Seeking permission kept me at square one
So, yep, I was that person who bounced from place to place and from person to person seeking permission. To do what? And where did that get even get me?
Today, I can proclaim “pay me $200 and let me pass “Go,” but that mindset is fairly new…and I’m still undergoing a wild thought expansion. Allow me to explain.
In 2014, I found a buried treasure. You’re probably thinking like something out of a Hollywood movie set. So, no, it was not like the kind marked by an “x” on papyrus that was unearthed in some waterside cave. Let’s move on…we’ll circle back to this in a bit.
In 2018, I really started digging. Okay, you may be trying to picture a lady scouring through the garage for shovels, kneepads and gardening gloves. Just stop. It wasn’t that kind of dig.
In 2020, yeah, the pandemic year, my team hit the jackpot. Woot Woot!
Okay, just as we’re on the cusp of current events about my life and business, I need to draw you back to 2002, for a quick second. That’s the year I really started out on my entrepreneurship journey. I was living in Maryland, married and child-free and in a career making money that many people would give anything to have. In any bit of free time, I was planning how I could open a skating rink (hey, everyone has their own stress outlet, skating is mine). The local rinks were fine, but I knew I could compete with the brilliant ideas floating in my brain. I’d thrown these ideas up on paper (you can thank Raquelle “Rocki” Harris for that imagery) and there was no doubt in my mind that everything would go according to plan. My husband would be the DJ and Security, my oldest nephew would monitor the skaters on the rink and help out exchanging shoes for skating boots. Me? I’m better at supervising, so I’d be strolling through the rink checking in on the people, places and things. Since I didn’t want to be captive at the door, taking entrance fees and skate rentals, that meant that I’d have to learn how to hire people. No biggie.
Only God knows how many notebooks I filled up with all of these ideas, potential locations, vendors, suppliers, prizes…the works. One notebook stood out, though. It was a red college-lined spiral notebook, probably from Wal-Mart…probably from my nephew’s school supplies. All I know is that that red notebook was my golden key to unlock the exit door from employment to entrepreneurship. By 2005, I was still working full-time and still releasing my stress on Friday nights at someone else’s skating rink.
And here’s why.
By 2005, I was exhausted. Not from working. Not from window shopping for my future skating rink. Not from being Mom to a very active toddler. I was exhausted from seeking permission to follow my heart and gut instinct into business. I was mentally drained from being told “No” by the people I thought would naturally support me because of a ring on our fingers…and because of blood relations.
Here’s the deal. If you are curious about unlocking your exit door and leaving the luxury of a paycheck every two weeks and walking through that door of full-time entrepreneurship, self-employment and business ownership, it starts with you.
Remember me back in 2014? I found the buried treasure. That means that I received what I love to call a “private screening.” That private screening was dreaming about the name of my future business, the logo — which was a soaring eagle, the company colors — blue and yellow…and even receiving my nickname, The Small Business Cheerleader. I believe that it was all divine…and right on time.
Fast forward to 2018, where I started to uncover the items that I needed to be in business for myself full-time. Full-time employment or full-time entrepreneurship? That was a choice several years in the making. I chose me in 2018. I retired from a 21-year career and bet on myself. I won. I win every time. The wins come in freeing myself from seeking validation and permission to grow my business from anyone other than Tisha Hammond or Jesus the Christ.
However, the wins were smaller than I’d dreamed about. There was one other item to uncover. I had to replicate myself. No, not replicate. I had to network, build relationships, and recruit a team of people across many industries and communities. In 2020, the Ascent Small Business Promotion, LLC family hit the jackpot. We won. We saw cash flowing in to the company like never before…yes, even in a pandemic year. As soon as I hired employees, sales grew, the marketing approaches improved and I was able to de-stress knowing that qualified team members were growing the company with me. That’s a win.
In 2021, I still have the red notebook and I continue to fill up new notebooks with ideas from my team. We’re in this together now. I remember though, that the first step was mine to take. I fell, I failed, I stumbled. I wanted to quit, but did not quit on myself. Today, I help entrepreneurs start their own businesses. I haven’t met one yet who wants to start a skating rink; however, s/he/they are in my future, I’m 100% positive about that.
So, when your family, friends, colleagues and neighbors, church family and associates do not immediately support your business ideas or your brand, you hold your high and you remember that God gave you a “private screening” and that you are walking in your shoes and that your next step, even if it’s your first step, doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to make progress.
Be blessed. Be encouraged. And let’s mind our businesses, together.
