.png)
3 Keys for Your Journey
Business and Community Leaders sharing key principles.
3 Keys for Your Journey
Transforming Vision into Reality: Embracing Faith, Self-Belief, and Community with Shana Lewis
Unlock the secrets to transforming your entrepreneurial vision into reality with insights from Shana Lewis, founder and CEO of Tailored Plans. Shana's passion for organization and stationery has driven her to empower small business owners by crafting effective business plans, helping them execute their dreams with intentionality and professionalism. Learn how Shana's commitment to excellence and love for teaching can guide you towards success, illustrating the power of having a solid plan and the right mindset in your business journey.
In this enlightening episode, we journey through the intertwining paths of faith and self-belief, exploring how saying "YES" to God and trusting oneself can be the bedrock for both personal and business growth. Friends and mentors like Greg Jones, Shani Nealy, and Kimberly Francisco highlight the importance of a supportive network when facing challenges. Discover how aligning personal values with meaningful work can build a fulfilling and purposeful life, where gratitude, rest, and presence take precedence over financial gains. Let this conversation inspire you to appreciate your support system and focus on meaningful connections that enrich your life's journey.
Thank you for listening! YouTube - @3KeysforYourJourney -Tune in for a new episode every Sunday. Connect with us at www.ocfo.info
Our guest, Shana Lewis, founder and CEO of Taylor Plans, brings over a decade of experience in business development, marketing and public relations. Join us next as we explore Taylor's strategies and Shana shares key insights to help your business and encourage your vision to become a reality.
Speaker 2:Are you ready to unlock your potential? Tune in to Three Keys for your Journey podcast, where business owners share invaluable insights and empowering strategies to guide you towards success. Based in Oklahoma City, our host, greg T Jones, will inspire and motivate you every week. Get ready to join our conversation as we build community together.
Greg Jones:All right, well, hello, shana Lewis, hello, how are you? Welcome to the podcast.
Shana Lewis:Oh, thank you for having me. You Welcome to the podcast. Oh, thank you for having me. I'm on the podcast.
Greg Jones:Well, we got the Shana Lewis in the house today. So I mean this is pretty special, we go back a ways and so, wow, I mean I go back. You talk about a journey, three keys for your journey. It has been a journey, but, man, not only is Shana Lewis a prominent individual here in the Oklahoma City area, but also a good friend and so glad to have you today, but I can do all the introductions that I want to do, but tell people about Shana Lewis.
Shana Lewis:Okay, so Shana Lewis. Who is she? I am an oldest daughter of three siblings, so it's four of us. I am a extreme planner. A lot of people may think like that fits with me with having a business that deals with business planning and strategy, but in my personal life I love planning. Also, I've been a part of planning groups that decorate their planners and stuff. I know it's crazy, but it's fun. I love handbags. Anybody who knows me, I am a handbag connoisseur. I love, love, love purses.
Greg Jones:So I enjoy shopping, decorating, having fun, family, friends, travel all those things outside of tailored plans wow, I I made me think of a story and I'm thinking of a lunch that you and I and another friend had. A couple of friends had talking about purses yes and I got schooled on purses. So when she says she loves hands, bags, yes, yes, I love them.
Shana Lewis:That is like I would say I collect purses, I love them, have a whole closet full of them. And then also I'm a collector of planners. I have to tell myself, like stationery, I am a lover of paper and pens. So Greg has stolen a couple of pens of mine before and I've had to tell him like hey, greg, hand it right back to me.
Greg Jones:I need those back.
Shana Lewis:I need those back, shane always has pretty pens, but I love stationery. I'm a lover of paper, so I know it's. No, it's not crazy.
Greg Jones:It's a world of people who love paper, but yes, Well, I know your business is called Tated Plans, but when you said that about purses and pens and all that, I'm like, yeah, there's a lot of. I can see how all of that, wrapped up, it's kind of who makes you who you are. So you have a business called Tailored Plans. Tell us about Tailored Plans.
Shana Lewis:So Tailored Plans is a business that caters to small business owners and I wanted to assist businesses with business plans. I know a lot of people start and they don't have a plan, and you know, of course, going back to who I am personally, I'm a planner and I think that businesses that have not think I know for a fact. When businesses have a plan, they are able to move in a way that they can execute them effectively. And with me having a background and working for organizations and doing business I'm tons of business plans back then for free I was able to really help a lot of business owners and they just felt this overwhelming thing where they felt like I can accomplish this, this on paper. So I developed Taylor plans from a place of wanting people to succeed and execute things and not allow it to just stay on paper but actually execute their visions and dreams, and so that's the basis of my business. But I also do training and development.
Shana Lewis:So a lot of like teaching classes and we were a part of like cohorts and all those things, and that is a passion of mine is teaching. I think a lot of people don't know that about me, but I love to teach, I love to find ways to broaden people's horizon and open up their brains and allow them to have aha moments, because I like those as well. So I would say Taylor plans have just been that for people and business owners and community. And how can I help them and how can you know? I love listening to people's ideas and then allowing them to flourish like they're. You know they get, I get to see them live it out outside of that paper. So that is Taylor Plans and we do business registration. So if people are interested in hey, I don't know how to even start a business, how to put it all together and get it administratively right, then I'm here for that as well, so I can see you through the whole process to ensure that you're successful.
Greg Jones:And we'll mention this at the very end. But you've got a pretty comprehensive website that talks a lot about what it is that you do, the services that you offer and the degree of professionalism. When I hear, I want to make sure our listening audience knows, particularly with a degree of excellence, like some people just put things together, but you put a lot of intentionality behind everything that you do. Why is that important?
Shana Lewis:Well, like you said, me personally, I love just pretty things, just on the baseline. I love pretty things, but then also I'm very big on professionalism things. But then also I'm very big on professionalism and when people see me they're getting a quality, you know quality work that they're paying me for, because you know people work hard for their money and I want them to have an excellent experience for me through the first time they speak to me. Well, even look at my products, I want them to be like wow, these pictures and because people like pretty and I think capturing someone with your branding and then also following through with professionalism and you know personality, because I think personality is important in your business and just having that all together, I think that's in the two. That's just me at my core. I love excellence, I love making sure things are pretty and curating spaces. So I want my clients and you know to experience the same thing that I have in my personal life. So I want to bring it to life in my business.
Greg Jones:I think that is completely awesome. You know part of our podcast is around these keys for your journey. I love to hear from you keys for your journey. I'd love to hear from you what are some of the keys that you've learned kind of along your journey that you can share with our listening audience.
Shana Lewis:I would say most of all is trusting God. I feel like with business, it's the biggest faith journey that you will ever have. A little bit of backstory about me is that I thought my business was going to be a side thing. I didn't think it was going to be what it is today. At the time, I was transitioning from a job that I wasn't too happy about during COVID, and it was just a time of everyone was just trying to figure out what they were going to do and I wanted a change in my life. I thought I was going to be a corporate girly and that was going to be my life and that's okay. But God said something otherwise and I started feeling a shift about the direction and where I was supposed to go and I would help people with their own entrepreneurship journeys. But when it came to me, I was always like, oh, I'm okay with just. You know, if someone calls me, I'll write them a plan, I'll do this. But I was really called into this to. You know, let's just see what it looks like. And here we are four years later.
Shana Lewis:But I always tell people Taylor plans was supposed to be a side thing. It was never. It was actually supposed to be like a trial and error. Maybe we'll do it. But then when I started really creating it and looking at the intentionality of like, oh man, like I really want to help people, but then how can I make this to where it can capture them? And I started really building it.
Shana Lewis:And I always tell people that website was built with tears in some sense, and the tears was not such a bad thing at the time, but I was going through a transition because I was trying to figure out what I really wanted and if I really wanted to be a business owner, what does that look like? And then creatively starting something new and shedding the old and just taking a leap of faith. And so I would not be here if it wasn't for trust in God and I'm going to go on a limb and say in Jesus Christ, like me, giving him my yes and just saying I know what this looks like, but I'm willing to go into the new and shed all the old. And that was once I gave him that yes and not relied on what I thought it should look like, because my whole plan is I'm going back to corporate and Taylor plans is going to be right here and it turned out to be so amazing and bigger and um, it was just such an enlightening.
Shana Lewis:It's been an enlightening journey for me to just see when you just say yes and just take those steps and just you may not even know, like I always say, how amazing. I don't know what I'm going to get financially every month. When you think about business. You could do all the planning, but to see how God has lined up me financially and taking care of me outside of what I thought was going to be my source, and just really allowing him to be the source of my life has been the most incredible thing that I can say, which is my ultimate key. We have to start with trusting God and giving him a yes, giving him a fresh yes every day, and especially entrepreneurship is a yes every day when you get up, when it's hard, when it's unsettling, when it's mountaintop moments, but saying yes even in those moments where it feels uncomfortable.
Greg Jones:Wow. Well, I think we just had our message for the week. That is awesome. I mean saying yes to Jesus Christ and saying yes every day.
Shana Lewis:Yes, it's renewing your mind every day, I had learned. This is where I tell anyone having a relationship with God is so important, because it really is truly renewing your mind every day, because you'll have moments Greg has seen me through crying moments where I'm like, greg, I'm quitting, I'm quitting, I'm quitting. He's like, no, you're not. But this is why you having a support system in your business is important.
Shana Lewis:I don't think people of course you know I'm a business owner and we have to present and make sure we're taking care of our you know customers and clients. But it's so important on the back end to have a support system, to have people say I believe you, they see the moments where you're like, oh, I don't know, this is hard. And they see the vision for you, even though you can't see it. And these are like God giving people. I believe that God has given me in this time, in this journey. I would not be as far as I am, or even moving as far as I'm going, like going as far as I am, if it wasn't for the Greggs and the Shonies and the Kimberleys and my friends and all the different people that have said, hey, we're going to walk with you and I think it's important for someone to always walk with you and encourage you and just believe in you and help you keep your freshness.
Greg Jones:Well, thank you, since I'm one of the people that you name. But you're absolutely right. I mean, I give this word often, but what do we have in common in unity equals community.
Greg Jones:And so building a community together. Part of this podcast is around building a community that supports one another, and you obviously have just described it in such a way as your number one key is really having that relationship with God and saying yes and making that a priority. And so if that doesn't give you comfort, if that doesn't give anybody comfort, I want it to give you comfort because you just heard it and now it's just an opportunity to believe it. What would you say is your second key?
Shana Lewis:The second key is trust yourself. A lot of times we overthink. I am an overthinker and a perfectionist, which, being a perfectionist, I embrace, but in a healthy way, because, like you said earlier, I love doing things in excellence. I want things to be right, I want people, I want to curate these amazing experiences. But then sometimes, as business owners or just in me personally, I can overthink some of the most smallest things.
Shana Lewis:And a lot of times the root of overthinking is not trusting yourself. And I think if we take all the thoughts and oh my God, what if, what, if you know, what if this doesn't, and just say, hey, I trust myself. And sometimes when I get into overthinking, I sit and I'm like Shayna, I trust you, I trust you, even if let's just say something does like don't go the way I want or dang, I didn't think that decision was the best. Or I don't beat myself up.
Shana Lewis:I made the best decision with the information I had in front of me at that time and a lot of stuff is fixable. So if we look at it that way, it's fixable. But we have to get out our head and a lot of times I've literally did an exercise with myself. When I get overthinking. I'll just write over and over I trust you, you can trust yourself, you can trust especially if it's a huge decision I'm not sure about. I didn't pray about it and I'm still like it's me and I know it's a me Just trusting yourself, just saying you got this, it's fixable.
Greg Jones:So I guess what I'm hearing there is self-motivation, but telling yourself that you trust yourself actually saying it, writing it down and putting it in front of you, and it's something about doing that takes it from you know, this part to taking it down to your heart, absolutely so, because a lot of times we think, oh, I'm just overthinking, I don't know why it's a trust thing.
Shana Lewis:At the end, like, oh man, you don't trust yourself to move into that right, the decision, whatever you're overthinking or the worst or whatever. But when you really sit down and you're like man, I, I can trust me, I can, I can trust these decisions, I make sound decisions. I've went over the information. I'm a very detailed person. I like information, give me the details, and I think, because the work, I've went over the information. I'm a very detailed person. I like information, give me the details, and I think, because the work I do is very detailed. So I need all those things. But sometimes I got to come out of the weeds and not be so detailed. But yes, it is one of those things that I have to just tell myself like, hey, you can trust yourself to be a CEO and I say that with everyone.
Shana Lewis:People do not. I've learned a lot of people don't like referring to themselves as CEOs because it's like such a big responsibility, like I don't know if I want to do, I just want to be an owner. But I've been lately embracing, saying that I'm a CEO for my business, because a lot of people think like I don't want to put that pressure on myself, but you are. You're doing the work of a CEO. You're doing the work of a CEO. You're delegating, you're making decisions, you're strategizing, you're doing all these incredible things. You're a CEO and you have seen the path. You have trusted yourself to get you to these different levels in your business.
Greg Jones:Well, I like that what you said, and I'm going to tie it to your first key, which was trusting in God and saying, yes, that I do believe that there are times in our life that if you take and apply your first principle- trusting. God. And then take your second principle. There are times where I believe God does not give you a answer yes or no, and that's because he's saying he trusts us Absolutely. If you trust yourself and because of your first key, trusting in God now you can apply that trust.
Shana Lewis:They go together, because if you're hearing him and you're first, like I said, take it back to the first one, then he's going to tell you what to do, and so if you take yourself out of it, then you can trust yourself.
Shana Lewis:That's good of it, then you can trust yourself. That's good, yeah, so, and a lot of times when we get outside of trusting ourselves, we didn't listen to some things that we wasn't supposed to. It could be us comparing ourselves, it could be so many other things that we're looking at. That's taking our focus off of God and that's our first thing. And then we start trusting in all our systems and our own abilities and who we are and all these other things. But if you take all that back, take it all off and go back to your first principle, then when you're aligned and when you're doing the things that you need to do, you can seriously trust yourself because God's going to give you the next key.
Greg Jones:Man? What is your thing? What is the next key man? What is your thing? What is the?
Shana Lewis:next key and then I think the next key is creating the success and the life that you want. Ok, that's for you. I think, oftentimes going back to the comparison, the comparing your business, comparing your personal life, and we think what's the first things? Money, what else? People, money, status, all those things. But when you strip it down and you really go back, I want people to think about, like, what do you want? Your business may not ever be a multimillion dollar business, but you could be so happy with making a comfortable amount of money where you're able to travel with your family, have experiences, do the things that you want.
Shana Lewis:I think creating and curating and I love the word curating because you're creating, you're looking at your life with intention and saying what matters to me and I've been doing a lot of work on myself lately. I'm just saying what do you want out of this business? What do you want personally? Take the business out of it. What do you want out of this business? What do you want personally? Take the business out of it. What do you want? And for me, I want to experience pleasure, and that's traveling. My family, my friends, the people I love, those are the things that I'm going to cherish forever, and the money and stuff will always come. When you're doing the work and you're being integral and you're doing the things that you need to do.
Shana Lewis:I feel like I have that, but really curating a life that you want, what is meaningful to you, and not comparing yourself, because we know that's the thief of joy, but we do it. We look at someone else's business, we'll look at someone else's life and you'll be like, well, they got all these things and they got all the bags and all the money, but do they have peace? Do they have their family and not to say people can have it all, I'm not saying that as well but do they have peace? But at the surface level, what do you want your life to be and what are your values? And I think if you start with what your personal values are, then you can build the life that you want and that's successful.
Greg Jones:I love that. I mean, and I think of things obviously in threes, but I'm tying all three of those together and it really sounds like to me that you know putting God first, giving you, yes, trusting in yourself, then the desires that you have in your heart. As long as they line up with those things, god doesn't have any problem with that.
Shana Lewis:No, he wants us to be successful.
Greg Jones:And he wants us to be happy, and he wants us to have a fulfilled life.
Shana Lewis:A fulfilled life.
Greg Jones:He wants us to have a fulfilled life and I'm reminded that oftentimes, through seasons, you know, I'm reminded that oftentimes, through seasons, through years, you know, we lose people that are close to us. Sometimes we don't understand why, sometimes we think they were too young and all that and I think and reflect it on my own life sometimes, and, as you're talking here, I want to live a fulfilled life.
Shana Lewis:Yeah.
Greg Jones:And so having kind of these keys along the journey kind of in my sights and keeping them in mind is what keeps me motivated.
Shana Lewis:That's what motivates us when we go back to values, like you said, like understanding what your true values are for your own life. Like me, like I love my family, I love being integral. I love my family, I love being integral, I love just. You know being lately practicing, being present, you know experiencing moments, because you know, like I said, you don't know, life is so fleeting, sometimes too, and, I think, lately changing my motivation.
Shana Lewis:I think originally, when you get in business, sometimes the whole money thing can be like, no, I need money, I just I need to get the money to do all the things and then I'll be successful. But sometimes you, when you step back and say, no, but truly, what do you want? Because, yes, you need money, we need to pay our bills. But when I really started to look at what I truly wanted, what are my values and work from that place of my values, money becomes the lesser focus, even though we know we need it. But it takes the focus off of it and you're just doing, you're going back to what's your principle, like, hey, god, I trust you. If, if you already said I'm supposed to do this business, then you're going to take care of me, you're going to supply all my needs. That's already done. And I think once we go back to that like God being our source and everything's going to be taken care of, then focus on the work.
Shana Lewis:And I think this year we were talking before the podcast about I've seen an increase in revenue this year you were like what did you do differently? And we were celebrating that. And I think I was intentional and in some sense, I took my eyes off of the money a little bit and started thinking about hey, we're just going to work, we're just going to do it. We'll see at the end. And I surprised myself this year and it was just me being intentional about my plans Like, okay, I'm going to do this. I changed some systems within my business to make things a little bit more simpler, a little bit more streamlined, but then at the end of it, I think I just said you know, we're just going to do the work, I'm not going to make it all about, oh my gosh, we got to do this and look what everybody else is doing. Just work.
Greg Jones:Well, I circled all back around to when you gave us the initial in the beginning. You are a planner and you had a plan and it feels like, as you're talking today, what resonates with me is because you had done the plan and you had a plan. When opportunities come that lined up with your plan, it was easy to say yes, absolutely, because of your first key, which is I'm saying yes to the Lord, and then my second key, I'm trusting myself, like it's all lining up.
Greg Jones:I mean this is a powerful story as you're, if you're walking us through that, wow. So I always ask all of our guests this, because I want to make sure, as we've been talking, anything else that you want to share with our listening audience, anything that's come to your mind that you'd like to share.
Shana Lewis:I'm going to just leave off with not being so hard on yourself. Experience some pleasure in your life and rest. I know this journey can be so hard sometimes and we kind of lose focus and we just think, like you know, I got to work harder, I got to do all these things. But really taking time to be present and looking around you and seeing what you have and looking and having more gratitude for your family and your friends, that's one of the things I can say. Ending this year is not about going to next year and trying to figure out oh, I need all the money, how am I going to get all the money? How am I going to do this and whatever. You know, if that's your thing, that's fine, but for me it's appreciating the people who's around me and being so grateful for my family and my friends and even my professional groups of people that stood with me throughout this journey. I told you this Tailored plans was supposed to be a side business, but just honoring those that surround me and being so grateful and giving myself my own kudos, Give yourself your own props.
Shana Lewis:Sometimes Say congratulations, Don't move from thing to thing. Make a celebration out of something, Like I'm going to do something because of this whole to thing, make a celebration out of something Like I'm going to do something because of this whole revenue thing. But I'm also going to do it in a place of I stuck to what I said I was going to do and that just happened to you know. You know, increase my revenue by just, you know, sticking to my plan but just taking more time to do things that you love and it don't mean like you have to take the fanciest trips, but being present with your family, whatever that pleasure is, do that and then rest, Like have some time to rest. You do more from rest.
Greg Jones:Wow, that's who I may have to now. Well, I'll say this. So one thing you have to promise me is that you know at some point we'll come back. I don't know, it might be the 100th episode, 150 episode, but we'd love to stay in touch with you. Uh, make sure that you get a chance to come back on, tell us how you're doing. Um, love to just keep in contact with you. Somebody out there listening that was like I need to talk to shannon now yes, how can?
Greg Jones:people get in contact with you. How can they look you up? What's the best ways that?
Shana Lewis:they can reach out. This is a great time because I get a lot of people who's like hey, I want to get that business started in the new year. Perfect timing. I'm here to talk to you, so you can go to my website, which is tailoredplansllccom. Again, that is tailoredplansllccom. You can also reach me on Instagram and Facebook with Tailored Plans and that's just that as far as the names. But I would love to talk with you. Let's look at your business, let's see what we can do. Let's get everything in order so that you can be prosperous and create the life that you want in your own way.
Greg Jones:Wow. Well, thank you so much again, shana, for being here, and we invite all of our guests tune into our next episode, next episode of Three Keys for your Journey.
Speaker 2:Thanks for joining Three Keys for your Journey. Tune in next time for another episode.
