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From Pain to Purpose: Building a Business That Works With Kiani Washington · Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk

0:04
Welcome to the Propane to Purpose radio show.
0:07
I'm your host Viva Fulton. In this show, we explore the
0:11
incredible journeys of resilience, healing, and
0:14
transformation. In each episode, we will sit
0:17
down with individuals good faith, unimaginable struggles
0:20
and turn their pain into power, heartbreak into hope, and their
0:25
challenges into meaningful change and finding new purpose
0:28
in life. Through candid conversations and
0:31
inspiring stories, we will uncover how pain, whether
0:35
emotional, physical, mental, or spiritual, can be the catalyst
0:40
for profound growth and a deeper sense of purpose.
0:43
So if you are looking for motivation, insight, and real
0:46
stories of triumph over adversity, you're in the right
0:50
place. Let's get started on this
0:52
journey from pain to purpose. Let's give veterans a voice
0:55
through military broadcast talk. Hello.
1:00
Welcome everybody. Welcome to the From Pain to
1:03
Purpose radio show on military broadcast radio TV.
1:07
Today is Saturday, August. Let's see, I took my glasses off
1:12
August. 8th. The year of our Lord 2026 and I
1:17
I am coming to live from my home.
1:21
This is my home little studio and fair warning if you're
1:26
watching this is the no makeup face.
1:28
I have been out there working on my RV.
1:32
You guys if y'all are following me on social media, I am
1:36
renovating an RVI bought for my dad for a couple of 100 bucks.
1:41
It's a really old one had a lot of water damage and so I got it
1:47
I well I got it the front half and I'll put it that way.
1:50
So I have I have been toiling in the sweat out here in Texas and
1:58
it's kind of nice coming inside, take a shower and cool off.
2:02
I'm on my second 40 oz bottle of sustain.
2:07
If you wonder what is sustaining me and my good friend Captain
2:13
Steve Morgan, but he's an Air Force veteran with Brave Souls
2:17
United, will be happy to hear that I am plugging sustain
2:21
because man, it is the real deal.
2:24
That is how I am able to work out there in the heat and not
2:31
just totally belt right, because I'm made of sugar.
2:35
I'm going to melt. No, no, said no one ever.
2:39
Eva is not made out of sugar. Maybe a little vinegar
2:43
sometimes, but not the sugar. No, just kidding, just kidding.
2:49
Maybe a little honey. I got some honey in me.
2:51
So what else is going on? I had my first, you know,
2:59
discussion for my study, so I'm making some good progress and I
3:06
need to get more of those scheduled because the next few
3:08
weeks are going to actually the next two months.
3:12
I have a lot of travel ahead of me.
3:15
So that's where the debate is. Do I take the trailer?
3:18
Don't I take the trailer? I just go ahead and slum it in
3:22
my you know, I, I love my tent, Don't, don't get me wrong, but,
3:27
you know, do I go ahead and just go in the little tent?
3:30
It's way easier to put up than to carry pull behind the truck.
3:35
And but I got miles to go. I got lots of miles to travel
3:40
across the country. Lots of great things happening
3:44
in the next couple of months. And yeah, you're just going to
3:49
have to follow me, aren't you? Because I have lots of places to
3:54
go, people to see and things to do.
3:57
So what else is happening? It's just hot, right folks?
4:02
It's it's hot. I hope you all are staying cool
4:06
and hydrated, but you're getting out there and enjoying life and
4:12
finding your own pain to purpose story.
4:15
For those of you who are just following me, maybe you haven't
4:18
ever watched my show. I really kind of operate the
4:21
show on this is this is my my pretend wooden chair, 4 pillars
4:27
of pain, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.
4:31
And when I explain this to folks, when you get one of those
4:35
legs of your pain that starts getting a little wonky, the
4:41
stability of your chair that you're sitting on gets gets
4:46
wonky, right? You got to figure out how to
4:48
shore it up. And sometimes, excuse me, sorry,
4:56
sometimes we have to make some different choices in life.
5:00
And you know, that's where I've even gone through the
5:05
entrepreneur journey myself. And I used to own a construction
5:11
company. So that's why I have no problems
5:14
getting out there and renovating my own RV to my own standards.
5:21
But I'm following the general principles of construction.
5:26
You know, you still in this construction company with my
5:29
second husband and, you know, you learn a lot of things.
5:32
Measure twice, cut once. And that's one thing, you know,
5:38
always make sure you're sealing the envelope, which is the
5:41
exterior of the, you know, building the RV.
5:45
You've got to seal it. I finally was able to work on
5:49
some of the roof patching this morning before it started
5:53
getting too hot. And now I and I finally got some
5:59
of the cross member stabilization that I was looking
6:02
for so I can start finish building out the inside.
6:06
But I have had to order more tape so more more work to do on
6:10
the roof. But at least I got to a good
6:12
stopping point if it rains and I'm not expecting any rain.
6:17
But if it rains, then I know that I think what I've done is
6:24
going to protect, you know, protect any of the work that
6:28
I've already done. But I've been making some really
6:31
good investments, I think on what I've been doing, how I've
6:35
been doing it, and it's going to look super sweet.
6:39
So for those of you who are, you know, interested in in getting
6:45
the from pain to purpose radio show or getting MBR to your
6:49
events, what I'm actually designing is a rolling studio,
6:56
right? So I can do it part that and
7:01
then part working for a nonprofit.
7:05
And I'm working on helping set up a women veterans program with
7:12
Brave Souls United. I posted about a video on it
7:15
this morning on my little walkthrough for the for the RV
7:19
and I think it's important right to get outside and and just
7:25
live. We I was watching some kind of
7:29
video on on social media the day and this guy had conducted a
7:35
study about getting outside. So he had a group of men that he
7:43
took baseline blood test and and then took them out into the
7:49
woods for three days. They didn't do like anything
7:53
really spectacular, but it was about breathing the air and
7:58
feeling the environment and just really, you know, enjoying it.
8:04
So it did mention that they had like pine and spruce in the area
8:11
and they put off some kind of, I want to say chemicals that when
8:16
they came back out and they out of the woods and they did
8:20
another baseline to another test after that three days, then
8:25
whatever their levels were before had dropped.
8:29
And so for those of you who, you know, even if you use diffusers
8:33
and you're trying to, you know, improve your own environment,
8:37
but you don't want to get out in the woods itself, bring the
8:41
woods into your house and diffuse some pine or spruce or
8:46
something like that. So I just kind of throw that out
8:48
there. Get grounded.
8:50
All right, so I have a spectacular guest today and so
8:57
she you know folks if y'all haven't figured me out, I grow
9:02
my people garden in all kinds of ways.
9:06
I watch people on social media. Now don't think that you have to
9:11
wait for an invite. If you want to be on my show,
9:13
reach out to me and let me know. Hey Eva, I want to come on your
9:17
show. I'm happy to have you.
9:19
Let's work out a Saturday and see when we can do that.
9:23
But a lot of people that have been on my show so far, I watch
9:28
them and not stalking, but I watch them because I want to see
9:33
what is their story, right? What, because I have to know are
9:36
they a good bit on being on our show and what their messages?
9:43
And, you know, there are some people you have on and you know,
9:48
we were, so we were talking before show and she's like, I
9:51
think we have some people in connection.
9:53
We know, we, we, you know, it's funny how our people garden
9:57
grows. And I think some people say
10:00
it's, you know, what is it 10°? There's some kind of degrees of
10:05
influence that we have with each other.
10:07
And we you know, somebody who knows somebody and we all know
10:11
somebody else together. So, you know, the veteran world
10:16
community is smaller than we think.
10:19
And it's it's interesting to see, you know, who's on your
10:23
social media. You go look up somebody and
10:25
you're like, they know these people.
10:27
Really we're I'm friends with these people, but they know
10:30
these people. I don't know this person, but
10:32
they know these people. And these have been my friends
10:35
for a long, long time. Or maybe even my neighbors too.
10:39
I have quite a few veterans in my neighborhood.
10:42
So anyways, so I started following Kyani, you know, I've
10:49
done, I told you, I've done the entrepreneur thing.
10:52
My first business with Mark, we had a janitorial business.
10:59
Yep, I cleaned toilets Once Upon a time, not just in the army,
11:04
but I cleaned toilets and I knew how to run a bumper.
11:08
I know how to choose people, what to do.
11:11
So yes, I owned a construction cleaning company was the primary
11:16
focus of what we did. But when the business shut down
11:21
and I had to feed my own kids, I did.
11:26
I did what I needed to make sure I, you know, needed to do.
11:30
And I actually cleaned houses for people in my mom's
11:35
neighborhood. And that's tough when you have
11:38
to make some choices like that. But you know, when you're
11:43
looking at what your options are, because this had come from
11:48
the heels of getting laid off from two large tech companies,
11:54
something goes through your head and, and you have to make some
11:58
choices about making a transition.
12:02
And you know, maybe, maybe working for yourself is better.
12:06
You can have a little bit control.
12:08
The hard part about that is the economy is, is not something
12:14
that we can always control either.
12:18
So Mark and I, we had, you know, the construction cleaning
12:21
company was the learning curve for me to learn how to then get
12:28
into construction. So learn how to do take offs and
12:32
you know, do bids and all the project management software and
12:37
everything. And you know, it was kind of
12:40
funny because they were not used to seeing a woman in a hard hat
12:44
walking around on the construction projects.
12:47
They were not familiar with having a pregnant woman walking
12:53
around a construction job sites either.
12:55
When I bid on Gaylord in Grapevine, TX.
13:00
So, you know, funny how things work, but it was a very much a
13:06
man's world and I worked in that for probably longer than what we
13:10
should have, but that was the hard part.
13:13
Is that the Small Business Administration and certainly the
13:17
VA at the time, I should have had any problems getting a day
13:22
contracts or women owned service, disabled veteran,
13:26
business owned. And yet here we were.
13:29
I was in a very niche kind of group, you know, construction
13:36
work, right? Not many women doing that.
13:39
I actually had one guy say, you know, why don't you go ahead and
13:44
start a toilet company, right? You know, the portable toilets
13:49
that get delivered to job sites. Why don't you go ahead and do
13:51
that? Or maybe you could put up their
13:54
perimeter fencing. They didn't want to have a woman
13:58
compete in actually building anything.
14:02
And yes, I know how to do it. I've done demo on several
14:07
projects at hospitals and a police station.
14:12
So yeah, I have done quite a bit of stuff and that's why.
14:16
Funny. It's funny that people laugh.
14:18
Really. Don't you need some help
14:20
building your RV? Nope.
14:22
I got this. I say all of that to say we have
14:27
people who are out there in the entrepreneur space who want to
14:32
help other veterans probably navigate things that I stumbled
14:38
over because I didn't know what I would have, could have, should
14:42
have, right? I was out there trying to make
14:46
sure that the I needed to learn a lot.
14:51
And there's a lot with government contracting that I
14:53
learned. And you know, one of the reasons
14:56
why I probably go ahead and just transition to start working for
15:00
the federal government because I knew that the inside stuff is
15:06
the part that people don't always learn.
15:09
But anyways, so I'm actually this is all is a good lead in I
15:14
promise you for Keani Washington.
15:18
She's AUS Navy veteran business operations architect man, I love
15:23
the sound of that speaker and founder of Keani Siban.
15:27
She helps found and leads design the internal operations
15:32
environments that folks need to build and confidently navigate
15:38
organizations that consistently fulfill mission and deliver
15:43
meaningful transformation. That's to the people that they
15:47
serve. She's also the creator of the
15:50
Response Protocol and the Entrepreneur Elevation Lab.
15:55
Isn't that neat? And here we go.
15:59
Right, Can't find my interview? Here we go.
16:03
The interview of the week is brought to you by Jersey Mike's,
16:08
a sub above. Hey, welcome, Chianti, welcome
16:14
to the Prepaid to Purpose radio show.
16:16
I'm sorry, that was like a long lead in, wasn't it?
16:19
It was OK, 'cause I was like, you had a janitorial disease,
16:23
like I'm, I'm over here. I did thinking we used to talk,
16:26
but we missed some stuff. So, yeah, OK.
16:30
I've been there, done that, got the T-shirt.
16:36
Yeah, that was a huge learning curve, you know, getting into
16:42
the construction business. But it was pretty neat learning
16:47
the janitorial side. But it wasn't.
16:51
And we had a couple of maintenance janitorial contracts
16:55
like we, we did Chili's, a couple of Chili's for a while.
17:01
That's pretty cool. But it's a lot.
17:03
That's a lot of hard work for non, especially when they don't
17:08
maintain it and you can't make any money if they're not
17:11
maintaining the cleaning as it is.
17:15
But you know the the bread and butter we had for the company
17:20
was construction. Cleaning.
17:23
So we started out kind of small because his uncle was in the
17:29
business, but we, we, we branched out and started doing
17:35
bigger projects and bigger projects.
17:37
So I've done some very large, I want to say multifamily type
17:42
projects. I've done hospitals.
17:46
And when they knew that my company was on site, the health
17:50
inspectors were not worried, right?
17:53
They knew that we were going to take care of business.
17:56
And you know, they didn't get gigged on anything because we
17:59
were man, we made it look sharp. But I.
18:03
I but, but I got to learn a whole bunch of stuff and, you
18:08
know, work on I had to you know what a Dinka lift is.
18:13
Not too many people know what a Dinka lift is.
18:16
A Dinka lift is, you know, those big scissor lifts that you'll
18:19
see. On different.
18:22
Projects well the Dinka lift will get through a three O door.
18:26
It's a 3 foot wide door and it'll get through and lift you
18:31
up high and that's what I was having to do in this one
18:36
hospital project because they had this big huge foyer area.
18:42
Foyer is a big, huge area that I had to get up and Polish.
18:47
They wanted the wood walls polished up there.
18:53
As you can see the construction dust all over it.
18:56
They didn't. They had kept the paper on it or
18:59
something that that would have helped when they installed it,
19:02
but they didn't. So I had to get up in there.
19:05
None of my workers would get up there in the Dinka lift.
19:09
So I had to put the harness on and tether it to the bucket.
19:14
And they were like, yeah, you do that, anybody.
19:18
We're not. But I was a fearless leader.
19:23
You know, it was kind of funny that all these men wouldn't do
19:27
it. But here I was 50 feet up in the
19:29
air on the Dinka lift, right? You got it.
19:32
That's all you. But, you know, I got into
19:36
construction it. That was a lot of fun, though,
19:39
being able to get out there and do that stuff.
19:44
And, you know, but I had to lay the law down.
19:47
Hey, I'm not your Mama. You need to clean up after
19:50
yourself. Right.
19:51
I may be a woman running this cleaning company, but I am not
19:56
your maid. You need to clean up your mess.
19:58
Get your employees to clean up their mess because that's not
20:01
what I'm getting paid to do. You have day laborers who are
20:05
supposed to do that. I'm supposed to make sure it
20:08
looks clean for the owners to move in, right.
20:13
So anyways, it's you know, that's tough when you're doing
20:17
that. But I think that was where a lot
20:21
of the military stuff that I. Learned.
20:24
Really aligned with being a business owner.
20:28
So there's it does. This part where I I know I've
20:32
gotten comfortable getting into my day job, but then, you know,
20:37
when I retire in a few years, I don't know when that'll be, but
20:41
when I retire a few years, do I want to go back to being the
20:44
entrepreneur? Because that's all right.
20:47
Yeah. You know, I'm working on
20:50
potential something with my Co host Darrell.
20:54
Hardly. So, you know, maybe we need to
20:57
meet with you. Maybe we need to meet with you
21:00
and bring you in on this thing that we are looking at doing.
21:06
So OK. Sounds good.
21:08
Yeah. All right, so let's jump into
21:11
your story. Yeah, let's jump right on in.
21:14
SO where do you start? So really, let's.
21:19
Start about your transition. I mean, if that's probably a
21:23
good place, yeah. So my of the military.
21:29
Yeah. So I got out in 2003 and
21:34
actually before I went in, I was already kind of skilled in
21:38
braiding, but for whatever reason, I didn't really think it
21:41
could become an actual career when I, you know, graduated high
21:45
school. So I ended up going into the
21:47
military. But while I was still in the
21:49
while I was in the military, I was actually doing hair.
21:53
So when I got out, I was thinking, well, for whatever
21:57
reason, my mind didn't say just go to school to be a
22:00
cosmetologist. My mind said, oh, go to school
22:03
to be a unit secretary because that's what they called it at
22:06
the time, unit secretary. So I went to school to I started
22:10
going to school like for typing and computer skills and stuff
22:13
like that. And, and lo and behold, the
22:15
school that I was going to actually had a cop just started
22:20
the cosmetology school. It would have been the second
22:22
class and I the second class that they would have had.
22:25
So I was like, you know what, stop running from it.
22:29
And then just so happened the state that I was living in, they
22:32
required you to have a license to do hair.
22:35
So at this point, I don't really have a choice.
22:37
So that's really kind of how I jumped in to kind of
22:41
entrepreneurship. But I think through my
22:45
transition coming out of the military, I spent a lot of time
22:50
dealing with civilians on a regular basis.
22:53
So it wasn't as as hard I think for me to kind of transition
22:59
over to kind of just civilian life as much as it is some other
23:05
veterans that I've so. How, how long were you in the
23:08
military? In the Navy, right?
23:10
Yes, I was in about 4 1/2 years. So I did my first couple of
23:14
years in Virginia with the air traffic control school and then
23:16
I did my, my, the rest of my contract in at Nas Meridian,
23:22
Meridian, Ms. so. OK.
23:26
Yeah. So again, it wasn't as bad as
23:31
everybody else, I would say. And I always say that because I
23:34
just kind of acclimated myself to the city and like my family
23:38
didn't live far. So it made it a little a little
23:41
easier, but. Do you think part of that that
23:44
transition, though, was that you had not been in the military for
23:49
a longer amount of time? So the four years, yes, you got,
23:56
you qualified for your benefits and everything, but you, your, I
24:02
want to say your mindset had not been so ingrained with the
24:06
military way of doing things that it didn't it, you still
24:12
kept a lot of your own Kyani personality and and wasn't, I'm
24:18
going to use this word, brainwashed, but you know.
24:21
As brainwashed as everybody. Else.
24:24
I think so. If so, my boat that I was on is,
24:30
is what they would have considered like the real Navy.
24:34
It, it actually was one of the ones in that area that I was in
24:39
that was kind of known for the type of boat that it was.
24:42
So my boat was like one of those real deal you're in the military
24:48
now type of boats. So I did get well acclimated in
24:53
because when I transitioned to being at a Naval Air station.
24:56
So when you doing sea duty and land duty for a, for a Navy
25:03
person, it's two, it's literally two different worlds.
25:07
So for us, you know, if you're on the boat and then you go to
25:13
your land duty, people kind of think you don't know it,
25:18
especially because me, I was like lower ranking.
25:20
I think I went to the Air Station at an E3.
25:25
And so they were thinking that, you know, I didn't know nothing.
25:28
And I was thinking and I let them know right off baby, I was
25:32
in the real Navy. You can't you cannot you cannot
25:37
get over on me with this stuff that y'all been doing with these
25:40
people came up straight out of boot camp and on this Nah, I
25:44
know that I know the real deal. They they they they definitely,
25:49
you know, introduce you to the real Navy on my ship.
25:52
So I just don't happen to be on a ship that was like that.
25:56
But I think Even so with that, a lot of the people that I was
25:59
stationed with, they had children and husbands and so
26:04
they lived a kind of like a civilian life.
26:07
And so I would be with them and like the person that I was
26:11
dating, they had like friends and other family members that
26:14
lived a regular civilian life. So I acclimated so much with
26:19
just yeah. So I lived like a double life,
26:23
like I was in the real Navy. But then I was like when I was
26:27
had my own personal time, I would actually be with like more
26:30
civilians and hanging out in civilian spots.
26:34
And yeah, yeah. So it it was that for me.
26:38
So when I actually went to air traffic controller school, I
26:42
wasn't far from my family. So the weekends that I had free,
26:45
I would come to spend time with my family and the same thing at
26:49
the Air Station, I was literally an hour from my family.
26:53
So every. Yeah, yeah, straight out the
26:56
back gate up the highway to the house, like never even hit the
27:01
city limit. I went straight out and maybe
27:04
back gate to the highway. So yeah.
27:06
So I think it was, I did get that because even now, like as I
27:12
am getting older, I realize like some of the ways that I think
27:15
and some of the things that I, I'm like, why don't people just
27:19
and it, it came from that military mindset like you have
27:24
to do this and must get done. There is no second, third,
27:28
fourth option. You know, what are you crying
27:31
about? Let's go ahead and get that.
27:33
Like that, that extra stuff that goes on.
27:36
It's like you don't you as a military.
27:39
Time. Let's not waste time, really.
27:42
As a military member, you're over here, like, like, get over
27:47
it. Let's go, let's go.
27:48
So so did have some of that, Has some of that helped you in
27:53
making your choices to become an entrepreneur?
27:57
Yes, I know. Like there's a particular issue
28:01
that I had on the boat before I got before I actually went to
28:05
air traffic control school and never really realizing how much
28:09
that was ingrained in my mind until probably this summer.
28:13
And it was so crazy because, you know, I'm, I'm older, I'm 45 And
28:17
so I got out in O3 and I went in at 17.
28:21
And I've realized over the summer, like, oh, wow, that is
28:24
why you have a hard time working for other people because of this
28:29
issue that you had in the military.
28:31
And so I when I get into those situations, like I've only
28:36
worked in civilian spaces, I would say like as an employee
28:42
probably in three, only three businesses out of that whole
28:46
time. So I really think that that a
28:50
lot of what was happening in the military had a lot to do with
28:55
the way that I think the way that I'm like, yeah, nobody's
28:58
going to deal with that with you, from you.
29:00
Either you're going to be a leader or you're not.
29:02
I should not be the leader. You should be the leader.
29:06
If I got the lead your people, then I don't need to be working
29:09
under you. So but you need to be like.
29:11
Right, right. No, I totally got you.
29:15
I totally got you on that one. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's
29:19
ingrained. You don't, you don't realize it.
29:21
I think that I think that's for every person that was in the
29:24
military. I'm going to say if you did at
29:27
least two years, you probably have something ingrained in you
29:32
and you don't even realize it until over time.
29:34
And you just like that's where it came from.
29:37
So yeah. So tell me what exactly is a
29:42
Business Operations Architect? So glad you asked what that is.
29:49
So. So I like to call it the person
29:53
that is similar to an A regular architect, right?
29:56
So a architect is not the person that's going to build the actual
30:00
building or the home or anything like that.
30:03
They're just designing it on paper.
30:05
They're putting together a design on paper of what this
30:08
thing that the construction company wants to build.
30:12
And they have some type of toolkit that they use in order
30:16
to create a pretty much a solid foundation for what that is.
30:20
And then they start adding the little pieces that you know that
30:24
they want customized. So I like I say, business
30:28
operations architect, because most entrepreneurs generally
30:32
just jumping in and start running their business.
30:35
They're like, I have this grand thing and I know that I can do
30:38
it. And I've been trained, I've been
30:41
skilled. I have this experience and all
30:43
of these things. And I've been.
30:45
Working over. There, Yeah, I've been working
30:47
for this company doing this thing for like 20 years or five
30:51
years. I have many years and I can get
30:53
out here and do it. And I'm like, yeah, you're just
30:56
jumping in and building a house. What is it supposed to look
31:00
like? So I'm that person that says
31:02
what does this? What does this operation?
31:06
What is it supposed to look like?
31:08
For. You and for your customer, you
31:10
can't just think about you. It's like, what is that
31:13
customer's experience with? You, I'm so glad you're covering
31:17
this because that's the kind of the conversation that I've been
31:22
having with Daryl. I mean, because I, I, I, I love
31:26
the idea of what, what we're trying to build, but I'm like,
31:32
we can't just, you know, suddenly offer, you know, a
31:37
through H but, but we don't have design, you know, what we're
31:41
trying to implement with a how are we going to do it?
31:45
When are we going to do it? Who's going to do it?
31:48
You know, we've got to lay things out.
31:51
And I think that was, I think that was the part that Mark and
31:55
I, you know, that hindsight's 2020 thing is that I didn't know
32:02
what I didn't know, Yeah, about running a business.
32:06
Now, it wasn't about executing. It wasn't about thinking about
32:11
it in project management style and doing the projects
32:14
themselves. But that whole, you know, all of
32:19
the framework about what is it's not just having the bylaws, you
32:28
know, having the business plan, you know, I'm, I'm still catchy
32:32
on whether a business plan is. The business plan is literally
32:39
for the bank or some type of grant.
32:42
Like if you're trying to get money from somebody, you need a
32:44
it's. It's nothing for you, the owner.
32:48
To me, it just doesn't do anything for you.
32:50
Now, who's going to do for To me, it's like, OK, who's going
32:55
to do the bookkeeping? That's part of the way I think
32:59
about, you know, what you're talking about on the operations
33:03
architect. You got somebody.
33:05
How are we going to register? You know, we're talking about
33:10
doing some classes, right? What's the process and how we're
33:14
going to register them? How much are we going to charge
33:16
them? When are we going to have the
33:19
classes? You know, there's so, there's
33:22
so. Many.
33:23
Things and you know, yeah, we need the architect.
33:29
That's that you. Know it's so crazy because so
33:34
this it is actually who I've been the entire time, not
33:39
knowing that this is just who I've been the entire time.
33:43
But I was, I was always so focused on my brain needs to
33:48
work. My brain needs to work.
33:49
I just kept saying like my brain needs to work.
33:51
Like if I, if my brain doesn't work, then I'm not going to be
33:54
able to do this. I'm not going to be like, it's
33:56
not going to make sense. Like everything I need is inside
33:59
here. But if my brain doesn't work
34:00
right, then I'll never be able to do these things the way I'm
34:03
supposed to do them. And over time it's like little
34:07
pieces started coming here and there like you need to do it
34:09
like this. You need this, you need this.
34:11
I never had the language for it. I just need, I just knew I
34:15
needed my brain to work. So every situation, every type
34:20
of business situation I was in, every personal situation that
34:23
affected business, every like I will always be like, OK, how do
34:27
I do this and still maintain this.
34:30
And it was always this, I was trying to like figure it out.
34:34
And so over time and it was, it really started with one
34:38
question. I was no longer going to be able
34:41
to do hair because my military injury and I was not trying to
34:45
find somebody for my customers, like for my clients because they
34:48
were so accustomed or something. I was like, surely I can find
34:51
somebody. You know, I found talent, I
34:53
found skill, which I said talent and skill don't really matter in
34:57
some. It's well, most instances, but I
35:00
found that. But I couldn't find that person
35:03
that actually cared and served and was a leader in the space
35:09
and all of the things. And I'm like, why?
35:11
And I kept asking myself why that's that's the only question.
35:15
I was like, why? So the why led to, well, maybe
35:18
you should go to school to be a esthetician.
35:21
That why led to, well, why don't you just make a product?
35:24
Because if they can't be you physically, it can be you in a
35:26
bottle. And then that didn't solve the
35:28
problem. So I just kept asking like it
35:30
was like a series of questions that I just kept answering and
35:34
answering and answering in the cosmetology space.
35:38
And then when I got to the entrepreneurial space, because I
35:40
started going through entrepreneurial programs and I'm
35:43
like, oh, I thought this was a cosmetology problem.
35:47
No, it's a, it's a industry problem.
35:50
Like it's all. Industry.
35:53
Right. So when I realized it wasn't
35:55
just specific to me and you know, my industry for my
35:59
customer, you know, for the customers that you know are in
36:02
the needing cosmetology services, that's when I was
36:05
like, OK, so it's deeper than that.
36:08
And then there was another why? It's like, OK, it's deeper than
36:11
what I thought it was. So why is it deeper than that?
36:15
That sounds like the five whys. Have you heard of the five whys?
36:19
Well, why, why, why you got to ask?
36:22
Well, why five times to get through and and generally by the
36:27
time you get to the fifth why, you're like, oh, that's why I
36:30
had to do this. You had to ask, well, why did
36:33
that not work? Well, what, why?
36:37
Why do do I need to try this product or this way of doing it?
36:42
Well, why did that not work? And I've got to go back over to
36:45
this thing. And.
36:48
You know. I was I.
36:51
Think the biggest thing that I kind of learned not just from
36:57
the business owner perspective and the customer perspective,
37:04
but also even for my own academic side of things because,
37:07
you know, I'm working on my PhD. What problem am I trying to
37:11
solve? What?
37:13
Problem are you and if you. Don't know like as a business
37:16
owner, what problem am I trying to solve?
37:20
Then I don't know who I as a business need to be, right or
37:27
they're we don't know what kind of business we need to be and
37:31
what niche are we trying to solve a problem for the customer
37:37
base or industry or whoever? You have to know the why.
37:41
What problem are we solving? The why is like you said, it's
37:46
the why. It's so I always like to say, so
37:51
why you started is where you start.
37:53
So you say like, why do I want to do this?
37:56
Like why am I? Why am I interested in throwing
37:58
myself out here when I could get a paycheck and no one is coming
38:02
and have insurance that I don't have to worry about?
38:04
Like why would I throw myself out there to really just be
38:07
trying to linger out here and figure it out by myself.
38:10
And when I have somebody that's sending me a monthly paycheck
38:14
with benefits, I can go home and don't have to worry about.
38:18
I can throw this on the shelf and not have to worry about it
38:20
no more. Because there's a lot of risk
38:22
involved with being an entrepreneur.
38:25
Mark and I lost everything, right?
38:27
We had the housing crisis that happened about the same time.
38:33
We lost everything. So that's how I ended up going
38:37
and, you know, getting a real job.
38:39
Yeah, it it. What's it going to say?
38:41
You got to ask yourself. Why?
38:43
It's not that I ever disliked being a business owner.
38:47
There was a lot of freedom in being a business owner, but a
38:50
lot of risk too, especially when you have a young family and you
38:55
got to, you know, you got to put food on the table and yes, and
39:00
close. You know, at one point I applied
39:03
for food stamps, but I didn't know I could have had a phone
39:07
interview. I would have qualified 'cause I
39:11
had 0 income for two years. You know how you get your Social
39:17
Security benefit thing, You know?
39:20
I have. I have. 0 income for two years
39:23
way. Back, yeah, So that's how.
39:26
I would have qualified we had we had four kids.
39:29
So you definitely would have. Yeah, we do know that.
39:34
Or kids. Yeah, they would have threw it
39:35
over there to you. Joel, he's, he's doing a little
39:39
shout out to followers. So thank you Joel for showing,
39:43
for sharing. Just he's our producer, CEO of
39:50
military broadcast radio. OK.
39:53
Hi, Joel. Yeah, he's, he's the H train.
39:56
He has that show also. OK, so.
40:00
All right, so let's you have other stuff that you had.
40:04
Let me go back to the notes. I like this that operations
40:09
architect's side. So is it you're say you're a
40:14
founder of Kyani Siobhan? I hope I pronounced that.
40:18
Right you are, yes. OK, what do you do?
40:21
What? What is Kyani Siobhan do?
40:24
So I, with Kyani Siobhan, I help founders and leaders design
40:33
their internal and operational environment that they're so that
40:39
they're able to actually build. And you see, I'm I'm getting
40:43
like you're actually able to build the organization that you
40:49
need to deliver that mission and serve your customers well so you
40:57
can serve them. Nobody saying you can't serve
41:00
them if you don't decide. We're saying that there's a,
41:03
there is definitely a method to the madness.
41:06
So if you do not design this first, it will overtake you and
41:13
you will feel like you're drowning regularly.
41:16
You will feel like this business controls me.
41:18
These customers control me like everything else is just like you
41:24
will feel like that if you don't design that unique thing. 1st.
41:29
Because you have to realize it's already unique.
41:33
It's not just a regular thing within that industry or I feel
41:37
it's unique because you, you probably were in this industry,
41:42
in this field, whatever it is and you saw something very
41:45
specific. So it's already unique.
41:47
So you can't build it like the thing that you were in because
41:51
it's unique. Like I can't, I can't treat
41:54
every child the same because every child is not the same.
41:57
Even though they're a child. Every child is unique and there
42:01
are specific things that I need to do.
42:03
So you can't say just because this worked over here is going
42:06
to work with this baby because this baby is not the same as
42:09
that baby. So you have to sit down and
42:11
design. So I help them design what I
42:15
hope them design those internal and operational environment.
42:19
So your internal is like your thinking, your decision making,
42:23
your leadership, all of that is more internal and then that
42:27
operational that's your systems. That's whether I'm going to use
42:31
this website who, who are going to be my people, how I'm going
42:35
to make my money, all of those different things.
42:37
So it's two different environments.
42:39
You can't get away with having one without the other.
42:41
There's no it, it just doesn't work.
42:43
You're going to be a crazy person.
42:44
I always say just prepare to be a crazy person if you don't
42:48
build this. That's all.
42:50
That's the simplest way that I can describe it because.
42:53
I get it, I get it. I mean, I've been a business
42:56
owner before. So you know, that's the part
42:59
that I think I didn't understand what I didn't know, right.
43:04
I mean, and piecemealing it does not help either, right?
43:08
Because if you were starting out a business and you don't have
43:11
financing to help with whatever those startup costs and you've
43:17
got to start laying out the materials and, and labor, but
43:22
you don't have money from a customer yet, you're going to
43:28
have a problem. And you know, that was very,
43:31
very tough learning curve for Mark and I until we started
43:36
getting some projects going and could do the billing.
43:40
But guess what? I was having to learn, you know,
43:43
QuickBooks at the same time and get it all set up.
43:46
You know, I mean, that was that was tough.
43:49
That was. Really, really tough.
43:52
But you know, we had, we actually had to hire somebody
43:57
to. I need you to take care of this
43:59
because I can't run the job and input stuff for billing and
44:04
invoicing and stuff. Yeah, I can't order the
44:07
materials over here because I need to watch what the people
44:12
are doing on the job site and make sure that it's getting done
44:15
right according to the plans. This is something that no
44:21
business owner ever thinks about.
44:24
Not one. You were already somebody before
44:29
you decided to run this business.
44:31
So that somebody already had responsibilities.
44:36
And those responsibilities, I just like to call them
44:38
positions. Let's think like put a title to
44:41
the positions that you have held just personally by yourself.
44:45
We're not even talking about the job that you hold.
44:47
We are talking about you as a personal person.
44:50
There are responsibilities that you hold.
44:52
There's a position, there's a, you're a mom, you're a wife, you
44:55
are the person that cleans in your house.
44:56
You're the person. Those are positions.
44:58
People actually already get paid for those and you hold those
45:03
positions so they don't go away just because you decided to run
45:06
a business. They're still there in the back,
45:08
looking at you, Mario, saying hey.
45:12
What's your building? My RV and none of the inside
45:17
cleaning stuff is happening. I'm not getting my laundry done,
45:22
you know? They're still there.
45:26
It's also there my homework is still waiting on me while I'm
45:30
out there working on the RV. And then you have you got all of
45:36
this right here. They're sitting there on your
45:38
shoulder right here. Oh, I want to be a business
45:41
owner. You, you don't even think about
45:45
the fact that when you say business owner, you should
45:49
actually just picture like Walmart or Amazon or what and
45:53
just picture the people that exist in there.
45:56
That place is not ran by the business owner.
46:00
Right, it's not a one man show. Right.
46:05
So it's like you there are even though you're probably going to
46:08
end up doing the positions, but just know what they are like,
46:13
what are they? Because every position has
46:17
responsibilities and every responsibility has a decision
46:22
making that goes along with it. So you're already over here with
46:25
this stuff sitting over here. And then you go and add this
46:28
whole business that has all these other positions you
46:31
haven't thought about, not one of them.
46:34
You just kind of build a plane in the air.
46:36
You start saying, I have this thing for these people and you
46:39
start doing it and you're like, oh shoot, we need somebody to
46:44
run the books. Let's find somebody.
46:47
Well, you got to figure out what person you need specifically for
46:52
you, because every every person that knows how to do books might
46:56
not be the best person for you. So it has to cater to you and it
47:00
has to cater to your. Your somebody running QuickBooks
47:03
at a daycare does not know how to run QuickBooks for a
47:07
construction company, I assure. You 2.
47:10
Different types of environments and yeah, it is not going to be
47:15
the same. All right, so let's jump into
47:18
what is You're the creator of the response protocol.
47:22
That's what you had in your bio. What is the response protocol?
47:26
So the response protocol is pretty much that seven weeks.
47:34
So it's a actual methodology that I have.
47:39
And within it there are 4 modules.
47:43
I like to call them modules so that we kind of do that in the
47:47
in the elevation lab, which I'm pretty sure you're going to ask
47:49
me about that, but it's my methodology that actually helps
47:53
you to build, to design this. So if you, like I said before,
47:56
like as an architect, this architect has a kit.
48:00
And so this is my kit that I've designed that has four pillars,
48:07
mindset, responsibility, standard, and practice.
48:09
And I basically put them into modules, but there is mindset,
48:13
responsibility, standard, and practice.
48:15
So there's these 4 pillars that I have built this toolkit on
48:19
that is repeatable. You can go back to it because
48:24
this is not something that you're only going to do one
48:26
time. You're designing what it's going
48:28
to look like, but after you design, you got to navigate,
48:31
right? So you got to build it.
48:33
You can't just design it. It has to be built and then you
48:36
got to operate in it, so you got to navigate.
48:38
You got to execute it. It sounds like the change
48:41
management model. I don't know if you've ever
48:43
seen, you know it, you start, it's like, so look for a change
48:48
management model. You just look it up.
48:51
It's like a wheel. It's like the clock, right?
48:53
It, it, it's going to turn and it's going to turn, but you, it,
48:57
you got to start somewhere and then you start, you, you start
49:01
the design, you start the execution, you start
49:06
realignment, you do some more tweaks with the new design and
49:11
it just so it just keeps navigating.
49:14
You know, navigating, Yeah, Yep, it keeps navigating.
49:17
So it so like in your growth phase, in your skill phase, in
49:22
your pivot phase and pretty much in every phase.
49:27
But I think what is what is mostly unique to the to my
49:31
design, the response protocol is I don't forget that you're a
49:35
human first. So I include that into you
49:39
building your operations. I can't, I can't subtract that
49:42
from you building what needs to be built.
49:45
So I put them together. That's important, I think in a
49:48
veteran space, especially because we're dealing with our
49:53
own disabilities, abilities, whatever you want to call right,
49:59
You know, you're our headspace and the way we're feeling.
50:02
You have to build in some grace that everything is not going to
50:07
go 100% correct and give your if you're talking about project
50:13
management, you better bid it, you know, build in some extra
50:17
time to get things done so that you are not putting yourself on
50:23
a deadline that's impossible. But if if you finish ahead of
50:27
time, you get to look like a hero.
50:29
Right, that is exactly what it is.
50:32
Like you again, don't forget about you because ultimately you
50:37
are the person that is delivering.
50:39
You're the person that's coming up with what needs to be
50:42
delivered. You are the person that should
50:43
be delivering the consistency. You are the person that I always
50:48
like to say, I really don't feel like I started this trying to
50:51
solve the entrepreneurs problem. I really feel like I started
50:54
this trying to solve the customers problem.
50:57
The customer has been looking for the entrepreneur that is
51:00
going to deliver a transformable service to them.
51:04
And sometimes that doesn't happen.
51:06
The customer might buy something from someone and then end up, I
51:11
always say, having to wait of the chain, the burden of proof
51:16
for them, meaning like it's going to work and there should
51:20
be. There is a point where the
51:21
customer should never have to assume what you has will work
51:25
for them because you've explained it so much to detail
51:28
to where they're saying, Oh yeah, that's me.
51:30
Like there's no doubt that's me and it's going to work.
51:33
And there's no way that. So I think for me again,
51:37
starting from I need it to come from behind the chair and I know
51:41
what my customers need. My customers have become
51:44
accustomed to this because I taught them.
51:46
I taught them how to be treated. And so now they're like, I can't
51:49
go, I went down, I got to go up, I got to stay right here, I got
51:52
to go up. So it's like I was solving feel
51:55
like I've always geared towards the transformation of the
51:59
customer, the value that's delivered to them.
52:02
But if I don't help the entrepreneur, the customer will
52:04
never get that. So it was more so the
52:07
entrepreneur has like, you already have it, I don't have
52:10
it, you have it. You just need to know what needs
52:13
to be designed to deliver it. How do you?
52:16
How do you form the solution to execute it?
52:19
Yeah, yeah, I love that. I love that.
52:23
Yeah, man, I told you God brings people into my life for a
52:29
reason. Man, I wished I I wish I had run
52:33
across you when we were business owners.
52:36
Way I probably would have been in the same boat as you because
52:38
like I said, I the I was doing it, but the language you know
52:44
had no no clue the. Language the hard the hard part,
52:47
you know, was that the, you know, like I said at the
52:50
beginning, the SBA, they, they were happy to help teach, you
52:56
know, woman how to build a cookie company.
52:59
You know, they you know, they just very soft focus things.
53:06
Construction was like, you want to do what?
53:09
I mean, they just I was out of their league and I was asking
53:13
questions that they, you know, how do.
53:15
I get. How do I?
53:16
Get a day certification. How do I do this?
53:18
And they were like, we don't know.
53:21
So it must have been a lot of you out there asking those
53:24
questions that made them say we probably need to revamp this
53:27
because? Apparently we're.
53:30
Apparently we're not up to par on what actually is needed from
53:34
the the woman entrepreneur. Or the veteran entrepreneur.
53:38
I think I was ahead of my time, I tell you I was.
53:42
I think a lot of us are. I'm, I'm going to say I don't
53:46
think not one entrepreneur, especially if you're super niche
53:50
and especially if you are very detailed to a transformation,
53:56
you're probably ahead of your time.
53:58
I actually had someone tell me that had been in the same space
54:02
that I was in and way more credential than than I had like
54:07
caught like, like way up there. And they were like, yeah, you're
54:12
about five years ahead of your time.
54:14
And I was like, yeah, at least I'm about to just struggle the
54:17
entire time. Is that what you're telling me?
54:19
I'm going to struggle. But but that was confirmation
54:22
you were on the right path. You you knew that what you were
54:26
doing was needed. I knew that what I was doing was
54:29
needed. But I still had to make some
54:31
decisions for my family because losing everything was, you know,
54:38
man, I Yeah, that was tough. You know, that was tough to come
54:42
back from that. And anyways, it's, it's I've had
54:46
a journey and let's put it that way.
54:48
We've only got a couple of minutes left.
54:50
Yes. What what do you want to share
54:53
that we haven't covered already? I mean, what are your next
54:56
things? How do people reach you?
54:59
So how do you reach me? So right now you can reach me on
55:05
my Instagram, Keani Washington. So everything is Keani
55:08
Washington. If you want to get in touch with
55:10
me, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, it's all Keani
55:14
Washington. I'm actually putting together
55:16
right now a waiting list for anybody that wants to be a part
55:22
of the Entrepreneur Elevation Lab.
55:23
And that's really where you learn the response protocol.
55:26
We go through it with you in real time.
55:29
So as you are actively running your business right now, we will
55:34
walk with you to make sure that what it what you have is
55:37
actually what needs to be the design for what the bills.
55:42
So it is a seven week training and we walk through it with you
55:46
and it is it's, it's like real school people.
55:49
Unfortunately, I am an educator by trade, so.
55:53
I love it, so do. You.
55:55
Do these classes online or what? It is 100% virtual.
55:59
So it's, it's seven weeks like I said, but it's the four modules
56:06
that I was in those four pillars, mindset, responsibility
56:08
and practice. So mindset actually is a
56:11
three-week by itself. Again, you if we don't start
56:14
there that we we building nothing basically like bridges.
56:18
So mindset is 3 and each the rest of them responsibility
56:22
standard and practice is one week.
56:24
I give you a worksheet. There's a video for you to
56:27
understand. You got to go through the
56:29
worksheet and actually start mapping out and writing down
56:32
exactly what you need. Again, I'm giving you the tool
56:36
to create this design. I'm walking with you to create
56:39
the design. We're going to, we meet once a
56:41
week for about two to three hours.
56:43
You don't have to stay the entire time, but it's like that
56:46
so that if I can only jump in for 30 minutes, at least I leave
56:49
it open. So the entrepreneur does get a
56:51
chance to jump in, get their questions answered for the thing
56:55
that we actually for the lesson that you're going through.
56:58
And then that last week is like a recap of everything we've gone
57:03
through, everything you've built.
57:04
And I don't leave you hanging because there's an alumni that
57:07
you can jump into so that we can say, OK, this is my design now,
57:13
am I? Is it built the right way?
57:16
So I yes, Do you need to make any?
57:19
Alignment or whatever. I bring in experts because I
57:23
only work with the best. I don't believe in working with
57:26
nobody that does not know their stuff.
57:28
So I bring in people that know their stuff.
57:30
I bring them in and they come in and they they talk you through
57:33
it. You don't actually have to work
57:34
with them, but they're going to talk you through it just to make
57:37
sure that you are heard what you said, you want to design.
57:40
They listen to you and they're like, OK, this is what this is,
57:43
these are the things you need to be looking for this person you
57:45
need to be looking for. This is the thing.
57:46
So we break it down so that there's no question anymore.
57:50
There's no, you're, you're not walking around like a crazy
57:52
person. You know who you want to work
57:54
with. You know what you need to drop?
57:56
You know, even customers like I don't, this is not my customer.
58:00
And it could be a customer that needs you.
58:01
That doesn't mean they're still your customer.
58:03
Right, right. So customers, you want to fire
58:06
your customer? You know, I have, I have, I
58:09
fired myself. Did like literally just just
58:13
about a month ago, I fired myself.
58:16
My communications person was like, you fired yourself.
58:19
I was like, yeah, I found myself.
58:20
I found myself. So it was funny.
58:23
But yeah, so if you need to reach me on social medias,
58:27
that's the way you can reach me. I'm actually trying to build
58:31
build out this little which I call a social impact statement.
58:35
So you can kind of figure out where you are and just, you
58:39
know, make up that. Have you have you heard of
58:41
school SK0 0L? That's a.
58:44
Platform. Yeah, I'm.
58:46
Already in a platform. So I already have it in a
58:48
platform. It's already there.
58:50
We're just redesigning in the fact that of the language and
58:53
the aesthetic. So it's already there.
58:56
I will actually be opening up the applications for the class
59:00
to start in, in October. We haven't set like a definite
59:04
date, but for October, I will be opening up applications again.
59:08
So I'll be, you know, that's why I said follow me on social media
59:12
because you'll see me throw up a hey, you know, here's the wait
59:15
list or blah, blah, blah. So yeah.
59:17
All right, well, all right, thank you so much for joining me
59:20
Kiani. It's been a pleasure having you
59:23
on. I've got to do a quick goodbye
59:26
to everybody coming up next Saturday.
59:30
It's going to be recorded show, but it's Rick Russo.
59:33
He's a Jag officer retired that I worked with at Fort Hood is
59:38
going to talk about claims. If you have claims questions or
59:42
something burning, feel free to e-mail me.
59:45
Eva at NB radio dot US. Y'all have a fantastic week and
59:51
thank you for joining the propane to purpose radio show on
59:54
military broadcast radio, letting our veterans voices be
59:58
heard. Bye.
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