Interview: Bianca Shellie-Robinson of Cayden Cay Consulting

Bianca Shellie-Robinson is similar to other women in a lot of ways. She’s brave, strong, and funny. She has a family and knows how to take care of them just as much as herself and her career. But she’s also has a story to tell that’s an inspiration to everyone reading this, no matter who you are. She’s the founder of Cayden Cay Consulting, a firm focused on business strategy, development, and career consulting, plus she’s a mom and she’s a overall great person with more grit than most people. Here’s her story.

Bianca started out her career full of energy and with a knack for getting things done. She scored a job at an Energy Engineer Firm doing Project and Business Management, where she hoped to learn fast and earn her keep. The company was faltering at the initial time of her hire, but the owner took a chance on Bianca, an inexperienced but enthusiastic prospect, and she accepted. But quickly enough, she found that her expectations of the job didn’t quite meet the actuality of her day to day work. Instead of giving up and looking for a new job, she put her head down and got to work.

Slowly but surely, Bianca learned the ropes behind the business, often spending all day reading and absorbing material. Being a younger woman than most people in her field, she also found it hard to prove herself to others, struggling to convince them that she was just as capable of doing work as her older counterparts. But just as with learning the ins and outs of the business, she took the time to learn how to position herself in a way that spoke to customers of all types.

With time, Bianca learned how to write proposals and win bids. She was given an incentive structure to sign new proposals, which motivated her work even harder. But when she finally got signed proposal, there was no incentive to come along with it, and she was surprised. Yet again, Bianca pushed on, working hard, often long hours and some sleepless nights. She figured out that she was good at managing people, money, time, and relationships and noticed that she could combine all of her strengths into one harmonious unit, something that not everyone can do.

Life progressed just as work did. Pretty soon, Bianca was a working mom and was balancing family and work life on the daily. Thankfully, her employer valued work life balance and encouraged her to work from home when she needed to, a schedule that allowed her to continue pursuing her career and support her daughter.

Still, work was frustrating and she’d worked long and hard at the company. Finally, she decided to move on and look for something new. But starting out fresh wasn’t as easy as she thought and she couldn’t find a new job. After two months of searching, Bianca took up unemployment, bent her head into the wind, and fought even harder. And just when she thought she couldn’t deal with any more, she got hit with an even bigger problem. Her fiancé was suddenly very ill and needed brain surgery. Their lovely life was torn apart by unforeseeable problems.

Bianca wasn’t letting up though, and because she’d already started to formulate the idea of starting her own company when her fiancé fell ill, she was ready to take it full steam ahead when they needed it. Plus with no other income besides her unemployment, Bianca had to find a way to earn a living and support her family.

Starting the company was rough at first. Convincing others that she could do their business strategy was even harder. So, she started out doing what she knew – bookkeeping. Most businesses could see her value as being a bookkeeper since she’d done a lot of it in the past, so she used it as a way to attract new clients and then built her responsibilities from there. Once she convinced clients that she could do well, they gave her other responsibilities that were more interesting to her. Her goal – to become a well known Business Strategist and Project Manager.

After 6 months of hard work, Cayden Cay Consulting began to come together. She added career consulting to her services list and in combination with business consulting, Bianca built a company that she loved and enjoyed.

So what does this hard working woman think you should do to kick your career into high gear? Here’s her advice to you:

When you’re first starting out, be a jack of all trade. Do everything that you like to do and the things that people request of you the most, build upon that and become an expert in that area
I would advise to just spend one year exploring what you like and don’t like. What you do like, get more education and skills in it
It’s perfectly okay to not know what you’re doing. Everyone expert was once a beginner. They became an expert by making mistakes and fixing those mistakes as they progressed. The sooner you mess up, the sooner you will start to get it right. DON’T be afraid to FAIL.
The business that you start off with doesn’t have to be the business that you end up with. I HATED bookkeeping but I am extremely good at it and it was lucrative money. So I started off bookkeeping and turned my bookkeeping clients into Business Coaching Clients. So sometimes we have to do what we don’t want to do in order to get into a position where we can do what we want to do.

With a story like Bianca’s and advice to match, what’s to lose? Take the leap like Bianca did, be a warrior like her, and be your best you – we need more women like Bianca to rule the world.

If you’re interested in connecting with Bianca, check out her contact information here:

Website: http://caydencayconsulting.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caydencayconsulting/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaydenCayCo

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cayden_cay_consulting/