My Journey From Creative To Entrepreneur .
🎬 Episode 11- The Quest for knowledge and structure. 💪🙌🏽🔥
2022 ended with God nudging me in the direction of putting my all into TheStylishPriest and figuring out how I could put in structure to ensure that I started to make consistent revenue.
Just before the year ended, I attended a family friend’s wedding, and she needed help with wearing her corset dress. Now if you know me well, then you know that creating things with my hands, is not exactly my fortè. It is something that will require extra effort on my path.
I can put the looks together, I know exactly what I want, and how I want it to look/come out, but I’m just not the diy girlie. Now, I believe there’s absolutely nothing I cannot learn if I’m truly interested, and I put my mind to it, but I also know where my natural srengths and weaknesses lie.
My default isn’t to use my hands to create things. I am more of a thinker, “a use-my-head/imagination” kind of person. The dreamer/seer. I am a creative thinker. The Creative Head. If you’re looking for the perfect blend of wisdom and supernatural creativity, I’m your girl!
For example, I can have a truly phenomenal picture in my head, but if you tell me to draw or illustrate what I’m seeing/envisioning, then you just want me to make a fool of myself. 🤣😂 😭
The fun fact is that I can draw something that is already drawn. Like if you put a picture before me and tell me to draw it, I might just kill it 💯 or do like a 60, 70, or even 80 over 100. It depends on what it is you’re asking me to draw!
So back to the gist… when there was no one to help her out, I and some other babe volunteered to help, and we ended up doing rubbish. 😂😭 Her makeup artiste, who is her in-law btw, eventually had to come bail her out. I think the initial plan was for her to help her with it though.
Anyway, she came, and then the worst thing happened. She asked who had been doing it before, and my family friend said it was me. I wasn’t ready for the the statement that followed. 😭
She said something like, “and you call yourself a Fashion stylist, ordinary corset, you cannot do.” or something similar. I don’t remember the exact words now, but I know it cut me deep.
She was much older, so I couldn’t say a word. I was just looking! 💔😭
I don’t know who sent me to try to help when I knew it wasn’t something I was great at. Shebi I should have just jejely minded my business? Or used style to leave the room and come back when it was done, so that there won’t be any record that I was there when she needed to get it done? 😂🤣😭
Anyway, that’s how I got hit by unnecessary stray bullet. 😭💔
If it is now that I’ve put so much work into becoming my true, authentic, powerful self, learnt to exchange my weaknesses for my strengths, play a lot more from my place of strength, and know my worth and intrinsic value without a shadow of a doubt, I would probably dust that kind of statement off and move. Because I mean, this person clearly doesn’t know who she’s talking to, and that’s totally fine.
But back then, those words finished me. I think it was the fact that they reiterated my fears and insecurities at the time. They broke me, and shattered what was left of my esteem.
To make matters worse, I got on instagram that day to see StyleTerritory playing from her place of strength, which I believe is her ability to create phenomenal things with her hands, and I just wanted to enter the ground. I remember going on Style infidel and other stylist’s pages that day as well, and ending up feeling like there was no place for me in the industry. I just wanted to run away and say I wasn’t doing anymore. 😂😭
In retrospect, I believe that I needed that tipping point, because it pushed me to go and sit down with God. I cried my eyes out that day. I started to ask God plenty questions.
“How can you say I should run this business when I do not even have the basic skill set it takes to be a Fashion Stylist?” “I know I’m very creative, but all I have is my head. Please show me how to go about this.” 😩😭🥹🤲🏽
At some point, a friend of mine told me to write out all the things I was great at and rate myself from 1–10. I did! I wrote things like face modeling, fashion modeling, fashion styling, content creation, content strategy, creative direction, content writing, O.A.P/Compere, and acting.
I was actually really considering attending the Ebony Life Creative Academy, but when I was done with all my plans, God was just looking at me like, “who is sending you to do all these one that you’re doing?”
So I just stayed where He put me, and started to pray, “please show me what I have in my hands. You are the one that teaches my hands to profit, please help me see. Show me, Abba.” 🥹
I was on the right track. The problem was that I was letting other people who were playing from their vantage point and place of strength dictate what the standard should be for me.
Meanwhile, what I really needed to do was to look inwards at myself and my gifts, as well as the world around me to see what was missing, lacking or needed, then look for a way to bridge that gap.
I was letting external and societal pressures, as well as industry trends determine how TheStylishPriest showed up, because I had no idea that there are two different perspectives on how the industry landscape can influence company strategy.
The structuralist view and the reconstructionist view.
The structuralist view leads companies to focus on competing with each other in existing markets, trying to gain an advantage and grab a bigger share of the market.
This approach prioritizes beating the competition over creating new opportunities and growing the market.
The reconstructionist view on the other hand, encourages managers to think outside the box, create new value, and unlock new demand.
By doing so, companies can create new markets, make existing ones more attractive, and achieve success without competing in a cutthroat environment.
2023 began with me going full throttle… asking questions, doing a lot of research, attending events, jumping on free and paid courses/classes that sounded like something I could use, scrolling through social media looking for something that resonated with what I was trying to achieve/where I was trying to go, reading a lot of books, etc.
A little knowledge here, a little knowledge there, and before I knew it, my mind was getting renewed and transformed and I started to see TheStylishPriest, and business as a whole, in an entirely new and different light!
To be continued in the next episode!
Did you enjoy reading today’s episode? How did it make you feel? Was it helpful? Did you learn anything? what stood out for you? Let me know all of these, and more, in the comments. Also please like, share/repost for more reach!
If you have missed out on previous episodes, you should totally catch up below⬇️
