Power Women: Keiva Reyes of Momtrepreneurs and Me On How To Successfully Navigate Work, Love and Life As A Powerful Woman

An Interview With Ming Zhao

A strong support system — we were not meant to be alone, without a strong support system I would have collapsed from stress, exhaustion, and overwhelm. Sometimes I need advice, sometimes I need someone to listen. I thank God for the people he has placed in my life to help motivate and support me which includes my significant other, my family, and my friends.

How does a successful, strong, and powerful woman navigate work, employee relationships, love, and life in a world that still feels uncomfortable with strong women? In this interview series, called “Power Women” we are talking to accomplished women leaders who share their stories and experiences navigating work, love and life as a powerful woman.

As a part of this series I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Keiva Reyes.

Keiva Reyes is a momtrepreneur with a passion for helping female business owners to become highly successful. She is an Administrative Manager and Email Marketing Specialist who supports female business owners, specifically momtrepreneurs who are coaches, creatives & consultants to grow their businesses and become more visible through various administrative and email marketing functions.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood “backstory”?

I grew up with a very close family in my beautiful twin island Trinidad and Tobago. Living in the Caribbean and growing up in the 1980’s was so different from what I see now. I remember my cousins and I enjoyed the outdoors as we had many ventures to the river and enjoyed playing outdoors, climbing fruit trees to pick and eat fresh fruit. My childhood was filled with fun and family, something that I hold close to me now especially as I have my own family.

Can you tell us the story about what led you to this particular career path?

After leaving my corporate job, I became a Virtual Assistant. I wanted to offer specialized services instead of general and I always loved marketing so I decided to learn more about elements of digital marketing. After completing an online course and becoming certified in Digital Marketing, I was accepted into a three-month online apprenticeship with an Online Marketing Company based in Florida. When the training in funnel building began I fell in love with the element and wanted to learn about email marketing holistically, so I did and started offering it as a core service.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

I would say the most interesting thing is the mindset shift I gained throughout my career. When I started in the corporate world I was trying to find who I was and what I wanted in life. Upon becoming a momtrepreneur, I realized that I had to get up and get. I had to seek out business opportunities and assert myself so that I would be taken seriously and gain clients. During that time, I invested in a few mindset programs and coaches to help in my development and overcome the dreaded imposter syndrome. My belief in myself and my capabilities has grown so much since then that I am now proud of myself and my accomplishments.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Three instrumental character traits for successful female leaders:

1. A positive mindset with a can-do attitude. Henry Ford said whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right. Your success must first begin in your mind and then it will flow through you and your business. I thought that “what if I take on clients and I can’t meet their expectations or can’t do the work they hired me to do, with a positive mindset, I realized that I can meet and even exceed their expectations and if its something I cant do I am completely upfront with my clients and once they are willing I can try. Now that I have adopted a positive mindset, I feel motivated and confident to build my business.
2. Being Persistent. Follow up with people who may need your services. There will always be people who will tell you no so don’t feel rejected. The no is not a reflection of you and your work but sometimes it’s just not the right time for them. In business, I learned that being persistent but not pushy helps you to build relationships as well as know, like, and trust. Because of this trait, my clients and I also grow into a friendship in our business relationships. They always refer my services to others and vice versa as well as we stay in touch.
3. Be able to network & communicate. I love meeting people and I love helping people. This trait has really propelled my career. I may not directly meet someone who is in need of my services but through networking and being able to communicate clearly and effectively with others, I am able to build business relationships where I refer services and the persons in my network do the same.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. The premise of this series assumes that our society still feels uncomfortable with strong women. Why do you think this is so?

Women have traditionally been homemakers and nurturers and not breadwinners. Although in essence, we are still those things we have now become a type of “hybrid woman” where we can do all that and more. Human nature is that anything relatively new feels uncomfortable and as such women being at the forefront of business and industries and being called strong women will make some feel uncomfortable and unaccepting.

Without saying any names, can you share a story from your own experience that illustrates this idea?

When I was dating, I met a few men who found me intimidating because I was eager to become more successful than they thought I already was. I was already making a substantial amount of money at my corporate job while taking care of my family as a single parent and holding down my responsibilities without complaining about being single. They told me that a strong woman like me would never find a man who would settle as I was intimidating to any man. I realized they were not what I needed as a “strong woman” as they called me needs a “strong man”. I eventually did find someone who actually propelled me to become an even better version of myself and grow my business, so you can say he inspired me to become an even stronger woman.

What should a powerful woman do in a context where she feels that people are uneasy around her?

I think she should just be herself. You can’t dim your light to make someone else comfortable. Most times the problem is truly with themselves and not with the person. No matter what you do there will always be people who don’t like you or feel threatened by you so just be you. There is a saying “you can please somebody sometimes but you can’t please everybody all the time”.

What do we need to do as a society to change the unease around powerful women?

Firstly, we need to define what a powerful woman is and why we define them as such. We need to make the public understand that powerful women are normal human beings who have made significant achievements in their careers, or their business, their homes, their families, etc. Powerful women can be found everywhere, in the Church, in product and service-related industries, in the home so it’s not something that is uncommon, it’s just recognizing them as such and more so why we recognize them.

In my own experience, I have observed that often women have to endure ridiculous or uncomfortable situations to achieve success that men don’t have to endure. Do you have a story like this from your own experience? Can you share it with us?

Actually, when I worked in the corporate sector I was very aware of this happening all around me, not just to me but to my coworkers as well. I remember I had a boss who made very bold sexual comments to his female staff members which included myself, of course, we were all uncomfortable but we couldn’t voice our disgust to him as that was somewhat the norm with that individual and it went unchallenged. I was even told that in order to move up the corporate ladder I would have to offer sexual favors to the men in the “influential positions” as many women had already done that. They made it seem like the only way to become successful so I chose success on my own terms as a business owner.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women leaders that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

Women leaders are often seen as emotional and weak and of course, this is not the case. We are as strong as the situation calls for us to be, just look at women like Harriet Tubman, Oprah Winfrey, and Michelle Obama

Let’s now shift our discussion to a slightly different direction. This is a question that nearly everyone with a job has to contend with. Was it difficult to fit your personal and family life into your business and career? For the benefit of our readers, can you articulate precisely what the struggle was?

Yes, when I started in business it was difficult to balance my personal and family life with my business. Like anything new, we need time to adjust to situations and circumstances. I found myself working almost every day until late at night to build my business in an effort to reach close to my financial goals. I was burnt out from “burning the candles at both ends” i.e. taking care of my family’s needs as well as the business needs and neglected self-care, of course, I became exhausted and my stress level increased.

What was a tipping point that helped you achieve a greater balance or greater equilibrium between your work life and personal life? What did you do to reach this equilibrium?

My family felt the brunt of that sacrifice as I started neglecting time with them. When I wasn’t working, I was taking care of the households and their needs. I was also exhausted and my health suffered, I was mentally drained and taking it out on my family and close friends. They in turn reminded me that the reason I was building this business was to be able to spend more time with them, not just to achieve financial goals. I also had a wake-up call when I had to visit the doctor as my body started showing signs of stress and exhaustion. With help from other momtrepreneurs, prayer, and guidance, I was able to see the bigger picture and adjust myself to ensure that my business fit in with my life and not the other way around. I am not yet hitting my financial goals but I have found balance and gratitude for the lifestyle I am able to afford presently. Now I ensure that my life is filled with family and fun as well as my work.

I work in the beauty tech industry, so I am very interested to hear your philosophy or perspective about beauty. In your role as a powerful woman and leader, how much of an emphasis do you place on your appearance? Do you see beauty as something that is superficial, or is it something that has inherent value for a leader in a public context? Can you explain what you mean?

Ahh, what a question. I believe that true beauty comes from within and makeup, jewelry, etc are to enhance what is already there. I believe in having a good appearance for the outside world but I must admit that I am a plain Jane type of girl. On a scale of 1 to 10 my appearance is a 6 meaning, I make sure that I look presentable but I am not one to spend hours on hair and makeup unless the occasion calls for it e.g. if I was attending an event as the guest of honor, of course, I would go all out to look my best whereas if I am dropping or picking up my kids from school a ponytail or bun and comfortable clean clothing with no makeup and my must-have sunglasses are all I need.

How is this similar or different for men?

That depends on the man lol. Some men are very into themselves in that they spend much time on their appearance and the clothes they wear whereas there are those who are similar to me in that they look clean and fresh with clean clothing and shoes and spend less time focusing on their appearance.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Powerful Woman?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

These are my most important 5 things:

1. I am very spiritual so my number one is my relationship with God, my creator. Without seeking his guidance through prayer every morning my day does not go right and I cannot function properly
2. Passion for what I do — when you love what you do it is never work
3. A genuine love for helping others to succeed — no man is an island so in helping others we in turn help ourselves. When you win, I win!
4. Flexibility and balance — I cannot feel like an employee, I need to set my own hours and ensure my family time takes priority
5. A strong support system — we were not meant to be alone, without a strong support system I would have collapsed from stress, exhaustion, and overwhelm. Sometimes I need advice, sometimes I need someone to listen. I thank God for the people he has placed in my life to help motivate and support me which includes my significant other, my family, and my friends.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

I would love to have breakfast with Oprah Winfrey.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.