Why I Created Better Plan Co.
There was a time when I was very good at knowing where I was going.
My original passion was modeling. I loved it, I was talented, and I could see a version of my future in it. But life has a way of changing the plan before you are ready to admit the plan has changed.
I spent a lot of my twenties helping grown adults who were leaning heavily on little old twenty six year old Denika. I was carrying other people, trying to maintain relationships, and pretending I had everything figured out.
Like many women do.
Before 2020, a relationship uprooted me and brought me to Dallas, Texas. Life happened within that relationship, and eventually I found myself alone in a two bedroom apartment that I could not afford. There was no furniture in the living room. There was no clear direction for my life. Modeling felt like something from my past, and I had no idea what I wanted my future to look like.
I remember being in the middle of that empty living room on my hands and knees, crying uncontrollably.
I was not only crying because of relationship hurt. I was crying because I was disappointed in myself. I could not believe I had allowed myself to fall so deeply into depression. I had lost my sense of worth. I did not feel beautiful. I did not feel confident. I did not feel capable.
More than anything, I was afraid that I was not going to get out of it.
From the outside, I tried to look like I was okay. I tried to act as though I knew what I was doing and where I was headed. Inside, I had no idea what I was working toward.
That was the real beginning of Better Plan Co.
Not a business meeting. Not a perfectly written strategy. Not an inspiring social media post.
It began with me crying in an empty living room and realizing something had to change.
Journaling Came First
Before I had a business plan, I had a journal.
I would cry while I wrote. Sometimes the words were clear, and sometimes they were simply the thoughts I could no longer hold inside of me.
I began asking myself uncomfortable questions.
Why do I not feel pretty anymore?
What do I not like about myself?
Why do I feel this way?
What do I actually want from my life?
Is this relationship helping me grow, or is it bringing me down?
Those questions were not easy to answer. Some of them took a long time. Journaling did not immediately make me feel better, but it gave me a private place to stop pretending.
It helped me become honest with myself.
Eventually, I purchased a planner and started small. I did not begin by planning a new life or creating a five year vision. I began with habits that could help me feel better on the outside while I worked on what was happening inside.
Working out.
Taking care of my appearance.
Creating a beauty routine.
Meditating.
Doing small things that reminded me that I was still a person worth caring for.
I Needed Something Meaningful to Work Toward
One day, I looked through a collection of planners I had kept from my earlier college years. As I flipped through those pages, I saw a version of myself that had been productive, motivated, and actively working toward something.
That version of me had not disappeared. She simply needed something meaningful to do.
I realized that I needed some business of my own to attend to.
The planner I had purchased was generic. It did not reflect what I was truly going through or what I needed to rebuild. It could hold appointments and tasks, but there was no real space for the parts of life I was trying to manage.
My habits.
My bills.
My self care.
My emotional growth.
My goals.
My real life.
Then it clicked.
I was going to make my own planner.
I began planning the steps that could take the idea from my mind and turn it into something real. As I worked toward creating the Black Excellence Weekly Planner, I started to see my light coming back.
I realized something important about myself. I was not happy when I had nothing meaningful to work toward.
I needed purpose. I needed progress. I needed to see myself trying.
Rebuilding Was Not Pretty
I would love to say that once I found the idea, everything changed overnight.
It did not.
I still had breakdowns. I still questioned myself. I still wondered whether anything I was doing would actually work. Staying consistent was hard when I was still emotionally struggling.
There were moments when I had to cry and keep going anyway.
I had to learn the art of mind over matter. I had to leave things at God’s feet. I had to understand the difference between what I could control and what I could not.
I could not control other people.
I could not force someone to treat me well.
I could not change every painful thing that had happened.
But I could control what I did next.
So I kept putting the saw to the tree, trusting that one day the tree would fall.
The hardest truth I had to accept was that nobody was coming to save me.
That realization can sound harsh, but it also gave me my power back. My life was my responsibility. I could wait for someone else to recognize my value, choose me, rescue me, or give me permission to begin again.
Or I could start choosing myself.
What Better Plan Co. Really Means
Creating my first planner taught me that I could do more than make a product. I could inspire other women to become productive, care for themselves, and start working toward something meaningful.
That is what Better Plan Co. is really about.
I want a woman to hold one of our products and feel like she has a key that can help her start getting her life together.
Not because a planner can magically fix everything.
Not because every day will be productive.
Not because healing follows a perfect schedule.
But because having a plan gives you somewhere to begin.
I created Better Plan Co. for the woman who is questioning her appearance, her mental health, her decisions, her relationships, or the direction of her life. She may be pretending that everything is fine while privately wondering how she allowed herself to become so lost.
I know that woman because I was her.
One of the biggest lessons I learned is that people often treat you the way you treat yourself. When you begin recognizing your own light, protecting it, and allowing it to shine from the inside out, other people notice.
More importantly, you notice.
Start With What You Can Control
When you feel like your entire life needs to change, the pressure to create a perfect plan can keep you stuck.
Do not begin with everything.
Begin with what you can control right now.
Ask yourself:
What part of my life is currently within my control?
What is one decision I can make today that supports the woman I want to become?
What is one small thing I can begin working toward?
Rock bottom can sometimes be the most genuine place a person can be. There is nothing left to pretend about. You are forced to face what hurts, what is no longer working, and what needs to change.
You may not feel like you are where you are supposed to be, but that does not mean this season has no purpose.
A better plan does not mean having every answer. It means having a plan instead of having no plan at all. It means having the ambition to work toward something, even when your confidence has not completely returned.
It means the plan you have today is better than the one you had yesterday.
Sometimes that is enough to begin changing your life.
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