Great Characters of Color - Culture Craft By Imani

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Imani Williams, Founder of Culture Craft By Imani LLC., located in Kennesaw, GA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Culture Craft By Imani LLC is my coaching business. I coach writers, storytellers & creatives on how to add more diversity to their creative projects and to do so with cultural sensitivity. My customers are storytellers who wish to do this well and be a part of our mission to increase and improve BIPOC and other marginalized representations in media. We're in a very exciting transition in the company as we are now expanding into a coaching agency/e-learning platform, allowing people of color & people from other marginalized communities to share their voices and have more influence on their representation in media.

Tell us about yourself

My name is Imani Williams. I was born and raised in New York City and now spend my time equally between Georgia & New York. I started my business as a senior in college in the midst of the pandemic. I kind of stumbled into it, honestly! I started out messing around on Tik Tok, posting videos on whatever I felt like talking about. And then, I gave a video on tips on writing about characters of color. That video went viral & I gained over 10 thousand followers within a day! They loved the content & voiced how much they have struggled to find it. I felt that that was wrong. This topic deserves way more recognition than it does. It deserves to have an entire institution around it. It deserves to be an academic discipline in more prestigious universities. And it deserves to be a source of jobs for professionals of color so that they cannot only have a job they enjoy; they can have more influence over their own representation in media. What started out as a college kid making silly TikTok videos became a dream that I worked every day to make come true. I'm motivated by this dream, but I'm also motivated by the privilege of not only being my own boss and leading a team. It's a big responsibility, but one that I really appreciate. I love learning about how to be a better boss and create a work environment that is healthy for my team.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

My biggest accomplishment was the development of my internship programs. In my first quarter, I was completely on my own. I did well! But I was absolutely miserable! I took on more clients than I could manage, and I struggled fulfilling orders & doing all the marketing on my own. So I put the sales before the marketing because people were spending their money, and I didn't want to let them down. But inevitably, I stopped receiving orders because I couldn't market consistently. I hit a wall and realized that I couldn't do this on my own. I needed a way to delegate. I couldn't afford to hire freelancers to do the work I needed to do. The only way I could delegate was to create internship programs. So, I took a year-long break from marketing and focused all of my attention on building these internship programs. It took a long time; I've had many ups and downs. But now I am in a great place. I have a total of 10 different internship programs developed. Many that help me tremendously with my marketing so that I could handle sales but still get the help I needed. I haven't started marketing consistently quite yet, but I'm ready to start very soon. I'm so excited to put all the systems I created into motion. Through my internship programs, I have also learned so much about what it means to be a manager. I never had any managerial experience before. It was a lot of trial and error. But I am so glad I did it; I've met so many amazing young professionals through my internship programs. Many of whom love the company & the mission. And it makes me so happy to know that they leave the internship program feeling like they learned something valuable that they can take out into the world. Now it's time to bring on board some permanent staff. I'm nervous, but with this experience under my belt, I feel ready and so excited! And I'm very excited to invite some of the previous interns to come back to the company.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

No one prepared me for the emotional aspect of being a business owner. And I think it's because there's no way to prepare. You have to fail your way to the top, even though failing sucks. You have to put your faith in something others may not believe in. You have the weight of your entire company on your shoulders. I needed to build myself into a person that could withstand that weight. I started daily habits to get stronger. To other entrepreneurs, if you have emotional baggage, get ready to start working through it. Be ready to sit down with your demons and your traumas because leaving them unchecked will hurt your business. And your business isn't all about you; it's about your clients, your team, and the mission that unites all of you together. So it's your responsibility to deal with the things that hold you back; you have others counting on you. It's not an easy process, but it's worth it. I feel at peace with my past, present, and future because of the work I've done to heal. I still have healing to do, but I'm confident I can do it. And I'm willing to do it for Culture Craft and everyone that cares about it.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

1. Take every opportunity to learn - Go to the library, and you will be amazed at the number of books you'll find on business, marketing, business finance, management, and sales. And you can borrow them for free. Libraries also tend to have an online directory of e-books & audiobooks you can borrow for free from your phone. Use Youtube. If you want to take courses, use LinkedIn Learning; it taught me everything I know, and I'm still learning more from them every day. Be wary of Business Gurus who claim they will change your business forever (for a few easy payments of $10,000). They're just gonna tell you the same things you can be learning for free.
2. Look into creating internship programs - You don't want to do this alone, at least not forever. Internship programs can get you to help with your business at 0 costs to you. And if you do it right, you'll meet some incredible people that you can hire to stay on in your company.
3. The company you keep will affect your business - You want to surround yourself with peers who push you to do your best. Not all of your friends have to be entrepreneurs, but if they aren't pushing themselves to be winners, then they won't push you to be either. You may say that you don't need anyone to push you, and that's a valid point. But being a winner is a lot easier if you have a lot of winners around you. Just a conversation with one can change your business forever.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://culturecraftbyimani.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100075701727609
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imani_the_writer/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CultureCraftByI
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/imani-williams-322878166/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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