By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
Keisha Credit, a serial entrepreneur and Seattle native, has paved the way for many aspiring entrepreneurs and social media influencers. Emphasizing the importance of making the best career choice for oneself, her advocacy for generational wealth underscores the varied paths one can take to achieve success and fulfillment.
Credit spent two years in high school as a Microsoft intern, with high hopes of going to the University of Washington to get a computer science degree. However, halfway through a computer science course, she realized that it wasn’t the right fit for her. So, she changed her major to Communications and Sociology, a decision that eventually landed her a job in marketing at Microsoft — a position she initially thought was her dream job.
“Once I graduated, I went to Ghana, and then went to Microsoft,” says Credit. “It ended up being an environment that I was not able to thrive my best self in, and I knew what I was capable of. I knew that I wasn’t able to thrive and grow in that space. It was a great position, but I just knew there was something limiting me there.”
Credit’s realization that the corporate environment was not for her prompted her to explore entrepreneurship. Her advocacy for generational wealth took center stage when she inherited her family home, becoming the family matriarch at 30. For Credit, this experience highlighted the importance of generational wealth, particularly within the Black community, which historically has lacked access to such resources.
“I inherited the home and so I kind of became like a matriarch in my family at the age of 30, which was really crazy,” says Credit. “I renovated and sold my house to do this, and now my family is here. We are now 63 years in this house, and generational wealth became very understood to me at that crossing point in my life.”
Historically, Black families have not been afforded access to generational wealth, and it has been important to Credit to continually see an increase and spread awareness of what generational wealth exactly is in totality.
“There are other communities that are well-versed in inheritance, generational wealth, and passing down that knowledge and we are not,” says Credit. “And I am someone who really loves education and information, and the more that we can share with each other the better off that we all will be, and the better futures that we can create for our children, so it is important for us to know how to continue and create legacies.”
Understanding the broader implications of generational wealth, Credit began using social media to share her story and educate others. Her storytelling on platforms like TikTok not only raised awareness but also led to appearances on shows like Dr. Phil.
“I began by storytelling stories about myself, and about people that I know,” says Credit. “I am actually in the process of doing a deep dive in a book format about generational wealth and leveraging social media to kind of get those tidbits out and by doing that, that is how I ended up on the Dr. Phil show by doing storytelling and telling narratives of the truth around what happens when you inherit things.”
“Being on Dr. Phil for his show for two episodes really catapulted my social media influence in a way that was just like two tiers higher than where I was previously,” added Credit.
Before becoming a social media influencer, Credit focused on her businesses, founding five companies. Her custom wig company, Lucky by Keisha, remained her most successful venture for eight years. As an entrepreneur and influencer, she recognized the need for more resources to help others build generational wealth through entrepreneurship.
As an entrepreneur and influencer, Credit knows what it takes to advocate for meaningful topics but is aware that more resources are needed for those looking to build generational wealth through entrepreneurship.
“My advice for those looking to build generational wealth through entrepreneurship is to stay focused and get yourself around people that are like-minded and that doesn’t mean friends that you have known forever, that means people that are in places that you would like to be in,” says Credit. “And I think there needs to be more established resources around that, and that is something that I am hoping to work on creating in the future.”
As someone who has successfully ran multiple businesses while also growing her social media influence, Credit utilizes all her expertise in different avenues of entrepreneurship, content creation, and influencing to educate and provide insights and information to her community.
According to Credit, being a content creator and an influencer are both very different.
“Being a content creator is someone who creates content for a purpose in exchange for either engagement or pay, and an influencer is someone who utilizes their influence in order to convince people to do things or create change,” says Credit.
Understanding that not everyone wants to be an influencer or a content creator, Credit stresses that the main goal is figuring out which pathway is correct for your personal achievements, and all her many career paths have allowed her to provide insight.
“I kind of wear all these different hats, and I enjoy all of these different hats because it doesn’t feel like different hats to me because it is just life,” says Credit. “You live life, and I am a natural storyteller, so I share lives and I am involved in lives, and it has kind of just gone from there and I am now at A for Apple still doing business consulting and everything.”
Although entrepreneurship, influencing, or content creation isn’t for everyone, Credit believes it’s worth trying — even if you realize that you do not want to do it.
“It is also a spirit, you can definitely be in a corporation and have an entrepreneurial spirit which means that you are willing to look at the problem of things and understand how to solve them,” says Credit. “Entrepreneurship is about solving a problem for people and also being responsible for the business of that and some people don’t want to be responsible for the business, but they still want to have that entrepreneurial spirit and it is definitely possible.”
“I think there is a sweet spot for everybody, and I think everyone should have an entrepreneurial spirit and kind of ask why and continually seek to increase our world and ways of problem-solving” she concluded.