Founder's Story - From Teacher to 7 Figure Business | Ep. 14 with Miranda Naiman CEO and Founder of Empower

Episode Date: April 29, 2020

Miranda is an ‘Accidental Entrepreneur’ with an academic background in Theatre for Development who strategically transferred her skillset to the private sector in 2009 when she founded Empower (www.empower.co.tz) a flourishing Human Capital Consulting. Please visit Pix11 or Fox5 San Diego for more details. Our Sponsors:* Check out PrizePicks and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: www.prizepicks.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: www.rosettastone.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Welcome to Inspired by Her, the podcast that will give you the inspiration, motivation and tips for success from some of the top executives, CEOs and influencers from around the globe. With your host, serial entrepreneur and named one of the Kate. And I have here today, Miranda Nyman. See, Miranda is the founder of Empower. It's a flourishing human capital consulting firm servicing East Africa and beyond. Welcome, Miranda. Thank you, Kate. It's so good to be here. Yeah, I'm so happy you're here. I know it's 9 p.m. your time and everyone, Miranda, is in Tanzania. I am, yes. It's a sweaty day in Tanzania today, very humid. Yeah, 9pm, but it's good. I'm just glad to be online and connect with you. Yeah, I appreciate you being here. So Miranda, can you introduce yourself to our listener today? Sure. As you said, I'm Miranda, female entrepreneur. I'm a mother of one. I have a son who is almost 12 now.

I have built up a business over the last 10 and a half years now that started off as something on my own and has now included my two siblings, my brother and sister, who have now joined the business and I would say have taken it to the next level. So it's morphed into a family business now, which is great. Very outdoorsy person, spend a lot of time at the beach, you know, and just somebody that enjoys connecting with other people and having an impact in society and quite patriotic as well.

Wow. Wonderful. Now, Miranda, I was reading your bio and you mentioned there you're an accidental entrepreneur. Tell me why you say that. So I say that I'm an accidental entrepreneur because I never planned to become one. I guess we rarely do. And there was never a business plan or any kind of figures or forecasting or investment. I was just very passionate about training. I'm a teacher by training and being able to help people grow and realize their potential. And that kind of grew into a business.

It snowballed. So about a year in after consulting and I had, my son was very young at the time. I was kind of on and off working a couple of days a week and it just, you know, more and more client requests and it grew and grew. And then I took on the first employee about a year into the business. And from there, I mean, literally have not looked back, have not stopped. I thought I would have more time and that, you know, that was my key motivation was to have more balance between family and work. Sometimes, as you know, as an entrepreneur, it slides in the opposite direction. So thankfully with the current pandemic, it's slid right back the other way. Wow. Wow. Well, now Miranda, I want to dig down into that story of switching from being a teacher

to getting a client and you're scaling it. And now you built it the million multi-million dollar business i met you through eo and um so miranda what was the city or town uh you grew up in like so i grew up in dar es salam which is uh the commercial capital of tanzania um and it's on the coast. We are born to a Tanzanian father and British mother. So they met in university in the UK and then she bravely moved to Tanzania and worked in the international school here. My father is the entrepreneur and he built up business here, properties and trucks and so on. What was it like growing up? Simple life, the good life, man. We had a very solid family foundation. I think having that combination of a really creative yet pragmatic dad who was able to take risks and build businesses and fail and try again and succeed versus mom who was a teacher and very very passionate about her craft

that combination was quite formidable and I think that has been helpful for myself and for my siblings and having the right balance of pragmatism the ability to take risks but also to be very passionate about achieving excellence with your craft wow Wow. Wow. You have a very good combo of parents, professors. I mean, you know, your dad is, yes, is a business owner. I mean, a business and your mom is a teacher. So how does your dad feel when you decided to become a teacher? Does he want you to be an entrepreneur or a teacher? Tell me. I think that when I first explained to the family that I was going to go solo and set up a business,

it was a difficult time for me personally. So I had gone through a divorce around that time and I had a young child. So it didn't seem like a logical thing to do. A bit of a, not a bit, a huge risk to not have a steady income. And I didn't, I did have a job before. So I can't say that people were overly supportive at the time, but they did believe in my ability and that I would be able to maintain my client base. I would be able to build my personal brand and my name in the city because

I was very passionate about what I was doing. Wasn't driven by money, but more by the impact that my work could create. So I think the support came over time. And that that was a key motivation. You know, having my dad finally say, I'm proud of you. Like it took a few years. It took a good six years, but it finally came and yeah, full support now. And, you know, he's almost like a, I would say he's not a shareholder, but he is like a director of the company in a way that he advises and he shares and we have shareholder

meetings and he'll sit in as well. And yeah, he's a huge part, an advisor and a key player yeah when you said that that big moment when your dad you know told you that he's proud of you it kind of gives me goosebumps because those are big moments right like for your parents to believe in you like you that is a validation of the sweat of you building it for the last six years. Yeah, yeah. And in particular for me, he raised me, I almost say that he raised me like a boy in a way, like a firstborn son,

but he was very tough on me is what I mean to say. He used to tell me that I could do more, be more, achieve more and was never satisfied. And so that drove me, I think, to excellence indirectly. So to hear that, you're right. It's very moving. Yeah. All right. Tell me what are the best memory in your childhood and the worst? Oh, okay. If I go back to, I would say age, I was probably about seven years old. The best memories that I have are when my parents were really kind of fighting to build up a life. And we lived in a very rural area or rural parts of Dar es Salaam.

So we had one car. So we'd have to coordinate, you know, Dan's dropping us off at school. He's going to work, pick up the kids from school pick up mom come back but as soon as I would get home like as soon as I'd eaten lunch it was like I'm disappearing out into the wild to like play in abandoned buildings and like they would have to come and look for me when the sun was going down like have you seen our kid it was those days of just being outside and playing hide and seek and like chasing cows I, there were cows and snakes everywhere where we grew up. Those are the memories that are really powerful for me. And I almost feel sorry that my son doesn't have them because it's a totally different era. In terms of the worst

memory, probably in my teens, very confusing time when my mom was first diagnosed with cancer she she has now passed but this was many years ago and i was 14 and i remember being she left and went to the uk for chemotherapy and so we were with my dad for about four months and i remember it was like brandy you're now the mom so make sure your siblings are okay. And just that confusion of not fully understanding what was going on, but that you had to step into a leadership role early on. So that, that is a difficult memory for me. Yeah. So you were teaching and tell me that very,

that day when you decide to start your own business, what was in your head? So I come back to the accidental term because I didn't, I kind of resigned from my job knowing that I'd stay home for three months and that I was going to consult and do bits and pieces. And, you know, Miranda, can you come and do a public speaking course? Yeah, sure. I can do that for a day or two. And it just built up from there. I think the moment of intent came when I registered the company. And that was probably six months after, you know, consulting and realizing, do you know what, I have way more time, I can earn far more and still be a present mother and build something. Perhaps even more so when the first employee joined. I think that's when it got really real.

And it wasn't somebody that I went to look for. It was somebody that said, I believe in your vision. I want to work with you. I know that you're going to build something and I want to be part of it. So my first employee was really crucial. And I think that was the point where I said, right, I'm not a lone ranger, not a consultant. It is a company. And now we need to build those foundations and values and have more strategic direction. And yeah, it just kind of grew from there. Wow. Now, Miranda, do you still remember your initial investment? How much did you invest?

So you probably won't believe this but there there wasn't any at all literally zero base um actually one of my proudest things is that we've never had any investment no bank loan nothing it just started with me on a laptop and just as i would earn fees client fees i'd buy another piece of equipment and then i'd buy a desk and then I'd moved out of my bedroom and rented an office somewhere and then two rooms and then not through it just it's been very organic Kate's like bit by bit just keep reinvesting in the business wow yeah that's amazing um now how long it took you to reach the million dollar revenue? Four years ago. So that would be six and a half years into the business.

Wow. And go on. No. And were you surprised or not at all? You expected it. Like what, what was your reaction? Hitting that mark, I think, was a moment of affirmation that clearly we're doing something right. People want our services because we have a recruitment agency. We do a lot of learning and development. We do team building and strategy. People want and need our services.

So there was a huge demand in the country. And then we started to see ourselves shift within the market from kind of position four or five up to one or sorts and didn't know what else was out there. And I was a complete slave to the business. Of course, I was not working on it. I was absolutely in it. Still am, but not as much. And I think the EO moment was pivotal, you know, in terms of changing the way the business was managed and how I handle my own life as well. Wow. Wow. And Miranda, what are the challenges that you've overcome as running? You started your own and tell me. Oh, where do I start? So many, as you know, we have all the usual things, you know, managing our cashflow, employee issues. And, you know, have all the usual things you know managing our cash flow employee issues and you know when things go wrong if an employee steals from you and all those things but

also the personal things getting through parenting my son has ADHD so that's a challenge as well so being in our society is quite a patriarchal society. So being a divorced woman, single mother in our Tanzanian society is a thing. And what else can I say? Also, you know, losing my mother, which was quite pivotal as well, which was 2014. That was really difficult. I would say the business almost came to its knees i drained a lot of resources there so there's been lots of challenges um and covet 19 i know right what we're facing now right this is i mean this is like a challenge and a blessing wrapped into one

um there are days i wake up and i'm like i I actually quite like this. Like I could get used to this. And then I'm like, oh my gosh, we've lost 90% of our revenue. What are you thinking? And anxiety. I had my first, I had my first panic attack last week. I've never had anything like that before. I've never suffered from any kind of mental health issue, but it's real. Like we're all going through it. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely i i can totally relate to you in that one and uh i could feel my nerves it's just my pinched nerve because it's all the

stress and even though we show this face that we're okay deep inside we're trying to save our company and it's very right yeah and what we've done to build it but also the lives that we're trying to save our company and it's very difficult. Right. And what we've done to build it, but also the lives that we're responsible for. I think that the heaviest weight, if it was just us, Kate, right? And you could say, let me just pause, just freeze my business for now. Yeah. And we'll pick this up in a few months. It's totally different, but there are lives at stake. And that weight is very heavy.

Yeah. lives at stake and that weight is very heavy yeah I have some you know I every time I have to visit my store and see how I put so much effort in it I get like really down for the rest of the day so I tried I don't know if it's a good thing for me to you know face it but it doesn't make me feel good like I put so much effort into this with so much money and you're building you know, face it, but it doesn't make me feel good. Like I put so much effort into this with so much money and you're building, you know, the brand and just like you have no choice or barely has any other choice. So if this is helpful at all, I watched a webinar yesterday with James Khan, who's a recruitment entrepreneur from the UK. And he says, well, he's been running a multi million dollar business for, I think it's

about 30 years now. He was like, once you've made it through a recession, you're stronger than ever. The fact that we're still here fighting is a very good sign. And once you come out the other side, it's a swift uphill kind of takeoff. So I'm hoping that he's right on that. We're built for this this we're built to solve problems we're entrepreneurs yeah absolutely um i'm you know i'm i'm trying to be positive and i'm i'm pivoting but it's dealing with it it's it's it's very hard it's very hard no absolutely very hard and i think being open about it as well, that we have days where we wake up and we're like,

everything's great. And the next day you might not want to get out of bed. And that's okay. Like we need to be kinder to ourselves. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I went through in 2018,

one of my e-commerce got shut down and it was very difficult. So I feel like I'm used to this one and I was able to pivot into another business and that business shut down too. It's like, I feel like what else? You're like, what else you got? Wow. No, I know. I know.

So now I'm doing the third one, but like, you know, you remind yourself, you have to cover your basis, but third one. But like, you know, remind yourself, you have to cover your basis. But when things happen like this, you know, but we can do it. We'll figure it out. Is this not the definition of a serial entrepreneur, though? You start something, for some reason it doesn't work out. If you don't pick up there, you start something else.

Yeah, absolutely. In your blood, you'll make it through. Yeah, okay okay so Miranda um what was one of your deepest motivation in life I think it's changed over the years um I think when we're young uh I'm thinking about school if I look at the evolution wanting to be popular I wasn't very, I'm thinking about school. If I look at the evolution, wanting to be popular, I wasn't very cool. I was bullied in school. So wanting to be accepted, I think was probably a motivation. Later on, I mean, acceptance is still crucial,

but I think now my motivation is very much about how I can make other people's lives better through the work that we're doing. So be that helping someone to find a job in tanzania there's a very strong extended family um culture so when you help someone find a job that's not just them it's a whole ripple effect of people who are economically empowered um when you teach someone a new skill they're able to be promoted within you know their career or set up businesses it's life-changing. So being of service to people and to my country as well. Wow. What is it like being a female leader in Africa?

I think there are quite a few of us now. I can only speak for Tanzania, of course. I think when I started out, I was far more naive. And I used to say, what is this whole women equality thing? We're already equal and we can do everything men can do, which we can. But we are not, perception is not there, particularly in a patriarchal society like Tanzania. I think they are more accepting now um simple things like a client you know you're meeting a bank CEO and they want to meet for lunch I avoid those situations because of what it might look like even though it's not the case um our society is quite judgmental and

if you're a particularly big divorce woman as well so it's like she's single and she's a boss and she's out, you know, having client lunches with powerful men. What could that be? And how could she get that contract? And that kind of gossip is there less so now you build your name and people realize and they start to respect you. It's difficult, but we almost have to play um dual roles we have to be cognizant of our culture but we need to also be aware of our immense potential and not be afraid to just be who we are um so my route has been you know humility um not to walk around with any kind of arrogance um to be very open. And so that people see that there's nothing that they should feel threatened about when they meet

me. And just try to avoid certain situations that might be misconstrued. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. For a very long time, you know, definitely my color and my husband is as white as he is. I have a lot of friends in my island would ask me like, oh, you got the job because of your husband. Like it's never really like, you know, it took a while before that change of how people viewed you. Now it's different it's different but for a very long time i always get upset because they think i i was able to do it because of his connection like no never that way you know like but now i stop caring anymore yeah do you man yeah um yeah i i can understand that i can understand that there's there's that racial kind of line as well.

And even here because I'm mixed race as well, that can also be a fact. So, you know, it's like maybe the same thing. Maybe you got that job because you're not fully black, you're mixed. And therefore, I mean, that's a whole other interview, to be honest, we could do one on race. And therefore, I mean, that's a whole other interview, to be honest. We could do one on race. Yeah. And Miranda, can you name a person who has had a tremendous impact on you as a leader?

There are many. There are many. I'm trying to think of one example. I'm going to pick somebody that probably wouldn't even be aware that they've had an impact on me. And that is a client of mine who was working for a large multinational in the shipping industry. I now look back and I say this person was a mentor. But at the time, I didn't realize it. But I used to ask him those what if questions. What would you do if this happened in your business or how would you handle this employee situation? And I think he had a huge impact on me because he helped me to tame my

emotions in a way. And he was far more, I would say, prudent, sober, and very analytical and calm. And he's taught me, even when I've done an MBTI, I used to be very much on the feeling side and now it's shifted the other way. He's taught me to be far more calm and considered. Don't make a decision immediately. Are you really upset that this happened? That's fine. I just try to hone my leadership skills a little bit more so not lead with emotion but rather with logic and empathy um so i would say he has had a huge impact on how i lead in terms of yeah i i don't i haven't told him this i might do that after this call. That's amazing. So lead without emotions. Say it again, if you can say it. So not to lead with your emotions, but to lead with logic and empathy. That very powerful. And think back to a time where that you felt transformed and how did you change and why?

I'm going to go for the obvious one. So four years ago, an email pops into my inbox. Would you like to come to an event? What is this entrepreneurs organization? I have no idea what it is. I show up at an event and listen to a speaker talk about exit strategy. I had never considered the idea of exiting or leaving my baby that I've built up over all these years. What are you talking about? What is an exit strategy? And that was the first time that I felt right. There is a whole glass ceiling above.

I thought I was already free as an entrepreneur, but there is so much more for me to explore up there with people across borders in an organization like EO. So transformation for me came and has continued to come over the last couple of years. I would say probably two years into EO, I started to see real effects, increased revenue changes in the way that the business is being managed and the way I manage my life and how I've become more open. And just that idea of experience share and shared values. And you know, I can, I can talk to you and i can talk to somebody in shanghai and i can talk to someone in uh beirut we have shared values and we have a common language and

we're able to communicate and experience share and not feel judged and i think that is sorry that's a mosquito um and i think that is um the recipe for transformation. Absolutely. It just, it's just so easy to communicate. And like, you just like, you know, there's no, you don't feel like, oh my God, should I say this? Like it just. Just comes out. It just comes out.

Like, oh my gosh, I just said that, but it's okay. It's form confidential and yeah, it stays where it is. And yeah, I think it's been huge. And also, you know, the path of leadership, of course, I sound like I work for EO right now, but just the experience that you get in leading other in brackets, very stubborn leaders, such as ourselves, ourselves stubborn entrepreneurs and being able to rally people together and particularly this year like as president it's been it's been fun but it's been challenging as well and um it's just a unique opportunity when where else would

you get to do this yeah absolutely absolutely Miranda, what are you most grateful for? So many things. Family first, I think, for the way I was raised. We were given a great education and we were given values and the rest was up to us. So I'm really grateful for that foundation. Grateful for my health. I'm grateful for my brain. I'm grateful for my brain I'm grateful for my brain because I feel like it's a gift and a curse it's something that has pushed me to take risks and try things but it can also stop me from moving

forward as well and I'm grateful I don't know, I'm just, I don't know. I'm just grateful to be alive, to be honest in this time. It's, it's a really different time to when people were operating businesses in the seventies or eighties or nineties. So being able to have an impact now almost means more because it's such a difficult or tricky playing field.

So I'm grateful to be one of the players. And what advice would you give to a female aspiring entrepreneur? My, well, advice, I can share what I did. I would say to not be too hard on yourself, to try and seek out what it is that you're good at, that people are willing to pay you for as well. So it's a combination. Sometimes we get a little waylaid when we say we set up a business that's based on our passion, but it needs to be something that is in demand.

So finding that happy medium and to not be driven by money. I think that's my secret to success, to not have money as the end goal, indirectly brings money away. And so that is something I would say to a young startup entrepreneur. Wow. And I do love your company name, Empower. It says a lot. How did you come up with that name? Popped in my head in the middle of the night. You know, one of those things where you get up and you write it in a journal. And I was still employed at the time. I just said, if I ever had something of my own, it would be called Empower. And I didn't know what the logo would look like, but I knew it would be orange because it's vibrant and healthy and yeah it's my favorite color and uh yeah it it means you know people being able to

realize that potential and so all the service lines that we have they're all about growth mindset and being a better version of yourself and so the name seems natural yeah yeah and um how do you want to be remembered? I've asked so many people this question and I've never fully thought about it myself, but very simply put, just to be remembered as somebody who was authentic

and generous. Wow. Where can they find you? What's your handle? What channel are we talking about? Any channel. If it's Twitter, it will be at Miranda Nyman. So all one word.

And if it's Instagram, it's at Miranda.Nyman. And your company name, your company. Oh, right. Empower.co.tz. We've actually got a really, yeah, sorry. Go on, Kate. No, you get a new website. Did you?

No, we've just, we've got a new section to our website where we've been profiling lots of Tanzanian thought leaders, not just Tanzanian, actually East African thought leaders that we're really excited about. So if people are looking for inspiration, the website empower.co.tz would also be a cool place to go. Well, I can't wait to check it out.

Cool. Thank you, Kate. Miranda, thank you so much for your time. Thanks for having me. Yes, I can't wait to see you in Tanzania. That's on my list. You are invited. So as soon as these travel bans get lifted, you've got a home here.

Thank you so much. And Miranda, have a great day. Thanks, you too. Bye. We hope you enjoyed the show. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe. And visit katehancock.com so you don't miss out on the next episode.