Day 327: Nikki Brown
“… life has changed, you know? The world has changed, or maybe I just found and placed myself into the part of the world that was more me. People that are entrepreneurs and just believe in doing things a different way …”
.
.
.
Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Nikki, for agreeing to be part of this Project, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?
Nikki Brown: Well, Toni, I wanted to take an opportunity to thank you so much for allowing me the opportunity to be involved in this Project and getting me acclimated to doing these interviews. I greatly appreciate that.
I guess for me … I’m Nikki Brown, obviously, and the primary roles that I identify with are, you know, I’m an entrepreneur, I’m a mother, I’m a partner, a friend, a sister, a daughter, and an auntie – and I say that very endearingly. That’s one of my primary roles in my life is being an aunt, and I really … I relish that.
When it comes down to business, my character, my business character, my alter ego is as the Atlanta Assistant, and that is a role that I have come to enjoy and come into in my professional world.
Toni: Well fantastic, and it’s a pleasure to have you, Nikki, and let me ask you – when you think about the word inspiration, who do you think you inspire, and how does that happen?
Nikki: Well, there are two aspects to most people. We tend to have our personal and our professional sides, and when it comes to me personally, I definitely know and notice that I inspire my family a lot. I’m the only girl on my mom’s side, and I’m the oldest. So my family has always sort of looked to me for certain things, and I guess that’s because I totally embrace that role. I embrace, you know, being the older child. I embrace being the daughter. I have a very natural caretaking and nurturing type of spirit and personality.
And so my family, you know, is always inspired by the way I live my life and how much I enjoy living life and how I don’t allow circumstances and different things to impact me, you know, too intently. We all have things that impact us, but life in and of itself is very important to me, and I tend to share that with my family.
Equally as much, I’ve noticed in my life that people, the people that I encounter professionally, you know, my friends, are just totally inspired by my energy and my attitude and my caring and genuine, you know, real personality and just how I am with them. And I don’t think I realized that as much until I got older. I didn’t really … everything I did for me was pretty natural. It was just a part of who I was and who I am. But as I got older and began to understand, you know, life better and how things worked and operated, I began to notice how much who I was was impacting other people and the different changes that I imparted upon them.
And really, it was all about just being who I was and not being ashamed of, you know, where I came from, the things that I experienced. I was totally okay with sharing everything. I’m learning – I shouldn’t even say I had to learn – I’m actually learning that it’s okay to step back a little bit and, you know, get kind of filled up before I give it all out because I get so excited about opportunities in life. And anything I did I want to give it to someone else, I want to share it with someone else, and so I’m happy I guess to have that kind of spirit and to be afforded the opportunity to do that.
Toni: When you find yourself getting that type of feedback and knowing — whether it’s from your family or friends — that based on how you live your life and also the way that you work people find that inspiring, how do you think that also helps people to explore their own potential?
Nikki: Well, I think it definitely … it shows them that, you know, despite your circumstances that who you are and what you can be is in you, and then it’s sometimes not even really up to you. I really believe in divine intervention. I believe in God, you know, and so what we have to let people know or what people understand with regards to their potential is who you are is who you are, and the things that you go through, there’s always a positiveness in it.
You know, if we stick to the basic principles, if you stick to love and caring and, you know, things that are good and things that are right, when you keep your focus on that, then you realize that everything else was just a part or a plan for you to get there. And by sharing that with people and thinking enough about the fact that people are looking at me … you know what, it’s about accepting that responsibility for me as well.
You know, early on, as I said, I accepted the responsibility that there was a reason I was a firstborn child. There was a reason that I was the only girl. There was a reason that, you know, I care the way that I do or that, you know, people call me a mother figure sometimes, even as young as I am and all of those things. Understanding that reason and then being open enough and transparent enough to let people know, “Listen, nobody’s perfect, don’t be ashamed of anything you’ve ever been through or anything that you’ve ever done. Learn how to let those things go and find your potential. Who are you? What do you like to do? And whatever it is that you want to do, guess what? You can do it and you can be it, and you can have fun living life.”
I’ve sort of created an acronym within my company, within my own development for the word “life,” and for me that’s Learning, Inviting, Fulfilling, and Engaging – whether it’s your passions, your life, whatever it is, that’s the philosophy that I’m trying to live by and trying to, I guess … what’s the word I’m looking for? Trying to …
Toni: Well you’re mentoring that, isn’t it? I mean, you’re not only living it, but you’re also mentoring it.
Nikki: Exactly. Thank you for that word, too, Toni, that is exactly it. I’m attempting to mentor it to people, yes.
Toni: Ah, that’s fantastic. So what inspires you?
Nikki: I’m sorry, but life, definitely … LIFE as an acronym, life in terms of living. I am just inspired by life, just being here every day, and people. But if I go a little bit deeper, I think what inspires me is the feeling of helping other people and that feeling of being needed and being appreciated as well. Although appreciation isn’t the key for me, it really isn’t, but I think if I’m being really transparent and understanding, I love that. I love knowing that, you know, I touched someone’s life or I helped them to do something, or you know, they were sad today but they’re happy tomorrow and things like that.
I really and genuinely am inspired by helping people. It is just something that I enjoy. You know, if I could … people say — and it’s not rocket science — just if you could do anything in the world and not get paid for it, what would you do? And for me, it would be, you know, going through the world helping people and exploring life and, you know, just traveling here, there, and fixing little projects and people and doing things and motivating people and talking to people. That’s what I would do, really.
Toni: Well, so therefore, you really are absolutely driving with your passion, aren’t you?
Nikki: I am. Yes.
Toni: Are there certain tools or resources that you tend to use when you’re looking for inspiration?
Nikki: You know what? I do. I use tons of tools, actually. I’m an avid reader, so I’m one of those people that, you know, I probably over-resource myself at times, but I read everything just about, or I pick it up with the intentions of reading it or giving it to someone else. Because when I go out into the world and when I go out into life, I really … I’m never really just looking for me. I’m always looking at something for what it can do to impact someone else, so I read a lot.
I listen … you know, I do a lot of self-help. I watch a lot of different shows. I attend, you know, a plethora of events. I want to be here. I want to be there. I want to know why people do what they do. I want to know in doing what they do, how can it help someone else? Do they need help with what they’re doing?
And I understand that as an individual person, I can’t do that, but my biggest goal, you know, on a simple level is to assist in the world. So if I can create circumstances and opportunities to employ other people, that’s something that I’m working towards and hoping to do, you know, to change the economy. If I can offer opportunities to children or people that have not been afforded that opportunity, I want to create the way and the circumstances to do that.
So I tap into resources a lot. I really … I really just tap into everything that seems to look like it has something to give back or something to give out. That’s what I do.
Toni: When you find yourself thinking about would you have ever started a business and what did that look like for you, where did you get the courage to do that?
Nikki: It was … I think starting a business for me became necessary. When I think back, for me, and I don’t want to go back too far — I know that these interviews are only 15 minutes long. But in reality, going really far back to just the world or the environment that I was born into, there were so many challenges for me, Toni. I mean, many. And I’m sure there’s so many other people that those challenges have happened to as well, but it would take a book to really go into my true life story and all of the tragedies and triumphs and tribulations that I’ve been through.
And so when it came to working for people and just working in general, no matter, I was always a hard worker. I mean, my work ethic is phenomenal, but life’s challenges and the reality of the way I grew up and just my personal world for me, it was so impactful for me. One, because I care. You know, I’m a caring person, I believe in my family, I believe in doing the right thing.
And so because of that, I could never pull away from taking care of those responsibilities which were given to me at an early age and focusing enough on, you know, someone’s company or the way that I … I worked hard, you know, but I could never change or alter the things that would pop up for me.
I mean, it was just my reality, you know? I could never be on time consistently. I could never give them the commitment that they wanted, because in order for me to commit to them, then they had to commit to understanding who Nikki Brown really was and where she came from and what her responsibilities were outside of work.
And then, being as intellectual as I was and, again, I think it’s just a gift from God, I’ve been this way since a little girl – I was that little girl that could miss school, you know, get kicked out of school because again I had a lot of different things going on with me when I was younger. But I could go right back and pass a test or still knew more than anybody that was in the classroom. So it was this counter … and I don’t know if it’s ‘counterintuitive,’ if you can help me with that word – but I had these different battles going on within myself. I knew that I had to be successful because it was like inevitable. Anything else was … it just didn’t work for me. No matter what my trials were, I was the type that “I have to go to school. I have to finish this. I have to do that.”
But then I had all these crazy trials that were going on, and then one day, you know, I came to a couple of understandings. One was the only way I could get the real freedom of not having to always open up and share everything about me personally was I had to work for myself, you know? The only person that was really going to understand who I was was me. That way, I didn’t have to be somewhere consistently for a long-term basis for someone without that problem popping up, you know?
I’m one of those people … and that’s probably what I like. I’m very good, you know, short-term and intense. And not that I can’t do anything long term, but I mean if I step back and really look, I did great when someone needed me for a week or two here, and then I could stop what I was doing and go back and take care of my family or do things like that.
But when someone wanted me somewhere at a time … back then, if you remember, it wasn’t about being an entrepreneur. It wasn’t about being your own self. It was about fitting into a mold. It was about … you worked for a company, you worked for them for years, they judged you on did you have a degree, were you somewhere long term, and it never mattered how many things you accomplished in the meantime. What mattered was “Why were you there only a year? Why were you there six months? What happened?” And so you found yourself explaining, you know, all of those things, and it was like they only looked at, I don’t know, the negative side for me.
And now life has changed, you know? The world has changed, or maybe I just found and placed myself into the part of the world that was more me. People that are entrepreneurs and just believe in doing things a different way, you know … but that’s sort of … and I hope I answered the question.
Toni: You did. And what I’m hearing, Nikki, from you is that really it’s all about … it’s really all about service. Whether it was … and pushing through, you know, and a drive, and that’s what I’m hearing, and that’s what you are inspiring people with by showing that tenacity and that drive, but also fighting through your own challenges. Because I can only imagine how difficult those challenges were.
And that’s the takeaway for me with your interview is listening to what you’ve gone through and just saying, you know, you’ve got to keep moving, don’t you? I mean, that’s kind of what you’re saying. “I’m just going through it.” So it’s amazing. I think you have a great gift, and I’m really happy to have you be part of this Project.
The final question is, how do you explore your own potential? And you did answer this a little bit, but can you give some examples of what you do to explore your own potential in the final moment of this interview?
Nikki: Wow. I … you know, to keep it pretty simple, Toni, I follow my heart. I follow my heart, and I believe in divine intervention and divine connections. I believe there’s a reason that I’m talking to you today. There’s a reason that I was on that call at the time that I was. There’s a reason why we meet up or connect with people at different points and different moments in my life.
And so when I get to a certain point or when I meet certain people, I get that feeling. I take that feeling, and if it’s a positive feeling, I embrace it. I embrace it to understand that that’s what I needed for a push for that day or that moment. And some of those relationships are longstanding, some of those relationships or moments only impact me, you know, for that moment.
But it also … excuse me, I’m sorry … it helps me to explore my potential by following my heart and going where I’m sort of directed or sort of sent, you know, outside of my comfort zone. Because that’s when I meet people and tend to engage with people or things that take me and push me to get to that next level, that next moment, that next thing that I have to get to.
Toni: Well, Nikki, I think that’s a great point to conclude your interview, because that is what you’ve done. And I know that there was a bit of hesitation about the interview for you, but listening to you and hearing how you do push forward and how much you’ve accomplished and staying true to yourself is really the key, and that’s a great message to send around the world. And I cannot thank you enough for being part of the Get Inspired! Project.
Nikki: Thank you again so much, Toni, for having me. I greatly appreciate it, and again I look forward to our ensuing relationship.
Toni: Take care, Nikki.
Nikki: Thank you.
___________________________________________________________
For more information about Nikki Brown: www.TheAtlantaAssistant.com, www.Twitter.com/TheATLAssistant
.
Post Comment