The Evolution of Taneka Johnson: Preserving the Woman, Cultivating the CEO
September 29, 2021
We’re all constantly growing and changing. As women, as business owners, as CEOs – there’s no stop to our evolution. Yet, some women let the fact that they’ll never be done growing and evolving stop them from putting themselves out there and having the business and brand that they want.
But not Taneka Johnson.
Taneka Johnson is no stranger to change. Since her first entrepreneurial venture as a life coach, she has rebranded and reinvented herself while trying to find her true calling.
Interestingly, each of the brands she created was directly related to her own life journey as a woman. Dreamworks Life Coaching & Consulting was born out of her desire to – quite literally – make her dreams work; while Hustler’s Spirit was her endeavor to recover from burnout in her career.
Now, through her latest venture and true-to-soul creation – Cultivate – she helps female entrepreneurs grow and nurture their businesses to bring their next-level visions to life. And she got there by undergoing an evolution guided by Shana Robinson and The Branding Boutique.
Read about Taneka’s journey with The Boutique to understand and transform herself into the woman, the CEO, and the brand she always had the potential to be.
A BRAND LACKING IN SELF-AWARENESS FALTERS
Taneka describes her relationship with her previous brand as one nearing a breakup. Early in her entrepreneurial journey, she didn’t know herself fully, and that created dissonance between who she was and how she presented herself to the world. Instead of building the brand she wanted, she found herself listening to too many outside voices.
“I was falling out of love with my brand. It was built on other people’s opinions and what I thought other people would want to see me as.”
Taneka Johnson, Owner & Certified Professional Life Coach at Cultivate
Taneka had a dream, but lacked the clarity to bring all of her ideas and concepts together into a business that accurately reflected who she was. “I was just going with what little I knew, not what was best or right for me,” she recalls.
But Taneka did know one thing: it was time to get some help and a new perspective. So in an effort to reignite her flame, she started working with Shana Robinson and The Branding Boutique.
“Shana’s integrity and values spoke to me,” Taneka said. “Especially her focus on putting the woman first instead of the business.”
Through her journey with The Branding Boutique and her close work with Shana, Taneka learned that this was the elusive missing piece to her puzzle: if the woman is not being taken care of, every other part of the business becomes much more difficult to define.
THE BRANDING JOURNEY STARTS WITH THE WOMAN
According to Taneka, working with The Branding Boutique reignited her passion for her business. Although it took a long time for her to let Shana into the core of her identity, once she did – with Shana’s loving persistence and creation of safety and trust – Taneka was able to unlock a whole new understanding of herself.
“Shana got to experience the deepest parts of me and my journey happening in real time. And I think that helped play a role in the masterpiece that came out.”
With her true self fully tapped and acknowledged, Taneka was ready to stop building her brand on other people’s perceptions and opinions. Instead, as a direct result of her work with Shana, she was able to bring her authentic self to the forefront as she learned bit by bit who that woman inside really is.
The process was a collaborative evolution. As Taneka and Shana worked together to chip away what didn’t belong and to enhance what did, she was slowly able to see the full essence of who she was and what her brand could be. “The final result,” she says, “was amazing.”
A LEADER MUST LEAD HERSELF FIRST
With bits of ideas and concepts swirling around in her head, Taneka knew she needed help bringing all the disjointed parts together into a concrete vision of what her business could be. But what she didn’t expect was the amount of personal growth she would undertake as a business owner and as a woman through her CEO Visioning and branding work with The Boutique.
“As I was continuing to evolve, that self-discovery aspect really helped play a role in who I’m showing up as. It helped me dive a little deeper into who I want this future version of myself to be.”
Becoming a CEO is no easy task – and Taneka experienced that first hand. “For me, a CEO is someone who does what she needs to do to stand in her legacy and her brand,” said Taneka. “It means leading others and also leading herself in a way that speaks boldly and true to who she is and what she does.”
Through her branding journey with Shana, Taneka was able to explore herself as a woman more fully. From there, CEO Visioning positioned her to shape what she wanted the business itself to look like, and how she would choose to show up as the CEO of her life and her business.
A WELL-FASHIONED BRAND EVOLVES & EMERGES
Today, Cultivate is exactly what Taneka wants it to be. Confident in the foundation she, Shana and The Branding Boutique Team laid, she believes that — whatever the future may hold — the business will remain true to who she is. That means as she evolves as a woman, now she’s equipped for the business to evolve with her.
Taneka carries this openness to change into everything she does, especially her work at Cultivate. Her specialty is in helping small business owners grow into their full potential through improving their organizational culture, leadership, and workplace.
“My goal is to inspire positive change in what the next generation of successful companies looks like,” Taneka said. “And we do that with healthy teams, company cultures, and environments.”
“I want to equip small business owners with the things that they need to start healthy, remain healthy, and keep being healthy – to be that trailblazer, that disruptor in the industry to help bring everything together, full-circle.”
In the future, Taneka envisions Cultivate serving small businesses and their employees through even more varied avenues.
She plans to create the first Black-owned EAP program, as well as staffing agencies and other resources to help small business owners nurture a healthy work environment from the very beginning stages of their growth.
You can learn more about Taneka and Cultivate on her website.
Want your own transformative CEO Visioning experience? Apply to work with Shana and her team at The Branding Boutique here!
