Today we’d like to introduce you to Keshia Aikins.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Originally from Dekalb County, I was always an avid believer that God uses the power of creativity as a vehicle of healing for all of us. From winning a design contest for our elementary school’s new flag to being involved in gymnastics, dance, drama, step, and every area of creative arts you can think of. I always found myself doodling, coming up with acronyms, writing poetry, and being drawn to imaging everything BIGGER than what it actually was. Fast forward until my high school senior year, I determined that going to college for marketing would be a part of the plan and then later ending up as a senior executive for Google. That was the goal! You know how they say if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans – that was me in that moment.
Now living in Connecticut, I completed my degree and ended up getting an internship for a state-wide non-profit. As the years went by, I eventually took on more tasks of event planning, project management and administration. Though not Google, I worked my way up from an intern to the Marketing Director for our department after being there for over 11 years. My creative juices flowed the most when I was able to come up with design concepts for our events, discuss promotion ideas that were out of the ordinary, and plan out how we could visually tell our story using video, photos, and eye-catching graphics. In addition to this, I started a traveling mime ministry, where I would dance to inspirational words and gospel songs to encourage all who I encountered. I begin to market the ministry, handle all of my photoshoots, edit my videos, and handle all the bookings. I even held a creative conference called “The Creative Release” gathering over 200 creatives from England and teaching how to be free in the gifts that God had given you.
I was always the one my friends called to brainstorm or ask my opinion about creating something. One day, a friend told me she was launching a company and wanted me to design the website. I agreed without even knowing where to start. I saw the logo, the colors, and some motion graphics in my head and landed on wix.com and gave it all a shot. I was skipping meals, staying up until 2 am while working at 9 am, and using lunch breaks to give attention to this project. I was in creative heaven! Even when I wasn’t in the greatest mood, this was something that I could pick up and immediately see new ways to visually tell the story and I was so excited each time the laptop opened.
Though I initially just wanted to help a friend in need out, I heard the voice of God say “I’m giving you creative keys to unlock others”. From that day, I launched my personal brand, creativelykey and started serving others by taking my ministry experience and corporate experience to help others visually tell their story.
In 2019, I had another “aha” moment after I had been using the tagline “someone is waiting for you to break the box” for the last 2 years. I realized that I was called to serve and teach Christian visionaries how to be solutions and not just start businesses. So many people I served where first-time launchers breaking the box of fear, doubt, and comfort. Thus, my new company, Box Breaker was born. We help our clients Brand God’s Way with Christian principles strategic planning, and website design.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
One of the biggest struggles along the way was a lack of confidence and faith in what God has called me to do. I struggled with shrinking down my abilities, and being afraid to start something until it was perfect. I delayed my original launch date for my company by 9 months due to these two issues and almost committed what I call “vision suicide”. It’s when I kept trying to kill what God has called me to do because of my own abilities without realizing that it was never about my capability but his calling. Once I decided to just fully surrender and go for it to launch, I felt a huge weight lift. Another challenge was narrowing down the type of client that I wanted to serve, this took almost 2 years to get more clarity on and is actually in the midst of narrowing down even the more right now. It was a challenge to truly try to implement the spiritual aspect to corporate, non-faith based clients. My revenue tripled once I became more clear on the type of clients I wanted to serve and attracting clients who matched that profile and were in alignment with God showed me.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Box Breaker – what should we know?
Box Breaker is a faith-based branding company that serves Christian visionaries through branding strategy, marketing strategy, creative directing, and website design. We are known for teaching our clients the power of Branding God’s Way™, building their businesses/ministries by combining biblical concepts with practical tips. We break the boxes of stagnant strategy, stale websites, and silenced vision. I am most proud of the ability to help visionaries who may feel stuck or bound to finally launch and release the vision God has given them. We understand that we may be their first step at being obedient to God, and we pray that every client that we serve is able to make further impact for the kingdom of God.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Resiliency would be my most important quality to my success. The ability to bounce back, get back up after trials, and keep moving forward towards completing my assignment. It’s something I have grown in and am definitely still working to improve. It can be easy to let personal difficulty and hard moments keep you stuck and muted, but God has called us to press on and keep persevering in life’s most troubling moments. I attribute all that I am today to the healing power of Jesus Christ. I believe you cannot achieve great things without being tested greatly.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.boxbreakerco.com
- Email: connect@boxbreakerco.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/creativelykey– person instagram.com/boxbreakerco – business
Image Credit:
blaqpearl photography
lmg photography
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