Do you want to transition from employee to consultant? Do you want to know the best exit strategies for doing so? In this episode, Dr. Nika White shares her experiences building a successful consulting business and what it took her to make such a transition. She’s here to help many people who are just starting to figure out how to take control of their lives by leaving their corporate roles in favor of building their own business. Tune in now and learn the best from the best!
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In this episode, I’m very excited to have Dr. Nika White join us. Nika, welcome.
Thanks so much. I appreciate the opportunity to be here to share with your audience.
You are an author, a columnist, a speaker, and a consultant. You’re also the Founder of Nika White Consulting, where you provide strategic diversity and inclusion training and services for your clients. Some of those clients include Phillips, the University of South Carolina, the Society of Diversity, and many others.
I’m looking forward to our conversation. I want to explore and have you share more of how you got to where you are, the lessons learned along the way, and some of the best practices that our readers can also take and implement into their own consulting businesses. Why don’t we get started at the beginning or at least earlier days for you? Before you became a consultant and launched the business, what were you doing? Take us back. What was your life like before consulting?
My background is in marketing communications. I spent a number of years working very specifically in that space. I enjoyed it. It was always on time, with one budget and strategy, but I enjoyed the dynamics and the fast-paced nature of that type of industry. I remember that at the time, I was working for a large advertising agency that was based in Greenville, South Carolina, where I’m headquartered.
At the time, this particular agency also had a New York office. I was in between both offices and I remember sitting in my office one day thinking about how much I enjoyed this work of advertising, marketing, and communications. I thought to myself, “Why aren’t there others that look like me as a Black woman?” I’m taking advantage of this career path, and I couldn’t let that go.
As I was able to visit the New York office, I noticed that there was a good bit of diversity within the workforce within that office, but I also was keenly aware that the advertising capital of the world, New York, was also challenged by a diverse workforce. Not being able to create one, so much so to where the attorney general was knocking on the doors of different agencies, saying, “You have to diversify. This is not a suggestion. It is a mandate. We’ll be back in six months to see how you’re doing.”
No one was paying attention to Greenville, South Carolina, and that market is not known for having this rich, deep well of opportunities very specific to marketing communications or advertising. I couldn’t let that go, though. I knew that part of our charge as a marketing firm is to be smart marketing partners to our clients whose consumer constituencies represent diverse America. I thought, “Why are we not doing more around this?”
I was even more interested in the fact that the BHAG at the time for the agency, the Big Hairy Audacious Goal, was to become the most admired agency in the Southeast. If this is what we are striving for, I kept questioning, “Why are we not doing more to lean into greater intentionality and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion?” I remember going to the President/CEO who was very hands-on at the time and very accessible. I shared a similar conversation with my thoughts and curiosities. He listened intently. He asked a lot of thought-provoking questions.
Companies don't necessarily put their resources toward building and establishing a strong brand. They usually think they can do everything on their own. Click To TweetAt the end of that conversation, one of those questions was, “Nika, I do believe there’s an opportunity here and we’re going to do it. You’re going to lead it. Now, tell us how.” That was the start of realizing this connection point that I had to this work of diversity, equity and inclusion, and belonging. It ended up spiraling into me serving in that capacity for this particular organization that I was working for. I went on to do it for a couple of other organizations and eventually, decided to matriculate towards entrepreneurship and the rest is history.
2017 is when you started your consulting business. Why at that point? What was going on that made you decide, “I should now launch and create a company,” and not only continue to go in-house, applying your experience and expertise as you had done for other companies at that point?
I had a very specific exit strategy once I realized that I wanted to be in this space full-time. I was working in the space, but I was doing it for organizations. Specifically, when I immediately transitioned from the workforce into entrepreneurship, it was when I was working for a large chamber in South Carolina. It was a newly created position at the time.
There was nowhere to go but up. I was able to create it and build it from the ground up. During that time, I created a lot of great initiatives and impacts that many people were taking notice of. When you work for a chamber of commerce, you are automatically in the circle of these very influential business and community leaders. I built many relationships, and I was able to create great success in the space of DEI to where people started tapping me to help support them in their journey.
Once that was happening on a pretty frequent basis, I started to say, “I need to probably consider an exit strategy.” That’s precisely what I did. Also, when you think about being in a chamber of commerce, you are working with entrepreneurs all the time. One of the programs that I launched is called the Minority Business Accelerator. It’s where you take high-potential minority-owned firms, and you put them through an ecosystem where they’re receiving targeted training and technical assistance.
You help connect them to key procurement leaders for potential contract opportunities. It’s all about scaling capacity building. As I was helping businesses navigate that process and creating success, I thought, “I need to apply this to some of the talent and the skillsets and the interests that I have.” That’s precisely what I did.
Nika, you decided to go on your own. What were your first steps? How did you get your first few clients in the door for the new consulting business once you made that decision?
I was fortunate in that I had a great history with the chamber that I worked for. The leader at the time said, “Nika, we realized that this is probably not your final stop. I realize you probably want to go fly and be free and take your skillsets on a larger scale. We want to support you in that, but we also want to make sure we’re building upon the equity that you have already established within our organization around this body of work. We want to become your first anchor client.”
Even to this day, many years later, I am still serving and leading all of the chambers. Greenville, South Carolina’s diversity, equity, and inclusion work. It gave me a great launching pad. I didn’t have to worry about day one needing to close the deal. I was able to focus on building the infrastructure and thinking about, what business model made sense for me. Also, crystallizing my why or why I wanted to do this work. Slowly but surely, other clients started to come and be added to our roster. It was not in an easy way. It was a lot of hard work, but I definitely appreciated the runway that I had with building up my business.
It sounds like that’s a great scenario that many consultants would love to be in when their early stage, their first client comes from a relationship that they had. From a study that we did, we found that in 50% of consultants, their first client is a former employer. Maybe not necessarily the one they just left, but someone that they’ve worked with in the past. It sounds like your case was the same. You mentioned that it was hard work and that your next clients were not as easy to come by as that first one. Take me through in a little bit more detail, what were you doing from a marketing perspective to get clients and build a pipeline in the early days?
When you were a consultant, particularly at the time in which I launched Nika White Consulting because I was a solopreneur, I did not necessarily start out with the team that I have now so I was my brand. Coming from a background in marketing communications, I was able to leverage all of those skillsets to help set myself up and create that level of differentiation. I am big on branding and communications. I committed myself to being visible and a thought leader, establishing myself as a thought leader.
I was writing tons of content and articles. I was speaking at different engagements and it was also when I started writing my books. I did all that I could to help establish that level of credibility and voice of authority in my space. That included also getting certifications, but talking about the clients that I was working with and the type of results and success stories that were coming from that.
Also, relying on all my relationships. I mentioned that my time and work prior to launching my business that I was working on my exit strategy. Part of that exit strategy was building and cultivating those relationships. It became easy for me to build up a clientele. Once you get a good handful, now you have a story. You have a narrative that you’re controlling and that you’re talking about. That continues to attract other clients. I will say that I’m a big fan and a big advocate of strong branding and marketing. I do think that it helped to serve my organization well as I was trying to get established.
A lot of people connect a brand to a logo or colors. When you say a strong brand, specifically, what does that mean to you?
To me, a strong brand, the logo, and the mark, all of that is only a sliver of it. There is so much more that goes into it. It’s how you go to market, how you present yourself, how you sell your value proposition, and how you create opportunities for you to be visible and be in the mindsets of those whom you’re trying to reach and attract. Also, it takes consistency. It takes being very clear with your messaging strategy, and it takes, again, this level of really wanting to make sure that you are positioning yourself to be placed positively in the eyes of those whom you want to attract.
Is there an example of something that you said or did in the early days or maybe even now that you think is a good example of branding, and maybe how could that not be as effective? Is there a way to make it, “Here’s how most people would do it. Here’s how I do it, and it’s better? ” Can you provide people with a bit more context and detail about what that looks like?
I have a background in marketing communications. When I launched my business, it was important to launch with a strong brand. I partnered with the marketing communications firm that I had a lot of history and relationship with. We talked through, “Who is your target audience? What are the key products and service offerings that you’re going to provide? What is going to be those differentiators? What colors represent that message?”
Through that strategic process, we were able to develop the brand, which is what I’m referring to in this instance as the more traditional brand, the logo asset, and your communication strategy. However, from there, it also was about what are some other ways to help reinforce this brand. That’s where it certainly required me to think about what spaces I found myself in and what credentials I was able to add to my name so that I could establish myself as a credible voice of authority in this space.
Having a strong brand, logo, and mark is only a sliver of business building. You must also know how to market, present yourself, sell your value proposition, create opportunities, and be consistent. Click To TweetA lot of companies, when they launch, don’t necessarily put their resources toward building and establishing a strong brand. They think, “I can do it on my own.” Because of my background in marketing communications, I value the power of branding and marketing communications so much to where that was never a question for me. It was almost part of the foundation before launching. That’s one of the things that I often tell businesses. Even if you can’t go and invest a ton of money, at least make sure you have your foundation staple information in assets that you can leverage. That consistency does play a big role.
With all the consultants that we work with, we try and focus on getting that foundation in place around, “Who is your ideal client called ideal client clarity? What’s your magnetic message that you’re going to use to get their attention and interest?” They’re going to have them wanting to have a conversation with you. Your strategic offer is figuring out what are the right offerings, services, products, and the mix that will align and resonate with them.
Also, the actual marketing engine. How are you going to go to market and what is that going to look like? There’s a lot of alignment in that. I’m interested to know, with all the marketing and the thought leadership-building activities, everything that you did to build a pipeline, and create more visibility and awareness for you and your brand, in the early stages, what worked the best? What would you say worked the least or didn’t generate any results? Any type of surprising things or what do you see was the best and worst in terms of effectiveness?
The best was the strong and consistent branding. I’ll give you another example, too. When I was working on my exit strategy, that’s when I also started writing a book because I was told by mentors and I researched it for myself. If you want to become established as an expert in your space, one of the ways to do that is to publish a book, go to market, and let that book be able to help position you in different spaces where you may not have the opportunity to be in.
When I wrote my book, I was so intentional about the title of the book, so much so to where my first book is entitled The Intentional Inclusionist™, and that is a big part of my brand. I had The Intentional Inclusionist trademarked. Throughout the years, there are people that will see me and encounter me, and sometimes, I’m referred to as The Intentional Inclusionist. It has become a permanent fixture of my brand, and that helps create a level of differentiation, especially when there’s a lot of noise in my space right now.
There are many people that overnight are self-proclaimed experts and practitioners in the DEI space because there was so much opportunity. It’s because many organizations, particularly in the summer of 2020 after the murder of George Floyd were paying attention. They felt that now this is a need for us to not sit on the sidelines but to engage in conversations to help us understand where we need to sit within this broader work of racial justice.
That was something that worked well. If I had to think about something that didn’t work well, I probably would have been a little bit more intentional about not trying to be all things to all people. Especially when you’re starting out, you are trying to build up your clientele. Even the things that you can say yes to because you can do it, you may not be saying yes to. I quickly had to realize that.
I also had to realize that while I started out with the vision of being a solopreneur that the marketing was working, and all the things were working to position me in the mindsets of those with which I wanted to partner with so much so that I reached a crossroads where I had to make a decision, “Are you going to grow? If you’re going to grow, you can’t clone yourself. What else are you going to do to be able to build the capacity that’s needed to continue on this journey?” I had not thought intently about the long term. I was thinking more about the immediate future. If I had taken the time to chart out more of a longer-term plan, I probably would be a little bit further ahead than where I am now.
I want to get into a little bit more around the company structure, your team members, and how you’ve thought about growth. Before we do that, looking at your website, you list services from consulting, coaching, training, and facilitation. Can you give a rough breakdown of what percentage of your businesses each one of those? Walk us through training, consulting, coaching, and facilitation. What’s the split in terms of revenue and the majority of the services you’re delivering for people?
While there are a number of services, I often say that our services fit into two primary buckets. One of which is DEI strategy work and that could be a myriad of things. Strategy work could be the research or assessment which gives us evidence-based data to be able to form a strategy. Many different things fall under that. I even consider the strategy work, the direct consultative aspect, and the coaching.
The second bucket would be instructional design and curriculum development. It’s a variety of content areas that fit under the broad umbrella of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. It is designing those learning experiences and facilitating them. We’re pretty balanced. We are about 50/50. We see clients with needs equally across both of those categories.
Something else that’s important about my business model is that while I will take on clients that are looking for a learning and development type of experience, I believe we are a full-service boutique consultancy. The learning experience which is going to create awareness and help deepens people’s understanding of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging both in theory and practice is only part of the story.
I come from the persuasion that in order for organizations to truly transform where DEI is fully embedded and operationalized, it also will require strategy because you have to look at systems, policies, procedures, and culture. A part of how in which I sell the services and I talk about how they work together has worked well for us because clients do want sustainable impact and not only some simple tactics that are going to create a momentary type of success. While the services are separate, they all work in tandem.
Are there any big changes you’ve made to what you offer? If you roll a clock back, have you introduced any new offerings or stopped offering something? How have things potentially changed, if at all, in the makeup and what you’re providing with your services?
We saw a significant shift in our clientele. We started to notice it increasingly around 2019 and 2020. What we saw is that organizations were moving from this surface approach to DEI to having custom needs and wanting to tailor fit solutions to match their organizations. When you think about that, you no longer can provide a bowl or plate type of product or service. You have to make sure that you are becoming an extension of your client’s teams and understanding their culture, and their pain points.
The shift came in, not so much in what we do, but more about how we do it. That’s where the customization does make a difference. We consider ourselves a boutique consultancy. For us, what that means is there’s no one size fits all approach. There are very few off-the-shelf products that we can make available because we don’t believe that it is going to serve our clients best. We want to align the solutions with the challenges and specific needs of organizations.
What about your fees? Have there been any changes in your pricing strategy?
No, they have incrementally gone up, but when you’re starting out as a consultant, sometimes you were relying on letting the market guide you in terms of how to price your products and your services. Eventually, you begin to build up your network of others who are in the space and you begin to share. You begin to be a part of mastermind groups and you become smarter. Certainly, our pricing structure has evolved over time.
When starting as a consultant, sometimes you let the market guide you on how to price your products and services. Eventually, you begin to build up your own network. Click To TweetI will say this though. I’ve never been a big fan of hourly fees. When clients will approach us, “What is your hourly fee for X?” We tend to respond in ways like, “We don’t have hourly fees. Our fees are based on the solutions.” That’s so important because, for many consultants, we can find ourselves getting shortchanged and not fully capitalizing on the value that we deserve. It’s because the time that it takes to provide thoughtful solutions to our clients is not only about that moment, that half hour or hour of conversation.
It is about all of the learning, the skillset sets, and the social capital that you’ve been able to establish. Also, the intellectual capital you’ve been able to establish in order to arrive at that place of being able to give those smart solutions. I tend to schedule or design our fee structure based on what solution are we able to provide, which is critical.
When you talk about increasing your fees, is that always only with new clients, or have you ever been in a situation where you’ve had a client that’s been with you for a period of time? You now decided that you’re going to be increasing fees, and therefore, the fees with that existing client would also increase, or is it only with new clients?
No, it’s been both. The new client that we have right now is in the process of evaluating our fees and preparing for planning for 2023. There could be some fee changes there. It’s with new clients. What we like to do though is be very communicative with our clients. We like to let them know if fees are going to change and if it’s during the timeframe of their existing contract, we will honor the fees which we originally negotiated.
However, if there’s a phase two approach, in which a lot of our clients or they do matriculate towards phase 2 or phase 3, we will make them aware of that well in advance so that they can plan accordingly. It’s not uncommon at all for the scope of work to change when you’re already in the midst of the relationship. Consultants have to be smart about providing some layers that are built in for you to revisit those conversations where necessary.
When you’re communicating to an existing client, “The fees will be increasing for the next piece of work or in future work you’re going to be doing with them.” What language are you using? How are you bringing that to the table when a client is used to paying X, and now, all of a sudden, they’re going to still get a similar value and deliverables, but you’re charging more than you were before? How do you communicate, or what have you found in terms of any best practices for communicating that effectively?
It’s providing that runway so that people can get adjusted to whatever the new pricing structure is going to be but then, equally important, at least from my practice, when we increase our fees, it is because either we have invested in new tools, new software and new learning to where it’s justifiable. I think about our Qualtrax system, which is a pretty pricey instrument tool for research. We did not start out with that as a tool. Our fees commiserate with not having a tool as robust.
The language is dictated by what is the reason for the increase. Sometimes it’s just we haven’t increased our rates in the past four years, so it’s time for us to do so. That’s also understood by most clients. It’s making sure that you never fail to articulate the value that you’re bringing so that if you do have to create a situation where you’re now in conversation around a pricing increase, you can clearly articulate the why behind that.
At this time, you have a firm model. You have about twelve or so people on your team. Who is the first hire when you decide, “I’m not going to be a solo consultant any longer? I need to increase my capacity to be able to make a bigger impact and grow, and so on and so forth. What were the first hire and first person you brought in?
In year one, I quickly realized probably within six months that I needed to have, at minimum, an executive assistant. That was my first hire. Over the years, that executive assistant role has now morphed into an executive assistant/chief of staff. Even to this day, every so often, I talk to my chief of staff or executive assistant.
I will say to her, “If we ever get to the point where we have to downsize because of the pending recession and all of these other issues that could potentially find its way at our doorstep, I would scale back probably all the way but that is the one role that I will keep and maintain.” It is because I started as a solopreneur. I know that at a bare minimum, what I could produce on my own with the help of one other person could certainly meet the bare minimum needs that would allow me to feel fulfilled and still continue to want to do this work as an entrepreneur.
Some people might be wondering that a chief of staff is a political role. What does it mean? In the context of your business, can you explain how you view the difference between an executive assistant or chief of staff and what that means to you?
There are lots of differences, and I do realize that a chief of staff is one of those roles where it can look different from organization to an organization because it depends upon the size of the organization and what type of level or role this person will find themselves overseeing. For us, when we started adding on other staff to help execute and serve the client work that we were engaged in, we needed to have someone that could serve as my emissary and also has a pulse on everything that was going on across the organization and to provide support in a multitude of ways to ensure we are delivering upon success, success organizationally, and success for our clients as well.
What that may look like are some operational things that may all look like that in the absence of some of our senior consultants being able to step in and support the absence of those individuals. All of the details that come with the executive assistant role can fall under that, but it’s more of a generalist that can provide strategic thought leadership across multiple areas of the organization. I do see it as an intricate role for our team.
Is there a role that now, looking back at the benefit of hindsight, you feel maybe you should have moved on quicker or brought on sooner?
There are a couple of them. One of which was my director of business development and strategic engagement. As entrepreneurs, oftentimes, we start out wearing all the hats and doing all the things ourselves. I found myself inundated with the sales process, drafting up the proposals, and having those discovery calls. Quite honestly, it was taking me away from doing the work, but at the time, in order for me to get the work done, I had to also facilitate that work.
It wasn’t until a little over a few years ago that I introduced and created that role for my organization. It has been tremendous. I went through a process where I did a reorg in my organization. It was all because I knew that the talent that I had previously was not going to be able to catapult the business to the next level. They were great individuals, and they were individuals that had some good skillsets, but not to the point where they were going to be able to satisfy the needs that we were seeing that were so custom of our clients.
They were doers and executors, but not the strategic consultants that I felt my company needed. I spent much time building up my leadership bench. I will say that probably had I had the wherewithal to consider and know what I know now, I probably would’ve had another senior person on sooner to execute a lot of the work.
Make sure you never fail to articulate the value your business is bringing. This way, you can clearly articulate the why behind your future price increases. Click To TweetYou mentioned the business development role, and that person’s been a real game changer and had a big positive impact on you. A lot of consultants struggle with the idea of, as the founder, the CEO, and the owner, they are the expert. Nobody can sell like them. Nobody has the knowledge and expertise and stick handle or navigate the complexities of buyer conversations and situations. How did you find that process, and what do you believe has allowed your business development person to operate in a way where they can be effective, and it’s not you doing all the sales?
I had to build it, which also included investing in different software tools to help us track our leads. We had to build a process and fortunately, the person that I was able to bring on had the interest and the skillsets to do all of the research around what software product makes the most sense. Also, to learn it in and out and then help implement it into our organization.
The great thing about NWC is that because we build such a strong brand, we do not have to do outbound sales. Her work is primarily handling all of the inquiries that are coming in from people that are interested in getting proposals for us. Now, that may shift at some point in time, but right now, that has filled up the bulk of her workdays, but it was about building that system.
She spent time with me in the very beginning on those sales calls and heard how I talk about our services. We totally incorporate her into our CSS department meetings. For us, CSS is Client Services and Success so she can hear how we’re talking about solving problems and addressing the needs of our clients. Getting her intimately involved in the how of the work and also understanding the why of the work allows her to be a very smart and astute business development professional. She also knows when to bring in other teammates. She is very keenly aware of, “I’ve had the high-level conversation. I was able to sell us generally, but now they’re asking more granular questions. Now is probably the time for us to bring in other colleagues to be able to further this potential partnership.”
Is the team, these twelve or so people right now that you’re working with, are they all full-time, or are some of them, contractors? What kind of structure are you using?
It’s a little bit of a hybrid model. I would say maybe ten are full-time employees but then we have another subset of 1099 contractors that work under the NWC brand. We have master agreements with those contractors so that way whenever an opportunity presents itself, we call them up. We engage them in the project, and we’ll do a separate schedule A for that body of work.
We’ve already established a working relationship, and it makes it easy instead of having to start from scratch. We leverage our consultant partners a good bit. They’re almost an extension of our team. They are an extension of our team. That’s how we see them and it’s pretty seamless for our clients. It’s totally relevant to them whether or not someone is 1099 versus a full-time employee.
With full-time employment, a lot of business owners, entrepreneurs, and consultants are building their companies. There’s a bit of a chick-and-egg situation going on because they don’t want to make a hire and make a commitment if the work isn’t there yet. However, they don’t feel the confidence to go out and get that work if they don’t have the capacity and the people to be able to deliver on it. Did you ever feel that tension, and if so, how did you deal with it?
It’s about projecting and knowing the business that you have come in. Also, having data that you can rely upon to help make those informed decisions. We also have a great controller who is very much a part of lending his thought partnership to help us make those decisions as well. It’s watching the numbers, knowing the finances quite well, and having a good pipeline that you’re tracking pretty routinely.
Sometimes, it is taking a risk because sometimes, for you to be able to get more business, you have to be able to know that on day one, you can hit the ground running. Even now, I feel like we’re probably a little overstaffed, but that’s intentional because I am anticipating growth, and I want us to be able to shorten the learning curve for those new teammates for clients that we feel are based upon how long they’ve been in the pipeline and how long we’ve been boarding them when it could eventually come to fruition as a new client for us. All of those things collectively are what I always suggest for business leaders to be mindful of as they’re making those decisions.
As you’ve grown the team, revenue is growing. Profits might be falling along with that. Are you reinvesting all of that money back into the business, or are you investing that money into other areas of business opportunity life? What are you doing as the business is getting bigger? How are you, as the owner of the business deploying capital or thinking about the money that is coming in?
A good bulk of it certainly is going back to investing in the business. We were able to bring on multiple senior-level hires, and that was a big investment for our company. I very much see our people, and our human capital as a significant investment, but it’s also about looking at what tools we are using now. What other tools should we have on our horizon so that we can get even smarter about serving our clients?
A lot of it’s going back into the business, but as a small business owner, there have been some things that I’ve had my eyes set on since I launched that I wanted to see come to fruition. We were able to put them to fruition. As a small business, oftentimes, you can’t provide benefits to your colleagues. We were able to do that. We were also able to provide our 401(k) with a 4% match.
There are some perks that I also believe are investments that allow us to be able to attract good solid talent, which is important to me as well. We are a 100% remote work organization, not because of the pandemic, but because it’s been our business model since inception. That also helps us to keep our overhead down in many regards, but it’s astute and strategic planning.
We also invest back into our team. We have team retreats throughout the year on a couple of occasions. We are finding ways to make sure we are providing professional development opportunities. That’s an investment as well. Again, those are sometimes elements that maybe not find their way into startups immediately, especially into consulting firms. Those are things that I’m proud of.
You have a lot going on in terms of building the team, working with clients, and managing growth. If you could hit on 1 or 2 habits that you feel are key to the success that you’re able to create and to the performance you’re able to have on a day-to-day basis, what are 1 or 2 things you do every day or very regularly that you feel have a big impact on you?
Because I’m a remote work organization, high-quality check-ins have been instrumental. We have to make sure we’re staying connected. We’re in a space of diversity, equity, and inclusion so we have to live and practice that ourselves, even within our own internal team. The way in which we show forth a high level of care and concern for each other helps to build that team spirit, that sense of community and support, which is critical.
I also think that investing in the team by way of allowing them to also do some career pathing through professional development opportunities is critical. I also think that it has a lot to do with leadership style. People want to follow someone that they admire, that they respect, and believes in their vision. I have been pretty intentional about casting that vision.
To get more business, you need to realize that you must hit the ground running on day one. Click To TweetI talk often about the why. Why are we doing this? We each have deep convictions about this work of DEI. As we’re hiring, our guiding principles and our core values find their way into all of those conversations. We have a culture that’s built on what we call constructive candor. That’s important. We have to be able to be accountable to each other and sometimes, that means naming the hard things, but in a very empathetic, compassionate way so that we all are learning and growing together.
We have a very collaborative environment. We have a very curious environment. All of these themes are our core values, but they’re really important. It wasn’t that we’re going to one day hypothetically say, “These words sound good.” We’ve spent time together coalescing around, what does this mean and what does this look like in practice? One of you is asking about some of the investments.
One of the biggest investments that we’ve made back into the company is through the EOS system. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Entrepreneurial Operating Systems worldwide, but that has given us a common language and a way to interact, engage, and have meetings. That’s been tremendous. I think it’s intentionality. It’s one thing to become a business owner because you enjoy your craft and you’re good at your trade, but it’s a totally different thing when you try to align that with strong business acumen and it requires both.
Before we wrap up here, I’d love to find out from you what is one book that you have either read or listened to in the last few months or so. It could be fiction or non-fiction, but something you might recommend to others.
I have so many author friends right now that I probably will get in trouble by naming one without the others, but there are so many. First, I have to put a shameless plugin by sharing that I completed book number three with Forbes. It’s called Inclusion Uncomplicated. It’s all about this transformative guide for simplifying DEI. It’s my way of helping people to make DEI more practical.
One book that I’m reading right now is by my friend, Tara Jaye Frank. She’s also in this space. Her book is called The Waymakers. It’s all about how leaders and people can be intentional to create those equitable opportunities so that people can have full opportunities for success. She talks often about how do you be a waymaker and what spaces you can be a waymaker. I love the message of it because it does align with my philosophy of leaving no one behind, which is part of why also I do this work.
Nika, I want to thank you so much for coming on, spending some time, and sharing a bit of your journey and experience with us. I also want to make sure people can learn more about you, your work, and your upcoming book. Where’s the best place for them to go?
My website’s going to be the best place to go to connect with me, and it is at NikaWhite.com. We have lots of courtesy resources that people can tap into as well. We have a podcast, white papers, and blog articles. I certainly look forward to connecting with as many people as possible.
Nika, again, thanks so much for coming on.
I appreciate, Michael. Thank you.
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About Dr. Nika White
Dr. Nika White is a national authority and fearless advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion. As an award-winning management and leadership consultant, keynote speaker, published author, and executive practitioner for DEI efforts across business, government, non-profit, and education, Dr. White helps organizations break barriers and integrate DEI into their business frameworks. Her work has led to her designation by Forbes as a Top 10 D&I Trailblazer.
Dr. White is the founder of Nika White Consulting, a full-service diversity, equity, and inclusion boutique consulting firm with global reach and recognized authority on strategic diversity, intentional inclusion, and the lens of equity. Her practice assists clients across varied industries and geographies in creating DEI impact and sustainability with the goal toward justice.
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