Use What You Have To Get What You Want

You have everything you need to be successful.

I'll run that back just in case you didn't hear me the first time. You don't need more time, money, or resources to be successful, you just need to use what you have. According to Karen, that's exactly how she became one of the most sought after media professionals in the game. Along with using an AOL disc to jumpstart her career in the industry, Karen also used her ingenuity in other ways to get ahead:

"I would do an interview for my site and I would gift them to the talent, and I would have them take funny pictures or use them for the studio, and I ended up sending these pictures to Beats because I saw that their Facebook was in dire need of content. This led to the Marketing Executive, Omar Johnson, reaching out to me and one conversation later, I was moving to Los Angeles with a new position within the company. That was 9 years ago to this day."

Take The Time To Celebrate Each Victory 

A 10,000-mile journey starts with one step and truly bossing up starts with taking the time to celebrate your small wins. Karen explained that while being your own boss can be satisfying, it can also be scary AF:

"When you work in a traditional job, there's the glass ceiling. You're trying to break milestones, you can track your way up like any employee of the month, promotions, etcetera. But when you're an entrepreneur, there's no ceiling. There's not even a floor, just walls that will close in on you if you doubt yourself."

Your Insecurities Are Excuses

Let me tell you something. The self-sabotage struggle is real; but at some point, you realize that there's only one person stopping you from becoming the woman of you dreams. It's you, sis. You're that person.

Your weight, your bank account, your age, and your gender are not the determining factors in you achieving your goals, how you see yourself is. According to Karen, getting to the root of her insecurities was key when it came to building her empire:

"There are three reasons for not achieving anything and those are: giving up, failing to gain momentum, and becoming distractions. I had to learn to categorize all my insecurities and process all of the obstacles in as nothing more than an excuse that I was doing nothing but sabotaging myself."

Be Proactive 

When you're not early, you're late, and this principle should also apply when it comes to your work ethic because an early bird may get the worm, and a proactive woman secures the bag.

In order to design the life of your dreams, you first need a blueprint, and Karen said that started with eliminating any and everything in her life that didn't align with her vision.

"When you fail to plan, all your plans fail. My journey to walking my purpose and building my brand has its ups and downs but I've always wanted to be the master of my own life and not a victim of circumstance or chance. So I put in the long hours and could control my day-to-day and could continue turning my ideas into a fruitful reality."

Your Mind Is A Muscle, Work It Sis

In Karen's Tedx Talk, she shared that in China, work ethic is valued more than talent and no matter how good you are at what you do, you can always get outworked. According to her, much like muscles, our minds are instruments of the body that must be trained and conditioned to be successful. One way to pump the iron is by setting attainable goals:

"Setting goals and achieving them will always keep you motivated. The actual act of achievement is something that can be learned over time. You need to treat it as if it's a muscle, and once you learn to properly work it out and condition it, there is no end to what you can accomplish in your life."

Play The Long Game 

In the words of the great African-American poet T.I., I was looking through my rearview at all the times I had, sh*t seems a lot clearer after time had passed, and boy, isn't that always the case? Hindsight is 20/20, and Karen revealed that insight is the most valuable thing you can have when it comes to being an entrepreneur. The CEO stressed the importance of being a star player when it comes to preparing for the long game:

"It's easy to get caught up in the day-by-day challenges of running a business, but you literally have to carve out time at least once a week to take stock of what you're doing for the long-term health of your business. Do you have an exit strategy? Do you plan to just wake up one morning and close shop? Are you looking to be bought out by a bigger corporation? Do you plan to transition your brand into something different down the line?"