Nakia D. Whittaker-Woody is a multifaceted but servant-hearted person. She was raised an army brat, in a typical nuclear family, just her parents and a sister. She was an excellent all-around student and aspired to be an Interior Designer. Her hobbies included typing up ledgers for her grandfather and making word processing documents for her family just for fun, proud geek. In the fall of 1993, she became pregnant with her first daughter, so she left school for 6 months, then reenrolled at home. Deciding that school could wait, she embarked on the real world by temping at an Insurance Agency, within 6 months she was permanent and found a new passion in administrative work. Within a year, she started a new role, Administrative Assistant to 3 Vice Presidents in a Mortgage Company. It was the big leagues, sink or swim, and swim she did, it gave her even more vigor for the administrative profession. It encompassed all her geek powers, creativity, accuracy, formulas, continuing education and variety made it all super fun. Today, she still works full time as an Administrative Facility Coordinator, while being the CEO of two businesses, a mom and wife. She is certified in several software and serves on the 2022 Advisory Board for the Administrative Professionals Conference.
She started her entrepreneurial journey on a whim, because her youngest was graduating high school, and she is not one to sit still. As a 24+ year administrative professional she wanted something that allowed her to continue to fuel her passion for helping and being creative, so she leaned towards being a Virtual Assistant. As per usual for most people, she Googled it…..5.2 billion results! That was disheartening but not one to give up easily, she persisted, did all the things and setup her business in December 2017, Mrs. Whittaker-Wood VA Services. In January, she got her first client on Thumbtack, YAY! It’s all falling into place, but no! Not properly prepared for entrepreneurship she was taken advantage of it broke her heart. “I QUIT!” 3 months later, like for real what are you doing? “You don’t allow someone to make you feel less than or make you stop doing what you like to do.”
Rewind!
Back to google to get more details and find more entrepreneur resources for women and women of color. Another shocker, not a lot available. Found a Facebook Group that was just for Virtual Assistants, that experience was disheartening and too noisy for me. As a bipolar 1 warrior and ADHD squirrel, digestible content is important to my stability and wellness. I invested in some products and found that it did not propel me, so I left that group and continued my journey to find someone like me. May 2018, Eureka! I found Virtual Assistant Sister Circle, a Facebook Group for Women of Color who wanted to start their Virtual Assistant journey. I dove headfirst into the group, investing in coaching, utilizing co working, and gaining friends that would become actual partners.
Game Changing
So, it wasn’t always so polished and put together. How it started was awful, I could not do video. I would hyperventilate and lose my voice speeding through the content that I tried to memorize and repeat. It was a trip for real, I will have to put that blooper real out later in life, lol. Through repeated video coaching, co-working, and volunteering I was able to become more comfortable, learn my strengths and love the new direction of my life.
In a short time, I moved from intern to Content Manager with interns under me. I also learned that while awesome at social media, I did not like the being on the stage all the time, so decided to not offer that as a service. I decided to stick to what I already knew I loved, administrative tasks. Then there was
the next challenge, when was I going to get my first REAL client and make this money everybody was bragging about.
Mindset
Ever wonder why they say that most businesses fail within 5 years? Nope me either. But I think back to my earlier days and the wondering on why haven’t I got a client yet? How long can I bootstrap this before I give up? Is there something wrong with me? All those questions are centered around a mindset that I had to learn to shift. Oh, and that won’t all the questions, believe me, the money mindset took years and two coaches to somewhat overcome. No one tells you how important investing in yourself is and that mindset can derail even the most confident person. Imposter Syndrome and I were best friends. I could not for the life of me figure out why at work I was a ROCKSTAR but in my own business, I was cowering in the corner when it came to saying what I wanted for my services. There is a difference in being servant-hearted and being taken advantage of, put that on repeat. Your education and experience is what you are charging for and if they value and want the results that only you can provide it comes with a price. The same way their services have a price tag, they should respect you as a fellow business owner who also is offering services, unfortunately its usually not the case. There is a lot of saturation and overseas service providers, take note that I did not use the word “competition”. As women, a challenge that is played on us not necessarily by us is competition, it’s a real sentiment but it does not have to be a negative connotation. In my journey, I have partnered with some of the most remarkable women of color, who are in the same business industry but have a separate “zone of genius” from me that when we get together all the magic happens. So, I refuse to see any of us as competition, we are all on our own journey and eventually we will arrive with whatever lessons we needed to learn.
December 2019, I decided to change that long business name to a simple version of what I wanted to provide my clients. I always had this sticker on my work laptop that said “Keep it Super Simple” so I named my business KISS Virtual Services. The name change allowed for me to expand in case my two daughters wanted to join me in the future and gave me a new start with a new mindset.
I got my first client from the group I was in, she was impressed by my work and asked me to assist her. And then they started to roll in from there, being transparent and helping enabled people to see me even when I was not trying to be visible, creating social proof and brand recognition.
Community
In November 2019, I cofounded a FB Group catering to Women of Color Aspiring Virtual Assistants because the other group closed, and we still felt the need for the type of community. Slowly but surely that group grew organically and today its over 700 women strong. In January 2020 in response to a crazy late night co-working conversation about a slumber party, VA World Conference was born. And in March 2021, I co-created a podcast called Soultiful in response to the pandemic and wanting to give the work from home community a break from reality at least an hour each week. The pandemic brought about so much anxiety for me that I instituted daily co-working with my immediate tribe to help me deal with the isolation of working alone. I was so entrenched with my full-time team that I really missed the interaction when we went virtual in March 2020. I had always had the full-time access to interaction that I never equated virtual to loneliness. This got me thinking about the VA World Conference again. So, in late 2020, I started with the tribe to put it all together, by June 2021, we had our first conference
in the books. The tribe has been instrumental in my growth and recently supported me through the murder of my oldest daughter.
2 Businesses Huh?
So, the accidental entrepreneur became the serial entrepreneur, now my passion was to mentor and support women of color who were at a distinct disadvantage when it came to resources, information, reality, capital, support, and community. I looked at it as a natural extension of KISS Virtual Services and the initial Facebook group, Virtual Assistant Sister Learning. I have spent the last year hashing out business plans, participating in incubators and pitch contests. I am loving what I am creating by showing other women how to dream of their own legacy and having a business instead of a boss. And the idea of creating a whole entrepreneur – mentally, physically, legally, financially- supports my whole soul. COVID just focused me and my endeavors more, showing the world what the Virtual pivot could look like, we were ahead of the game and ready for the influx or clients who needed to pivot. The industry is growing exponentially and forecasted to continue for at least another 5 years. Women are starting business in record numbers, especially women of color. I am here for that.
The adage is true, when you have a passion for what you do it’s truly not work.
Advice
Invest in yourself, avoid the shiny objects of all the systems and software’s, and invest in yourself. I have been blessed to have had coaches that at the time fit my budget and were instrumental in major shifts for me.
Get a Community and Tribe, community as a whole will enrich but your tribe will be your support system that you can cry, rejoice, and commensurate with.
Just start. There is never the perfect time, its better done than perfect, just start.
