358 Kisha Mays: Think Big and Go Global

Women Innovating Networking Growing Scaling – that’s WINGS … I’m Melinda Wittstock, my mission is to help women take flight to soar to the success of our dreams in business and in life– and create and grow businesses in alignment with our passion and purpose.

On this mentoring Minisode of Wings of Inspired Business … we talk about what it means for women to step out of their comfort zones … take a chance on ourselves … dare to dream and take action to make those dreams a reality. We talk about what it takes to build a global business – and how to overcome our fears to “just do it”.

Here with us today to provide her insights and inspiration is …

Kisha Mays.

Kisha Mays is a serial entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist author, and an extraordinary success story who has taken her business global and is busy scaling it. Along the way she had to rebuild from scratch after massive failures three times. Those epic fails – and they were heartwrenching – forced her to dig deep into her soul, unearth the fear, and face it down.

Kisha’s primary focus is on helping to develop 1 million Fearless Female Entrepreneurs generating a minimum of $1 million + in annual revenue. She wants to turn these women into unicorn global businesses through her fund – its called the “Just Fearless Angel Fund” – a fund exclusicely for female-founded companies at justfearlessangels.com.

And if this is something you think you don’t have time for …you probably are exactly the person who needs to make time. Because you’ll get further in those 4 days than you will in 4 months plus we’ll show you how to turn time from a scarce resource into a limitless one – we call it “return on time” … so you to have all the time you need for business, love, parenting, friends and fun. Wingsexperiences.com/apply

And now to the inspiring Kisha Mays.

Melinda Wittstock:         Kisha, welcome to WINGS.

Kisha Mays:                        Melinda, thank you for having me.

Melinda Wittstock:         I’m so excited to talk to you. We have so much in common in mission and beyond. And I want to start by asking you what’s inspiring you right now?

Kisha Mays:                        What’s inspiring me is just seeing that more and more women are stepping out of their comfort zone. And more women are taking a chance on themselves and just going for whatever that dream or goal may be.

Melinda Wittstock:         It’s so great. You know, you wonder, what held us back before? But yes, why? Why play small when there’s so much that we can do.

Kisha Mays:                        Absolutely. I’d like to think what held us back was … I don’t want to say held us back, but I do think maybe as you come more into yourself, and we see being different movements whether you’re looking at the #MeToo or Time’s Up or whatever type of movement you’re looking at, we’re just seeing more of a vocal voice from women. And to me it’s inspiring from like a, even with other responsibilities you have with being, whether you’re a mother or wife or whatever, everything you do on top of having the business or if you have a career, whatever. It’s so much that lot of times we take ourselves last.

And I’m seeing more women say, “You know what? I have to place myself first in order for everything else to work and be good,”.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh, amen, sister. That’s so true because often we’re sort of like the captain of the ship, we think we have to go down with it. Actually, we can’t serve anybody unless we’re really putting ourselves first. And no, that’s not selfish. That’s just smart.

Kisha Mays:                        Exactly, I agree.

Melinda Wittstock:         So, what are the biggest challenges going on with you right now? We always like to destigmatize that because, of course, in entrepreneurship, there are lots of ups and downs. That kind of comes with the territory. Everybody has them. What’s your challenge?

Kisha Mays:                        I think … I’ve expanded already internationally from that team in Hong Kong, and Dubai, and Sydney, and also the US, and in Miami and other places. But I think the biggest thing is just kind of that next level. I envision Just Fearless and being a global conglomerate. Kind of similar to what you see with Virgin, Virgin Airlines, Virgin Records, all that stuff. I envision that.

And so it’s just that challenge is just scaling it to that level. I know what it takes to scale a business overseas, to build seven figure, eight figure, even nine figure businesses. But to get to that next peak that’s the challenge. And I’m thinking, “I can do it.” I don’t doubt myself but it is definitely a challenge.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah, it is. Scaling is always a big challenge. You have to be willing to let go of something. Yeah, you master it. You just get there and you feel comfortable. And then you have to get out of your comfort zone all over again.

Kisha Mays:                        I let go of a personal life long time ago. That’s what I had to let go of, a personal life.

Melinda Wittstock:         Well, you can have that too. We say on this podcast, “There is a way to have it all without having to do it all,” And how we can all get better at leverage. Taking one action and having a multiplicity of results from that one action. That’s how I like to look at it for sure.

Kisha Mays:                        Absolutely.

Melinda Wittstock:         So, Kisha, there’s so many things that you’ve done and achieved in your life. I mean, you’re a force of nature. What are the top three go to pieces of advice that you have for women in business? Business owners, entrepreneurs, investors.

Kisha Mays:                        You know, Melinda, the most cliché thing, because people hear it all the time, but I’m always amazed that people just don’t follow it, first thing is just do it. I think we get in our heads too much and we overthink, overanalyze, and question and doubt. Then we talk ourselves out of it. So first thing is just do it. It’s never going to be a perfect timing, or the right situation, it’s never going to be all green pastures. It’s just now how life operates. It throws curve balls. You just have to keep maneuvering, keep going. So first thing is always just to do it.

Second thing is you might even say, “Well, I didn’t do it, I don’t know what to do.” Okay, what are you curious about? Maybe you don’t have a passion yet. Maybe you did the traditional go to college, get a job, start a family and now you want to do something different. What are you curious about? If you have a hobby, or something you love. Or, if you don’t, it’s time to get to know yourself. So finding that curiosity, going after it, just doing it.

And third thing is, when I call my company Just Fearless I’m not saying that we don’t have fear. I want to make sure I’m perfectly clear on that. Everyone has fear. What I’m saying is act in spite of the fear. Don’t let the fear stop you. Now, obviously fear has its reasoning. It’s meant to protect you, keep you from running out in front of a car or whatever, or doing something crazy. But the fear of failure, the fear of success, the fear of something, or a problem you’ve put in your head that’s not even a reality. You have to act in spite of that fear because otherwise you will never achieve that goal, that dream. It’ll burn out and spend the next however many years you have on this earth existing.

So those three things of find the curiosity, just do it, and act in spite of the fear, because you will have fear, I promise you. But if you act in spite of it that fear will go away.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh, gosh. What brilliant, brilliant advice. And I think that the funny thing about fear though is the sort of fears that we have that are the subconscious ones.

Kisha Mays:                        Yes.

Melinda Wittstock:         That we don’t even know we have.

Kisha Mays:                        Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Melinda Wittstock:         So, unearthing those, getting rid of them. I mean every morning I honestly for what it’s worth, I’m just in my morning meditation I’m just like, “Okay, whatever fear it is, I don’t even know what it is, but just please help me clear that. Just help me clear that,”

Kisha Mays:                        Absolutely. I think, as you said, that’s another great point. We should be doing meditation. Sometimes we say, “I don’t have time for that. I have to get the kids ready for school,” whatever. Five minutes. If you have to wake up five minutes earlier. Five minutes, ten minutes a day, do something for yourself. Journal, if meditation’s not your thing, journaling. Whatever it takes.

I had this thing where at night, Melinda, I put on headphones and I listen to my audio books or different things that are inspiring. Where it’s guided meditation while I’m sleepy. So my thing is trying to make sure that I keep myself conscious on a level of moving forward.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh, man. I do the same thing. I can’t tell you how many times I fall asleep listening to audio books. And I wake up in the morning and I’ve heard the whole book.

Kisha Mays:                        The whole book! Yes, that’s me, I’ve heard everything and I’m like, “Wow,”.

Melinda Wittstock:         And I’m like, “I know it’s gone in there somewhere,” I mean, right?

Kisha Mays:                        Yes.

Melinda Wittstock:         But it’s a curious thing. I don’t know what it means for deep REM sleep but whatever.

Kisha Mays:                        That’s how I feel. I do it every night, whatever. And then I wake up like, “I finished the whole book. I’m at a book a day at this point. I’m doing good.”

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh, my god. That’s hilarious. I didn’t know that there was anyone else that did that. So, yes, something else we have in common. That’s awesome.

Kisha, how can people find you, and work with you, and join your Just Fearless movement?

Kisha Mays:                        Yes, so, I would encourage them to go to our website, justfearlesswomen.com. Justfearlesswomen.com. And it has everything about the Angel Fund, what we do as a business, HERstory Connections, everything. You’ll find our social media is IAmJustFearless across the board. Easy to find. Easy to remember.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh, that’s wonderful. Well, thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us today.

Kisha Mays:                        Thank you, Melinda. Thank you so much for having me.

 

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