Five Years After Trials and Tribulations, Atiyah Nichols' Readers Are Still Writing to Her
“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.”
Atiyah Nichols, author of Trials and Tribulations
Atiyah Nichols became a teenage mother, built an assisted living business in Milwaukee, and wrote Trials and Tribulations to tell her story and her mother’s. Five years later, readers still email her their own stories, and some of the people who read it have stuck with her business because of it.
Her mother’s story could not die
Clip · Atiyah Nichols on why her mother's story could not die · 53s
Atiyah is the youngest of 12 children. She watched her mother’s ups and downs her whole life and asked her endless questions, and her mother always told her the truth. When her mother passed in 2016, Atiyah decided the story had to be written down.
“So I thought it was just very important not to let her story die as well as to not let mine.”
— Atiyah Nichols
She had already been journaling for years. Before she ever had a title, she wrote out the chapters she wanted and started filling them in.
Giving her story a voice
Clip · Atiyah Nichols on giving her story a voice · 33s
Reliving some of those moments on the page was emotional. That was also the point.
“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 dormant in my life, to be able to expose them and to give my story a voice to live.”
— Atiyah Nichols
Putting her family on the page came with second thoughts too.
“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?”
— Atiyah Nichols
She published it anyway, because so many women had already trusted her with their stories in person.
Readers are still finding her
Clip · Atiyah Nichols on the book signing and speaking · 19s
There were tears at her book signing, and emails from women afterward. The book also put her in front of audiences.
“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?”
— Atiyah Nichols
Clip · Atiyah Nichols on readers who still ask her to sign it · 25s
Five years on, readers still come looking for her at work.
“Even to this day, people are still coming asking for a personal signature if they bought the book.”
— Atiyah Nichols
They want to know more about her life, and many tell her the same thing. “They want to write and tell their stories.”
The reader who wrote back
Clip · Atiyah Nichols on the reader who emailed her · 36s
One reader emailed to say the book gave her own story a voice: that she would be okay, and that it was time to stop hiding the truth.
“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.”
— Atiyah Nichols
Don’t let shame be the reason
Clip · Atiyah Nichols on not letting shame hold you back · 39s
When women tell Atiyah they have a story but are afraid to tell it, her advice starts in the same place.
“My advice is always to not be ashamed. Don’t let shame be the reason that you’re holding things in now.”
— Atiyah Nichols
“But because you were part of it, don’t mean you initiated it. Don’t mean that you deserved it.”
— Atiyah Nichols
The book and the business
Clip · Atiyah Nichols on the readers sticking with her business · 58s
Atiyah says her book and her business live in two different realms. The book reached into the business anyway. Employees who read it see her differently, and some have stayed because of it.
“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.”
— Atiyah Nichols
“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.”
— Atiyah Nichols
Other readers have reached out to help, or to ask her to come and speak.
Her name rings forever
Clip · Atiyah Nichols on making sure her mother's name rings forever · 33s
For Atiyah, the book is how her mother stays known.
“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.”
— Atiyah Nichols
Her next book will go deeper on the faith that runs through the first one, and what it looks like in real time. Five years after the first, picking it up still does what it did on day one.
“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.”
— Atiyah Nichols
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