The Frame of Mind Coaching™ Podcast
The Frame of Mind Coaching™ Podcast
Leveraging Your Greatest Skill: With Nathan Bisimwa
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One of the most common problems that entrepreneurs encounter is the feeling of not having enough time. And I think we all experience that at many points in our lives. But I noticed the issue isn’t actually time.
Today on The Frame of Mind Coaching™ Podcast, we welcome Nathan Bisimwa, CEO at GKash Store, a clothing line promoting intercultural and trending fashion. During this podcast, Nathan talks to me about how 2020 affected his business, how it delayed the plans he had for his company, and addresses that feeling of a time shortage that all of this created in his life.
Come sit with us in this conversation where we tackle that thinking problem of not having enough time, as well as a few other issues that come up along the way!
https://www.frameofmindcoaching.com/the-frame-of-mind-coaching-podcast
Read this episode's transcript here:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1252997/episodes/8923095
Do you have a challenge you’d like to discuss? Reach out! If there's any issue you want to talk about here on the podcast or privately, please send me an email:
Kim Ades: [00:00:05]
Hello, hello. My name is Kim Ades, I am the President and Founder of Frame of Mind Coaching, and you have just joined The Frame of Mind Coaching Podcast, where we welcome leaders from all over the world to come onto the podcast and get coached live and in person.
Today it's my pleasure to welcome a guest from Maryland and his name is Nathan Bisimwa.
Nathan, welcome.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:00:28]
Hello, this is Nathan here. I'm living in Maryland right now. I'm the CEO of GKash Store and the founder of Hefics. It's a pleasure to have you online.
Kim Ades: [00:00:39]
I'm so happy you're here. Tell us a little bit about what is GKash. GKash is the company, the primary company you're running. What is it? What do you do? Who is it for? Tell us a little bit about it.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:00:52]
All right. GKash is called GKash Store in long, and this is a clothing line that provides a perfect style study in clothing mixing the Western culture and the Eastern culture. And it's almost like globalizing the clothing industry. So I think on the websites, we have a full description for whoever is interested, knowing a little bit longer about GKash.
Kim Ades: [00:01:24]
So it's GKash Store, correct?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:01:28]
Correct.
Kim Ades: [00:01:29]
Okay, got it. So a clothing line. And this was your invention. This is an idea that you had that you said, "this is what we need". And how long have you been running this company?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:01:38]
We've been running this company for like two years now. And this is an idea I have with a partner of mine who is currently living in Asia.
Kim Ades: [00:01:49]
Okay.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:01:49]
And yeah. So we met and planned referring to the Eastern and Western clothing culture. And we found where lines meet provides a style that is going to be affordable and looking good for both cultures.
Kim Ades: [00:02:12]
And is it clothing for men or women?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:02:14]
I mean, it's a dual... I mean, it applies in men and women.
Kim Ades: [00:02:20]
Okay. Got it. I understand. Interesting. And you're also running another company at the same time. That company is called Hefics did I say that right?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:02:29]
Correct.
Kim Ades: [00:02:30]
Okay. What is Hefics?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:02:32]
Hefics in long is Hephen Financial and Consulting Services, which provides financial and consulting services, if you refer to its name. And this company has been running for almost like seven months now, and we are here to support entrepreneurs, linking them to consultants and providing financial services to the ones that might need them.
Kim Ades: [00:03:00]
Okay. So these are very different businesses.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:03:03]
Right.
Kim Ades: [00:03:04]
And how are they both going? Are they thriving? How are they doing?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:03:08] Well, referring to the pandemic, we've been meeting a few challenges, but they both are doing good, mostly GKash which has been running for almost two years. And when we are selling product is different from selling services. So I guess, you know the difference between both companies.
Kim Ades: [00:03:31]
Right. And what made you want to start a second business? Like, you're already... I mean two years isn't very long for a business. You're running this business, it's growing. What made you want to start a new business?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:03:44]
Well, since I was young, I always wanted to provide solutions to people who have been starting to... Like, who have been going through challenges and they didn't know where to get solutions.
And probably, a lot of people don't really have a reading material that can help them. So I wanted to... Because, personally, I've been there and I need at some point and still, I still need some sort of guidance. So I think it's... I find it's important to kind of link people together for them like to work with the experts in their departments and that is the thing I wanted to do to the people. That's why I created Hefics actually.
Kim Ades: [00:04:35]
So let me understand. You had a time in your life when you experienced some kind of financial difficulty and you were looking for some help. And so that really inspired you to create a service that helps other people with financial difficulty. Did I get that right?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:04:53]
That's correct.
Kim Ades: [00:04:54]
Okay, good. So... And are you married? Do you have kids? Tell us where you are. What stage of your life you're dealing with right now?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:05:01]
Well, I'm still single. Oh yeah. But I have predict for the future.
Kim Ades: [00:05:08]
Okay. And you're single, are you dating anyone or totally single?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:05:14]
Well, as I said, I have predicts for the future. 'Cause I'm envisioning somebody.
Kim Ades: [00:05:18]
You're envisioning somebody. Okay.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:05:20]
Right.
Kim Ades: [00:05:21]
Are you envisioning someone specific or just somebody?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:05:24]
I mean, it's somebody specific.
Kim Ades: [00:05:26]
You have someone in your brain.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:05:29]
Right. She's smart, she's beautiful, and she's a kind person.
Kim Ades: [00:05:35]
And is she envisioning you for the future?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:05:38]
Right. Yeah, she knows. And we both agreed on that and we let the future greet us.
Kim Ades: [00:05:47]
Okay. Wow. I want to really learn more about that, but what... That's not why you came here. Tell us... I think everybody wants to know more about that. What is your greatest challenge?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:06:00]
Well, I mean, as an entrepreneur, I've been going through a lot of challenges, which may have very different... Compared to different, I mean, perspective of life... Like, last year was really a challenging year, specifically with GKash because we had to plan, we had to resize our plans, like, to meet people, which was really hard because of the lockdown.
And this company here is something that needs to be in physical contact with the people to, like, in terms of marketing. Like, I remember a session specific time we had to do a photo shoot in Sweden. We didn't really have a lot of chances to do that because of the lockdown.
A lot of people, which I was proposing were kind of busy and also were afraid for their lives. So we had to cancel the entire session, which means we had to cancel the entire selling period because people could not really find our products. That's... I mean, that's interesting if we couldn't make ads or have seductive pictures, you know what I mean? Or like...
Kim Ades: [00:07:30]
Attractive pictures.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:07:32]
Exactly.
Kim Ades: [00:07:35]
Did you mean seductive or attractive?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:07:38]
I mean, we try to seduce them, so.
Kim Ades: [00:07:40]
Okay. Seductive pictures. Okay.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:07:44]
Yeah.
Kim Ades: [00:07:45]
So, you couldn't have your photoshoot, so therefore the lineup for the season had to kind of be... You weren't able to launch it.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:07:55]
We were unable to launch it, but... I mean, we postponed the entire program to a later date, which... I mean, we... I mean, we kinda got late because of the pandemic. So what I mean here is that in time, in the perspective of money, in the perspective of skills and in the market, it was kind of challenging, and... The good thing is that at the end of the day, we figured out other ways to cope up with the challenges we faced.
Kim Ades: [00:08:38]
Okay. So what is your greatest challenge today?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:08:42]
Oh, today my greatest challenge is mostly the time balance. I'm trying to balance time, financial situation and my skills right now.
Kim Ades: [00:08:58]
Okay.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:08:58]
Because... Yeah.
Kim Ades: [00:08:59]
Let me start off by saying this, that... When people say that they have a shortage of time, which is what it sounds like you're saying, what they're really saying is that "I'm not able to leverage the time that I have". Does that make sense?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:09:22]
I mean, at some point, because some days you find, like, 24 hours are not enough, you know?
Kim Ades: [00:09:31]
Yeah. Some days 24 hours are not enough, but you see, like, we all have the same... In terms of time, we all have the same amount of hours in the day. Right? You and I, we have the same 24 hours and Richard Branson, he has the same 24 hours, and Bill Gates, he has the same 24 hours. But somehow they leverage their time differently.
And so whenever we find ourselves thinking to ourselves, "Ugh, I don't have enough time". That's a trigger. That's a sign. That's an indicator that you're not leveraging your resources appropriately.
And so whenever I think to myself, I'm human, I think to myself, "Oh my God. You know, like I have all this stuff to do and I don't have enough time to do it", that's the starting point for me to say, "okay, I need to think about this differently. I need to approach my time differently. I need to approach my skills differently, and I need to approach my resources differently".
And so, usually, when we think that we have no time, we also have a set of beliefs that go along with it. Some of the beliefs sound like this: these are the things that must get done.
That sounds like a fact, but it's not a fact. It's a belief. And what I mean by that is a lot of times we believe there are things we must get done that don't actually need to get done. The next belief is that all these things need to get done by me. And also that's sometimes is just a belief because there are lots of things that can potentially get done by someone else that we're not even thinking about. We're not leveraging, we're not looking around and saying who else can do it?
Which brings us to our third belief: I can't afford to hire people. That's not in our budget. And there's a belief that the only way to get assistance is by paying for it. And that's also a false belief. And so when we think about a shortage of time, really a shortage of time is a reflection of a set of limiting beliefs that prevent us from leveraging our time. Are you with me, Nathan?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:11:51]
I am. I'm following.
Kim Ades: [00:11:53]
Okay. So what that means is when you say, "Hey, I only have 24 hours in a day and I have all these things to do". The first thing I want you to do is ask yourself, "do I actually need to do all of these things?" That's number one, maybe some of these things don't actually need to get done.
Number two is, "do I need to get all of these things done right now? Or can I lay them out appropriately so I can manage things and in a timely manner?"
Number three, "can somebody else do this? If so, who could that somebody else be?"
And number four is "what do I have to offer in exchange for help if I don't have the financial resources to do so? So, what can I tap into to leverage help, expertise of others? So that I'm coming up with a creative way to get my tasks done in an affordable manner".
So whenever someone says to me, "I have a time problem". I say "mostly, no. You don't have a time problem. You have a thinking problem. And you're strategically thinking about your business in a way that creates bottlenecks and barriers".
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:13:19]
Right.
Kim Ades: [00:13:21]
What do you think?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:13:22]
I mean, of course, sometimes you have to pass the ball to another person. Like, when you find yourself unwilling to do something, which you have to get done, we can buy somebody to so services or...
Kim Ades: [00:13:39]
I want you to think about it differently. It's not about being unwilling to get something done. It's about, from a leader standpoint, what is the best use of your time. The best, most strategic use of your time. And what I find is a lot of times leaders spend time working on tasks that don't leverage their greatest skill or their greatest contribution. Right? It's like...
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:14:07]
I mean...
Kim Ades: [00:14:08]
It's like, we have people who say, "Oh my God, you know, I'm running a business and I have a laundry to do". Well, doing laundry isn't the best use of their time. Not the most strategic thing for them to do.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:14:24]
I think the best thing to do is to set priorities. Know first what comes first and then what comes second. And, I mean, time will never be enough, just like resources. It will always be scarce and...
Kim Ades: [00:14:40]
Well... This is exactly what I'm saying, is that thinking there's never enough time and resources will always be scarce will keep you playing in a game that always... Where you're always confronting scarcity.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:14:59]
Right.
Kim Ades: [00:14:59]
So, I want you to think differently. This is not a time management problem. This is a thinking problem.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:15:08]
Okay.
Kim Ades: [00:15:09]
Okay. And it's very important that this message comes across. And it's really about... When I think about my time right off the bat, I think in terms of limitations and that thinking creates limitation for me. But if I had, you know, a never ending supply of human capacity, then I don't have a time barrier.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:15:20]
Right.
Kim Ades: [00:15:21]
So, it's really about how we think about time and how we think about resources. If we think we have a limitation in resources, we do. If we think to ourselves, "there is no shortage of resources, there so shortage of money, there's no shortage of help, there's no shortage of talent or skill or solutions. There's no shortage. And I have access to that". Then you find the solutions you're looking for.
But if you walk around thinking "I have-- There are limitations because we have to be realistic". Right?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:16:18]
Right.
Kim Ades: [00:16:20]
That thinking process creates a blockage for you and prevents you from accessing resources that are really right at your fingertips that you're discounting and not considering.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:16:37]
Okay. So, if I get you right, in other words it means to be content of the time we have and plan accordingly or something.
Kim Ades: [00:16:49]
No.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:16:50]
Oh, okay.
Kim Ades: [00:16:51]
No, look. Let's pretend that there's one hour in a day. Okay? And we have only one hour to get all the things done and run our business. Can you, Nathan, get all the things done in one hour by yourself?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:17:09]
I don't think. No.
Kim Ades: [00:17:11]
No. Right? Impossible. So now you have to think a little bit more strategically, a little bit more creatively. What do I need to have in place in order to get all the things done, in one hour? Maybe I need more people. Maybe I need more automation. Maybe I need more systems. Maybe I don't need to do all the things and I need to do half of the things, and still have the same impact or the same result.
So it really requires a different kind of thinking. It's not about being happy with the time you have. It's about maximizing the time you have by thinking strategically. What do I need to have in place in order to get everything I need to get done in one hour?
So now you have to stretch. You have to look beyond your doors, right? Your four walls. You have to open the door and you have to look outside and say, "who else can I bring in? What else can I do? What system can I put in place? Is there an automation I can use?" And now what we're doing is we're making that our jam packed, we're using that hour effectively.
So it's not about being happy with the time you have. It's not about, you know, asking God for more hours in the day. It's about taking the time we have and saying, "how do I maximize this time? What kind of thinking do I need in order to maximize this time? In order to leverage the hour that I have" Right?
Because now all of a sudden, if I have five Nathans, I get five times the amount of productivity. But how do I increase my productivity? How can I think in a way that does this? That doesn't rely only on me being the single person being productive.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:19:03]
Right.
Kim Ades: [00:19:04]
Does this make sense to you?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:19:06]
Right. I mean, that's the use of team work in companies because they believe one single person cannot execute all their roles at once. And sometimes we, as leaders, as CEOs, we face a problem of skills, because the higher the person is skilled, the higher amount of probably a recompense, we have to give them, like money. Or in terms of... I mean, mostly in terms of money, you have to pay for their services and more often they are sold according to the skill they provide to the company.
Kim Ades: [00:19:45]
Okay. So let me ask you a question.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:19:47]
Right.
Kim Ades: [00:19:48]
Does that idea, that you just put on the table, does that idea feel limiting or does that idea feel, like, expensive? Does that feel tight or does that feel open?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:20:01]
I mean, it depends on perspective, again.
Kim Ades: [00:20:05]
Well, your perspective.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:20:07]
Well, I can...
Kim Ades: [00:20:08]
Your perspective is "the greater, the scale, the more I have to pay". Does that feel exciting or does that feel, like, unreachable?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:20:16]
I mean, it's reachable of course.
Kim Ades: [00:20:18]
Okay.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:20:19]
Yeah.
Kim Ades: [00:20:20]
You're making it sound very hard.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:20:22]
I mean, it's not hard. It just depends on where the company is in terms of financial situation. Because like, if the company is limited in terms of resources, they find it hard to, like, to pay for expensive services.
Kim Ades: [00:20:41]
Yes. But again, resources is just like time. So I'll give you an example. Okay?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:20:47]
Okay.
Kim Ades: [00:20:47]
This is not my first business. So right now I'm running a coaching company, I've been doing it for 16 years. But it's not my first business. Prior to this, I owned another company. And in the early, early days I was young. I was living in an apartment. I had a young child and, you know, I had no physical location and I had this idea that I needed a spot to work out of and I needed to hire co-op students.
Why co-op students? Because you don't have to pay them. Right? I didn't have a-- I didn't have any financial resources to pay them and I didn't have a place. Are they going to come to my apartment? That's... You know, no school is going to send kids to go to some lady's apartment. Right? So what happened?
I was going by a mall, a shopping center, and I saw that there was an empty space in the mall. And so I called up the managers of that mall and I said, "Hey, this is what I'm doing. I'm working with young people. I'm really looking for a space. If I could have the space every afternoon, that would be great". And they gave it to me for free.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:21:52]
Okay.
Kim Ades: [00:21:54]
Okay. And so, no financial resources required. What was required was creativity, ingenuity, and a little bit of guts. Right? And so what happens is... What happens is we think "I can't afford it", so we don't take action to solve our problems creatively.
So there are all kinds of resources out there. Not all of them will cost you money. Maybe they might cost you a little bit of time. Maybe they might cost you a little bit of an exchange. Maybe it's a deferred expense, maybe as a partnership, maybe there's something else in place that you could leverage.
But what I'm really pushing you to do is say, "how do I leverage my resources? How do I access the resources I need? Without automatically thinking in advance it's going to cost me money and I don't have it. So forget it. I got to do it myself".
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:22:55]
I mean, that's a question I asked myself several times last year. And I'm glad because we are having this conversation and, you know, it helps open more the mind about how to leverage my resources...
Kim Ades: [00:23:12]
And your time.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:23:14]
And my time. And...
Kim Ades: [00:23:16]
Exactly! Yeah. I encourage you to think creatively.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:23:22]
Yeah. You... Tell me first. I sort of have to return the question to you.
Kim Ades: [00:23:29]
Please.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:23:30]
What are the biggest challenges you face when you were running your company? Your first-- The very first one.
Kim Ades: [00:23:36]
The very first company is that a lot of people around me didn't necessarily believe that I could do what I could do. You know, I remember I had the idea of hiring co-op students and somebody, I won't say who, said, "who's going to give you co-op students, where are they going to come, to your bedroom?" and I thought, "wow. That's an important problem I have to solve".
I remember here's another one... A long time ago, I said, "you know what? I think I would be a great presenter, like a public speaker". And somebody said "you don't have any expertise in anything". I thought, "wow... Maybe he's right. Maybe I don't".
So for me, my greatest challenge was, you know, as entrepreneurs we have self-doubt but when somebody else adds doubt to your equation, it makes matters harder or worse.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:24:32]
Right.
Kim Ades: [00:24:33]
For me, that was my greatest problem. Was I wasn't sure if I could run my own business, I wasn't sure if I had what it took. I wasn't sure if I could do all the things that I wanted to do.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:24:49]
I mean, we're never sure until we realize the thing.
Kim Ades: [00:24:53]
You got to try, right?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:24:55]
Right.
Kim Ades: [00:24:56]
Yeah. Nathan, I hope this conversation helped you. Think a little bit more broadly. And, I really hope it challenges your perspective of the resources you have and how you're using your time.
For those of you who are listening: again, I want you to think about how will you think about time and how you think about resources.
If you have a challenge that you want to share with me on the podcast, please reach out to me.
My email address is Kim@frameofmindcoaching.com
And if you have a challenge that you're not so willing to share on the podcast, but you do want help with please reach out to me as well.
My email address is Kim@frameofmindcoaching.com
Nathan, how do people find your very interesting clothing line?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:25:43]
Well, they can visit us online to our website, which is www.gkashstore.com or Instagram or Facebook.
Kim Ades: [00:25:56]
Amazing. So that's GKash Store?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:26:00]
Yeah.
Kim Ades: [00:26:01]
S T O R E? Is that it?
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:26:06]
G
Kim Ades: [00:26:07]
J or G? G like goodness gracious me.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:26:11]
Correct.
Kim Ades: [00:26:13]
Yep.
Nathan Bisimwa: [00:26:14]
G K like Kim, exactly. A like astronaut S H store. That's like S T O R E dot com.
Kim Ades: [00:26:41]
Perfect. Amazing. Everybody go look it up. I'm very excited to see what this intersection between Western and Eastern clothing looks like. In the meantime, thanks for listening. Please go on YouTube and iTunes (Apple Podcasts) and all the places you listen and please like, share and comment.
And until we see you again.