Trials and Tribulations, Five Years Later: Atiyah Nichols on Giving Her Story a Voice

Transcript

Teddy Smith: Hello everyone and welcome to the Author Hour podcast. I'm Teddy and today I'm joined by Atiyah Nichols, who is an author and the CEO of Cachet James Living. It's been over five years since your last book, Trials and Tribulations, came out. Now what goes through your mind when you pick that book up now?

Atiyah Nichols: Well, as I have my book today, and even just looking at it, it's just refreshing. It's inspiring still for me to look back and hold my book to see that I really went through it and was able to tell my story to inspire other women in the world so they can know my story because I felt it was very important.

Teddy Smith: When you wrote it initially, I think you wanted to empower your community a bit. Why don't you tell us a little bit about, give us the background to why you wanted to write the book in the first place?

Atiyah Nichols: Well, Trials and Tribulations was more so of an experience of my life, becoming a teenage mother after that, basically working, trying to make ends meet, and then having a background of a strong mother, being a baby of 12 children. My mom had 12 children. I was the youngest and seeing her ups and downs was just always inspiring and encouraging to me. I loved her story as well. And she passed in 2016, and I just felt there was a need for the world to not only know my story, but understand what triumph means and what tenacity means when you think you're going through and how to try to survive those moments. So I thought it was just very important not to let her story die as well as to not let mine.

Teddy Smith: Yeah. What was the writing process like for you? Because I know it's obviously a very personal story to you. How does it feel writing the book?

Atiyah Nichols: It felt amazing. It was very therapeutic for me in those moments of writing and gaining ideas and reliving certain moments was emotional. However, it was still therapeutic because that was the point of me writing to get it out on paper and to not let embarrassment or either secrets lie doormat in my life, to be able to expose them and to give them, give my story a voice to live. So it was very important. The process was therapeutic. It was fulfilling. It was a very fulfilling feeling to come over as we published it. It was just amazing.

Teddy Smith: Yeah. What's the reader reaction been like to it?

Atiyah Nichols: Well, I had a lot of, I've seen a lot of tears, like even at my book signing. My book signing, there was a lot of people just happy for me. In those moments, I received emails after my book signing from different women. I spoke at a few conferences in regards to my book. In Wisconsin, I was asked to come and speak to young teenagers and other women as far as how did I start the business? How did I get into the book, writing, publishing, realm of things, and who backs me up in all of this? Is there someone else? And even though I have my family, I also have God that I love dearly, and he's been the one backing me and giving me the ideas and strategizing my footsteps. So the process was good. The remarks that I got, the feedback was good. Even to this day, people are still coming asking for a personal signature if they bought the book in there. Yeah. Coming to my business, if they catch me there, they'll ask me for signatures and just want to know more about my life and where I'm going. It let me know that it was expiring, and how did I go about it, and they're inspired. They want to write and tell their stories. So it was amazing. The feedback has been amazing.

Teddy Smith: That's incredible. You mentioned actually, before the call, you mentioned that people have been emailing you about their own stories. Were there any of those stories which really stuck out to you?

Atiyah Nichols: The art of one reader stating that I gave her story a voice to know that it was okay, she'll be okay, and to stop hiding the truth that lies beneath, and to expose a thing, sometimes help heal the thing. It was very emotional for her, but appreciating the fact that she had enough nerve to email me and let me know that the book is doing exactly what I intended it to do.

Teddy Smith: When you wrote the book, did it, because obviously when you get your book out there, it's public and people, as you've said, start emailing you, speaking to you, coming up and speaking to you. Did it change any of your relationships with either in your work or in your family with anything you're doing?

Atiyah Nichols: I believe as an entrepreneur, because you have younger women that you're hiring often and even older women, as they are inspired, they're coming to me, asking me sometimes, where did I go wrong? And I'm encouraging them in the space that they're in, because I don't like for someone to sit and know where do I go wrong? It's more so, how do you wake up? How do you move forward? You don't look back. And just because someone else is having a moment of reflection and able to talk about it easily, that's always been my style of communication since I was a little girl. But at the end of the day, just being able to support them in those moments when they're coming to me asking for answers as to how did you get here and thank you for letting me know that I'll be okay, it's just those moments where I'm like, I did what I needed to do. I'm so glad that I put this book out. And sometimes I could feel a pull as to, did I give too much information? Do I really want someone to know me like that or know my family like that? You have those moments, but I said to myself, growing up and becoming a woman, I've always encountered other women going through things and they always felt comfortable sitting down telling me, it goes from what's your name to before the end of the conversation, I know their whole story. And I witnessed that a lot and that's what made me write, because there's a lot of women that's going through things and they just don't have the trust behind certain people to let those things out and expose those things to be free from it and not let it lay doormat so they don't be angry or bitter and those different things. So I just wanted to get a real something from a different angle as my mom, a black mother growing up in poverty and being married five times in her lifetime, but not allowing no one to misuse her or abuse her in any kind of way. Knowing when to wake up and walk away, but also raising her children, never giving up on us and never passing the torch to someone else, being accountable for the lives that she created. And I just wanted to make sure that the world understood what that looks like other women as to, it's okay, you know, how that looks even in the roughest situations.

Teddy Smith: Yeah. So when people speak to you like this, especially it sounds like you want to help women specifically, when someone comes up to you and says, okay, I've got a story I want to say, but I'm maybe afraid to say it. Do you ever have any advice to them?

Atiyah Nichols: Well, my advice is always to not be ashamed. Don't let shame be the reason that you're holding things in now. And that's majority of the time, the reason why that we're holding things in and there we can't release or confront a thing that's holding us back. Shame. We don't want to release it because I was part of it. But because you were part of it, don't mean you initiated it. Don't mean that you deserved it. You know, so understanding and in all those moments, having enough tenacity to say I can get through this and I don't have to be ashamed. And if I got every right to talk about it, if I want to, like I got every right to encourage someone else to talk about it and release the pain or the anxiety or the depression that's trying to, you know, stay within you, being able to release those moments and not be at fault for some things that you couldn't control.

Teddy Smith: Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Well, when the book's obviously not a business book, it's not a traditionally business book anyway. It's more about your story. But you're obviously quite a successful businesswoman in your own right. How has the book had an impact on your business and the way that you work in there?

Atiyah Nichols: Well, I would say that my business and my book is in two different realms, however. In my business, I have gained more long term relationship with certain employees because they bought my book and know me well and they're able to see me in a different light, even though I stand here blessed with the business and doing well in the business, they're able to see me for whom God created me to be a little bit deeper by reading my book and knowing, oh, you're just like me. OK, I can roll with you. I can help you. I want to help you. I want to help you build. I want to help you sustain this thing. So when it comes to my book and my business, there is a handful of people that read my book and they're sticking with my business. I know this personally. I haven't even expressed this out loud before, but I know for sure that them knowing me well through reading my book is probably what draws them to me to want to help the business sustain itself.

Teddy Smith: Yeah, definitely. And forming that personal relationship with your employees and the people that your business partners, people you work with, has telling your story had an impact on the way that you lead?

Atiyah Nichols: Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, I'm always humble when leading, but very direct, very direct, very understanding. I see some of my employees remind me of just where I come from and I'm always giving them second, third chances to rebuild themselves and to know that someone is giving you a chance. Some people don't want the second, third chance, but some of them hold on to it. And I can see those that's trying to change and trying to get better through my trainings and through the education that comes to my business and them being able to grow within the business. They have higher positions and things like that within the company. So I definitely can see where it helped a lot of women as well as men, as well as giving back to my family. My business has hired some of my younger siblings, my nephews, my nieces, my cousins, kids. I have given first jobs to a lot of the generation that came behind me. So I'm already grateful for that in this last 12 years. Yeah, so I can see where the business has helped a lot of people as well as they wanted to come over and help me just for reading my books. Some people may have popped up. How can I help you? Can you come speak here? We want to know more. This amazing story of yours and just with me being not ashamed and being able to express that I know who I am and I know God called me to be and understanding my journey, my journey that he has for me.

Teddy Smith: That's amazing because even though it's not a business book, it sounds like because of the way you've written it in such a personal way, it's helped bring you closer to the people you work with and potential clients. It sounds like you've even been asked to speak at things. So by telling your story in such a personal way, you've been able to form a connection with the reader.

Atiyah Nichols: Yes, definitely.

Teddy Smith: That's amazing. The other thing was it sounds like faith is quite an important part of your life and business generally. When it came to writing the book, how much of an impact did your faith have on the way you wrote your book?

Atiyah Nichols: Well, I'm going to tell you the truth, my faith was the reason the book even got written, because to even go through a process of writing a book and even receiving help within the publishing realm of it all, it just was like a pull. At that moment and that time, I had been writing a little bit here and there right before my mom passed on up until 2020. I was writing here and there in my journal and just journaling. I've always been a writer to write out how I feel, Lord, diary type of girl. So that's never been an issue for me. But when I start, I literally put a title on my book that is not the title that I use. However, when I started journaling and pre-writing my book, I was literally writing down ideas and I took the chapters of what I want my chapters to be and I wrote them out. And then I started writing from those chapters as to how I want them to read. And some people found my family really comical as well over the years. And the way my mom just helped our neighborhood and the children, I just didn't want her story as to who she was and us colliding together as daughter to mother to die. And after her passing in 2016, it just pushed me to really focus and just say, now I really have to tell this story respectfully, but it needs to be out here so other mothers could just read it and just know that they're not alone. And other young girls can see their self within me and know that they can publish their book, their own book too, if they want to write and become an author.

Teddy Smith: Do you have any advice for people who want to use faith as one of the core messages in their book? Because it can be a tricky subject for some people to write about because it's so personal.

Atiyah Nichols: Yes, well, with me, faith is my substance. So like literally, spiritually, when I feel a pull from God, I move and that's how I'm here. With business, with the book, within life, some things I don't get right. However, God redirects my path all the time and staying in tune with what he says you signs, he says you people to help you. You just got to get in alignment with wanting to know your purpose. And just sometimes your purpose is what you love, you know, and helping people is something that I always done. Seeing people happy is something that I always like to see. And that helped me understand my purpose, God's purpose with my life and assisted living and writing and supporting women. That's been my thing all along. So just listening and being obedient in those moments with God, serving at church, getting into some type of spiritual background where you got leaders ahead of you to show you how to do life with God and understanding that he's there even if you don't have a church home or if you don't. If you don't have a church home or if you don't have someone to talk to, you can always talk to him in prayer, reading the scriptures and understanding how to apply those scriptures to your life, how to apply those scriptures to your life when you don't understand which way to go and just letting it speak to you.

Teddy Smith: And did it also help to have a community around you, like your own personal community, but also having help with, you know, some of the more technical aspects of writing, too?

Atiyah Nichols: Yeah, my community was important. People around me, supporting me, that quiet time that I needed to write, giving myself that hour or two just to be to myself, even if I had to close myself in the room and put do not disturb on the back of your room door, and you got kids in the house that want to come in. They just, the moment that you close the door and put the do not disturb, that's the moment they want to come in. Other than that, they're playing Roblox and not studying you, right? Or they're hanging out or want to leave. But the moment that you put do not disturb and get that quiet time to yourself, but being very, that's very important. So the pull of my book came from me always trying to understand my mom's story. I was the last seven boys and five girls, and I was the last girl. And me trying to put, I always asked her questions and I was always trying to pick her brain and she knew it. So she'll just lay it out flat for me. She never held back. She always told the truth to me. And so therefore, as her child, I tried to put these pieces to the puzzle as to how things would have been different or these different aspects as to trying to fix things or how can I do things differently or how can I do things off her back to make it even better with what she taught me. So in those moments, I was just trying to put it on paper and make it make sense as well as collided with my story as to even though she's not here and even though she went through hell and back, I'm going to push through and make sure that her name rings forever and that'll be in my book that won't go away. And as well as my name will ring forever. That's the importance of my book and publishing and really going through it. Was to make sure that our story does not go untold and that is put on paper.

Teddy Smith: Yeah. It's so inspiring. It's an incredible story and you've obviously been very successful with your assisted living place, you know, you've gone up to a few hundred beds now and you're opening a new one in January. You're obviously very busy and even on top of that, it sounds like you're, you know, you've started thinking about another book about your faith and also intention and what question do you want that book to answer?

Atiyah Nichols: I really want to talk about the process of everything that's happening in my life, even since a younger, it was a little girl as to when, when you even asked me how the God, how does God play a part in it, how does faith play a part in it, I wanted to elaborate more on that in my next book as to showing people we're in real time, what that looks like for certain people. And that's me. What did that look like in real time? God's, God's law of attraction in my life, faith happening, faith happening, knowing what you want, faith happening, what that looks like over and over and over again, and even the people that he put in your path to assist you on your way, I just want to make sure that people understand and be very intentional about paying attention to when these moments happen, the right rooms at the right time and knowing when to walk through a door and when not to go through a door. I want to elaborate a little bit more on that so people can understand that God can be talking to you. And this faith thing can be right in front of you and all you have to do is tap in and understand that he holds that and he's waiting for you to align with purpose and once you align with purpose and faith, faith meets purpose, everything will start flowing a little bit better in your life.

Teddy Smith: Yeah. Incredible. Really look forward to helping you with that and reading it when it comes out. Well, Atiyah Nichols, thank you so much for coming on. If people want to find your book, the best place to find it is on Amazon or in other bookshops is Trials and Tribulations by Atiyah Nichols is the book you're looking at and we've put a link to that in the show notes too. Atiyah, what if people want to get their book signed? Where do they find you?

Atiyah Nichols: Well, I'm in Wisconsin the majority of the time at Amira Orchids on 104th and Bradley Road in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. If you want to stop in during the week, Monday through Friday, most of the time I'm there.

Teddy Smith: Great. Well, I'm looking forward to visiting Milwaukee. It's a bit far for me from Portugal, but when I'm there, I'll come and get my book signed.