𧡠Timestamp: Q1 2020
My plan for my clothing startup in 2020 was to scale up. I had just hit 6-figures, had a few production runs under my belt, and my confidence was through the roof. As you can imagine, I was in for quite the surprise.
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In January 2020, my manufacturing partner in Portugal started hinting at the pandemic.
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β‘οΈ By March: my factory partner told me they were operating at <50% capacity.
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β‘οΈ By May: they told me they were shutting down work with smaller clients like me.
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Without a production partner, I had no product. No product meant no sales. No sales meant...no business....so what was I supposed to do next?
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π₯ Hot take: No one tells you what to do after you fail your own startup....
π‘ Inside This Issue
If you're new here β hi! Iβm Arshiya, Founder & Principal of NIYAH Advisory, Your Leadership Studio.
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This newsletter lives at the intersection of storytelling, leadership, and what it means to build something real without losing yourself. I work with executives, founders, and creatives on growing their leadership, building resilience, and finding their dreams.
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This week β Iβm sharing the behind-the-scenes story of how I stepped away from my start up... and what it taught me about building relationships, and taking a chance on something new.
π The Stormy Path From Founder To Employee
Throughout the summer of 2020, I tried to establish a new and temporary supply chain here in Los Angeles. I started half-heartedly applying for jobs and interviewing even more half-heartedly. I got lots of interviews...but couldn't close the deal.
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People didn't seem to know what to do with my experience, and my sharp departure from the corporate world. I considered going back into real estate, where I spent the first half of my career. But even that felt just...bad.
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One day, I opened an email from Shopify and saw that a partner org was running a pandemic-era giveback program β a free course on performance marketing for entrepreneurs.
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I had too much time, so I signed up.
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Over the next 2 weeks, I poured over the basics of running a profitable business through performance marketing. I had a tiny bit of product left, and I tried out some of the new strategies I learned. I was shocked to see how well they cleared out my inventory.
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Shortly after, I saw that the CEO was hiring. I cold messaged him on LinkedIn with my resume.
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He interviewed me within the hour. I was brutally honest in that meeting. I told him I didnβt know what I knew how to do, but Iβve done a bunch of different things, and I wanted to be around really smart people, and I promise to learn.
βοΈ Whatβs Next
Two weeks later, I started as a paid media buyer at Common Thread Collective, a leading ecommerce performance marketing agency in Southern California.
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When I look back at that time, I feel all kinds of feels. It was one of the hardest times of my life. I felt like I was giving up on my dream. And yet, I felt eternally grateful to have a steady paycheck when the world was falling apart.
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Next week, Iβll share Part 2 of this story β and how that job transformed me, my confidence, and my understanding of what it really means to be resilient.
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But for now, Iβll leave you with this:
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ππ½ Donβt underestimate the power of planting seeds.
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I still canβt believe that opening that one random email... then signing up for that one webinar series... then sending one shot-in-the-dark LinkedIn message yielded me a whole-ass job.
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Despite so many messages going unread, unopened... this one didnβt. And it changed the trajectory of my life.
π£ Work With Me
If parts of my story are resonating with you, I'd love to connect. I work with founders, executives, and rising leaders to build resilience into the next steps. And I'd love to chat about what that looks like for you.
π₯¨ Snacks:
π§ Reframe: 11 visuals to shake up your perspective this week.
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π A Rising Right: How Zionism Is Leading The Global Right Worldwide.
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ππ½ People & Culture: The case for renting an executive...would you?
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