Meet Jamie Meyer, Founder of Nine Carat. Nine Carat is a force of a new direction, the beginnings of something much bigger than one Client, one solution. Instead, it became about designing a whole new set of rules, new pathways, and expectations of ourselves. With a mission to create solutions for clients and provide services that leave clients free to focus on other things, Nine Carat is not your run-of-the-mill company.
Jamie Meyer approaches clients the way she does people – everyone is different, so the experience needs to be too. But, for Jamie, the most rewarding aspect of her work is seeing clients choose another way, forging paths that align with themselves and things bigger than themselves.
In this interview, Jamie shared her challenges in launching Nine Carat and talked about how her previous consulting experience shaped her approach to creating customized client services.
For Jamie, prioritizing values of health, family, and personal fulfillment is contingent on one another. One ends where the other begins, and vice versa. She ensures that she provides her clients with the highest level of value and expertise while continuously improving her skills and knowledge by creating a virtually-based company that allows her to travel, work, and explore the world while evolving as a person.
What inspired you to start Nine Carat, and what were some of your biggest challenges when launching the company?
Nine Carat became a natural progression of my freelancing experiences. First, it was inspired by the ever-expanding ways I was asked to design client solutions—one place for all those things to have a home. Then, inspired by a goal, I would one day grow into the size of what Nine Carat as a Company could be and what it could create for others.
And it all began because there weren’t enough People asking, “Why?” Why can’t this be done? Why wouldn’t we consider this? Why wouldn’t we do this? Why are we still doing this? Why wouldn’t we invest in doing this better, making that better?
I didn’t even decide to do something, and I needed to. I don’t know whether that feeling has gripped you, but how ferociously you feel drawn to do anything is almost shocking.
I started freelancing to help more than one Person or Company at a time. Nine Carat became the force of a new direction, the beginnings of something bigger than me, much bigger than one Client, one solution. It became about designing a whole new set of rules, pathways and expectations of ourselves.
Biggest challenges laugh. It was launching into a global market four months after naming the business, working out how to get new clients, starting something of my own or self-funding a start-up. But the biggest challenge was me.
I got caught up in everything others told you you should be doing. Defining the business as something in particular so it could be found in ways that people were accustomed to seeing businesses like Nine Carat, using industry standards that didn’t fit, trying to dress it up like it was something most people would look for when it wasn’t, instead of taking my advice and designing the business the way I wanted and how I wanted. I tried to dress it up as acceptable,
run-of-the-mill. Nothing about Nine Carat is run of the mill, and I was getting in its way by not owning it.
The biggest challenge was swallowing my advice and doing it my way.
How did your consulting experience shape your approach to creating customized client services?
When I started freelancing, I had no idea that being a Consultant was a job. I just knew what I could do and was doing it. And realized I had always approached things this way.
I tried the name Consultant for a while, but it didn’t fit well.
It was more than my natural approach that shaped my experience. People teach you that one size doesn’t fit all, which is way more exciting than that. I interact with my clients the way I do with People, they are all different, and my experience with them and their experience with me needs to be too.
Can you describe a time when you were able to help a client overcome a significant challenge or achieve a major victory in their business?
I would instead not answer this question implying details of a Client. I have a lot of respect for what Clients entrust to me and the NDAs I provide.
It is as much about protecting their privacy as it is about not using their experiences for gain. It’s the Clients that do the work; they are the ones that choose to overcome and be victorious. How they do that is different for each. Sometimes it’s small continuous movements; other times, it is a hurdle they jump in one fell swoop. Either way, I can only do it with them choosing.
What are some of the most rewarding aspects of your work at Nine Carat, and how do you measure the success of your services?
Seeing People and Companies choose another way. Choose to forge paths that align with themselves and things bigger than themselves. The lightbulb moments are the most rewarding. They are seeing an ecosystem designed in a way that brings the best of everyone and everything to the table that’s legacy in the making for everyone involved. It does not get any better than that.
Measurement in what I do is relative to each Client and what they came with and leave with. The aim is that the effects of our time together far exceed the term of our relationship. And so, usually, I never get the full measure of what is accomplished.
How do you prioritize health, family, and personal fulfillment in your life while also running a successful business?
For me, they are all contingent on one another. One ends where the other begins, and vice versa.
My health is fed by my fulfillment in both life and business. When I started Nine Carat, I knew I would never want a day off because it contributes to my satisfaction. But I know from experience that never taking a day off takes its toll. So very early on, the question had to be, “How could I do everything all at once?” So Nine Carat was designed as a virtually based Company, creating the versatility to travel, work, explore the world, evolve, and spend time with family and friends I have in different countries.
How do you ensure that you provide the highest level of value and expertise to your clients while continuously improving your skills and knowledge?
The growth of my skills and knowledge is imperative. I am always learning, growing, and experimenting. It’s a necessity, and it’s who I am. It is what allows me to bring the best to my Clients.
Traveling and working with such a diverse client base is a huge part. Immersing, listening and learning from People and Cultures provides perspective and expands how I can consider and adapt. If I am moving forward, so too are my Clients. I value what I do, which is reflected in how I work.
What advice would you give someone struggling to find a balance between their personal life and career aspirations?
The idea of balance is a merry-go-round you’ll likely never get off. Life evolves. We evolve. What you did yesterday to achieve balance will only work sometimes. And just when you have it whittled down to a finely tuned routine, something will come flying out of the left field and throw you off course.
We’ve replaced the idea of quality with balance. Your priorities need to be about focus and quality, and more than credit is needed. Ratio divides your time, but does it demand your focus? Ninety minutes of focused time anywhere in your life will go much farther than scattered attention for you and any others involved.
Whatever you’re doing, be wholly invested in it for however long you’re doing it.
Looking back on your journey as an entrepreneur, what have been some of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned, and how have these lessons influenced your approach to business?
What a question! Most of my greatest lessons have come from my personal life, and they, in turn, have contributed to my business.
I have experienced many confronting circumstances that have made me question what I was doing and how I got there. And what choices led me there. It makes you accountable to yourself, what you want and what you will do about it.
It is those very experiences that help me design paths that have yet to be considered to evolve, adapt, and how exceed expectations rapidly.
I remember a friend saying to me once, “Whatever you have, you need to work out how to bottle it and sell it so others can access it.” So nine Carat became not a bottle of what I have but a method to working out what would be in yours.
To keep up to date with Jamie, connect with her on Instagram and LinkedIn.
