Hidden Gems: Meet Nikki Becker of Ghauste

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nikki Becker.

Hi Nikki, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers. 
Growing up, I was a people pleaser and a straight-A student. This combination meant I was going to college, whether I liked it or not, and I was pursuing something in one of the categories my parents deemed acceptable. That’s how I wound up at the University of Delaware pursuing a triple foreign language major – which was actually an amazing experience even though I had no idea what I was going to do with that degree haha – however, I had somehow managed to find a degree that I enjoyed and fell within the “acceptable” category for my parents – so I didn’t dwell on that too long. Then, in the middle of my junior year of college, my father passed away unexpectedly, and that changed everything. As graduation loomed, I started really thinking about what I wanted to do with my life. I loved my father dearly, but the man hated his job – but loved the life it provided his family and felt stuck within that paradox – and then he died at 49. Not to sound like a cliche, but with my graduation looming, I was forced to take a real look at my life and decide if I was going to risk winding up in the same boat. I didn’t want to be a diplomat or a doctor – or even wind up in a job I maybe/kind of/sort of liked. I did not want to make the same mistake I watched my father make, being stuck in a job he hated and where he spent 80% of his life. I had always loved fashion but never pursued it because it was definitely not on the list of “acceptable” career choices my parents had assembled – but now things were different – I was not going to live my life for anyone else any longer – I was not going to wait for my life to start – I was going to take matters into my own hands and live on my terms, regardless of how anyone else felt about it. I started by looking for some classes I could take for fun once I graduated with the plan of having a small passion project on the side that I could maybe eventually turn into something – but the universe had other plans haha. After only an hour into researching, I had found an accelerated fashion certification program in Los Angeles at FIDM for people who already graduated a 4-year university with a Bachelor’s degree – it was perfect! I filled out a basic inquiry that night and had an admissions interview the next week. I slid in right under the semester deadline and was granted a partial scholarship. In my experience, when things fall into place “a little too easily,” you are on the right path and should not think twice about it. One month later, I was packing my bags for LA to pursue a degree in fashion product development, and the rest is history. I graduated a year later, had my first job in product development lined up, and hit the ground running. I worked for a few companies here in LA leading their design and product development teams before branching out on my own about 6 years ago. 

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I think one of the biggest challenges for any small business owner is letting go of what you thought the game plan was going to look like. I think when you start your business, you have a plan and a vision for how everything is going to go/what everything is going to look like. However, you quickly realize there are so many things that are going to unfold that were never planned for – some good, some bad. The key is to roll with the punches, get creative, and not be afraid to keep reworking the roadmap. However, that’s easier to say in hindsight. In real time, making those changes/adjustments can feel like failure, and that can be extremely hard to work through. Sometimes it is failure in a way, but a necessary one to move forward and get to the place where the big successes will be. It’s a lot of letting go of ego surrendering to the process, and trusting that you will get where you need to go if you keep moving forward and putting in the work. 

As you know, we’re big fans of Ghauste. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Technically, I am the founder of Ghauste Agency, which operates as a private-label manufacturing firm within the fashion, beauty, and lifestyle space. However, the company I run today has come a long way from the initial company I founded back in 2018. When I started the business, it operated more as a one-woman consultancy for emerging brands in the fashion space. I would provide insights and basic support to new and/or young brands in the fashion space looking to cultivate their brand identity and launch their line and/or grow their product offering based on my extensive experience in trend research, product design, manufacturing, importing, wholesale and direct to consumer sales and brand marketing. With time, we slowly started adding more and more services as happy clients continued to request that we manage more aspects of the processes we were helping to put in place. For example, after receiving a marketing audit, we would have clients request that we produce the photo/video shoot concepts we were proposing and/or build out their e-commerce website using the collateral created, etc. So, we started offering full package and a-la-carte services to help businesses build/strengthen their brand identity through the products they offer. Our design team is extremely adept at being able to take larger market trends and fine tune them to fit within the individual identities of the brands we work with to create truly unique and highly saleable products. Today, we have clients that range from new entrepreneurs all the way to major retailers, and continue to grow our product offerings. 

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
These days, my happiness comes from growing our team at Ghauste. Initially, as an entrepreneur and type A personality, the idea of relinquishing control over any task, no matter how small, gave me immense anxiety haha. To be honest, I dreaded the idea of having to hire people and start delegating tasks throughout the company. However, these days I have spent a lot of time thinking about how grateful I am to have found such amazing individuals, without whom the company never would have been able to achieve the milestones we have today. I think, like many people, when I decided to start my own company, I thought a lot about the work I wanted to do – but also the environment I wanted to work in every day, the people I wanted to work with, and the culture I wanted to create. I am very fortunate and grateful that I have found amazing individuals here and abroad who are passionate about the work we are doing, excited for the future we are creating, and supportive/understanding of each other as we move through the process – particularly as a young company. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ghauste.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ghausteagency/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ghausteagency