One reason I wanted to start the Own Your Expertise video interview series is to highlight all the amazing professionals in my network finding their niches and impacting the world. I get so inspired hearing their stories and I hope to bring that inspiration to my audience through these interviews.
Kiva Slade, CEO at The 516 Collaborative, certainly fits this description. Kiva is a business strategist, Online Business Manager, and certified Fix This Next coach.
But beyond talking about how Online Business Managers can help solopreneurs wearing all the hats, spinning all the plates, and doing All. The. Things. take control of the moving parts of their businesses, I also loved chatting with Kiva because her path to becoming an entrepreneur is as winding as mine.
Ever since Kiva was a little kid, she wanted to be two things: a lawyer and a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader. Well, she didn’t end up doing either one, but if you watch the interview, I think it will be obvious how her curiosity, attention to detail, spirit, and enthusiasm for life carried her to where she is today.
Instead of law school, she ended up going to grad school in Public Administration, becoming a Legislative Director for a member of Congress on the Hill, taking time off to be a mom, all before discovering this whole world of online business owners who need her strategy and implementation skills.
Kiva’s path to becoming an expert is exactly the type of story I love to highlight.
I find it fascinating how so many entrepreneurs didn’t begin their careers on the entrepreneurship track. But over the course of years, many of us find ourselves taking the leap.
In the moment, career transitions can feel almost random. For Kiva, she stumbled on the gig economy. For me, I discovered that there are a lot of people out there who need a lot of content. Still, though it feels random in the moment, if I think back on my journey, I can find the thread that weaves all of my experiences together.
One thing that Kiva said during her interview really stuck with me. She said, there’s one piece of advice she shares with everyone, including her kids:
“Don’t neglect any of your experiences because you just don’t realize at that moment…how whatever you learned, whatever you experience, will come back around.”
This rings so true for me and everyone else I’ve seen who has been and still is on that “zigzag” journey. It might not be obvious from where you’re sitting how the pieces of your life and career fit together, but you’ll be able to see it, once you’re standing on top of the mountain looking back at where you came from.
So, as Kiva says, “you may not be the Dallas Cowboy cheerleader you thought you were going to be. But it’s okay and you’re still going to be able to find the way to the things that make you happy.”
Embrace those experiences because all of them contribute to the tapestry of your life.
For more about Kiva’s services and strategies for closing out 2020 on a positive note, check out the interview in its entirety: Own Your Expertise Inteview with Kiva Slade.
Kiva’s info:
Website: https://www.the516collaborative.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kivaslade/