defining.”
As a mentor, corporate trainer and entrepreneur coach, Keshelle credits mentorship and faith as her two most potent principles.
“There were two women in particular that provided emotional support when I first started as an entrepreneur and since then mentorship was a huge part of the game. Until this very day, I could not have been or gone or go where I am going without the power of mentorship. I invest heavily into mentorship.”
Her advice is to never do entrepreneurship alone. If not a mentor then she suggests a coach, mastermind class, community or simply to surround yourself with like-minded people.
“Entrepreneurship is not an easy game to play. It can mess with your mind. It can mess with your heart, soul, and even your body. It can stress you out if you're not in the right frame of mind if you don’t have the right guidance and mentorship, so find a mentor.”
As for the principle of faith. Keshelle says faith is not limited to belief in God.
“…but it's a lso a belief in yourself. I tell people all the time I have crazy faith. I have ferocious faith. I operate by faith and it's never failed me. Even the times when I felt I operated in faith and the result didn't work out as I initially planned. There was always, looking back, a purpose towards that action.”
Now you may have read this story and become inspired to take the leap. You may even be wondering “how do I know when it's time to leave my day job?” Well Keshelle says you will just know!
“You always know. It's called a knowing. The Holy Spirit would speak to you. Personally, I always listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and He always tells. And there is no better way I can explain that. If it's something calling you, you owe it to yourself to step out in faith and do it. Listen for that knowing because there's always the right time.”
The flipside of it is, while some may feel that it is the right time, they may feel that it may not be the perfect time. It’s human nature to want all your ducks lined in a row. But Keshelle says,
“It will never be a perfect situation. When I left my job, I knew it was time for me to leave, but it wasn’t a perfect time. I was a single mother. I had no savings in the bank. You know, I still hadn't gotten clear on this business plan. It was just a passion at the time and so it wasn't a perfect time. People tend to wait till “I have money saved or I have this or wait till my children are grown.” There will never be a perfect time. And that's where faith kicks in, when you just believe and you know you heard the Spirit of God. You know it's time for you to leave because you are really believing in His steps. So don't wait for a perfect time to start. Start!”
Q & A.
What can we expect to see from you or what is next for Keshelle?
You know, people always ask me this question. Always! I never know what to say, especially during January because January is that month where I’m still fasting. So while I have my plans and I’ve spoken to three out of my four coaches, who are kind of there to guide me and mentor me to my next level; I always say that I don't know. I will say this, though, when my pastor Apostle Valentino Williams talked about the year being the year of repositioning, I had to go up to him and say to him that it was a confirmation, because all of fall of 2018, that is the word that was coming to me. Reposition. It’s time to reposition. It’s time to reposition my brand. It’s time to reposition my products and services. It’s time to reposition my impact and the location of my impact. And so for me, all I can say in terms of what's next is you’re going to see a lot of repositioning. A lot of new programs or maybe older programs re-positioned, re-invented or packaged/ re-framed in a different way. I'm always mindful of also allowing the Lord to lead. I definitely will keep on the path that I've been on the last 10 years, which is to empower, inspire, impact, to transform peoples’ lives. That's my purpose. So whatever I do it's always connected to that mission. So you just got to stay tuned and see what is coming down the pipeline. I do have some new programs, new things coming out, but I will keep them under wraps until I announce them.
What fear are you overcoming in 2019?
That’s such an interesting question. I had a call with my coach just yesterday and I was telling her my fear and again I'm not a person to have fears per say. I pretty much acknowledge them quickly and overcome them. But you know every level that you are aspiring to go to, you’re going to have fear, because fear is really just an emotion and a belief. There's new beliefs or thoughts around something that you're doing new. And for me, I totally acknowledged my fear with my coach yesterday and that really is, building a team. Although I’ve had team members over the last several years, I am at a place where I am talking with both of my coaches, well all of them, about team building. I am expanding my business and growing it in a way where I definitely cannot do everything alone anymore. I've had team members but my coaches and I are now talking about really developing my leadership skills even more to manage a team of people in order to accomplish things that I’ve written down. My coach said to me ‘Keshelle the things that you plan for 2019, you cannot do it alone and you cannot do it in the way that you've been doing it.’ Although I’ve reached a level of success and I've reached my six-figure goal. I’ve done all of that but it was predominantly myself and a part-time, maybe two part-time people. Now it's definitely time to make a great investment in a team. Now my fear has been managing people. I am looking to bring someone on full-time. I've identified the person. For me taking on someone's full-time salary and managing the process is something that I'm working through with my coach.
From a personal standpoint, my goal is to run a marathon this year. That’s something I have never done. I've been a runner for a couple years but I've never done that, so I'm fearful about what it takes to get to that level from a physical standpoint. Basically the discipline of eating right and being consistent with exercise and all that stuff. So I brought on a coach to help me. As you can see, I speak a lot about coaches and mentorship because I think it's huge when it comes to success.
You know the difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people recognize the fear and they don’t allow that to stop them. They recognize it, they acknowledge it for what it is and they take the steps to overcome that fear, whatever it is. For me it's bringing on coaches to walk me through and guide me through a particular journey. I'm never going to allow myself to be frozen or to become stuck because of fear. And I think that's the difference between persons who ‘want’ to go after their dreams and don't achieve them. They allow fear to talk them into not doing it.