Ati Williams and Jess Banks are Co-Hosts of the wildly popular Netflix series, Hack My Home. Ati is the Principal at Honeycomb Residential, a remodeling company that functions as both designer and general contractor to help clients create a comfortable, personal, and functional home or business, to nurture their own unique “honeycomb”; Ati is also the Principal Broker at DC Home Buzz. Jess is the CEO and Founder of RockPaperRobot, a kinetic furniture company that transforms traditionally static furniture into interactive objects. Ati and Jess join Host Anthony Shop to discuss the work that great leaders put in behind the scenes, the benefits of involving multiple perspectives in decision-making, and the importance of representation and role models in media today.
Takeaways:
- When approaching complex problems, it’s best to include a wide range of perspectives that will each consider certain aspects more closely and aid in developing a holistic solution that addresses multiple issues simultaneously. For example, when brainstorming ideas for a certain space on the show, Ati thought about it from a top-down view in two dimensions, Jess’s approach was analytical and calculating, Brooks thought in “5D”, and Mikel explored concepts from a visual and textual perspective.
- While the ideation and decision-making process may appear quick and straightforward on TV, the concepts created are actually the product of a lot of effort behind the scenes that is edited out. Don’t expect great ideas to appear out of nowhere whenever you need them, life isn’t a well-edited montage.
- Don’t let the obsession with perfection stop you from starting a project and accomplishing the 85% of it that is enough to make the desired outcome. Getting 85% of something done is more important than figuring out how to attain the final 15% before you’ve even started working on the first 1%.
- Embrace what makes you uniquely you. While plenty of other people are out there with similar roles and in similar industries, what part of your identity or personality makes you stick out. While this may seem overwhelming to some leaders, knowing who you are and sharing that with others is important to building influence.
- Use your platform to be the source of inspiration you wish you could have looked up to. Others out there need to see and hear that someone like them can be successful and is willing to help them navigate their way up.
- If you are trying to share a message that you don’t believe in or promote it through channels and formats that don’t feel natural to you, this can become a huge burden. Be genuine in what you say and share things how you share them, that will lead to a greater impact.
Quote of the Show:
- “The thing that kept us going was knowing that there were young girls and young Black girls out there who needed to see themselves reflected in the things they’re interested in.” - Ati Williams
- “A little bit of red lipstick in the same sentence as construction can go a long way.” - Jess Banks
Ati’s Links:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ati-okelo-williams-39270b7/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DChomebuzz
- Honeycomb website: https://www.heyhoneycomb.com/
Jess’s Links:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-banks-04262a7/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/RockPaperRobot
- RockPaperRobot website: https://rockpaperrobot.com/