Meet Dai Smith

Dai , we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
My family has always been my foundation. I come from a family of strong black women and men that have sacrificed a lot and been able to build a beautiful familial foundation of love, strength, perseverance. WIth that, growing up, they instilled my mindset on confidence and self-esteem. I was taught early on that I could be and do anything I put my mind too, my academic ability was highlighted, I was surrounded my mentors who supported that. When I achieved, it was celebrated, and when I failed, the lessons were discussed in love but constructive criticism. I learned what I was great at and leaned in. As an adolescent and young adult; this helped to shape my confidence and self esteem.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Simplicity By Day LLC was founded in 2019, by accident actually. I wasn’t planning on jumping into business like I did, but due to life circumstances, I decided it was time to stop playing business and be a business. As a wife and mom of two young kids, a professional and now entrepreneur, I understand the demands of trying to balance it all. And honestly, being organized is the one thing that saves me. I attract clients like myself because I understand their challenges, worries and pain points. So my goals with them boils down to 4 words! (or syllabus) TRANS-FOR-MA-TION. This is how I have directly impacted my customers. I meet most of my customers when they are at the end of their rope and are ready to make a change. The change comes with mindset and action. They feel empowered, equipped and educated on being and staying organized. My community of small business owners where many hats on their journey to grow their small business. I have made it my mission to help this demographic so they we can continue to show up and thrive in our markets. I have been able to help hundreds of small businesses, primarily minority based and female-based through individual work, group training, joint venture connections, speaking engagements, etc. I would love to continue to pour into the community that gives so much to me.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Patience, Boundaries, and Support.

Patience. I had to learn to have patience and not make hasty decisions or expect immediate results. Building a business is a long game.

Boundaries. Once I understood the importance of boundaries; it changed everything. I am able to focus better, be present, and more productive

Support. Since we are interdependent, learning to ask for help and leaning on my support system has been critical in my journey.

Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?
I am a big believer in strengths based learning and living. I am an optimist at heart so leaning into my strengths as well as calling out the strengths in others has be beneficial for me. Once I learned my strengths and leaned into those, it boosted my confidence and allowed me to show up more authentically….my purpose became clearer. In my career, I discovered my strength of being a connector, being a disciplined achiever, a futuristic thinker, an includer and an avid learner. These strengths were already natural to me so identifying them and focusing on what I do well became an easier tasks and showed my unique qualities.

If I had continued to focus on JUST my areas of development, I would have been discouraged because I would not have been as confident in how I can add value, focused solely on the things I need to improve on as opposed to the things that I can do to add value.