Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Sen Kathleen, Founder of Soul In Space, located in Roselle, NJ, USA.

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

The Soul In Space is a Black & Indigenous-centered space that uses education, wellness, and creativity as a means to empower our communities. Currently, we have a digital magazine that we release annually. Each issue, while following a theme and allowing all communities to submit content, does intentionally focus on amplifying the submissions of Black & Indigenous creators. With each issue, we also release merchandise that remains on the site and is available to purchase year-round. The last issue we had was these tote bags, which I have been dying to create. Finally, I offer yoga and reiki services both as a teacher and through a wellness program that aims to decolonize healing and make wellness accessible to us.

Tell us about yourself

The pandemic has been brutal on everyone; however, for me, it was brutal and eye-opening. For myself, truth has been the key to any sort of healing or journey. The most recent truths for myself have been the stories of myself and my family. I admire my mother, Kathleen, a lot. But that admiration turned to a mixed understanding, compassion, sadness, and anger as I started coming to terms with her experience as a Black woman and what that means generationally and how that impacted who she was and even who I am. My family, like many marginalized families, had a lack of access to resources due to our identities, basically.

During the pandemic, I really began to ask myself, why didn’t we have access to things that could heal us? Why don’t families like mine have access to tools that should of or have been ours? In 2020 I became a YA RYT in Hatha and Trauma Informed Yoga, a Reiki Practitioner, and in a month, a holder of an MFA in Creative Writing. All while maintaining my professional career in media. I met some amazing people to add to the amazing people I already knew and had been encouraged and empowered to be authentic, vocal, and a badass.

I gained access to so many things that helped me. However, I can’t help but notice when I am in these rooms, classes, and zooms I am usually one of, or the only, black/native person in the setting. I don’t often see people who look like Kathleen, my family, or my friends. Let alone talk or present like them.

The Soul In Space is really just a projection of something I wanted to exist. A safe space, a community that is able to give the things I was given back to us. Education, Creativity, and Wellness. Essentially knowledge. I’m not an expert; I’m a forever student really just learning and on my own little journey, but I want to share what I do know with people that need it too or people that just want to look around and see others that reflect back to them.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

In my opinion, the biggest accomplishment for me is engagement. Every time we host a call for submissions, it is so exciting and warming to see all of the emails come in. I love and am grateful these artists trust The Soul In Space to share their stories.

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

The hardest thing that has come with being a business owner has to be the feeling of the need to do more. Sometimes it can be intimidating to see how amazing other businesses in your niche are doing. It can make you feel like you’re not doing enough. Sometimes I really wonder, am I even doing this right?

But every business and every person is different. I have to sit down and think about what I want The Soul In Space to be - and how it can best serve our communities with the tools available. That helps ground me when I get caught up.

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

  1. Have a business plan or at least a year plan. It doesn’t have to be perfect, and you can always review it every quarter based on where your business is at the time. But I find having at least a rough outline of what you need/want/will do will keep you on track and have you working towards those things, possibly even earlier than expected.
  2. Be flexible. Having a business, you do need to be firm and steady, but you also want to be able to go with the flow. Things happen, and sometimes we don’t plan for them. Look at how so many businesses had to work around a global pandemic, for example.
  3. Talk about your business. It was hard for me, and sometimes still is, to talk about my business, but how else are people going to know about it if you don’t share? When I have intentionally spoken about the Soul In Space, most times, it has led to receiving a supporter, a connection, and in some cases, an opportunity I didn’t expect.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.soulin.space/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheSoulinSpace/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soulin.space/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesoulinspace

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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