Rising Over Challenges and Undervaluing in Business with Aunia Kahn

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the work at home rock star podcast.

I’m excited for today’s guest She is the ceo of rise visible and what she does is she helps businesses find their voice and build their online presence Excited to be rocking out today with Anya Khan. Hey, Anya, you ready to rock? I’m always ready to rock. Awesome. Well, we always start off here in a good note.

So tell me a story of success in your business that we can be inspired by.

Aunia Kahn: So I think the success story that I would like to share is that in the last two years, it’s been the first time in my business that I, that I’ve been able to thrive rather than survive. So over the years of running my marketing agency, I have dealt with a numerous debilitating undiagnosed illnesses that just kind of traveled with me and.

And made it impossible to thrive as a business owner, to really have goals, to really have bigger visions, rather than just trying [00:01:00] to make it to work, pay the bills and just get through the day without dying. Like that’s not a joke. That’s that’s, I’m not being uncanny. It’s, it’s true. The diseases I have are that severe.

And I got a diagnosis in 2018, another one in 2021, which has changed my life. Um, in every aspect and has really propelled my business into an extremely successful, very different place to be. So there’s goals, the money’s good. Everything is really kind of everything. I wanted it to be all the things I’ve desired.

That I couldn’t even think about, I now can think about and manifest them and it’s, it’s pretty exciting to be here. Oh,

Tim Melanson: and that came out of a pretty bad diagnosis too. So that usually would hold people back, wouldn’t it?

Aunia Kahn: Well, I think, I think it really depends when you’re looking at. Undiagnosed illnesses and, you know, [00:02:00] going through, I went through 20 years of this.

I was so sick. I was on a feeding tube formula, almost dying in the hospital hundreds of times. My diagnosis got me an understanding of what was happening with my body, which is really important because I didn’t know. You know, I was allergic to driving in cars. I was allergic to 90 percent of food. I mean, there was so many things that I couldn’t do or function in life and not having a reason to tell somebody just like, hey, this is this is my life.

And this is why I basically am isolated. This is why I can’t do this. But actually having a diagnosis saying, like, I have a large stand lows. I have mass cell activation. I have dysautonomia. These are the reasons why, where people could actually look it up and have an understanding as well as getting medication.

So I was having 3 to 5 allergic reactions a day. That they were calling panic attacks and anxiety. Now I have three, three to five a month, which is a very different comparison. My [00:03:00] body was in overdrive all the time. I felt awful. I mean, it just, it was not a way to live. And now with that new stability, the diagnosis has actually propelled me into a better space.

But on the, on a side note to that, it is painful. There is, there is a lot of warning process that goes through it. There’s a lot of other, you know, things to unpack with that, because I thought maybe I’d get better one day, like I’m going to get better. There’s a reason. And now it’s like, this is progressive.

This is where I’m at, and it’s also a place to be in an acceptance, but I think in that it helps you be able to grow, be more empathetic, and also know what you want to spend your time on.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It definitely points out what’s important to you, right? That’s

Aunia Kahn: right. Absolutely.

Tim Melanson: Well, you know, normally I would talk about the bad notes, and the thing that didn’t go as planned.

I don’t know. Can you add to that? I guess [00:04:00]

Aunia Kahn: I can. I can from a business perspective. Yes, I can. So over the years. I had really undersold myself. I had really, um, didn’t charge enough for what I was doing because I was so isolated. So I didn’t have the ability to, let’s say, be in another agency or being or working with other people in the industry to really know that standard.

So kind of think about somebody who’s been put in a little jar. And everybody else around you is growing and expanding and raising their capital and getting more money. And you’re just like, I’m 20 an hour. And this is all I know. Right. And at one point, a couple years ago, I had a client say to me, actually, two of them that said, you know, we can’t pay you this anymore.

Like, this is ridiculous, you know, and I was like, okay, started looking into it. And this is obviously in the transition of getting better where I had the ability to even think about this right before it was just survival. I don’t care. Just. [00:05:00] Give me money, let me look into it. I was like, wow, I’m asking for the same thing a person out of college is asking for.

And I’ve been doing this for 25 years. So I shifted that, but that was a really painful experience to realize that I had worked so hard for so little money based on my illness and inability to have experience in the work world, being out in public, working with other people in my industry to have a baseline to know where I should be.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Yeah, I think that that’s super relatable. I mean, I think a lot of people don’t know what that baseline is. And, you know, the being self employed as well is different than having a job and working, you know, for a wage as well. Like, have you figured out any any clues as to what you should like, imagine you’re doing something as a job as an employee, and you know what that hourly rate is?

Is it the same when you when you [00:06:00] break out on your own business? Or how is there a

Aunia Kahn: formula? Transcribed by https: otter. ai That’s right. And there’s so many variables, right? How long have you been doing it? What are the different pieces and parts that you do? How, you know, how robust is your skill set? You know, how there’s, there’s just so many things to really think about.

And even asking, being in a part of, let’s say, Facebook groups or whatnot, you’re going to get a wide range of answers. Because people do that in a lot of different business groups, being specific, maybe to marketing or being specific to whatever they’re doing. It’s like, well, what should I be charging? And it’s like, well, it really does.

It does. It matters. There’s so many, so many things to figure out to know.

Tim Melanson: Well, and, and also, especially in nowadays, uh, where you’re dealing with people from other countries as well. Now, all of a sudden, you know, people are working. In like maybe US dollars, but if they’re living in India or they’re living in, uh, wherever the Philippines that hourly [00:07:00] rate is going to translate to something that very, very low for us.

And we might be looking at that and going like, oh, well, this person is charging 20 bucks an hour. So I should charge 20 bucks an hour, but I’m living in the US or Canada, right? It’s not saying.

Aunia Kahn: That’s right. Because living expenses in other countries are very different from what is happening. It also depends on where you are, you know, if you’re living in a certain area of the United States, where your cost of living isn’t that exorbitant versus if you’re living in LA or you’re living in New York, what you’re charging is it also needs to be relative to your geography as well as the location of the businesses perhaps you’re working with.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. So, okay. So then imagine someone’s in that situation right now where they are undercutting themselves, right? They’re, they’re charging something that they think they should be charging, but really for their particular location, they should be charging a lot more. How do they go about doing that? Do they just break the news to all their clients and double their price and [00:08:00] triple their price?

Like what, what do they

Aunia Kahn: do? Well, I can speak from experience and kind of say how I did it. And it was very nerve wracking. It was so nerve wracking that, um, I started out really with new clients. When new people would come in, I would use that as the baseline. I didn’t really shift other clients that I was working with.

Unless I had a relationship with them, and I felt like we’re going to continue on for, you know, because each thing we do, we have some clients that are very long term, and we have other clients are very project based. So it might be a website and that might be it. And that might be the end of it. I’m not going to come in and say, Hey, I’ve changed my prices.

But if I have a long term relationship with you, we’re building websites. We’re building course platforms. We’re doing marketing for you. Then I would come in and have a conversation and say, Hey, I’m this much money. And I’m going to be shifting my rates. Is there somewhere that you can you meet me at that rate?

And if you can’t, is there any way that you [00:09:00] can meet me perhaps in the middle being able to work with them? Right? So you can keep that relationship. And then the funny story is I had a new client come in. And I was so nervous because for me, maybe other people don’t feel this way, but with my illness, there’s a lot of pressure on if I don’t make the bills.

I can’t go out and get a normal job. I cannot do that. I also need to work for myself because I need to have those moments where if I’m not well, I can, I can work with my schedule where nobody is relying on me. To have these exact specific things lined out. I’m lining them out with my clients and and I can work around that schedule and in saying that and in having that, you know, that schedule, the money has a lot of weight.

What if I say to a client, I’m this much this new prospect and they’re like, no, then I’m in fear of paying my bills. I’m in fear of that. So I stepped into [00:10:00] that. I had my therapist encouraging me to do it. My partner clients and I’m like, okay, there’s enough people here that are mirroring this back to me.

So I stepped into this new client and I said, so I’m this much an hour and he caught me. He said, you don’t usually say that. Do you? And I, and I was like, you know, I’m going to be honest in this moment. I’m not going to lie. And I said, yeah, that’s right. I don’t usually charge this, but recently I’ve up my rates and this is where I’m at currently.

And he was willing to work with me, but boy, did I get red in the face because I thought, you know, he caught me because I wasn’t confident. And what I said, it was obvious that I had to like clear my throat as I was saying it because it was like. It didn’t come out of my mouth. This has been now a year since that change that really good jump in what I’m doing where I feel I’m at a good space.

And now I’m not so fearful anymore because I’ve not had [00:11:00] anybody really say to me, but that 1 person challenging me. I’ve not had one person say, that’s too much money, or you charge it. I’ve had, had one person blink an eye at me. And I think when we are as human beings stepping into something that’s uncomfortable, the more we get positive feedback from stepping in and stepping up, and we don’t get anything extremely negative, the easier it becomes to say, I’m this much an hour.

Also, it brings a lot more respect. I will tell you that the clients that pay me a good rate, treat me way better than the clients that paid me a crap rate. And it’s so hard for people to materialize that in their head, but it’s so true. I heard that for so long, didn’t believe it, stepped into it, and it’s a very true statement.

People will value what they pay for. And if they’re going to pay you crap money, they’re going to walk all over you.

Tim Melanson: I’ve experienced that as well. I still do. It’s messed up how [00:12:00] that works, right? You give someone a deal and it’s always the one that ends up being the most difficult client, right?

Aunia Kahn: Always.

Same. I’m with you. I still, there’s still moments in my life where I give a deal or do a little extra and it just asks, it ends up pulling for a lot more. Boundaries are important.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, they are important. And, and we consistently do it. I mean, I’ve been in business now for 15 years, too, and I still hold deals for people.

And it doesn’t, it never works out. Like, it’s so rare that, uh, that, that throwing a deal out there actually does work in your favor. Maybe if

Aunia Kahn: I can’t say there’s ever been a time that I have given in and, and changed my price or said, Oh, I’ll do a little more of this where I didn’t have resentment after, because the ask got more or the demand was more or the respect wasn’t there.

And that’s my own problem. And I think you [00:13:00] understand this. This is not the client’s issue. This is mine. We have to set our own boundaries. We have to set the precedents for how we want to be treated.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, because we we’re setting, we’re setting a bar, whether we know it or not, we’re setting a bar. We’re saying, this is what it costs, this is what I’m gonna do for this price.

And if it’s not what makes you feel comfortable, you are, you, you’re going to, they’re like, it’s not their fault. They’re just gonna, well, this is what I paid last time. Why would they think that they should pay you more if you didn’t ask for it? Right. You know? That’s right.

Aunia Kahn: I remember the first time I said to somebody, you know, you could get that done that cheap.

If you go to Fiverr. And I like I said it and of course the first time I’d ever came out of my mouth. So after I was done with this client, I was like, Oh my God, I can’t believe I said that, but I was like, but it’s true. If you want something that cheap, I can’t do it for you for that. You know, I want this relationship to be good.

And that’s the thing. Relationships in business are so important. And the more that we [00:14:00] give in, or the more that we somebody steps over a space and ask for more, and we think, oh, well, they only need a little bit more. No big deal. Well, a little bit more becomes a lot more becomes resentment becomes stress.

And even to this day, it’s still very difficult for me when I have a scope of work, when somebody starts walking over that scope for me to go, I appreciate what you’re asking, but that’s really outside the scope of work. If you want that done, we’re going to have to talk about what that would cost. Again, I haven’t been met with anything negative with it.

I feel like it’s always been very positive and very well respected. The other way around when I just give in is never respected. It’s never, it’s just being a giving person’s hard. Like you want to give and you want to be supportive and you want to give a little more. But unfortunately, in business, you have to really know that relationship where you can give, you have to have a longer relationship, I think, with [00:15:00] somebody to give them a deal, a freebie, a discount, where you actually have already nurtured that relationship and already have those boundaries.

Tim Melanson: I actually agree with that. I think that you can give a deal at the, at the, at the back end, you know, you work with them for a little while and then you just throw in something. And I find that that works out. Okay. But you’re right in the beginning. If it’s the first thing you do, it’s never going to work out in your favor.

Right? Um, so yeah. All right, we could talk about that topic forever, I think. both of us have

Aunia Kahn: experienced similar things. It’s still learning it. Yeah, me too. As much as I’m implementing it, I’m still trying to, it’s still a learning process.

Tim Melanson: Me too. I’m in the boat right now with, with the situation and it’s just anyway.

So let’s talk a little bit about practicing and getting good at what you do. Cause, uh, you know, especially in today’s world, you’ve got to keep that, uh, those skills sharp. Things are changing so quickly, right? So [00:16:00] what do you do? How do you stay on top of your skill

Aunia Kahn: set? You know, it is, it is an average. So I am somebody who likes ever changing things.

So if you’re somebody out there in the work world that likes to set. I just want to know that this is how I do it every single day. Then that’s good. But for people that are in certain types of fields where things are changing a lot, you do have to be on your a game. And the great thing for me is I get bored easy.

So for me, being in digital marketing, me being in SEO, where Google’s changing things all the time where I’m in web development, and that’s changing all the time, actually, for me. Staying on top of my A game in it is not too hard because I get bored if everything stays the same. So I like the newness of it.

You know, my partner is not of the same ilk. You know, he, he is learning to be that way, but he is just like, Oh my God, it’s changing again. And I’m like, but yeah, it’s changing again. Because I think change is really [00:17:00] good, but for people who live in more of a space where they’re like, I just want to have a skill and I just want to do my job, whether or not it’s work from home or work from somebody else, you are going to have to.

Continue to learn and continue to grow because people are going to move in and kick you out of those spaces. If you don’t right, people are going to supersede you. Other businesses will. So for you to be able to do the thing you need to do. It’s so important to know what’s happening right now in your industry.

Look at what’s happening. On the news. If that’s a part of it. Look what’s happening on Facebook groups or different types of social media sticking with knowing what’s going on is really going to help you decide where you want to be with your craft. Maybe you are happy with where you are exactly where you are.

That’s okay. But having knowledge of other things is important. So I would be a good example of that, right? There’s a 22 groups of people, whether or [00:18:00] not it’s a I art or a I in business or whatever the case may be. There are people that want nothing to do with it. It’s too much. I can’t because it’s moving so quickly.

I cannot do that. And there are other people that are like, this is so interesting and I want to keep going. The people that will sink and not rise to the top aren’t necessarily those that aren’t going to adopt it. It’s not a matter of adopt adopting it or not adopting it. It’s being aware of it and making a choice.

You have to be aware of what’s going on and then make those choices accordingly, right?

Anik Malenfant: Hi, my name is Annick Malonfant from Mastering Ascension and I’ve been working with Tim Melanson and the Creative Crew Agency for a number of years now. Tim is my go to guy for all things technology and his team have helped me to really create the platform that I need that represents my brand, my message and connects me directly to my ideal clients.

What I particularly love about [00:19:00] Tim is before he starts to dive into the technology, he always makes sure that he understands what your global view is, what your ultimate goals are. So then that way you’re not wasting a lot of time back and forth. Switching around technology or platforms. He creates something from the get go that is scalable, which is highly, highly beneficial for any business.

What I’ve experienced from Tim and his team is they’re highly responsive. They are a wealth of information, and they’re going to offer you the tools that you need to really make the mark that you want to make in the world. So. That’s my recommendation for Tim. He’s awesome. You’re going to love every minute.

You won’t regret it.

Tim Melanson: I agree with that. And I’m similar to you as well with, I love change. Change is good for me. Uh, and my partner, same thing. Likes to, likes things to be not changing as often. Um, but that’s, I think that those people attract each other, I think. That’s right, it’s true, you attract. Yeah, [00:20:00] um, but yeah, I like what you’re saying about being aware of what’s out there, because I think that a lot of people will put their head in the sand, right?

And then what ends up happening is that you get blindsided by something that really isn’t a blindside, right? It’s something that, with a trend, something was happening, right? And you don’t necessarily have to embrace it, but you can make it happen. You can make a stance against it, even as long as you’re making that conscious stance, right?

Like you could say, Hey, we’re an agency that does not use AI. Great. You know, some people are probably going to want that, right?

Aunia Kahn: Yeah. You need to have a, you need to have some type of understanding of what’s happening. I can’t tell you how many people right now are going like, well, I don’t really care about that.

About, for example, AI, I don’t really care about that. Well, I understand that you perhaps don’t care about that, but everything is being informed by that right now. The movie industry, the art. I mean, I’m an artist. I show, you know, I’m a, um, a working artist [00:21:00] outside of what I do. And so it greatly affects, you know, what.

What’s happening in the whole art world, it affects how people are writing blogs, how people, I mean, it there’s not what I mean, AI has been around for a very long time. And that’s the other misconception is people think it’s new. It’s not. It’s more newly publicly accessible. But AI and machine learning have been around for a very long time.

And that’s how we get algorithms. That’s how we, you know, we garner information and funnel through it. And you. It’s there so you cannot put your head in the sand. You cannot, you can reject it. You can love it. You can be confused about it. You don’t even have to choose. You just have to be aware that this is a part of our life and in beyond AI, it’s with everything.

It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, you have to be aware of the trends, you have to be aware of what is going on because you, you just can’t. I [00:22:00] mean, I’m getting older these days. I’m not, you know, 25. There’s part of me is like. I can understand why people that are like grandparents are like, oh man, another new thing.

Gotta figure that out. But you gotta stay, you gotta stay on top of it. You just gotta be aware. And that’s with life too, Tim. That’s with life. You have to be aware. You, you might not be a political person, but you gotta be aware. You might not be driven by certain things, but just awareness of what’s happening around you is going to set you up to not be have the rug pulled out from under you

Tim Melanson: and awareness of yourself to just being aware of everything right now.

Let’s talk a little about fans. So how I mean, the audience is everywhere nowadays, right? I mean, you know, you can, you can reach people on social media. There’s lots of places you can go, but how do you get them to like you? Yes.

Aunia Kahn: Oh, so this is this is an interesting question [00:23:00] because I have, um, kind of two different types of thoughts.

So there is an ability to build up kind of a fan base or build up people that will invest in you or want to be your clientele or those kind of connections from a business world. But then also, like I said, as an artist, I have like 398, 000 people who follow me on Facebook. So I built a pretty sizable fan base that unfortunately the Facebook algorithm doesn’t care anymore.

I mean, this started, you know, 20 years ago and it’s like. Before I could put something out there and get five to 10, 000 likes on it. Now I’m lucky if I get a hundred or four, you know, like, I mean, that’s kind of a big deal. But my point is between the two, they’re both very different. How we’re going to connect.

You need to find out what the people are wanting. So in business, if you’re trying to create connection, what are you doing to help? Like, what are you putting out there that’s providing somebody. [00:24:00] interest in what you’re doing. It’s not always about you, you, you. And I think that’s the people. That’s what often people think marketing is about.

We do this. We do it good. We do that. It’s like people want to know the answer of how you’re going to help them fix their problem, how you, you know, how they can even access access their own information to do it themselves. You know, putting tools into people’s hands also will bring them to you, right? You have to be that authentic person that isn’t always looking needy.

Like, I’m putting this out there because I really hope somebody is going to want to be my client. You have to come in confident and you have to come in willing to give away. Seth Godin has said this, um, a couple times. I don’t remember how it’s quoted. You know, it’s just one of those things that lives rent free in my head.

I don’t remember the context of it, but he talks about giving. Right. That giving, giving then creates receiving. If you’re out there giving, you’re out there [00:25:00] doing, I know we talked earlier about discounts and all that and being careful. There’s, there’s a nice balance of that, right? Where you’re not over giving, but there’s a way that you can give that also gives back to your company.

For example, blogging. If you are a business, blogging is really great thing. People say that blogging is not. a thing anymore that’s baloney. Google really takes that as a, an important aspect to ranking a website’s SEO. If you’re going out there and you’re building really good blogs, you are going out there and you’re researching information you’re learning, right?

So you’re giving to yourself by writing these blogs, and then you’re providing information for other people, which creates authority and authentic information that’s real. That’s going to help you connect if you’re on the other side of it. Let’s say you’re more in the entertainment world. You’re an artist.

Artists aren’t really, you know, [00:26:00] as an artist, people don’t want me to post on my Facebook page, like 12 tips to be a better artist. Like no one cares. They want to see the art that I’m doing, but they also want to see authenticity. So for example, today. I’m going to be sharing a post of an artwork that I scribbled all over that I screwed up really bad and I got angry at because I want to show people the true aspects of a person.

So I think whether it’s business or it’s artistic creative endeavors, I think really it’s that level of being authentic and finding exactly what it is that your people are desiring and get, get inspired by. You know, I think that’s really, it’s a really, it’s, it’s very dependent on the industry.

Tim Melanson: Totally.

So, yeah, I, I agree 100%. So now, you’ve been working from home for a long time. Wait, how do you, how did you get your jam room set up? How do you have your home office set up?

Aunia Kahn: [00:27:00] Oh, so my home office used to be in the dead center of my house. That’s how I lived before we moved. It was just dead center because I didn’t want it to be in a back room.

I just wanted it to be easy, accessible. I found that to be problematic because I spent way too, I like to work. Okay. Like I do. I’m a, I’m a workaholic. I love it. I love to work. I love my clients. I love all the things that I do, but I found that I was not as a person, I think a lot of work from home people get this, even if they have a room dedicated, that it’s very hard to separate work life from real life.

Yeah. It just kind of bleeds in. And my partner in business and life live with me, so it bleeds into dinner bleeds into other parts like it’s three. You know, it’s like 10 o’clock at night. We’re like about a client. I’m like, we should not be talking about this right now. So we made a very. Conscious decision [00:28:00] once we moved that we were making a home office that we’re leaving it at a certain time that we are set up with each other that we can work together in a good way and that we shut the door and we do not talk about work after work.

And that’s that’s just it. It’s like, it’s so hard to do, though, but it’s like.

Tim Melanson: Don’t do I have a hard time with that. I really do. I like to talk about what I’m not working and my partner is in business and in life as well. So we have a situation,

Aunia Kahn: right? Like if he worked outside the house and came home, then maybe we’d share about our different businesses. But now it’s like 2 masterminds.

What are we doing next? What are the next things? What are the blogs we’re doing? What are we doing with this client? There’s there’s so much energy there. But it’s so healthy, though, to try to find that that split and to be able to [00:29:00] separate those kinds of things, because truly, as much as I love it, and I have no problem with it.

There’s no problem for me. It’s not like talking at work at the dinner table is a problem or a problem for him either. There’s no problem here. It doesn’t cause us distress, but it also There’s no What I try to look at it and I tell myself I’m getting paid X an hour or X for a product and every bit of time that I’m providing talkie talkie about the thing, I need to start adding dollars to that.

And if I continue to add those dollars to every time I want to talk about it, I am really seeing. How much money I’m making an hour at that point, truly.

Tim Melanson: And that’s helping me, that’s helping me because, because when he, when I think about it in the dollar figure, that, that actually helps me cause I don’t want to be given that’s on track time sitting at the [00:30:00] table, talking about a client is on track

Aunia Kahn: time.

You’re giving it to somebody else. So if you’re, let’s say, let’s just use just general numbers. Let’s say somebody gave you a hundred bucks, right? For a logo. That’s very cheap. Let’s say 500 for a logo. And you spend five hours working on it, but you and your partner or somebody you’re talking about at dinner, you’re doing this now.

You’ve added an hour, two, three hours on top of that. And so now you’ve got to take that 500. And that you would have been a hundred bucks an hour and now divide that between seven hours, which takes you down to whatever. Cause I can’t do the math right now. No.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. I know what you mean though. Yeah. Yeah.

It’s bringing it down. And, and, and that’s, uh, yeah, that’s, uh, that’s an issue that I think a lot of people will have, especially when you have clients that, uh, uh, are requiring lots of different things, right. That, that you’re, and. [00:31:00] And also it is so difficult because there are times when those brainstorms are super useful.

So it’s like, you know, it’s like one of those things, well, you know, I’m feeling inspired right now. Right. That’s right. So do I, do I not talk about it now? Do I wait till tomorrow to talk about it when I’m not inspired? Like, what do you do? Right. That’s right.

Aunia Kahn: It’s it’s a tough thing. It really is. And also think about to like people living rent free in your head because not only are we talking about brainstorming, I’m sure you do.

This too is is there becomes challenges and it becomes relationship challenges in every work relationship. It’s something I had to learn over the years growing up in a very. Volatile home. I always looked at tension is being very bad, very dangerous, very wrong. And so now when there is tension in certain things, I have to spend more a little bit more extra [00:32:00] time, maybe than the average person to unpack that and go like, this is common.

This is normal. We’re going to have tension between this and that. And we’re working on this project and there’s going to be some change. Friction creates amazing things when people know how to communicate well with each other and you’re in a good healthy work environment, right? Yeah, but sometimes we have to spend time unpacking that at home.

Like, I’m not sure what so and so meant by that. Or, you know, I noticed this thing happen. It doesn’t matter if you’re working from home or you’re working in an office or you’re working wherever those relationships that you’re navigating every day. Are challenging no matter what, even if you have an amazing work environment, it takes time, right?

And that also is taking mental energy. And when you’re working from home, it’s different because often when you’re working in a place of business, you can sit there and unpack it there. You get more, um, you get more feedback. You get better visual [00:33:00] response, you get to see people’s body languages, there’s a lot more interpersonal things that happen face to face that sometimes when you go home, you’ve already moved on because you realize that that interaction was no big deal because you’ve now everything’s fine, but if you’re in the digital space and you’re working with somebody and there’s a bit of attention and then you get off, you can’t See the person you don’t know what they’re thinking.

There’s no guide to know. Like, are my okay? Are we okay? Did that work out? Well, like, there’s so then, you know, you’re spending time trying to figure that out. Working from home has a lot of navigating around interpersonal relationships and lack of physical verbal cues that 1 would get it in real time.

Tim Melanson: Right on. Okay. This conversation is great, but we have to get to your guest solo. So tell me what’s exciting in your business right now that we. You can

Aunia Kahn: tell us what’s exciting in my business right now. I think [00:34:00] the most exciting thing in my business right now is that I made a goal to make a certain figure and I, I’ve hit that figure and I’m surpassing it this year and I’m not a money person by nature.

I’ve never been driven by money. I mean, the great, I like money. Everybody likes money. It’s lovely. But I’ve never that’s never been a driving force for me. It’s always been to help people and to really just enjoy my life because truly with my illness. It really is. Every day is a gift for me, but to actually see money come in, knowing that I’m not fearful of being able to pay my bills, knowing that.

I can buy art supplies that I want, you know, when I want them and just kind of feel that sense of just peace. Like, I’m okay. Maybe this won’t be like this next year. And I’m, I’m that person. I’m the person that understands that just because something’s good right now, I’m not stupid. I’m not gonna be like, [00:35:00] everything’s fine.

And then all of a sudden the rug’s pulled out and everything’s not fine. Right? Like I understand that everything is very impermanent. But in this very moment, I’m very thankful for the relationships I have with a couple very large clients that have created long term, steady, powerful opportunities and relationships that I value so much.

And that there’s not so many people coming in and out all the time because that’s exhausting for me. It’s a lot. It’s a lot to manage people coming in and out all the time. So that’s really that’s where I’m at. And then also the success of working with my partner. He has not always been my partner. You know, he lost his job to due to coven 2 years ago and I said, well, let’s, you know, he tried to find other work and he couldn’t.

I said, well, come work with me. And we’re like, oh, geez, how is this going to work? Because we already, you know, we’re in a relationship with each other. It’s already interesting. And actually, our relationship [00:36:00] is greatly improved from the working relationship doesn’t always happen with everybody. And I don’t always encourage people to do that.

Bringing business into your intimate relationships can be very damaging and can be very difficult. So you have to strategically make those types of decisions. And for us, it’s worked out really well. So everything is just these are really good wins right now. I’m just feeling very peaceful, very thankful for this moment in my

Tim Melanson: life.

Love it. So if someone wants to get in touch with you, they want to work with you and stuff like that. How do they get in touch with you? Sure.

Aunia Kahn: Uh, they can go to risevisible. com. We’re on both social networks. My art website is anya khan. com. And then we also have another project called crate for healing.

And that’s a, a website where. Um, creativity, writing, um, art, it’s not for artists, it’s for the average person, is paired with challenging topics like anxiety, [00:37:00] depression, identity. And so those are the three places that you can, you can find me. I’m around. Google me. I have a strange name. I’m, I’m the only one.

took

Tim Melanson: your email address, you mean?

Aunia Kahn: That’s right.

Tim Melanson: Exactly. Awesome. Well, this has been a lot of fun on ya. Thank you so much for rocking out with me

Aunia Kahn: today. Oh, thank you. I really appreciate the opportunity. Cool.

Tim Melanson: And to the listeners, make sure you subscribe, rate, and comment, and we’ll see you next time on the work at home.

Rockstar podcast.

Aunia Kahn: Thanks for listening to learn how you can become a work at home rock star or become a better one. Head on over to work at home. rockstar. com today.