hiiii friend. I’m back with another instalment of party friends, the series where I introduce you to past life of the party guests who are sharing really fucking cool, important, powerful messages with their platforms now that they’ve found a rhythm for showing up online that feels FUN and SUSTAINABLE and LIKE IT’S NOT A DREADED TASK ON THE TO-DO THEY KEEP AVOIDING, but one they LOOK FORWARD TO because it’s actually GROWING THEIR BUSINESS and CONNECTING WITH THEIR COMMUNITY and ALLOWING THEIR IMPACT TO REACH FURTHER and all those very important things that the internet can support you with ifffffff you land on a strategy that actually fits your leadership right. that’s what happens at this party, btw.
ok. stepping gingerly off my soapboax now.
today’s friend, saphir niakadié, is simply fucking awesome.
I’ve had the pleasure of supporting her in social life and life of the party (the programs compliment each other beautifully, in case you were wondering) and every time she contributes to a discussion in those spaces, I come away better somehow. deeper insight. new perspective. freshly inspired. everything she creates — like this youtube video, for example — is a reminder to put art first.
I’m so excited for you to experience that here, too.
saphir is a creative entrepreneur whose work and creative ecosystem is built on one simple principle, we all have the right to live and create fully. when I asked her to describe this, she said:
“Meaning in a way that fulfills you and that is authentic to who you are. If given the opportunity and freedom to, it is our responsibility to do so. Fully. For me that manifests as:
A visual artist exploring identity, femininity and the human experience. A coach to creative leaders and visionaries who are done shrinking and negotiating with themselves. “The Jill of all trades” to health and wellness founders and startups.
Across all three my goal is always to help others return wholeness.”
SO YEAH. you’re in for a treat.
the interview ↓
Q: you’re having some really unique conversations around visibility right now, and I’d love to hear more about how your own creative process and intentions for your platforms have been shaped by those perspectives.
A: The way this is showing up for me is being a guide and example of what it means to build visibility on your terms and based on resonance, not the “chase for more number and more eyes” strategy.
We are all seeing that the future belongs to those who can hold a level of visibility, honesty and authenticity. That trust is shifting to those who show sovereignty and how to built it for yourself. But I think more importantly we need leaders who speak truth. Who aren’t afraid to share the inner world dynamics people are either afraid to express or haven’t found the words for yet. This has impacted my perspective for sure because I use to refrain from talking about this so openly. It doesn’t sound like “worthwhile strategy.”
I, like many I work with, use to hide. I have built on the strategies and paths of others and have lost my creative power and voice as a result of outsourcing both. But the success I wanted and needed didn’t come until I listened to what was truly calling to me and created work that reflected that. Everything else felt like a shell of what I was supposed to be doing.
I’ve learned that strategy doesn’t stick if it doesn’t belong to you and it doesn’t stick if you can’t hold it. My goal for the next few years is to show what is possible when you build and create fully from resonance, from what is true to you. It feels like ultimate endgame to say each time my soul called for something to be built and created, I aligned my inner world, ensured I didn’t shrink or hide, moved intentionally through rest and fun and brought it to life. That simply 😉
Q: how would you describe your unique approach to leadership and creativity, and what are the core perspectives that shaped it?
A: My coaching studio is built on the philosophy that those who lead themselves first, make the best leaders. Self knowledge and inner transformation is what leads to what and how you built/create and how you lead through both. Fun is a creative force as it honors the inner child, Rest is a practice and non-negotiable. Visibility is the final act as a steward of creativity.
Surface level work never lasts and I find it’s a waste of time if you are serious about building the creative life and work you dream of. When I work with people we build from the inside out. The work is to anchor their identity not in their creative success or titles but in the understanding that they are already inherently whole and always have access to their creative power. We focus less on “fixing and healing” but on removing the layers that prevent them from accessing what is inherent to them, which sometimes also happens to be the work they are most afraid of putting out into the world.
The more you can return to yourself, regulate your inner world, the stronger the relationship with self and creativity and more intentional you are about how you lead and create. The tension between your inner world and your outer is lessened as the closer you move to alignment.
As this happens, visibility goes from being forcing to magnetizing because it is embodied. It better resonates with who you actually want to work with because you are no longer hiding yourself or your work. Building impact and legacy your way becomes more accessible because you are more true to yourself. The strategy is yours, integrated, and aligned vs borrowed.
All of this work is supported by building fun and rest into systems as part of the practice. Not an after thought.
Q: how did your experience at life of the party compliment or enhance the way you lead your community, online and beyond? was there a moment where you felt a significant shift to your approach, while moving through the program?
A: The shift began before LOTP. I had never brought my work to the internet this fully. The operator/strategist was reserved for work, the creative was visible on a separate page, the healer/guide was hidden and personality was sprinkled in. It all felt like too much to capture in one place.
When I felt the shift to fully claim all of me on the internet, my first step was looking for expanders. I always tell people when I introduce them to your work that I knew I would buy from you the day I found your page. I could feel what you embodied. Finding your work was the linchpin to never letting go of the idea that I could lead, be fun, be taken seriously, be successful and be creative online. It didn’t have to look just like me or be perfect it just had to be a reality for my brain to cling to as we figured out what our version looked like.
What brought it together for me in LOTP was defining the perspectives. As someone who embraces shifting through seasons and constant alignment, having something that I can come back to when life changes or when things shift with those I serve is gold. It removes the fear of “how do I say this now that I have changed? or that life has done xyz?” It’s a more human and realistic way of showing up. Which to me aligns well with visibility that aims to reflect truth.
The second would be batching parts of the content creation vs having all the deliverables together. It’s been so much easier to have time dedicated to visuals, and time to captions etc than doing a full piece of content the same day. I move a lot quicker too!
This new page I started feels like a better representation of the all of self and the work to come and I couldn’t stand strongly on that without LOTP.
the content ↓
“taste is resurfacing as social capital”
“you are not too much of anything, you just need to find the spaces that can hold you”
“i could feel the absence of the thing she’s not creating”
That’s all for now.
