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Octavia Treadway

@tavitreadway

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Business coaching and consulting for small business owners. Build the structure your growth requires. Minneapolis · https://beacons.ai/somethinggreat

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Picture the executive director the night the board approves the plan.

Everybody's nodding. She's tired and she's proud. Two years of "we need a plan," finally done. She sets the binder on the shelf in her office, right next to the last one.

Six months later: "Whatever happened to that plan?" And she can't say who was supposed to start it.

She worked every one of those months. It didn't fail at execution. It failed at approval.

Before the next one gets signed:
1. An owner for every move. A person, not a department.
2. A sign it's working, written down now.
3. A review date on the calendar.
4. Ninety days, with a decision on what to reallocate, which service lines to keep or release, and which roles to redesign.

Save this for your next planning meeting. by @tavitreadway

Students don’t need another business plan assignment. They need to see a business in action.

I was at Spring Lake Park High School today for their advisory committee, and they told me about their student-run coffee shop. The teacher who started it is gone, so the students inherited a business without the passwords. And they kept going. They ordered commercial equipment and industry-grade tables so the shop could be compliant.

That’s entrepreneurship. Sometimes you start from the beginning, and sometimes you pick up where somebody left off. Either way, you figure out what’s missing, and you build.

So here’s my question. If you inherited your business tomorrow with no passwords, what’s the first thing you’d go find out?

Be great, y’all.

#SomethingGreat #SmallBusiness by @tavitreadway

Bye Bye 4:6!!

Today I turn 47, and it took God 8 years to just move me one verse.

A couple weeks ago the Holy Spirit told me I’m leaving my Philippians 4:6 season and stepping into my Philippians 4:7 season.

Philippians 4:6: “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”

That’s been my life. Eight years of it. Leaving Illinois. Leaving the house. Praying through the wilderness. Making my requests known when I didn’t understand why this was my life. Learning that hunger wasn’t lack, it was an invitation to lean on Him. Learning that His discipline was love. Supplication was my season.

Philippians 4:7: “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

That’s where I’m walking now. Not the season of anxiety. The season peace.

I don’t have to understand every detail to have peace. I don’t have to wait for life to get easier to trust Him. The peace He’s giving me passes my understanding, and it’s guarding my heart and my mind.

So at 47, I’m grateful. Grateful for the pruning. Grateful for the breaking before the blessing. Grateful for a husband who prays with me, children who are going to know God for themselves, and a company, Something Great, that I believe God is using to change systems.

47 is not a number of waiting. It’s a number of walking in.

Thank You, Lord, for every fold of this life. Kept by Your peace, I’m ready for what’s next. 🎉🙏🏾 by @tavitreadway

Nobody tells you this about getting what you prayed for: blessings create pressure.

The new team needs leading. The new contract needs delivering. The new program needs running. You asked for all of it, and now all of it needs you.

That doesn’t mean you made a mistake. It means your capacity has to catch up to your growth.

Try this today. Write down everything that’s new in your business in the last 90 days. Next to each one, write what it now asks of you that it didn’t before. Then circle what only you can do.

Everything you didn’t circle is where the overwhelm is coming from.

If you want to work through that with us, the Strength & Strategy Lab™ is two days to step out of the day-to-day and look at where you’ve been and where you’re going.

Comment LAB and we’ll send you the details.

Be great, y’all.

#StrengthAndStrategyLab #FounderLife #BusinessGrowth by @tavitreadway

#heal #thatsall by @tavitreadway

“Once I get the next win, then I’ll feel like I belong.”

If you’ve said some version of that, this one’s for you.

I was nominated for Entrepreneur of the Year, and y’all, I didn’t have to fight to prove my worth this time. Somebody else saw it.

For a long time, I climbed to prove something. I wanted to prove I wasn’t just a teenage mom. Every promotion was evidence I could hold up, and I won a lot of those fights.

But winning a fight to prove your worth is not the same as walking in your purpose. And that’s the part nobody tells us when we’re building. The win doesn’t answer the question.

So I would encourage you to ask: what are you still trying to prove, and who are you proving it to?
Tell me in the comments. I’m still answering it too.

#entrepreneuroftheyear #womenbusinessowners #minneapolisbusiness by @tavitreadway

“Once I get the next win, then I’ll feel like I belong.”

If you’ve said some version of that, this one’s for you.

I was nominated for Entrepreneur of the Year, and y’all, I didn’t have to fight to prove my worth this time. Somebody else saw it.

For a long time, I climbed to prove something. I wanted to prove I wasn’t just a teenage mom. Every promotion was evidence I could hold up, and I won a lot of those fights.

But winning a fight to prove your worth is not the same as walking in your purpose. And that’s the part nobody tells us when we’re building. The win doesn’t answer the question.

So I would encourage you to ask: what are you still trying to prove, and who are you proving it to?

Tell me in the comments. I’m still answering it too.

#entrepreneuroftheyear #womenbusinessowners #minneapolisbusiness by @tavitreadway

I’m going to say something that might sting, y’all.

You’re probably in an earlier stage than you think you are.

A stage is earned. It’s not declared. Revenue doesn’t decide it. A business making $500K can still be in Stage 1 if the owner is the whole business.

Here’s where it costs people. They run Stage 3 plays on a Stage 1 foundation. They hire managers before the cash is stable. They build systems for demand that isn’t proven yet. Then they wonder why it all feels so heavy.

I didn’t invent the five stages. But I rebuilt them for the businesses we actually run, because when Target has a problem, they get money and investors and fix it. We don’t get that option.

What stage did you say you’re in? And when was the last full day your business ran without you? by @tavitreadway

I’ve wanted to build something since I was a little girl, so this one feels full circle. For a long time I felt like I had to prove I was enough. This time I didn’t have to fight for it. Somebody else saw it.

I also get to build alongside 200+ founders, and I’m just as grateful for them as I am for this nomination.

Voting is open now, and I would be so honored to have your vote for Entrepreneur of the Year.

Cast your vote here: izivote.com/v/bbb-2026-voting

See you Nov 7 at Quincy Hall.

#BlackBusinessBall #EntrepreneurOfTheYear #BlackOwnedBusiness by @tavitreadway

Okay y'all, I have to tell you what Ruby said.

She just finished day two of our Strength & Strategy Lab, and her words were "crazy in a good way." A lot of questions and confusion she's carried about her business are clearer now. And the question she's always asked, "What is that gap in my business?" Now it's glaring, and she's ready to fix it.

Nobody walks out with everything solved. Ruby is heading home to build her 30, 60, and 90-day plan. But she knows where to point the work, and that changes everything about what she does next.

If you've been carrying a question about your business that you can't quite name, I'd encourage you to stop carrying it alone. Comment LAB and we'll send you the Lab page and a free 30-minute call. by @tavitreadway

Small business is not a reaction to current events.

I’ve worked with owners across the Twin Cities for five years: retail, food, services, nonprofits. And here’s what I see every day. Crisis after crisis. Rising costs, shifting markets, shocks nobody saw coming, and they stacked.

When brave people get exhausted and quit, we lose talent. We lose innovation. We lose wealth that should be staying in our communities.

We deserve proactive attention, not reactive responses. If our elected officials want to know what’s going on, ask the small business owner. Not just in a crisis. Regularly. Then listen, and respond to what we say.

Everybody’s paying attention right now. After Election Day, we want you to still be there.

Make a plan to vote. Be great, y’all. by @tavitreadway