Meet Nichole Pitts

Published in Canvas Rebel Magazine

(Excerpt)

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

It was never my desire to be an entrepreneur. My focus was to become a C-suite executive with all the money and all of the things. As I was climbing the corporate ladder, I realized it wasn’t really about talent — it was about politics.

After becoming an executive, it was less fulfilling than I thought. In fact, it was more stressful, and I didn’t find the work personally rewarding. I had no work/life balance and ended up burned out. In those dark moments, I had the idea to start my own company. So, after talking it over with my therapist and identifying effective coping mechanisms for the reality of not having that direct deposit hit my bank account every two weeks, I tendered my resignation.

As I started my business, I quickly learned that being a subject matter expert was only part of what was needed to succeed. I had no idea how to run a business on my own. This created a feeling of inadequacy and imposter syndrome that I had to work through while figuring out all of the administrative aspects of the business (i.e., strategy, accounting, business filings, visas, marketing, etc.).

I began networking with other entrepreneurs at various stages in their businesses. This helped me to understand what to expect as seasoned entrepreneurs would share lessons learned. And it also helped me develop a tribe of entrepreneurs at the start of their journey where we would work together to figure it out.

Over the years, I’ve realized that entrepreneurship is full of peaks and valleys. I’ve had to learn to be more flexible and comfortable in a constant state of learning. Your “to-do” list is never done, but finding new things to enhance your business is exciting!

 

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Black Women Leaders to Watch During Black History Month and Beyond

Published on Nasdaq

(Excerpt)

Nichole Pitts

Founder and CEO of Ethintegrity LLC, a consulting firm empowering forward-thinking organizations and professionals to solve complex ethics and compliance and DEI problems.

My advice: Take time to get to know who you are. Corporations and society like to tell us who we should be, and sometimes we conform for so long that we don’t know who we are anymore. Take a step back and figure out what makes you happy—when do you feel authentically you? Then embrace that as a superpower. Use your uniqueness to connect with, embrace, and disrupt spaces to create equitable and inclusive services and products.

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