IAM250- Organizational Development Consultant Helps Start-ups and Non-Profits Tell Their Story Digitally

Nahamani Yisrael is an Organizational Development Consultant and Senior Webmaster at Nahamani.org. She obtained her BSBA from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio before launching her Consulting and Communications firm. Nahamani is a certified Ice House Entrepreneurship Program facilitator. She was featured as Natural Woman Magazine Top Ten Women of The Year 2017 and 100 Wise Women of Cincinnati in 2018. Nahamani serves on the Board of Directors for Bethany House Services and is active in the West End community.

• CEO Hack: Networking and seeing the value you can add to your contacts
• CEO Nugget: (i) Don't let fear hold you back (ii) Look at failure as a growth opportunity
• CEO Defined: I'm in charge, I'm in control of my destiny

Website: http://www.nahamani.org/

Twitter: twitter.com/managecincy
Instagram: instagram.com/managecincy
Facebook: facebook.com/nahamanidotorg

Full Interview

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:26

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresham from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Nahamani Yisrael of Nahamani.org. Nahamani it's awesome to have you on the show.

Nahamani Yisrael 0:26

Thank you so much for having me. I'm glad to be here.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

I'm super excited to have you on and what I want to do, which is read a little bit more about Nahamani so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Nahamani is an Organizational Development Consultant and Senior Webmaster at Nahamani.org. She obtained her BSBA from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio before launching her Consulting and Communications firm.

Nahamani is a certified Ice House Entrepreneurship Program facilitator. She was featured as Natural Woman Magazine Top Ten Women of The Year in 2017 and 100 Wise Women of Cincinnati in 2018. Nahamani serves on the Board of Directors for Bethany House Services and is active in the West End community. Now, Nahamani, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Nahamani Yisrael 1:20

I am. Thank you, Gresham, for that awesome introduction.

Gresham Harkless 1:23

Well, it's easy to give an awesome introduction when you're doing awesome things. So I appreciate you for all that you're doing. And I wanted to hear a little bit more about your CEO story and what led you to start your business.

Nahamani Yisrael 1:31

I started knocking on money.org. A lot of smaller organizations, whether it be small businesses, not or profit organizations, really struggle to communicate their value to their target market.

Most small businesses don't have a full PR staff, they don't have the technical abilities to do awesome website and the organizational development piece, I was seeing a lot of organizations struggling when they get to that three to five-year mark, as to how do I sustain this business and turn it into a legacy enterprise that I can pass on to my children, or use that as a retirement fund when I started to close the business.

So being able to help them be able to pivot their business and look at what's causing problems in your organization. And really working to solve those problems really gave me a lot of joy. I love seeing businesses thrive, I love seeing my clients move from, you know when they started off when we first started working together, and they get to the next level and they're being featured in magazines and doing all these great things, and then seeing the business continue. I like my clients and businesses to outlive their founders.

Gresham Harkless 2:38

Yeah, that's definitely the definition of legacy. Because a lot of people, you know, started thinking long-term like that. But I think you might have already touched on this. And you might find this with clients that sometimes because there's so close to it, it's sometimes hard to make those organizational decisions or be able to communicate to folks that you find that happens a lot with clients to work with.

Nahamani Yisrael 2:56

Definitely, the managers we're busy running the day-to-day operations, we're trying to satisfy our customers, we're managing inventory, we're managing people. And it's really hard to kind of take that bird's eye look at what is causing my business to stagnate or not get to that next level.

So bringing in a consultant like myself gives them another perspective. And with my background, Xavier University is one of the top business schools here in the region. So having that background and being able to understand what makes businesses work. And a lot of it is really engaging your key stakeholders, everyone looks at their stakeholders a little bit differently.

You know, of course, your customers are going to be a stakeholder, your employees are stakeholders, but the community around you is your stakeholder as well. So if your business is doing well, then that's bringing traffic to other businesses, and just the economic drivers that new businesses bring about. It's very important that we take all of those people's opinions and how the organization shouldn't change it into consideration.

Gresham Harkless 3:54

Yeah, that makes perfect sense that often is very, very difficult to be able to do that. Because as you mentioned, there are so many different stakeholders who have different, sad, different visions, but sometimes separate visions. So being able to kind of combine all that and have like, one quality vision that an organization can follow is definitely to be successful.

Nahamani Yisrael 4:12

Definitely, I agree.

Gresham Harkless 4:13

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And I know I touched on a few things in your bio, oh but what's the Ice House Entrepreneurship program? I don't know anything about that. What is that?

Nahamani Yisrael 4:21

Ice House is an entrepreneurship training program where we train entrepreneurs to think entrepreneurially. So E Wild Mindset is the organization that founded Ice House and Gary Schoonover got with Clifton Tober, who was the founder of Stairmaster and Clifton told him the story of his uncle Cleeve and flipping Uncle Cleeve, who often grew up in the Mississippi Delta in the 1950s.

At that time for a black man in his teens, it was kind of expected that he would go into picking cotton and working in the fields and Uncle Cleeve saw something and Clinton in and kind of took him under his wings, Uncle Cleeve owned the Ice House. He was an entrepreneur-like entrepreneur in the 1950s in Mississippi, and he taught Clifton his principles of entrepreneurship.

And because of that training that he had at such a formidable age, Clifton went on to do some really powerful things. So what we do is we take entrepreneurs and even people who just want to look at their careers a little bit differently.

And we think we teach them to recognize opportunities to use their network and a more genuine way. It's not just about, you know, what you know, but who you know, and how those people can help you get to the next level, we teach people how to take their business idea, and actually vet and turn it into a thriving business.

So we take individuals through an eight-week training program, it's partially online, and it's also sorted. And also, we teach it in person. So we take them through an eight-week training program, where through that process, we're doing discovery campuses, we're encouraging them to go out and talk to potential customers, because it's something to think, okay, my business is going to do this.

And this is the problem that we're going to solve. But when you actually start talking to the people that are facing that problem, and understanding what their needs and their expectations are, a lot of times our businesses actually shift. And people don't know that if they don't latin talk.

Gresham Harkless 6:17

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And a lot of times, you have to have those conversations and do that due diligence and that kind of self-evaluation for yourself, but also for your business. So it's great to kind of hear about that. And I think I've heard about that, actually years ago that I remember.

And that's great. I remember, you know, seeing so that I remember reading about that program, definitely a great program. So it's great to hear that you're helping entrepreneurs as far as doing that. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. This is what you feel kind of distinguishes you or sets you apart, or it can be for your organization. But what do you feel like your secret sauce is?

Nahamani Yisrael 6:47

My secret sauce and the reason I named the organization Nahamani.org, is that I'm bringing all of the Nahamani to the table. So I am a strong communicator, and I am very passionate about what I do. And I've got a very positive disposition. So even in seemingly daunting situations, I'm able to kind of remain calm, you know, crack a couple of smiles, and a couple of jokes, and help people get through whatever hurdles that they're facing.

So when I go into a new business relationship, I'm really able to ease people's fears, because I really found that fear keeps a lot of people from starting a business, growing their business and tech, and going out there and putting everything on the line. I mean, you're risking your time, you're risking your life savings and your reputation. If you hang up that open side, so I'm able to kind of comfort people and help walk them through that process so that they can be successful.

And once they break through that fear, it's what happens is just phenomenal. I have a client, when she came to me, she had one location, just a few clients coming in and working with her on an ongoing basis, she's not going to a second location. And now people are reaching out to her to you know, learn about her business model and how they can, you know, mimic that and grow their businesses. So it's a great process.

Gresham Harkless 6:56

I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app or book or habit that you have. But it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Nahamani Yisrael 8:15

My biggest hack is networking, and actually turning those networking contacts into relationships. You know, when you go to a networking event, you know, you collect all these business cards. And you're wondering, you know, a lot of people, we collect them, we stick them in our billfold or in our purse, and we forget about them. But I have a process where I actually go through not at the event because I want to be engaged in talking to people, but I'll sit down and I'll kind of brainstorm okay, how does this connection?

How can I either bring value to them? Or how can they bring value to me, and then I'll do a quick Hey, it was great meeting you at this location. You know, these are some thoughts that I think that we could definitely come together and partner on, or we can work together on and actually start to build those relationships. Sometimes we meet I just met Monday with a lady that I had met at a bid for coffee.

And we've been sending emails and texts. And it's great for both of us because we're in very different industries. And you wouldn't think that we would really need each other as much as we do. But much you sit down and talk to people. And during the event, of course, you know, everybody's talking, there's lots of noise, lots of things going on, they usually have some type of agenda, you know, they have a presentation and all of that, but doing it kind of outside of the event, you start to build these really wonderful relationships.

And sometimes, you might meet someone, and eight months, six months or a year before the actual spark goes off. And this is how we can work together. But because I've taken that initiative, and I've shot them an email, they're built into my contacts, they know who I am and what I do so they can send me referrals. And then you know, six months a year later, I just met with a gentleman that I met in 2017.

We talked about doing a website. He didn't have his product quite ready. But he's referred me to other clients that need my services. And it's just that offline conversation, that human factor, and being able to interact with people on a human level. And I tried to tell people to do the same thing with social media.

So a lot of us have hundreds and 1000s of friends and connections. But what are we doing with those? You know, are we just doing it again? Is it just for self-gratification? Or is there actually some way that we can turn those into real-world contacts, meet with someone for coffee, have a little get-together if there's three or four or five of you?

And even if people might look at and say, well, that's my competition, there's enough food at the table for all of us to eat, you know, you never know what someone else might need, or they might need to outsource some of the work to you or, you know, you just those relationships are golden.

And we will I really take those very preciously. And I just use them. And I, and I opened myself up as well, you know, how can I help you? How can I, who can I introduce you to you might not know that I might have known for 20-30 years, and people really appreciate that.

Gresham Harkless 10:57

And you might have already touched on this, but I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you can kind of happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Nahamani Yisrael 11:06

I would tell my younger self not to overcome that fear, you know, I talked about a little bit earlier. But that fear is real, it holds a lot of people back and I've experienced it, I've gone to and scheduled myself for events or opportunities, and then I've talked myself out of it, and you just miss that opportunity.

So face your fears head-on, don't let them ruin your day, or run away from opportunities and just accept it that, they talk about it in public speaking, imagine the entire audience being naked, well imagine that everybody else that you're interacting with, they're afraid they have, you know, we all have personal lives and personal things that we're trying to overcome. But when you start to deal with people on the human level, you'll, you'll start to wonder that, we're all a little bit afraid, but I wish I had told myself 20-30 years ago, to not let my fear hold me back, I think my business, you know, could be way further ahead, had I taken advantage of some of those opportunities.

When I was younger, I had a lot more energy back then. But today I have to be appreciative. God had to take me through those things in order to use me in the way that he uses me today. So, but that will be my nugget to pass on to other entrepreneurs that are, you know, thinking about starting a business, I really need to start a business, I have this great idea. Just go out there and do it, you know, go out and try it. If you fail, don't look at it as a failure, look at it as a learning opportunity.

Gresham Harkless 11:14

Exactly. It's all part of the process in the grand scheme of things. So you can only fail. If you stop, you got to keep moving, keep moving forward. And take that as a learning lesson. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on the show. So nowNahamani, I want to ask you, what does being CEO mean to you?

Nahamani Yisrael 12:51

It means that I am in charge, it means that I am in control of my destiny and that as long as I continue to make strategic moves that I employ to be successful, as a CEO, I have to look at what resources are out there. For me, I don't have a large staff, I have I get interns from some of the local colleges, and I have one or two individuals who helped me, but being able to guide those people and give them you know, as a leader, you have to, you know, set the pathway for their success, and you have to celebrate their success.

So being in charge is not just, I'm the boss and I'm, I'm running the show, but I'm actually responsible for outcomes for other people. And I take that very seriously. And I hold myself accountable and saying, okay, how can I use this opportunity? And I have an intern right now that's doing social media. And she's taking a lot off of my plate and allowing me to do things like this interview and meet with clients to do more writing, which is something I love to do.

So I'm always looking at how can I, you know, other than, you know, paying her which she appreciates, but also how can I help get her to the next level, she wants to be a blogger, so I'm always introducing her to other bloggers that I know tagging her and posts where I know that she'll get value from it. But taking her success and taking responsibility for our success, is part of my role as a CEO.

Gresham Harkless 14:13

Nahamani, I truly appreciate your time, what I want to do is pass you the mic just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and our listeners know and then of course how best I can find you.

Nahamani Yisrael 14:21

I definitely want to let people know about my branding blogs. I started a blog. It's called Influencer. And what I do with that blog is I get branding nuggets from different CEOs. I've interviewed genomes of sports organizations, nonprofit organizations, and various organizations, I'm actually interviewing a social media influencer on Tuesday, but if people go to my website which is nahamani.org, and hit the influencer blog.

There are tips on there that people can use to further their brand and we talk about things like using the media as brand ambassadors, we talk about Randy Innovation. So I definitely would love for people to come on there. They can definitely follow me on social media. I'm on Facebook as nahamani.org And then I'm on Twitter and Instagram as @managecincy. So if people want to connect with me, I'm very like, I just as I am a person, I'm very approachable.

Hop to my DMs, let's chat, let's talk. If you're local, let's get together and have coffee, if you're not local, who knows I might be coming to your city soon. And it's so great to come to a new city, where I don't necessarily know people, and then to realize, okay, so social media friends here and get to meet them in person. So I'm very open to that. And I just love talking to people. I love seeing people win. So I think that would be awesome to connect with more entrepreneurs and like-minded people.

Gresham Harkless 15:47

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And we'll make sure to have all those links in the show notes as well too, so that everybody can follow up with you Nahamani I appreciate you appreciate everything that you're doing and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Nahamani Yisrael 15:57

Thank you so much, Gresham for this opportunity. This is so much fun. Bye, everybody!

Outro 16:03

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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