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Meet The Entrepreneurs Behind The Cover Of The January 2022 Issue Of Global Millionaire: Dennis Koutoudis And Emily Pappas

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LinkedIn is a social media platform that has risen to the top of professional and entrepreneur networking sites in recent years. It now has over 700 million registered active members. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many have migrated to online work-from-home mode, increasing the importance of LinkedIn even more. Now, if you really want to increase your presence on LinkedIn and elevate your game to another level, then you need to get in touch with LinkedSuperPowers. This is where Dennis and Emily come in. LinkedSuperPowers is a global Social Media Consultancy that has successfully assisted individuals and businesses in elevating their LinkedIn game for the past seven years. Fittingly, they’ve been mentioned in several high-profile publications such as Forbes, Fortune, Entrepreneur, HuffPost, CNN, as well as other major international publications and various TV Channels.

Dennis Koutoudis is the LinkedSuperPowers’ founder and CEO. He’s a rising LinkedIn master and a Social Selling guru – a successful entrepreneur with a Harvard University certification in Social Media Marketing and Disruptive Strategy. He is also a well-known public speaker. His business ventures led to the formation of LinkedSuperPowers, a company specializing in assisting individuals and businesses worldwide, helping them unleash their “superpowers” on LinkedIn.

Emily Pappas is a social media and social selling expert and a #1 International Bestselling Author. Her commitment to reaching her greatest potential has earned her a household name. She is the co-founder of LinkedSuperPowers. Emily’s efforts have paid off, as she has been featured on some of the world’s leading news and information sites, including CNN and HuffPost. She has worked with the majority of the Fortune 500 corporations and, with her partner, has even ventured into the book sector.

Global Millionaire Magazine recently caught up with Dennis and Emily to discuss their journey as entrepreneurs, and here’s what went down:

Could you please tell our readers a brief background about yourselves and how you started your business?

We were social media marketing managers of various companies from various industries, utilizing mainly LinkedIn to accomplish the unique targets each company we were employed by had. One day I decided with Emily to create a company that could help millions of individuals and businesses accomplish their professional dreams. Hence, LinkedSuperPowers was born!

What are you currently doing to maintain/grow your business?

I network with target prospects through LinkedIn and form strategic professional relationships with them, combined with super targeted PR activities.

What is your experience with paid advertising, like PPC or sponsored content campaigns? Does it work?

We have mainly grown our business through organic growth methodologies on social media. That being said, we are aware of companies that have utilized paid advertising with good results.

What is your main tactic when it comes to making more people aware of your brand and engaging your customers? How did your business stand out?

Networking with the right individuals through LinkedIn and nurturing those relationships to the point that a solid collaboration is formed. I believe one way we stand out is that we interact with people with a networking mindset and seek win-win collaborations instead of a “sell our services” mindset. After all we are co-authors of the book “The Superpower of Online Networking.”

What form of marketing has worked well for your business throughout the years?

LinkedIn Marketing, most certainly. LinkedIn can become one’s most powerful tool for professional growth if utilized in an effective way. And this is exactly how we help our clients achieve their goals.

What is the toughest decision you had to make in the last few months?

To put our trust in a new promising vendor regarding PR. We’re confident we’ll see a considerable return on investment, though. We’re big believers in constantly re-investing our company’s revenues back into the business.

What mistakes have you made along the way that others can learn from (or something you’d do differently)?

We wouldn’t try so hard to make something work when we had an indication that it wasn’t working. We’d be more flexible to change course, especially early on in our entrepreneurial journey.

What new business would you love to start?

We very recently expanded our service offering to include some super targeted PR efforts for a select number of clients. We’d love to expand this new service offering further.

If you could go back in a time machine to the time when you were just getting started, what would you do differently?

We’d focus more on things that brought maximum results early on, rather than dividing our energy to other things that were not so effective for the growth of our business.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

Nobody owes you anything in this life. It is up to you and only you to create the life of your dreams.

What advice would you give to a newbie Entrepreneur setting up their first business?

Economic cushions and support from family and others usually very quickly evaporate. In order to achieve professional success nowadays, you need to rely 110% on your own capabilities. And remember, working hard is just not enough anymore. Just think about this: how many hard workers do you know that are barely making enough to cover their expenses? To succeed nowadays, you need to love what you do, have extreme and constant focus on your targets and work in a super hard and simultaneously super smart way.

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Meet The Entrepreneur Behind The Cover Of The November 2021 Issue Of Global Millionaire: Ganbold Tordai

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Ganbold Tordai is the inspirational serial entrepreneur behind “The Corporate Hotel” – one of the largest hotel chains in Mongolia. Tordai graduated from the Institute of Foreign Languages and the University of Finance and Economics and he initially kickstarted his entrepreneurial journey by selling wheat. Back in 2001, the agricultural sector in Mongolia was in full decline, and the main raw material to create flour which is wheat was supplied by Russia – he alone supplied up to 60% of wheat in the market. In 2006 he established a chain of The Corporate Hotel and he was also appointed as the CEO of the Darkhan Metallurgical Plant. From the time he was the CEO of the Darkhan Metallurgical Plant, the production capacity rose from 20 to 88 percent, dramatically increasing efficiency and enabling the company to be the main supplier in the domestic market all on its own.

In 2011, Tordai acquired a Russian-owned gold mining company called Altan Dornod Mongol LLC – it was Mongolia’s largest gold exploration and mining company at the time. In 2015 he built a Shambha-La Park Town housing project, and in 2020, he built the Alpha Theater where the famous enlightener Goethe’s Faust was staged.

Global Millionaire magazine recently caught up with Ganbold Tordai to discuss his journey as an entrepreneur and here’s what went down:

Greetings Ganbold and thank you for accepting our invitation to interview you.

Thank you for the opportunity.

It’s a highly known fact that Covid-19 is widespread in several countries all over the world which applies to your country as well. What do you think are some of the major problems that the pandemic is causing to people and various businesses?

The situation is quite challenging in our country. It has heavily impacted a country with a small economy, a small population, and poor medical care and facilities. Even though the pandemic has spread to many countries around the world, the first case of Covid-19 wasn’t registered in our country until 10 months later. However, this gap or timing was not taken advantage of by the decision-makers so our country couldn’t take the appropriate action and prepare for the impact.

This lack of action was directly related to the parliamentary elections. The situation is still difficult up to today due to wasteful spending on the economy in the name of development – ineffective spending and improper decisions have directly affected the lives of citizens as well as small to medium-sized businesses.

Many countries around the world have spent billions of dollars to reduce the effects of the Covid-19 outbreak and to improve public health. Unfortunately, as a citizen of our country, I am pretty critical about this issue and I have been expressing my position publicly because I believe that the budget and such aid funding have been spent chaotically and inefficiently.

The business sector has collapsed and jobs have fallen sharply in several countries all over the world due to the pandemic. What are some of the challenges your company as well as other Mongolian businesses are facing at the moment? Given that you have successfully established a chain of hotels in Mongolia that are known to thousands of visitors, how do you think we can overcome this adversity?

I think the business community has been impacted hard because we did not expect the Covid-19 pandemic to continue for such a long period of time. The situation is honestly not very good in every sector and we are still currently looking for optimal solutions.

One of the most revenue-generating fields, such as the tourism sector has dramatically collapsed. The hospitality industry has been completely affected as well because there are no guests or visitors at the moment. However, we have a strong policy of keeping our employees on the job which is quite risky because how can any business survive without any income in such conditions right? The government of other developed countries provides tax and financial support to small businesses and we are hoping to receive such stimulus as well.

What was the first business that kickstarted your career? Could you please share with us some of your success stories?

During the transition period from communism to market economy and democracy in the 1990s, a vast majority of our businessmen started trading.

Just like the others, I was also involved in trading and I reached a quite good result at that time. Some of the projects that I have successfully completed were:

From 2001 to 2007, the agricultural sector was in full decline, and the main raw material for flour, such as wheat was supplied by Russia – I alone supplied up to 60% of wheat in the market.

In 2006, 2009, and 2013, I built a state-of-the-art concert hall and a chain of The Corporate Hotel.

From 2006 to 2009, I was appointed as the CEO of the Darkhan Metallurgical Plant. During my time with them, the production capacity rose from 20 to 88 percent, dramatically increasing efficiency, and enabling the company to be the main supplier to the domestic market all on its own.

I also made sure that the Tumurtei iron ore deposit – the largest iron ore deposit in Mongolia was recognized as an important asset to Mongolians. I managed to win in a three-stage court which enabled us to acquire it from a Chinese company and made the Tumurtei iron ore deposit become 100 percent state-owned.

In 2011, I acquired a Russian-owned gold mining company called Altan Dornod Mongol LLC. At that time, it was Mongolia’s largest gold exploration and mining company and I had to pay off large amounts of outstanding debts as well as rehabilitate degraded landscapes that mining has caused to the environment.

In 2013, I initiated the Mongolian Gold Miners’ Association to unite local companies and negotiate with the Government, in order to create a favorable legal environment. This move has resulted in an increase in the gold supply to the Central bank from 3 tons per year to 20 tons.

In 2015-2019, I completed a Shambha-La Park Town housing project and in 2020, I built the Alpha Theater where the famous enlightener Goethe’s Faust was staged. The plot of this theatrical show revolves around the consequences of injustice and the value and nature of human life. The show has given many people insight into their lives and has been greatly appreciated by Mongolians.

We appreciate the fact that you are not only investing in commercial businesses but also investing in education. Are you able to share with us some of your future business plans and what areas you are looking at getting into next?

I think tourism is an important and strategic sector. And obviously, infrastructure is the most important development factor in this field. The government recognizes the necessity of this important mega project but has not been implemented for many years.

I am still striving to raise awareness on such important issues and contribute to the development of our country. I have also been investing in foreign markets to the best of my ability so I can expand my businesses.

Mongolia’s economy is worth $13 billion and it is almost the same scale as a company in one of the world’s largest economies.

Although Mongolian businesses are growing rapidly, they do not have the experience, capital, or economic capacity to penetrate the international market. There are many challenges for businesses in Mongolia to overcome due to political decisions, bureaucracy, and uncertainty. It is impossible for me to say if I would be able to invest or do business in such an environment.

What are some of the big projects you are planning at the moment? Will there be a new mining deposit, a processing plant, or a new hotel in your future?

Although 70% of our economy depends directly and indirectly on mining; processing plants are not well developed and I am not sure that most people would be able to understand these issues. Even though it is necessary for the hospitality industry to further develop by building new hotels, these new hotels need to meet the international quality standards.

I do have a plan and a goal to build a large and modern world-class Emergency Center and Cancer Hospital that will cover not only our country but also extend in the regions. But I think this is a really important mega project rather than a business.

You are currently the Honorary Consul of Uruguay. Do you have any business linkage with this country?

I do have many international friends. A friend proposed for me to become an Honorary Consul and I think the role of Honorary Consul of any country is to take full rights and responsibilities; to represent many citizens and legal entities, to protect their legitimate interests, and to take the necessary measures to restore the violated rights of citizens and various legal entities.

Mongolia talks about diversifying its economy yet it appears to still be somewhat dependent on the mining sector. As a businessman, what do you see as a way to expand and diversify your economy?

It is very risky and hopeless for a country to depend on just one sector. Mongolia has some similar aspects to your country within the mining industry. The difference is that Mongolia’s mining products are exported to the southern neighbor at very low prices and such a small amount of income is pretty much used to buy machinery, equipment, fuel, and lubricants to be used in the mining sector. Due to the lack of equipment and production of mining products in our country, we have to import them.

The small amount of money leftover from this sector is going into the housing sector, which is in high demand but not affordable. Although our country has a large territory, urbanization and population density are concentrated in the capital city. Housing quality standards are not so good. In the construction sector, for example, materials are too expensive because they are 100 percent dependent on imports.

Given this situation, I see that it’s a necessity to focus on economic expansion and diversification and to support tourism and agriculture sectors through appropriate and effective policy tools. We all know how successful your country’s agricultural sector is. And in our case, we see Agriculture as our traditional sector and it has been going on without effective policies and economic support.

I think, in order to increase the number of people living and working in rural areas, we need policy tools and stimulus incentives to provide jobs in rural areas and it is necessary to abolish taxes for a certain period of time and implement large-scale long-term development financing instead. Instead of going abroad and doing the hard labor, Mongolian youth can get the opportunity to work and earn enough at home.

As mentioned earlier, the primary and secondary processing of mining products is important for economic expansion.

Foreign direct investment is very important for the development of any nation. Some news outlets claim that investing in your country can potentially be risky. What is your position on this?

I understand very well that foreign investment is a vital element in an economy. When you look at the history of a country’s development, it has developed with the help of know-how, the best technology, and the support of foreign investment, and has put its wealth into economic circulation and benefited from it. More than a decade ago, investors flocked to Mongolia, and we were on the radar of the world’s largest stock exchange, Mongolia was quite popular among the investment community and we were so-called Mongolia, the Mining country.

But due to the illegal actions of some individuals and decision-makers, it created an atmosphere of unfavorable business and investment climate. Our country is still ranked 116th in the Corruption Perceptions Index and 109th in the Judicial Independence Index. It is unfortunate that some of the decisions from the authorities’ leaned in favour of certain investors, which resulted in the public viewing investors as liars, thieves, and fraudsters.

It is clear that any country, high-profile investors would prefer to enter into a legally stable, equitable, and mutually beneficial agreement. No investor will refuse to cooperate with an honest government.

Based on your answers, we can tell that you have gone through some unfavorable economic and political climate, How do you see the future of Mongolia?

Our country covers an area of 1.5 million square kilometers and has a population of 3.4 million. It has rich mineral resources, well-developed agriculture, and a traditional livestock sector. Given such conditions, I see the full potential and opportunity to grow in a very short period of time.

Throughout the history of any country’s development, there has been a great deal of corruption and populist decisions caused by wrong decisions. And such countries would correct their mistakes in a short period of time and usually, most of them would spend 20-25 years to reach the level of rapid development. In our country’s case, we are in transition mode for almost 30 years and I think we could have reached the level of other developed nations if we were able to establish a system of accountability during this period.

The legal and judicial system must apply equally to ordinary citizens and the authorities. It is not possible to talk about development in a situation where the accountability system for the highest officials is not strictly enforced and the legal climate is in different favor.

Civil society in developed countries is very active and accountable to those in power. The authorities have a high sense of ethics and responsibility because their ordinary citizen can strictly control, unite and dismiss the politicians they choose to represent them.

In a developed world, people march 3-4 times a year against the inappropriate and blind decisions of the government. Whereas in Mongolia, we protested 3-4 times in 30 years – unfortunately, there is such submission and inactivity.

The consequences of this situation might force Mongolia to slip into the examples set by North Korea, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, which are all subject to the decisions of one group or an individual and it could be the same case with countries such as Venezuela and some African countries that are under chaos and violence.

We chose a citizen-friendly democratic country, however, the reality today is not so good. The alignment of politics and economics are linked, and I think that development is not far off if we create a favorable legal environment and do not lose the basic principles of democracy and equality. Those are my cautions and criticisms.

Optimistically, we have a lot of opportunities. For the first time in 30 years, there is one party faction serving together as the President, the Speaker of the Parliament, and the Prime Minister.

In this case, I think there is optimism that it is possible to push forward with our mega projects and make important strategic decisions. I don’t want to lose the opportunity and waste our economic opportunities.

Mongolia is a lesser-known travel destination – In some countries it is well known because of Genghis Khan, while in other countries it’s referred to as “Chinese Mongolia.” How do you think your country measures up compared to the rest of the world?

Mongolians are in the top ten out of more than 200 countries in the world in terms of intellectual potential. Mongolians are people of intellectual ability, responsibility, adaptability, and high productivity. I want Mongolia to be well known in the world as this image. Nowadays, there are many young Mongolians successfully working and leading in the world’s largest companies and banks. So, therefore, I believe we have a great future.

Thank you for your time and we wish you more success in your business!

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Meet The Entrepreneur Behind The Cover Of The October 2021 Issue Of Global Millionaire: Guruji Shrii Arnav

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Guruji Shrii Arnav, considered the Father of Astro Gemology and a mentor to Statesmen and Millionaires, is an internationally acclaimed spiritual Guru who uses techniques based on spirituality, Astro Gemology, and modern management methods.

The author of the Magnum Opus” Secrets of Jyotish Gems”( translated in 6 languages), he is the mentor of the world’s largest E-commerce portal to buy natural Gemstones online (Gemstoneuniverse.com) that has a mind-boggling reach of 4 million monthly users and has been around since the early days of the internet since 1996.

We are quite certain our readers would love a no holds barred conversation with a major thought leader so they can benefit from Guruji Shrii Arnav’s insights about entrepreneurship and business in general. Global Millionaire magazine recently had the good fortune of meeting and interviewing Revered Guruji Shrii Arnav during the Gemstoneuniverse Founder’s Day and here’s what went down:

What are your standards for success? Is it a certain dollar figure?

For me personally, I was never into numbers. My singular philosophy since I believe in the theory of Karma is that every single person engaging with me should benefit from me or by my enterprise.

And that happens when customers vouch for you by word of mouth, give you referrals, and sometimes raise concerns as if they were family and they own the enterprise as their own.

And at Gemstoneuniverse we see that happening all the time. Since 1996 we have had such a loyal base of patrons (I do not like to call them customers) that till today we have not had the need for any kind of advertising of any sort.

Also to have industry leaders from Google, HP speaking about you on video is a huge takeaway and speaks of standards. Those are feedback and testimonials that money cannot buy.

What do you think made you successful in business?

Even though I am a spiritual person I like the word business which means transacting and all of us are business people since the world moves by give and take and by a transaction.

I think having clear-cut goals, delighting our patrons, and being attached to the greater cause of serving people and solving their problems by spirituality, gem therapy helped me in achieving a reasonable degree of success and recognition.

My life philosophy revolves around the Gemstoneuniverse Motto of – Deo Amabiles Et Hominibus which means Pleasing to God and To Men- and it’s in that order that has helped me.

What inspired you to develop your idea?

More than inspiration it was a necessity. In 1996 we reached around 11,000 people in a year and by 1997 it was 40,000.

I will be upfront and honest with you – no single patron ever asked me the price of any Gem. They would say you know better- please do what is best for me.

So five things here: Firstly, I was not in a humanly position to speak with every single person. Secondly, when customers were buying Gemstones without taking a look at the product just based on trust – that was creating a huge pressure on me. Thirdly, I wanted the patron to choose a Gemstone in the privacy of their own environment without any kind of pressure. Fourthly, the intention was to serve the people with the powerful science of gem therapy that delivers phenomenal results and fifthly, bring some kind of organization in a vastly unregulated market.

Real Natural Gemstones form only 2% of all world stock so you can understand the rarity and importance.

With Gemstoneuniverse the patron is assured that the best in the Gem world work assiduously to make them win and that we are on their side.

What were the main challenges you faced at the early stages of your business? And do you still encounter them to this day?

People, Problems, Possibilities, Potential, Product, Price are all words that start with P ( Smiles). There are three more P words that will solve the entire jigsaw but I would not like to mention them here.

Since the start of mankind, these 9P’s are responsible for all complications and solutions. If whatever information listed on the search engine is true then there should be no problems on the planet (Hey, another P word!).

If whatever has been written in the religious scriptures is interpreted correctly then any problem will cease to exist.

So as we continue to grow and evolve, problems will remain due to lack of quality information, incapacity for correct decision making, and resistance to change.

You can motivate and change these 3 core issues within yourself but you cannot do that for the people who work for you neither can you do it for the people interested in you with 100% quantitative compliance.

That is why I love to be in the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen and also motivate my team to be in the state of Kaizen at all possible times.

My own interpretation of Kaizen is that that there is nothing at any point in time that cannot be improved. So we are always striving to improve and be in the perfect state.

What keeps you going even in hard times?

The opportunity given by the almighty to serve and the appreciation we get for it. You will be amazed that during this COVID era both I and the organization attained personal bests.

There is an interesting parable from the life of Lord Shri Krishna. Once the great warrior Arjun asked the Lord- Krishna, write something on the wall that after reading will make a happy person – sad and a sad person -happy at the same time.

Krishna took a piece of chalk and wrote – “This Too Shall Pass”. I believe in this philosophy. What is in my hand is the right action, why worry about things that you cannot control.

What are your thoughts on entrepreneurship for young people especially in an economy where jobs are harder to find?

COVID and the currently prevailing circumstances have proven that what was conventional is not essentially the right path and in fact, some people shone brightly by using innovative ideas and proved that humans have a wonderful ability to adapt and improvise – these are the two qualities in humans that have made us the alpha species.

I think it will be wonderful to have young energetic people join the entrepreneurship bandwagon and they in turn will create new and fresh jobs.

However, I can suggest some things – always put a priority on niche specializing, always keep learning, don’t put yourself under pressure to be the next Elon Musk, work harder than anybody else and as you grow stay humble and have fun. No work is good enough if it does not give you joy!

What strategies did you first use to market your business?

To be honest with you I do not believe much in traditional marketing or advertising.

Your biggest marketing assets are your people and your product and nothing beats word of mouth.

To cut a long story short, I wrote articles about spirituality, gem therapy, astrology, and gemstones because I was appalled at the pedestrian impotent fare that was pedalled in names of these subjects which was causing more harm to people than benefiting them.

I think what has benefited us since the inception is sharing of good quality cutting edge information in form of quality articles, media resources in form of high-quality gem pictures and videos. Over a period of 26 years, there are 3500 articles on Gemstoneuniverse which are highly informative and give something to a user or solve a pain point. I think you can call it our marketing strategy if you will. Creating and sharing good quality content has been our only strategy.

I did my first Facebook live on the Gemstoneuniverse Facebook Page on 29th August 2021 and now it’s nearing 300K views already.

How have your priorities changed from when you first started?

More success comes with more responsibilities and there are other ramifications and responsibilities when you are touching lives on an epic scale. You need to be future-ready and beware of copycats that may be out to dupe people riding on the coattails of a successful enterprise.

Another thing to mull upon and work on is supply change management. The demands and numbers at Gemstoneuniverse are huge but the earth’s natural resources and the human resources we have in for of trained consultants and practitioners is limited and we have to do all this while ensuring that the Gemstones we use and supply are ethically mined, responsibly sourced, conflict-free and traceable.

Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently when you were first starting out?

Not a thing and I am just starting!

What two pieces of advice can you give to someone who wants to become an expert in their chosen field?

Another of my favourite P Word – Practice and Fail early and Fail Fast.

Failing gets you a PhD. in experience in record time provided that you learn from failure. If you are afraid of failure, to be honest, the chances of doing something noteworthy are very minuscule and at best, life would be normal, predictable, boring, and ordinary. That does sound SCARY to me at least.

What is the last ‘one word’ advice you will give to our readers when it comes to succeeding as an entrepreneur?

Niche, Niche, Niche – Do what you love and be the best at it. I wish all the readers health, happiness, and abundance.

You can follow Guruji Shrii Arnav and Gemstoneuniverse via their official social media pages:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/gemstoneuniverse
Instagram: @gemstoneuniverse
Website: www.gemstoneuniverse.com

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Meet The Man Behind The Cover Of The September 2021 Issue Of Global Millionaire: Deepak Chopra

 

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By Allison Kugel
 
Deepak Chopra has been a mentor of mine from the day of my first interview with him more than a decade ago. I will never forget the day in 2008 when I asked him to explain such existential concepts as the distinction between the brain, mind, and soul; the concepts of space and time, and how meditation benefits our physical and mental health. His answers then were clear and precise and without hesitation; on my end, it felt like waking up from a dream and setting about on a continuous path of discovery.
 
He and I sat down once again, this time to unpack the pressing issues of isolation, anxiety, and depression and the growing epidemic of suicidal ideation and suicide, which has taken a sharp incline over the past eighteen years. Deepak Chopra is now part of a team spearheading the Never Alone movement, a grassroots movement that aims to create community-led organizations around the world to help people in emotional distress who need community support. Never Alone is being funded through a GoFundMe campaign that has already surpassed its original goal.
 
In tandem, Deepak Chopra has released his latest book, Metahuman (Harmony Books/Random House), which delves into the true essence of our nature when we break free of societal constructs and embrace a higher level of consciousness and greater zest for living on this planet.
 
Allison Kugel: The subject matter we are about to discuss is an uncomfortable one, but one that needs to be addressed because we are losing too many people. I looked at some World Health Organization statistics that report there has been a 60% increase in suicides over the past 45 years, with a 30% increase since 2001. My first question for you is simply… why?
 
Deepak Chopra: We are living in a culture that aggrandizes narcissism and the whole idea of a separate self. People are constantly engaged in social media, and in general media as well. All of this leads to performance anxiety in a sense. Am I relevant if I’m not being noticed? On the one hand, social networks are supposed to increase our connectivity. In one sense they do because we can communicate more effectively. But it also increases our isolation if we don’t get noticed. Young adults, in particular, are at a very delicate stage of their life where they’re beginning to wonder about their identity. As young children, we never wonder about identity. We are just happy, without wondering about self-esteem and all those things. As we enter adolescence, identity becomes an issue and we are still forging our identities. Today our identity is all about, “Am I important? Am I relevant?” It’s not even about knowing who we are at a fundamental level. 
 
Allison Kugel: I remember seeing my son, up until about the age of three, exhibit this pure unadulterated confidence and joy that emanated from his being. I have a video of him at the age of 15 or 16 months, where he’s running through a field and cracking himself up for no reason; just happy to be running in the grass. Why do we lose that joy and that feeling of wholeness, of being enough just as we are, as we get older? 
 
Deepak Chopra: You are very right in your observation. The poet Rabindranath Tagore is quoted as having said that “every child that’s born is proof that God has not given up on human beings (paraphrased).” Children are naturally joyful and loving and have empathy and compassion and playfulness as their innate traits. The rest is the hypnosis of social conditioning. Unfortunately, it gets recycled through every generation and now it’s getting worse because of our ability to communicate our self-importance. Self-esteem is natural, in our natural state. We are confusing [self-esteem] with self-image, which is the ego-bound identity. Self-image constantly needs validation or else it feels very fearful.
 
Allison Kugel: I’ve noticed a pattern in the 21st century where we are being pushed to the brink in so many ways. We have extreme weather patterns, mass shootings, more chronic illness, more narcissism, and certainly more anxiety and depression. And we have more people who are medicated than ever before. What is all this pushing us towards?  And what is the spiritual reason for it all?
 
Deepak Chopra: A lot of what you are seeing is the mental health of a collective mind, or a collective humanity, that has created a world with all the things you mentioned. We’ve seen extinction in every other life form, but now we’re ready for our own extinction. The last extinction was sixty-five million years ago as a result of a meteorite hitting the earth when dinosaurs were wiped out. We learned as a result of that extinction. But now if we have our next extinction, it will be as a result of human behavior. If this is not collective insanity… If we don’t acknowledge it then we are decreeing our own insanity. We need to understand our personal role in this collective insanity. Suicide and depression are symptoms of our collective conditioned mind. We treat hate to be normal. We treat the psychopathology of our everyday existence as normal. So numb have we become. And so immune have we become to the cruelty that happens every day in the world. 
Allison Kugel: What if you’re an empath, and internalize everything, and you’re in a constant state of feeling the pain of everybody and everything?
 
Deepak Chopra: We can resign ourselves and say the human experiment has failed; that the human species was an interesting idea on behalf of nature’s evolutionary impulse, but it didn’t work. We can resign ourselves and wait for our collective extinction where we just go to the bar and get a drink, which will numb us even more, and which people are doing with drugs and alcohol and other addictions. This is mostly linked to this massive epidemic of suicide and depression. Or, we can do something about it and hope for the best. What I have discovered through careful observation and as a physician, is that when people support each other in anything, and it doesn’t matter what it is, it is healing. When we support each other, the outcome of whatever that condition is that a person is struggling with, it does improve. This is what has led me to the opportunity to create, both, online and real-time communities where people can support each other for a more peaceful, just, sustainable, healthier, and joyful existence. Ultimately, this is the purpose of life, to experience our innate joy. That comes automatically through empathy, which leads to compassion, which then leads to the desire to relieve another person’s suffering.
 
Allison Kugel: For all the empaths out there, including myself, the answer is to not just feel the pain of the world, but to take loving action towards solutions where and when you can.
 
Deepak Chopra: Right, because compassion leads to love, and it leads to love-in-action. Love-in-action leads to healing. Love without action is irrelevant. And action without love is also meaningless. This is an opportunity for us to create a self-sustaining ecosystem where people support each other and help each other. Helping each other is the best way to help ourselves.
 
Allison Kugel: You’re a part of creating the Never Alone movement to provide support communities around the world, which we hope will prevent suicide and help people feel connected to real support systems. How will the Never Alone platform work, and will it be accessible to people of all socioeconomic backgrounds and geographic locations? 
 
Deepak Chopra: Right now, the Never Alone platform will be run by GoFundMe. We are helping create an advisory board for the GoFundMe campaign. Our goal is to create self-sustaining grassroots movements across the world because even in very impoverished parts of the world, people now have access to wireless technology. In wisdom traditions, a healthy community has three things: people dedicated to serving the community; spiritual practice of reflective self-inquiry, and getting together with other people in the community. Today we can do that online, but we can also do that by creating our own localized communities and centers. This is not a Deepak Chopra campaign or anyone’s campaign. It should be a totally grassroots, self-sustaining campaign where we create an ecosystem for helping each other in [times of] distress.

 
Allison Kugel: With the film The Offering that you’ve recently raised funding for, this is not a documentary, correct? This is a work of fiction that is based on real stories about suicide? 
 
Deepak Chopra: The actress Gabriella Wright, her sister was a very accomplished musical artist in Europe who committed suicide at the age of 28 or 29. This is a film for awareness, in which actress Gabriella Wright is playing the role of a mother whose son commits suicide. We hope to use the film as a tool for bringing awareness to this cause, and to the Never Alone movement. When you give facts alone, some people are moved by the facts, like you were moved by the statistics. But by themselves, facts can be very dry. When they are linked to an emotional response, people feel compelled to look at the facts in a different way. We are hoping that The Offering will be a film that will bring some insight to the epidemic of loneliness. The film is only one aspect of this movement. After that, the goal of the Never Alone movement is to encourage other people to produce videos and films, and to share stories to increase awareness and create their own communities both offline and online.
 
Allison Kugel: I have a question that could be construed as controversial, but it’s been on my mind. Over the last 15 to 20 years the veil, so to speak, has been thinning in terms of more people becoming aware that our souls are eternal and that there is a spiritual dimension to which we go on; the concept that we were alive before we got here and we will be alive in spirit when we leave. Do you think this information can be a double-edged sword in the wrong hands, and that people might then see suicide as a viable option because of this? For example, the thought could be, “I don’t want to cease to exist. I just don’t want to be here.” I would hate for that to be the case…
 
Deepak Chopra: I hesitate to answer that because I don’t really know that that’s one of the reasons for the increasing epidemic of suicides. Many people do not have insight into the true nature of their soul. In the past, if you spoke about the soul or the spirit, a lot of people considered themselves scientists and secular, and they would roll their eyes and look away because you’re not talking science. Right now, there’s a big discussion among scientists about what fundamental reality is. Is fundamental reality physical, or is fundamental reality non-perceptual and in the realm of what you and I would call the soul? Scientists are now struggling with a good physical explanation for what we call “consciousness.” There’s no biological explanation for consciousness. Right now, as I’m speaking to you, all that’s going to your brain is an electrical current. You are experiencing the sound of my voice, and not only that, you are interpreting that into meaning. Where is that happening? Science has no idea. So, there are some cutting-edge scientists now that are addressing this. What we call the physical world is an interpretation of perceptual connectivity in our own consciousness. The only thing that is eternal is what you just referred to as the soul, which is not in space or time. It will take a long time for science to catch up to this idea. In the meantime, we have to deal with everyday reality. And some everyday realities, at this moment, are very depressing and it’s our own collective projection. We need to change it. 
Allison Kugel: For somebody who is having suicidal thoughts or feelings, what does it take to bring them back from the brink and to move their energy back into a space of embracing life once again?
 
Deepak Chopra: It takes a loving, compassionate, caring being to be present for them. And that’s all it takes. I think there’s no situation that is so desperate that love and compassion and presence and caring can’t alleviate it, with any kind of desperate situation. But we now need to create the platform for that.
 
Allison Kugel: Have you, yourself, at any point in your life had a suicidal thought or feeling, and if so, how did you work your way out of it? Or has a loved one of yours ever experienced something like that?
 
Deepak Chopra: I have personally never experienced this kind of extreme ideation. But when I was in active practice as an internist and an endocrinologist and emergency room physician, I saw it all the time, several times a day. And then I looked at my own family; cousins, nephews, nieces, uncles, aunts. And I don’t find a single family, including my own, where this type of extreme desperation has not resulted in a suicidal act. From my medical school days to my internship and residency, I have witnessed these kinds of ideations and this kind of outcome of extreme desperation, which we call suicide. It’s never been out of my awareness, not even a single day since I became a medical student. And I do remember also in my early growing up years, becoming aware of relatives in my extended family who have done that, so it’s a daily reminder that we need to do more to alleviate everyone’s suffering. Our own personal happiness is dependent on the happiness of others. In fact, all the data shows that the most effective way to be happy is to make someone else happy. The easiest way to make someone happy is to give them attention, which means to listen to them, not advise them, but listen to them. You don’t try to change another person. It’s hard enough to change yourself when you want to. But if you listen to them and you are there to support them, then they change, especially if you care.

 
Allison Kugel: Let’s touch on your new book, Metahuman. Does the book delve into teaching people to tap into the quantum field?
 
Deepak Chopra: The book is about what is fundamental as opposed to what is a social construct. War, terrorism, socio-economic circumstances, injustice, climate change are all because of false constructs. The falsest construct that human beings have created is that we are separate; the subject and object of experience are two different things. Right now, for example, I believe that I am the subject of this experience and you are the object of this experience. You think you are the subject of the experience and I am the object of the experience. This is an artificial divide. Unfortunately, our science is based on that, so we end up using science for diabolical purposes and ultimately risk our extinction. My book is saying that you should wake up from the dream which has now become a nightmare. And the dream is that we are separate beings. We are actually part of a holistic process and when we embrace that wholeness then we are holy, and we are healed. Wholeness, holy, health and healing go together. Everything you mentioned about mindfulness and meditation, these practices give us that experience of wholeness. When we go beyond our skin-encapsulated ego-identities, that is what the book is about.
  
Deepak Chopra’s book, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential (Harmony Books/Random House), is available wherever books are sold. Learn more about the Never Alone movement at GoFundMe.com/NeverAlone. Follow Deepak Chopra @DeepakChopra and tune in to his podcasts Infinite Potential and Daily Breath for your regular dose of Deepak, wherever podcasts stream.
 
Allison Kugel is a syndicated entertainment columnist, author of the memoir, Journaling Fame: A memoir of a life unhinged and on the record, and owner of communications firm, Full Scale Media. Follow her on Instagram @theallisonkugel and at AllisonKugel.com.
 
Photo Credits: Todd MacMillan, Jeremiah Sullivan, Harmony Books/Random Hous
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Meet The Entrepreneur Behind The Cover Of The August 2021 Issue Of Global Millionaire: Agus Dinata

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A hardworking entrepreneur, Agus Dinata specializes in cryptocurrency and the tech industry. Originally hailing from a humble background, Agus’ parents were strict and disciplined when it came to education. He was always taught to be independent and not to cause any trouble for others. His parents also taught him to live a disciplined life, regularly plan for the future, and always be punctual. He truly believes that he grew up different from other young people because of his parents’ guidance. He didn’t party nor did he play too much when his friends were having the time of their lives. Instead, at the age of 16, he was already business-minded; his entrepreneurial mindset has always been encouraged by his family, especially by his parents who always encouraged him to be an independent person. At the age of 20, he decided to join his parents and help out running their business. It was also at that point when he was also thinking about establishing his own business.

Agus has always been interested in starting a business within the technology space especially something that’s related to web and mobile applications. In 2010, he started getting into cryptocurrency which was very new at that time – most people still did not know what cryptocurrency was. Eventually, he decided to try running a business within the cryptocurrency industry. Without much preparation, he just jumped straight into the crypto world through various companies that at that time, launched crypto-based projects. Then finally in 2019, he initiated a fairly massive business in Indonesia with an established loyal community that consisted of thousands of people. The business was called “Smart Ecosystem,” Agus, along with a group of like-minded entrepreneurs created this smart contract-based ecosystem that in the future can disrupt the technology industry; specifically when it comes to creating utilities that can benefit many people in the long term.

Global Millionaire Magazine recently caught up with Agus to discuss his journey to entrepreneurship and here’s what went down:

What are you currently doing to maintain/grow your business?

Education and internalization of militancy or leadership values are my backbones when it comes to developing a cryptocurrency-based business that opens up opportunities for others to participate in the market and make profits through the affiliate system the I am currently working on, i.e., the “Smart Ecosystem.” The type of business with an underlying asset such as crypto is indeed unique because you could say that marketing or customer acquisition is not the most important part of the business. Similar to many other digital businesses, there are more crucial things to look into such as community management, community education, and project management. With good community management and education, we can create numerous loyal customers which we currently call the cool “Smart Army”, this is a community of people who are loyal to this smart ecosystem business. Besides marketing, we also provide education about crypto fundamentals, DeFi, as well as promote the spirit of leadership to the Smart Army.

Additionally, my team and I constantly develop the business by conducting seminars both online and offline in various cities in Indonesia since 2019. Even though we are currently facing a massive challenge due to the ongoing pandemic in Indonesia, we are still trying to continue to grow by investing in research and development, especially those related to smart contracts and AI (artificial intelligence). Finally, after a very long preparation, we are about to launch the latest sub-products and systems of the Smart Ecosystem, namely: Smart Academy, Smart Living, Smart Utilities, and Smart Wealth. Several sub-products of the Smart Ecosystem have contributed to each other to provide more benefits and income opportunities to the Smart Army.

What social media platforms do you usually use to increase your brand’s awareness?

Twitter and Youtube. They have become the favourite social media for cryptocurrency enthusiasts because on Twitter there are numerous tweets from influential people from all over the world who support the cryptocurrency existence and its development globally. We also frequently use YouTube as a medium for interaction with the community to increase community engagement.

What is your experience with paid advertising, like PPC or sponsored content campaigns? Does it work?

Talking about our experience in using paid advertising, we always do trial and error and various experiments before we determine a paid advertising channel that is suitable for a typical niche market business like ours. In the end, we decided on some of the most suitable paid advertising channels, i.e., advertising through social media such as Twitter, Youtube, and several websites specific to the crypto industry that are frequently visited such as Coinmarketcap, Coinecko, and so on. The impact of paid advertising is huge if we do the right analysis beforehand such as being attentive to the factors of traffic, visitor personality, good copywriting, and one more thing, an eye-catchy animation-based promotional video content, so that makes it easier to deliver marketing content more emotionally and ultimately convert visitors into buyers.

What is your main tactic when it comes to making more people aware of your brand and engaging your customers? How did your business stand out?

Brand awareness and customer engagement are the two most important elements of product management we created. We took several strategic steps to ensure that our brand continues to be the leader in the market even though we are dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. We do cross-selling through the sub-products we launched, and provide additional benefits beyond the main benefits. So that our customers can continue to automatically engage with our business longer while providing them with a platform to gain income through a Smart Ecosystem called Smart Wealth. Smart Wealth is a decentralized platform that allows the Smart Army to contribute to smart token sales and Smart Army licenses. So, we can also make efficient customer acquisition costs due to the very large contribution from the Smart Army. Through these strategies, we firmly believe we can build and continue to maintain brand awareness of the Smart Ecosystem.

What form of marketing has worked well for your business throughout the years?

Marketing by influencers and the affiliate system which is a sub-product of the Smart Ecosystem, namely Smart Wealth, has become the main strategy of our marketing and sales division. Apart from it, we also carry out various marketing strategies such as digital marketing, paid advertising, copywriting, video marketing, and so on.

What is the toughest decision you had to make in the last few months?

The toughest decision I’ve ever made in the last few months was to lay off some staff due to the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It is very hard for us to do this because we have a corporate culture that emphasizes teamwork, collaboration, and mutual understanding on issues between divisions so that we can maintain a very close relationship between colleagues in the company like a family.

What money mistakes have you made along the way that others can learn from (or something you’d do differently)?

A money management mistake I made a few years back before I started my Smart Ecosystem business was that I didn’t realize the importance of portfolio diversification in multi-product financial management. I used to think that some products could be managed through centralized organization and financial management. However, it turns out that this has actually backfired because there is a conflict of interest between the interests of one product and another. It has really been my biggest lesson and I have now diversified a good portfolio of products from the Smart Ecosystem.

What new business would you love to start?

Financial products, such as E-Payment. In fact, I have prepared this for a long time and it is designed as a long-term goal that I can achieve together with the Smart Army community. We design e-wallets like Alipay and Google Pay, but it is backed up directly by one of our tokens, SMT cash. In the future, we will name it Smartpay, the one and only e-wallet with underlying crypto where the underlying SMT cash is designed as an absolute deflationary token or non-inflation-able token.

If you could go back in a time machine to the time when you were just getting started, what would you do differently?

I would have started a Smart Ecosystem business back in 2010! Unfortunately, this brilliant idea came to me in 2019 and it got further improved this year. If I worked on this idea even earlier, its value would be much bigger now.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

In the past, when I first started a business, I was always thinking about how I can increase personal wealth through business. And it affected the business; the business was unable to develop properly and management fell apart. Until one time I got advice from a person (I can’t mention his name) and this person said “Don’t even think about starting a business so you can have a lot of money. Instead, start a business so you can make a difference in people’s lives.” I continue to take this advice to heart up to now so I can be in this position.

What advice would you give to a newbie Entrepreneur setting up their first business?

My advice for newbie entrepreneurs who are starting their business is to never have a mental block when it comes to starting a business and initiating a business based on trends. Expand your relationships, and learn about the industry you’re interested in deeply and seriously. Don’t invest in a business you don’t understand.

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Meet The Man Behind The Cover Of The July 2021 Issue Of Global Millionaire: Kamran Karim

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Kamran Karim is a progressive and result-driven entrepreneur with 13 years of professional experience in mobile app development, software development, and deployment building strategic alliances, branding, product life cycle completion, digital marketing, and internet promotions. He’s an inspirational individual who has been a crucial part of brand development and click monetization projects of several Fortune 500 companies.

He has founded several companies such as Tech Whizards – a global company that provides innovative digital solutions for businesses. He was also the founder of Yacht Rental DXB – a luxury yacht rental company applying Uber’s digital business model for clients to rent yachts and spend time with their friends and their loved ones. On top of that, he is also the founder of Binary Geeks – a software house that provides innovative products for the global market.

Kamran has several exciting upcoming projects under his belt such as a YouTube channel named “She Inspires,” where they will be interviewing women who have gone through struggles and overcame all the obstacles life put them through. He’s also planning to launch another YouTube channel called DefiGeeks which is catered to the Pakistan market where they are planning to post weekly episodes about cryptocurrency and the hype surrounding it. Lastly, he’s also in the process of launching a private jet rental company called Jetify in UAE, where users will be able to follow the Uber business model and rent private jets, similar to their Yacht initiative.

Global Millionaire magazine recently caught up with Kamran to discuss his journey to entrepreneurship and here’s what went down:

Could you please tell our readers a brief background about yourself and how you started in business?

I actually had a humble start in my journey; I belong to a traditional middle-class family but I received good education though because my father was determined to give me a better future. I started working with startups at an early age but it wasn’t until I reached Dubai that I realized that the better future that my father had hoped I would have could be obtained by having my own business rather than by working in a 9 to 5 job.

When did your entrepreneurial flair first reveal itself?

The nascent seeds of entrepreneurship must have always been there for me because honestly, I hated those conventional jobs that I had. I did not think I had the ability to conform, and that problem led me to develop my own thing.

How did your life look like before being an entrepreneur?

Life before being an entrepreneur was “traditional”, “conventional” and in short “unchallenging”. It was simply something every other person could do and was doing, I was cut out for going with the crowd sort of thing.

As an entrepreneur, what is it that motivates and drives you?

Not knowing what is coming next, the challenges that every day throws at me, and also my passion for tech, is a major driving force.

In one word, describe your life as an entrepreneur and explain why.

“Majestic” – yes I will use the word majestic because I am the king of my own world, I make my decisions and I rule over myself (along with own my team).

What were your top three motivations for starting your business?

Well hmm.. let’s see, having your own business enables a person to implement what they always thought should be done, that is a great deal of independence one deals with. The biggest motivation is obviously that you can’t let your business fail, it is like your baby and you never want to fail your child. The third motivator is that having my own business enables me to actualize my vision.

What do you put your success down to?

Persistence, the only word I can use to define the reason for my success. You need to be persistent.

What would you say are the key elements for starting and running a successful business?

Know what you are doing, have a vision, stick to the vision, be persistent, and don’t give up, all big businesses were small once upon a time.

What are the three biggest challenges you have faced growing the business and how did you overcome them?

Finding good employees is a major problem when the business is in its initial stages, I was lucky to have my brother as my support in this regard.

Does the loneliness of the entrepreneur really exist?

Yes and no, if people around you understand and appreciate your vision, then you won’t be lonely but often that is not the case.

As you grew the business, what have been some of the most important leadership lessons you have learned?

Taking the hard decisions like firing someone or shelving an idea; these are the minuscule things that lead you to develop leadership skills. The most important thing I learned was that sometimes, you just can not be soft-hearted, people will take advantage of you and that is not good for your business.

What do you hope to see happen in the near future for small businesses all over the world?

I think the pandemic has made it clear that there is a great future for small businesses around the world, especially in the tech industry.

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Meet The Man Behind The Cover Of The June 2021 Issue Of Global Millionaire: Steven Harold Jorchen

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Steven Harold Jorchen alias “Jorchen Borjigit” is a 36th generation heir of the Borjigin dynasty – a dynasty that was started by Emperor Genghis Khan in the 13th century. He immigrated to the United States in the 90s and with more than 20 years of experience in the USA, he has learned the American way of life. He has been an active member of various American social activities. He is the Chairman of the World Peace Commission, he’s also the CEO of Asia-USA non-profit organization alliances as well as the deputy of the New York Chinese Chamber of Commerce. On September 24, 2015, he held an audience with H.E. President Xi Jinping and other top Chinese politicians and leaders.

Steven has established close cooperative relations with the United States, China, Latin America, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, and he plans to deploy specific cooperation projects related to it. As a community leader and a world social diplomatic activist for many years, his image has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. The fruitful results of his nearly two decades of continuous hard work have given him special influence and appeal in the community. His power is increasingly valuable; along with his prestige, fame, and even his name. Hence the reason why he has such a good relationship with senior Chinese leaders and senior leaders in Russia, West Africa, North Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Furthermore, he has even participated in several banquets and galas held by President Bush, President Clinton, President Obama, as well as President Trump.

Global Millionaire magazine recently caught up with Steven to discuss his life as a 36th generation heir of the Borjigin dynasty and here’s what went down:

Tell us about a time in your life that you wanted something so badly that you were unstoppable in pursuing it. What obstacles did you overcome to get there?

My life was generally easy. I was brought up under the legacy of my family, so my earlier years were pretty much assured by some kind of political arrangement. My main obstacle was to start a life that’s decided on my own terms. You see, my dream was to be a world leader, not just confined by my birth in Kangba (SiChuan), the Chinese Tibetan autonomous region. I think that’s why I gave up my pre-destinated roles in China and came here to New York.

Tell us about a time you experienced what you perceive to be an injustice.

I have opened a museum in the 90s of the Tibetan culture here in New York with a partner. Later, due to the collection of a Tangka that is made of human skin, I was arrested. Tangka is a Tibetan religious relic often preserved to honor the Buddhist deities or Buddha. Often in ancient Tibet, people offer their bodies as a will after death. This is to show their confidence in the Dharma. You see, Tibetans, like the Indians (and unlike the Chinese) have a tradition of leaving human bodies out to be eaten by vultures. And they even hack the bodies to pieces; in some cases remove the skin.

However, the Americans have no understanding of such, and due to cross-cultural ignorance, I was arrested. I think people have to learn more about other people’s cultures. Particularly in the new world. I also think many of these countries have not grasped the old traditions. European cultures are very sophisticated, but the people of the new world have forgotten that, I am quite sure it is the same situation in Australia.

What is the toughest decision you had to make in the last few months?

That’s a good question. In the past few months, I was forced to decide if I still needed to carry on the noble mission of re-establishing the Borjigin legacy. You see, sometimes this can be a tricky endeavor. The DNA offspring of Genghis Khan has amounted to around 16 Million worldwide. But no one has seen this fact as a cultural asset. However, I see there’s a force behind these warrior people. Genghis Khan is known for war, but at the same time, his treatment of the captive women and children was very much mild and compassionate. I see the need of promoting global peace through both women’s and children’s welfare globally. I know there will be political obstacles in my work, in particular some fraction of different egos and interests. But I also know that someone has to do this in order to revive the inner spirit of Genghis Khan. The core of assuring world peace is actually to re-unite the Euro-Asian landscape.

Who is your role model, and why?

I put all my faith in Buddha, the enlightened one. What Buddha taught us was to maintain our own minds with peace and compassion. I mean, how else can we contribute to the world if our own minds are not tamed right?

I see life as a mirage of our own merits. There are certainly injustices and miseries of this world. But a lot of these are caused by our own wrong-doings. Cause and effect is the golden principle of life. In the popular sense, you can call it the law of attraction or whatsoever. You need to cultivate good deeds, so those good things will return to you.

What do you hope to see happen in the near future for small businesses all over the world?

With the rapid technological advances, our ways of life are also changed. The way how we run a business is transformed or you can say unrecognized sometimes for people of my generation. The material success of many nations has reminded us what is important for our future. I see more and more small businesses are now considering the social responsibilities. This means we are now more and more focused on our inner beings. In the new ventures in many places, I see there’s the trend of offering organic products, non-GMO to also assure healthy lifestyles that promote spiritualism. This is very good! I am sure we are entering into a new page of human evolution. That is also why I always stress the culture. We as humans, by the end of the day, need to deal with our inner-self. Culture forms that inner being in many ways.

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Meet Bryan Legend: The Entrepreneur Behind The Cover Of The May 2021 Issue Of The Australian Millionaire

Cryptocurrency veteran, Bryan Legend is an Australian self-made millionaire, entrepreneur, and the founder/CEO of Clever DeFi Pty Ltd.

For the 8 years that Bryan has been in Cryptocurrency, he’s mastered the art and craft to near perfection. An embodiment of strategic planning and execution, he has hit gold in this field with his innate Crypto-oriented mindset, the evidence of which can be seen from the successful start-up companies he has created from scratch, complemented by his estimated net worth of roughly 6.3 million dollars.

With widespread attention from interested parties scattered from around the globe, Bryan’s company, Clever DeFi Pty Ltd, is into Decentralised Finance, and it intends to shake things up in the financial industry. His Decentralised Finance concept though a relatively new concept, has been gradually gathering recognition from various financial institutions.

Broken down for the layman, Bryan’s Clever DeFi is a revolutionary Blockchain Defi Protocol that automatically distributes set interest payments of up to 11% per fortnight to all token holders of Clever Token (CLVA). Simply put, Bryan believes that Clever is the new way to store wealth with a guarantee of a greater interest rate, which apparently trumps the typical interest rates obtainable in the traditional banking system.

Speaking about his creation, Bryan said: “Clever Token (CLVA) is designed to primarily suit anybody who is looking for a safe, reliable place to store wealth at a high yielding interest rate instead of the comparative ‘store money in a general savings bank account’ with practically no interest accruing at all. CLVA also suits any investor looking to start or expand their investment portfolio or even looking to de-risk themselves into a fundamentally sound asset.”

Bryan has been in Cryptocurrency for the past 8 years, with his formative niche in Blockchain where he initially gathered an amazing wealth of experience, before branching to a more Decentralised approach. One of his most admirable qualities is the fact that he walks the talk. “I know full well that both delivery and execution are the two fundamental challenges any business will face. Many companies are promising the world but underdelivering and falling short by not meeting their goals or objectives. I make sure any company I build encompasses a brand image that speaks for itself”, he said.

For the Crypto-inclined, several mechanisms constitute the Clever Protocol; chief among them, the Decentralised Distribution Mechanism or DDM for short which works on a pre-programmed routine cycle schedule over 888 cycles – each cycle lasting 14 days with the very last cycle ending after 34 years. It appears to be an innovative architecture in the financial industry.

Clever DeFi is distinct from other Crypto projects with its CLVA minting starting at Zero supply. This implies that Bryan and his team hold no tokens at all – a relatively new concept in the industry. “CLVA is by far one of the safest tokens to hold as a store of wealth and due to a restricted total supply and forecasted increased demand, the token is sure to prove its worth,” remarked Bryan.

The Australian Millionaire magazine recently caught up with Bryan to discuss his journey to entrepreneurship and here’s what went down:

Why would you recommend Cryptocurrency to a potential investor?

Crypto in general is still in its infancy when looked at from the road ahead and brings with it a fairly new industry tied around Blockchain. For geeks, they love the tech and for investors, well, they love the ability to make money hand over fist during a bull market.

Timing is everything when investing and anyone can make money during a bull market and due to the inherent volatility within the Crypto market, it offers more upside versus traditional assets.

Which Cryptocurrency intrigues you the most?

There is an astonishing number of different Cryptocurrencies available to pick from, most of which being scams, unfortunately. The way to navigate the Crypto waters is to always do due diligence yourself and never just jump in blindly without knowing every nook of detail behind the project you’re investing in.

With any investment there are risks and the bigger the risk, the more potential there is for your investment to be returned to you multiple times over. One of the less risky but sustainable Cryptocurrencies right now in my opinion is Clever DeFi (CLVA) which delivers guaranteed interest payments every fortnight and is an easy choice for investors to watch their money grow without anything else needed.

What’s the biggest scam you’ve ever heard of in the Cryptocurrency World?

Probably the most well-known scam was released back in 2016 which was called Bitconnect that was an illegal financial Ponzi Pyramid Scheme that eventually collapsed and stole over 250 million from investors.

For anyone interested in Cryptocurrency – can you provide a checklist to follow?

Only invest what you are prepared to lose. The Cryptocurrency industry is unforgiving and most have to learn the hard way. Do not get drawn into FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) as this is a sure way of losing money by buying at the top of an already saturated asset. Only invest in solid projects with fundamentals that can be shown and proven. If it sounds too good to be true, 99.99% of the time it most certainly is.

What is Clever DeFi? Can you tell us more about it?

Clever DeFi is a Decentralized Finance Protocol that distributes automatic interest payments to all native CLVA Cryptocurrency holders on a pre-programmed routine cycle schedule over 888 fortnightly cycles taking exactly 34.15 years to complete.

The Clever protocol was designed, deployed, and implemented over many months in the making since its release last year in 2020, and as such it is the protocol itself which given Clever DeFi it’s underlying value. All an investor needs to do is buy and hold the CLVA asset to be paid interest payments guaranteed of up to 11% each fortnight.

What would you suggest to people interested in trading in Cryptocurrency but whose country does not support Cryptocurrency yet?

First of all, I do not condone illegal activities or in any way shape or form encourage people to go against their country’s restrictions or governmental policies. With this being said, people have been known to circumvent the system by using VPN software to conceal their IP location which allows them to use Cryptocurrency exchanges that do not require personal information about the individual.

This is probably the easiest way to go but on the other side of the coin, if you are using any Cryptocurrency exchange that does not require KYC information from you as a client, this in my eyes throws caution to the wind as a very risky play indeed.

What are some of the biggest challenges that lie ahead for the Cryptocurrency world?

Mass adoption and Regulation with both of these things being quite tied to each other. In order for mass adoption to be achieved on a global scale, there needs to be protection in place for the people and policies in place to prevent illegal market activities from taking place through regulative bodies in order for the large institutional money to enter into the space.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

That’s a tough one indeed. I am sure that most of us being asked that very question would have a vague idea at best although the best way to answer it would be from a directional perspective. The direction am I following is to capitalise on industry trends over the coming years ahead and of course this will mean staying part of the Cryptocurrency scene in a big way. My goal over the next 5 years is to make as many millionaires as possible within Crypto and I will be following the industry closely with the progress it makes in order to make my goal a reality.

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Meet The Man Behind The Cover Of The May 2021 Issue Of Global Millionaire: The Incredible Bryan Legend


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Bryan Legend quit school at the age of 20. Yet today, at the age of 37, despite quitting school at an early age, he still ended up becoming an inspiring self-made millionaire. His against-the-odds persistence enabled him to make a name for himself in the Cryptocurrency sector and beyond. Starting with Blockchain, which he studied for years, learning the fundamentals of it, he was able to master the art and craft of Cryptocurrency to near perfection. This culminated in the versatile entrepreneur climbing the ladder up to becoming an expert in that niche – with the creation of Clever DeFi, showing the results of his hard work.

One of the potential benefits of a short-long term investment strategy is portfolio diversification. This is a concept that Bryan understands very well. His first stint in the entrepreneurial sector was back in his marketing days. Today, with this concept of short-long investment strategy, Bryan’s success can be seen through the number of tentacles his brand is spread to, among which are online marketing ventures, becoming a pioneer in SEO, SMM, and SEM. Not to mention there’s also TWILX; a digital advertising firm he created from scratch. Then, of course, there’s Clever DeFi, which he believes is the future of financial investment.

Bryan is also a firm believer in branding, a concept on which his business success is built upon. He believes that the way people perceive your company is a direct reflection of how they will engage with you.

The person without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder. According to Rick Warren, the greatest tragedy in life is not death but life without purpose. Bryan seemed to take this quote to heart, for, in his early twenties, he discovered he was a gifted negotiator. Right there and then, he realised that his purpose lies in the business world. He subsequently developed his skill set in business negotiations, which would later pave way for him as he reached his way to the apex of the business world.

Global Millionaire magazine recently caught up with the inspirational Bryan Legend to discuss his journey to entrepreneurship and here’s what went down:

Can you please tell us something about yourself and what your business is all about?

I am a born entrepreneur and I have a passion for making a difference in business, namely in the Cryptocurrency space by introducing fresh ideas and concepts to the market in order to help and evolve the industry as a whole.

Clever DeFi is a Fintech company primarily focused on delivering decentralized finance applications within the Cryptocurrency industry. It supports a second choice for those who do not trust traditional banks, nor like the fact that they are receiving a complete cop-out toward extremely low-interest payments on their capital. The versa is to hold CLVA Cryptocurrency which delivers a much higher competitive interest yield.

When did your entrepreneurial flair first reveal itself?

In my school years, I never found myself compelled to learn and instead saw myself just breezing aimlessly without care to study at all. After dropping out 3 years before year 12 graduation, I entered the labour workforce and then progressed into sales where it did not take me long to work out that the blue-collar lifestyle was not for me and that I needed to get out of the rat race.

This is where I began to take deeper interests into self-development and knew wholeheartedly that the only way to get ahead is to do things myself without relying on anyone else, nor working for anybody else. I chose to learn the basics of business and expand my skill set through a hands-on approach combined with true hunger and determination to break through the resistance barrier.

Through years of persistence and numerous successful small internet e-commerce business startups I founded, I gained more knowledge and learned from mistakes made. I turned this into a cocktail for success by always going one step up with every new business I headed up. The world of Cryptocurrency presented itself to me as a fantastic opportunity to be a part of as I recognised there to be a lot of untapped possibilities.

As an entrepreneur, what is it that motivates and drives you?

What motivates and drives me is the attainment of a new goal through my persistence, tenacity, and focus on what needs to be done to meet my objectives. I treat any startup business I have started as a new birth coming to life that needs to be nurtured until it is strong enough to work on its own. Just like Elon Musk, I don’t let one-second pass by where I am not thinking about ways to improve, and as such, I believe personal growth, as well as the growth of a company or business, is a continued effort. One word I would describe life as an entrepreneur is “freedom.”

What were your top three motivations for starting your business?

1) The desire to solve the problem of low-interest rates for consumers paid by traditional banks for savings accounts.

2) The knowledge of how Blockchain can be used in order to facilitate this.

3) Confidence in my own abilities to be able to deliver to market what is promised.

What do you put your success down to?

The ‘never give up and hard work’ angle may seem cliché but it holds true time and time again for all accomplished individuals in any industry of business. Nothing comes from nothing so what you get out of something is in direct proportion to what you put into it. The more time and energy you spend on improving your idea or business, the more success you will benefit from it in the long run. There is no secret to success other than completing the actions required in order to achieve your entrepreneurial vision or personal goal.

What would you say are the key elements for starting and running a successful business?

Solving an actual need though adds a unique value proposition that your business offers by focusing on your customers’ interests first and of course securing ongoing revenue streams with an effective cost structure and strong marketing initiatives and reward system.

What do you hope to see happen in the near future for Cryptocurrencies all over the world?

I personally believe we are nearing the tail end of a current bull market with the end more than likely aiming to take place at the end of the year. With this being said, there is much hype and foolish money entering the market from retail investors who really have no clue about what they are actually buying at all. They are new to Crypto and just go with the Fomo crowd. There can be money to made in the interim but for seasoned veterans that have been through these cycles, it will more than likely end in tears for most that are not smart enough to know when to get out before losing it all in over-hyped risky altcoins.

What I would like to see happen is the complete disbandment of all those scam projects and Cryptocurrencies with no use case or utility behind them to disappear and clear up the way for the actual legitimate ones to stand tall. There is way too much money being “invested” into Cryptocurrencies right now like Dogecoin which was created as just a meme without any fundamentals or development. We need to see useless Cryptocurrencies leave the space for good.

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Meet The Man Behind The Cover Of The April 2021 Issue Of Global Millionaire: Mohanad Alwadiya – The Wolf of Dubai Real Estate


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Mohanad Alwadiya is the founder of Harbor Real Estate Dubai and is considered by many as one of the property industry’s most dynamic practitioners. He is an award-winning real estate professional and entrepreneur who, as the CEO of Harbor Real Estate, has set new standards in providing real estate investment and management solutions to Harbor’s clients, and has led to Harbor Real Estate’s winning the highly-coveted title of “Best Agency for Property Management” in the Property Times People’s Choice Awards 2015.

Mohanad’s achievements have emanated from his success in developing the industry-leading capabilities of Harbor, resulting in exceptional results for the multibillion dirham portfolios held by clients such as National Bonds Corporation, Investment Corporation of Dubai, Al Thani Investments, Daman Investments, Tadhamon Islamic Bank, Amlak Finance and Global Investment & Development.

Mohanad is also considered to be one of the most candid, insightful, and eloquent commentators in the UAE property market, whose extensive experience makes him a reliable industry resource. He is renowned for his professionalism, incisive analyses, and astute observations.

Global Millionaire recently caught up with Mohanad to discuss his journey as an entrepreneur and here’s what went down:

Could you please tell our readers a brief background about yourself and how you started your business?

I am fortunate and thankful to have grown up in the UAE, a land of boundless opportunities. People talk about the American dream. Well, I have lived the UAE dream.

I guess I realized what my personal possibilities and opportunities were when I was completing my Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a double concentration in Marketing and Advertising from the American University in Dubai. I remember those days very well because I really felt that the world was truly at my feet.

I started my career at Leo Burnett, a Chicago-based multinational marketing services group of companies with offices throughout the Middle East and I’m proud to say that I became the most-awarded Communications Director during my seven years there. This period of my career really prepared me for success because of the vast amount of learning that I received from, not only the Leo Burnett organization, but also from the excellent clients from various industries that it was my pleasure to work with. Those were happy times!

However, having descended from a real estate family, I soon realized that my passion was real estate so I launched my real estate journey and was soon Head of the Projects Marketing and Sales Division for the global real estate arm of Dubai Holdings. Once again, the knowledge that I absorbed and the experience I gained from being part of this great organization really gave me the confidence to start my own business launched as Harbor Real Estate Dubai.

Over the last 20 years, I have also obtained a master’s degree in property management from the University of Salford, published two books about real estate and one of them became the best-selling book in the Middle East, and hosted the top-rated radio and reality-TV property shows in the Arab World.

What are you currently doing to maintain/grow your business? 

I won’t bore you with a dissertation of the global economic carnage that COVID-19 created but in March of 2020, our initial objective was pretty basic … to survive in an environment with a set of dire circumstances that nobody in the industry had witnessed before!

We quickly realized that everybody was in the same boat and, in order to survive, we needed to maintain our competitive edge in the area of customer satisfaction. We knew our clients would require our assistance and that any recession, whether generated by a pandemic such as COVID-19 or by a financial crisis such as that in 2008, is all about being able to survive. It was tough and there were many sleepless nights during this period.

At Harbor Real Estate, we currently manage real estate portfolios with a total value of around AED 14.8 billion. So, there are lots of clients with lots of money invested that are relying on us. We take this responsibility very seriously indeed.

Obviously, we needed to adapt. This required a brutally honest assessment of our capabilities as individuals and the capability of Harbor Real Estate to continue to provide the services that our clients required during a pandemic and resulting economic turmoil on a global scale.

Thankfully, the country’s leaders showed great wisdom and resolve to enable businesses such as Harbor Real Estate to navigate their way through a very awkward period.

We realized early on that needed to make sense of the chaos and we determined that we required new solutions to meet new challenges and I think this is the greatest lesson that we learned at Harbor Real Estate during the Global Financial Crisis. Innovation and the ability to learn relevant to circumstances will always prevail regardless of what the circumstances are. This is the first time any of us had experienced a globally crippling pandemic and our experience, innovation and adaptability allowed us to keep serving our clients.

I recall the executive team discussing the Great Depression of 1929 whereby the first mistake that many companies made was to downsize their client servicing workforce. This action essentially compounded their problems because it affected service delivery and strangled revenue generation. This was one thing that we at Harbor Real Estate refused to do and during the course of the pandemic, we have actually grown our workforce by 38% and consequently managed to grow the portfolios we manage by more than 30%.

On the cost side, it was important to modify the business to reflect a more variable cost structure. Fortunately, we had always been conscious of overheads, particularly those that were fixed in nature and re-structuring the business to minimize those fixed costs was not too difficult to achieve. So, the focus was really on revenue generation complemented by realistic cost control measures designed to enhance productivity, not strangle operations.

Finally, it was about people. To develop and maintain a competitive edge any business must have a team dedicated to providing the best they possibly can for their clients. This includes not just generating the solutions but executing and delivering on promises as well. Harbor’s success can be attributed directly to the efforts of its people and I am so thankful to the Harbor Real Estate Team for their resilience and commitment during this difficult period.

What social media platforms do you usually use to increase your brand’s awareness? 

I am active on all the key social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Tiktok, Linkedin, and Youtube. I’m glad that my efforts in producing relevant content for my followers consistently have paid off and today I have over 2.5M followers across my official verified social media accounts.

What is your experience with paid advertising, like PPC or sponsored content campaigns? Does it work? 

There are so many variables that must be considered to determine whether a particular advertising approach is successful or not. What works for one organization will be totally different from what works for another organization. There are no set formulae for success.

At Harbor Real Estate, we believe that to really get to know our brand, you must meet it face to face. That’s why, in addition to my social media platforms and attendance at a wide variety of live seminars and conferences, we introduced the television program MEMAAR.

MEMAAR was the first-of-its-kind property reality TV show in the Middle East. The show is broadcasted exclusively on Dubai TV, part of the Dubai Media Incorporated and viewers can also follow the show online through awaan.ae.

The show was created to provide insights into the machinations of Dubai’s Real Estate industry in an entertaining yet informative way. We all know that Dubai is a preferred Real Estate investment destination with celebrities, successful entrepreneurs and the business elite from all over the world. The show allows the average viewer to appreciate the considerations, opportunities, and eventual decisions required to make a sound and lucrative purchase as the journey from the initial idea or need to the eventual purchase is captured on film and presented to the viewer in an engaging and entertaining format.

Even though the show features celebrities or high net worth individuals, it is interesting to note that many of the challenges and concerns that arise and are dealt with on the show are shared and relevant to the everyday property investor as well, whether they are a potential owner occupier or landlord in the making.

What is your main tactic when it comes to making more people aware of your brand? How did your business stand out? 

It’s all about credibility, consistency, and constancy. My favorite 3 C’s.

I have said many times that I believe my value as a professional who has built a strong communication platform is in the field of Real Estate. I am not going to profess to be an expert on cars or fashion. That would not be credible.

In addition, I must be consistent. There are principles that I conduct my business by and I must abide by them at all times. I must be consistent in that what I recommend to people is based upon my best judgment, not what I believe my audience wants to hear.

And I strive to be ubiquitous or omnipresent. I want to be there when my clients or potential clients need me. I will not be a friend only for the good times, but I will be with you during the bad times as well. In this way, constancy will enhance my credibility and consistency.

What form of marketing has worked well for your business throughout the years? 

Digital marketing including social media would be the obvious answer, but satisfying my clients and having them be advocates for Harbor Real Estate is by far the most valuable marketing medium that I have ever invested in.

What is the toughest decision you had to make in the last few months? 

Surprisingly, there haven’t been any particularly tough decisions. There have been many decisions and many challenges but, with great support from the executive team, decisions have been relatively straightforward once we applied logic and common sense.

What money mistakes have you made along the way that others can learn from (or something you’d do differently)? 

The biggest mistake I made regarding money in the early days was actually worrying too much about money. This can be debilitating and stop you from thinking creatively and logically.

Put simply, if you fully focus on understanding the problem, identifying the right solution, and implementing it properly, the money will take care of itself.

What new business would you love to start? 

I’m so in love with real estate which is why I’m always investing and expanding across various geographies and asset classes in the field of real estate. On the other hand, given the major improvement in technology that the world is witnessing, I have been investing in tech companies and I’m in the process of launching a real estate focused Fintech firm.

 If you could go back in a time machine to the time when you were just getting started, what would you do differently? 

SLOW DOWN! I know it sounds strange but the overwhelming urge when I started out was that everything had to be done in the next hour!

With experience, you realize that every issue, challenge, or roadblock needs to be carefully considered and there is usually time to do that. Sometimes, to ’sleep on an issue’ resulted in much better solutions.

Also, I learned very quickly to explore multiple solutions to a problem. There will always be a logical ‘first’ solution. I learned with experience to try and come up with multiple solutions and either choose the best or see if a hybrid solution might work better.

 What is the best advice you have ever been given? 

Listen actively. If you are talking, you are not listening.

Empathy is key in my business. If people are looking to me for leadership or counsel, I must truly understand them and their situation. I can only do this if I listen actively.

 What advice would you give to a newbie Entrepreneur setting up their first business?

The most important thing to do as a young entrepreneur is to be yourself.

Be yourself and be confident with who you are and what you can achieve. I believe that every entrepreneur must develop his or her own style to be consistent with who they are as a person and what they stand for. It’s virtually impossible to copy or emulate somebody else and maintain your credibility over the medium or long term. People are generally very astute at detecting someone who is not genuine.

I try to learn continuously. No person, entrepreneur or otherwise, is the encyclopedia of all subjects. I can learn from anybody as long as I am willing to. While I try to learn from others around the world, I recognize that the true assessors of my capability and success are my clients. It is their opinion that really counts.

Of course, there are fundamental personality traits and behaviors which must always be observed … honesty, transparency, consistency, good communication skills. But I still maintain that being yourself is your biggest asset.

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Meet The Man Behind The Cover Of The February 2021 Issue Of The Global Millionaire: Dr. DL Wallace

Dr. DL Wallace is the CEO and Founder of SimplySuccess.com (aka Success Training Institute), which is an Education Technology that offers professionals from all walks of life the ability to learn and earn with its mobile-friendly training platform. The company offers certification courses in numerous core business competencies known as “soft skills”; which current trends show are most critical to business success.

Leadership, team building, sales, conflict resolution, and overcoming adversity are just a few of the courses designed to boost social, emotional, and workplace effectiveness. The subscription-based membership also allows professionals to earn money by referring the corporate services of Simply Success to business leaders in their respective networks. In addition, paying subscribers can activate scholarships for the less fortunate simply by completing the online certification programs. This cause-based approach to training allows each customer to contribute to the advancement of those in need.

Global Millionaire magazine recently caught up with Dr. DL Wallace to discuss his journey as an entrepreneur and here’s what went down:

1. Could you please tell our readers about your background and about your motivation for launching your business?

I started my first business venture as a junior in college at Baylor University. This is when I discovered my passion for innovation, leadership, and entrepreneurship. After college, I excelled in Corporate America and was blessed to retire at the age of 32. This led me back to my early passions for developing great business enterprises.

Being fascinated by technology, I wanted to create online tools to empower the masses with the skills you don’t learn in college. I wanted to bridge the gap for business-minded professionals with on-demand training that actually produced the desired results. This led to the development of Simplysuccess.com; which allows people from all walks of life to gain certifications that boost their resumes, earnings potential, and entrepreneurial opportunities. Today, our company has a presence in multiple countries across four continents.

2. What makes your business model unique?

It’s our focus on philanthropy. We are the only company in the Education Technology space that offers a one-to-one match with our educational and training products. This means when our paying customers earn certifications through our online platform, we donate training scholarships to those less fortunate.

Here’s the impact of the model: As our customers are growing personally and professionally by earning certifications in Leadership, Sales, Team Building, Conflict Resolution, and more, they are automatically empowering at-risk teens, victims of domestic violence, single parents living in poverty, disabled veterans and other members of society who would not otherwise be able to afford this type of training.

3. Can you describe your typical client?

We serve both corporate and retail clients. Our typical corporate clients include school districts, colleges and universities, and companies looking to improve retention and productivity. We work with all types of corporate clients because every organization needs quality training programs that are customized to suit specific needs.

Our retail clients include a variety of business professionals who are looking to both boost their skills and earn extra money. We have a program that allows them to earn commissions by referring corporate clients. It’s very popular because it encourages them to turn their contacts into contracts. Our retail clients can even enroll in programs to become certified trainers within our network; which allows them to earn money by training for us in live and online settings. This program alone helps us attract professionals from all backgrounds and industries.

4. How has the global pandemic impacted your company?

Being an online Ed Tech company, our business has thrived like never before during the pandemic. We offer Virtual Internship Programs for college students seeking work experience, mobile-friendly training business professionals and everything we do is online. Therefore, the demand for our services is at an all-time high.

Most of the world has been forced to make a major shift in their approach to doing business in order to ensure the health and safety of their employees and clients. Our company is helping usher in this new era of online training and development. People are now seeing the power, convenience, and effectiveness of learning and earning remotely and our company is definitely benefiting.

5. What business achievements do you cherish most?

First, is our customer satisfaction rate because business is all about managing the customer experience. Over 97 percent of our clients rate their experience with Simply Success as exceptional. That means a lot to me. It shows that our products, processes, and personnel consistently exceed customer expectations.

Next, would be the development of the SIPS Instructional Method. This is a process we pioneered and perfected. It’s the art of delivering impactful, video-based training in 8 minutes or less. People want to grow professionally but don’t have time for hour-long webinars and boring presentations. They need power-packed, high energy training segments that complement rather than compete with their busy lifestyles. Our training method accomplishes that and much more. It’s one of the reasons our programs are so popular.

Last and certainly not least, it’s the people we’ve been able to help through our Global Success Initiative. This is where we provide training scholarships to those in need. Sometimes, we hear back from the recipients and they tell us how the access to our training helped them get a better job or a promotion. In other cases, we hear how our training programs have boosted their confidence or helped them become better parents. I’m always encouraged to know we’re making such a difference in the world.

6. What is your most valuable personality trait and why is it so important to your success?

That’s easy! Creativity. In business, it’s important to stay on the cutting edge. New ideas, new process and always improving is critical. Everyone has been blessed with creativity but not everyone uses it. For me, ideas don’t leave my head until I act on them. By implementing rather than just talking about great ideas, our company stays ahead of the pack.

7. As a business leader, how would you like to be remembered and why?

My goal has always been to help make the lives of people better. I enjoy being an agent for change. Our company was designed to help people achieve success because success makes people feel better about themselves. I’d like to be regarded as a leader who brings out the best in everyone I meet and in everyone who experiences our services.

8. Who are your role models/mentors and how have they helped you succeed in business?

I’ve had the privilege of exceptional professional mentorship and have been fortunate to interact with some of the world’s wealthiest and most successful business leaders. However, there has never been a role model that has made a greater impact on me than my parents. My father and mother gave me all the love, support, guidance, and preparation needed to prepare me for success in life. Their profound influence on me can be seen in every aspect of my life. I thank GOD for blessing me with the best parents on the planet!

My work ethic, patience, and focus are all attributes I learned from my dad. Attention to detail, commitment and drive to help others are just a few of the traits I learned from my mother. They both made sure I was grounded spiritually, taught me the importance of character and integrity, and never discouraged my big dreams and aspirations. Most people don’t realize the magnitude of being raised by exceptional parents. It impacts everything, including business success. They cultivated my confidence and provided the environment that allowed me to reach my full potential and I’m forever grateful.

9. What is the most important advice you could give to an aspiring entrepreneur?

This one is easy. Become great at doing what you love. We all have something we were born to do. However, most professionals chase money by doing things they don’t love; not realizing they could make far more money by focusing on their passions, their gifts, and their unique talents. Some would call this risky but it’s gratifying. The bigger risk is neglecting your true talents and wasting time doing things that don’t inspire you. Entrepreneurs need one-track minds to succeed and if you’re going to think about one thing, it may as well be the thing you love most.

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Meet The Man Behind The Cover Of The January 2021 Issue Of The Australian Millionaire: Justin Wang

Justin Wang built PIA (Property Investors Alliance) at the time where he realized the profitability of the Sydney residential property. His considerable charisma would go on to spearhead a veritable empire of altruistic financial freedom.

Wang associates his accomplishments with always insisting upon his dream, despite his humble origins. He credits his grandmother with instilling the crucial discipline for fostering his innate abilities. His upbringing was greatly influenced by Chinese tradition.

It was this fortuitous and fruitful approach – of understanding the process of giving and receiving – that would prove to be of great importance in Wang’s professional life. When Wang became a teacher, he noticed his colleagues struggling with money concerns. It was here that he found a way to ‘give back’ and to ‘find his calling’ – all in the one serendipitous instance. He was able to align his spirit of collaboration with his skill for finance to ‘break the mould’.

Wang explains that only ‘a few people work for fun’ whilst most work ‘for the bread and butter – for survival’. Luckily, in his lifetime he was able to transcend a mediocre existence for one that met loftier goals – but, it was an experience that was not without its fair share of trials and tribulations.

He resigned from being a high school teacher and he decided to try something else and that’s when he eventually came to Australia – because he wanted to achieve financial freedom. However, he found it very difficult at first to make money in Australia, even though the income is higher in Australia than in China, he could still only save a few dollars.

He quickly found a way to remedy the situation. This was how PIA was born. Wang, once more, credits the realization of his dreams to his two-fold approach to prosperity: invest in a business and then advise others to do so. He feels that if he didn’t do that, he probably would not have achieved so big a portfolio as he currently holds today.

For Wang, the priority of a business owner always lies with the stakeholder/s. This includes all parties to the arrangement, as well as the interests of society as a whole. This holistic approach is the cornerstone of Wang’s success, and functions as a valuable lesson in entrepreneurial tactics.

Justin Wang is the embodiment of the self-made businessperson. From unassuming beginnings to life as a property magnate – he now personifies the paradigm for financial freedom. It always comes down to abundance as generated by collaboration. The Millionaire magazine recently caught up with Justin to discuss his journey to entrepreneurship and here’s what went down:

Could you please give us a brief background about yourself and how you became an entrepreneur?

I actually arrived in Australia back in 1993, before that I used to be a high school teacher in China. When I first arrived in Australia, life was very tough. I worked in restaurants, in manufacturing as well as in sales to get by – it was a struggle. I was earning around $30,000 a year at the time and I felt that I needed to earn more if I wanted to eventually achieve financial freedom. Australia is a rich and developed country compared to China so my plan was to come to Australia, make good money then retire in China forever and enjoy my life. I started the business back in 2005, at the time, the market took a downturn so many people believed that buying a property is no longer a good investment. But then based on my research and experience of buying my first property back in 1996 and then a few more properties later on – the experience taught me that investing in Sydney residential property is always a good move. So in 2005, I started to publicly promote my concept – the PIA concept to encourage other people to continue to invest in Sydney properties. The main reason I started my business is because I believed that everyone needs to find a way to achieve financial freedom. The second reason is because I truly believe Sydney properties is one of the best assets/investments that can help you achieve this goal. The third reason is because as an investor, I felt that I should share my knowledge and understanding. So in fact, I actually built PIA for other people’s benefit – to help people.

Photo Credit: Pedro Virgil

Can you tell us more about your business?

As you know, my business is called PIA (The Property Investors Alliance). When I first started the business, my biggest frustration was that I found the property industry in Australia was very backwards. When I say backwards, I’m talking about the structure. Normally the economy is market-driven; but for the Australian industry, it’s somehow product-driven. The developer would pay millions of dollars to build apartments but then they have to find a way to find buyers as well as establish a distribution channel. Traditionally in this industry, the purchaser/buyer doesn’t trust the agent, and the agent doesn’t trust the developer either. So I decided to build a system of buyer-agent -builder integration to establish trust within all parties involved. That’s the PIA business model, I built one platform to promote the PIA investment concept. Then I recruited a lot of young, energetic people to become sales agents. Our sales agents are different from the traditional real estate agents though. The traditional real estate agents’ approach to selling properties is to bring people to the showroom once there’s a vacancy, put out an ad somewhere, and wait for people to come. Our tactic is different; I’ve instructed my sales agents to go out there and mingle with people – educate them, and explain to them that buying a property is not just about buying a home, it’s also about wealth creation – it’s about your future retirement. I’ve also instructed my team to help people to address any concerns and train them to become professional investors. Once we’ve got clients then we can create demand and then we can present this demand to certain developers who will then partner with us. So the PIA sales agent’s job is not to sell properties like a typical real estate agent, but instead, provide education, service and create demand – that’s our main business model.

What are you currently doing to maintain/grow your business especially in this pandemic?

As we all know, this pandemic has caused major damage to the Australian economy as well as the property industry. Luckily, my company is not a typical company, PIA is more of a platform – an effective and efficient platform. So even during the pandemic, we still had a very healthy cash flow. Even in this current market, we have not lost our staff because our sales team is confident with the future of the industry. Our sales team is still actively seeking people and contacting people. We also have a very strong client base. Typically, new buyers have no confidence in this market. But the good thing is, our clients understand our concept so they have no fear of investing despite the pandemic and in fact, many of our clients have been continually taking advantage of this new market and buying more properties.

Photo Credit: Pedro Virgil

Why do you think investing in property is the best and most efficient way to become financially free?

This is a very good question. Personally, all my wealth is in Sydney residential properties. I’ve never had any interest in shares, I’ve never bought shares – this is just my personal opinion, by the way, I’m not providing financial advice. So why do I like property? The first reason is because property is real – it’s something you can touch and control under your name. It’s not like other investments that you can’t control. The second reason is, Sydney residential property is quite unique – it’s not affected by the state of the economy, instead, it’s driven by the true demand which is population growth. Even if you check the history of the Australian property market, the state of the economy can go up and down, and the interest can vary from high to low and vice versa but the value of Sydney properties and rental income will always go up. The population of this city always keeps going up, so as an investor, you’re a winner. The third reason is if you want to invest in other investments you need money upfront, while in this investment model you can actually borrow money from the bank to start your investment journey so you’re not taking money out of your own pockets. Even if you get rich from your business or investing in the share market, you still need to invest your money in the right asset – and for us, it’s always going to be Sydney residential properties.

Here are 3 reasons why:

1. Ownership: For most assets, there’s no guarantee of ownership which is very dangerous.

2. Passive income: Rent is a very good and stable passive income even in today’s economy.

3. Value: You need an investment where the value continues to appreciate. Sydney residential properties have proven time and time again that its value is always increasing.

What is your main tactic when it comes to making more people aware of your brand and engaging your customers?

Actually, I’ve never had a marketing strategy for PIA. I’m like a farmer, I’m happy to plant the seed and watch the tree grow from the seeds. Word of mouth is our main marketing tactic. The PIA brand has always been about word of mouth and customer satisfaction. Many people probably aren’t aware that PIA is such a significant business, we have thousands of investors, we have a massive office, we invest billions of dollars each year and we manage 6,000 to 7,000 properties annually.

What is the most difficult part of your business?

The world keeps changing too fast. That’s probably the biggest challenge for us because the client we’re facing now is a completely different client from 15 years ago.

Photo Credit: Pedro Virgil

Have you ever thought about writing a book?

Yes, of course. My background is Chinese literature. Actually, my original dream was to gain financial freedom then afterward write a book and become a professional author. Of course, I’m currently too busy with the PIA business, but eventually, I want to finish a book about my investment concept.

What do you usually do in your spare time if you’re not working on your business?

My life is very simple. My hobbies are reading and writing Chinese calligraphy and practicing traditional Tai Chi.

What advice would you give to a potential investor?

Buying or renting a property is not about buying a home – it’s whether or not you can continue living in this beautiful city in the future. Because we have an aging population – therefore, the demand for property will always be increasing but the land availability in the city will keep decreasing. Eventually, it would be almost impossible to afford rent in the city. Hence, you need to buy a property now before it’s too late.

What advice would you give to a newbie Entrepreneur setting up their first business?

So many people want to start a business because they want to make money. But before you even think about making money, you need to think about what you’re going to do for our society. You need to identify people’s needs first. If you find that there are problems in the society, the market, or a certain industry and you can find the solution to fix their problems, your business will definitely be successful. The money will always come to you as long as you think about other people’s needs first.

Photo Credit: Pedro Virgil

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Meet The Entrepreneur Behind The Cover Of The January 2021 Issue Of Global Millionaire: Armand Peri

Photographed by: Macrae Marran

Styled by: Jeffrey Ampratwum 

American serial entrepreneur and CEO of New Age Public Relations Agency, Armand Peri, is set to release a new book titled “The Mindset of Success”, which will serve as a sort of sequel to his previous book “Unparalleled Success”, published in 2019, which shares the steps he took to breakthrough as an entrepreneur.

In this book, set to be launched in 2021, Armand speaks about his core thoughts for people that want business and personal success. Armand has walked the walk. He’s an authority and reputable resource personnel on creating entrepreneurial success. “Success is a long game. It’s the result of years and years of hard work and dedication. It’s a continuous effort never to lose focus and always keep a disciplined mindset. I started my company, Hunk-O-Mania, because I saw a market demand and a better way to do business. Growing the business into 19 locations and a dominant brand wasn’t luck. It involved investing the time in myself and the business”, Armand Peri said.

English writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley once said that “there’s only one corner of the Universe you can be certain of improving and that’s yourself”. Armand Peri shares a similar thought pattern. In this book, he shares tips on personal development apropos to entrepreneurial success. He also revealed proven systems based on years of experience complemented by mind-blowing secrets to creating impact in whatever business one wishes to venture into.

In an eye-opening excerpt from the book, Armand teaches that part of learning a business is developing a keen understanding of the average customer’s wants. “They’re looking for a product or experience that fulfills a certain need. Do you know how to present something that exceeds those needs? Successful entrepreneurs not only understand the customer pain points and journey but know how to respond,” he wrote.

Armand Peri is one of the world’s best experts on success and personal development. He believes that business and personal success is a fun and rewarding journey. The accomplished investor, artist, author, motivational speaker, and social media strategist has expanded his business empire nationwide, including Atlantic City, Chicago, Miami, Boston, and a host of other cities.

The Global Millionaire Magazine recently caught up with Armand to discuss his book and here’s what went down:

Can you please tell us about yourself and how you got started writing your book?

My name is Armand Peri, I am a former national champion bodybuilder, artist, and entrepreneur. The purpose of writing my book was to give back to society and inspire someone to awaken their inner power and purpose.

What is the most difficult part of your writing process?

Just taking time out from my businesses to actually do it!

Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want? Always be original.

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

Don’t waste any time, stay focused, I wish I had decided what I wanted to do with my life sooner!

What topics do you love writing about?

I love to write about self-help and self-improvement subjects.

What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? When I was doing sales.

How many published and half-finished books do you have? So far just one published book.

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Can you tell us more about your latest book?

It’s a book about the power of positive thinking. You don’t need to have been born under a lucky star, or with incredible wealth, or with great contacts and connections, or even special skills… but what you do need to succeed in any of your life goals is self-discipline. Unfortunately, most people give in to the two worst enemies of success: they take the path of less resistance (in other words, they’re lazy) and/or they want immediate gratification: they don’t consider the long-term consequences of the actions they take today. My book UNPARALLELED SUCCESS shows you how you can achieve success in all major areas of your life:

1. Your personal goals.
2. Your business and financial goals.
3. Your overall happiness and peace of mind.

Each of the chapters in my book shows you how to be more effective in every aspect of your life!

What kind of research did you do for this book, and how long did you spend researching before beginning this book?

The research was from my own experiences. My journey has led me to believe that success requires certain elements and characteristic traits. These elements all work synergistically and without one the entire plan would fail. The following are the seven ingredients of success I have developed over the years which have led me to believe are crucial in one’s professional development. Focus on one without the other and you will lack the depth and knowledge needed to succeed. All seven ingredients work together synergistically to create a well-rounded individual with an aptitude for success. Make sure you internalize each one and determine how well each one fits into your life. The seven ingredients helped shaped my life and paved the way for my own success and I truly believe that it will be a strong guide for helping others as well. Take your time and go through each one in detail and determine which areas you are lacking in. Nobody is perfect from the beginning and nobody is perfect in the end, however, we can all shape each area of our lives to the best of our abilities to present ourselves in the best light possible. Below are the seven ingredients for success that changed my life:

1. Peace of Mind

2. Health & Energy

3. Loving Relationships

4. Financial Freedom

5. Worthy Goals and Ideas (Meaning and Purpose)

6. Self-Understanding (What makes you tick?)

7. Self-Act

Why did you decide to write this book?

The purpose of this book is to give back to society and inspire someone to pursue his or her dream as I did! Throughout my journey of becoming successful, I made a lot of mistakes but learned a lot with each setback and I am trying to prevent my readers to avoid these same mistakes I made!

What sample advice written in your book inspires people to be the best version of themselves in 2021?

It’s so important to decide what you want and what goals you want to accomplish! There are many recipes for success and if you were to ask 100 different people you would get 100 different answers. I do not claim to know all the answers but what I can do is provide the methods and techniques that I have used to transform myself from a life of poverty into the CEO of a multimillion-dollar company. There are no shortcuts in this book so if you are looking for a get rich quick scheme, please look elsewhere. The tactics, methods, and self-development that I have gone through took thousands of hours for me to formulate and develop. I only wish I had a guide like this for myself when I was starting out, it would have saved me countless hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars.

We know that you’re a successful serial entrepreneur, will writing books be a new business you’d like to spend more time on?

No, the purpose of this book is not to make money or make it a profitable business venture but to give back to society.

What kind of research did you do for this book, and how long did you spend researching before beginning this book?

My own personal experiences dating back to my teenage years and the journey I made to achieve my own success made this book possible. I wanted to write a book that was short and to the point.

What advice would you give to a newbie Entrepreneur setting up their first business?

To bring value and originality to the marketplace and his or her success will be undeniable.

For more details about Armand please visit his official website on Armand Peri or follow Armand on social media via his social media accounts:

Instagram: lifeperiway

Facebook: ArmandPeriBodybuilder

Twitter armandperi

TikTok  armandperi

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Meet The Man Behind The Cover Of The December 2020 Issue Of Global Millionaire: Daniel Goodman

Daniel Goodman is a Los Angeles-born successful real estate investor, stock market trader, soon-to-be life coach, and husband to celebrity real estate agent, Julia Jolie.

Daniel Goodman’s story is not that of rags to riches; rather, it borders on self-discovery, consistency, and battling addiction. Daniel is a progeny of an award-winning investigative reporter and a mum who is into television production. His maternal grandfather was a successful, and revolutionary merchant in furniture while his paternal grandmother is endowed with incredible wisdom. All figures had a meaningful impact on his life while growing up.

Having done many odd jobs in his twenties, Daniel’s sojourn as a real estate investor when in his very early thirties has opened his eyes to a lot of invaluable lessons. “The main lesson that I’ve learned in real estate, is to take your time before investing in a property. If it’s for long-term hold and income property as well, then hold onto it as long as you can,” he remarked.

Daniel, a successful day trader, started that venture in the summer of 2016. “Daytrading is a job. You get up in the morning and trade whatever stocks have the most volatility. Of course, it’s not only stocks; you could trade options, commodities, futures, cryptocurrency, ETF’s, etc. There are many ways to trade. Anyone with an Internet connection can daytrade. Anyone can trade,” he explained.

However, for all his success in real estate and stock trading, Daniel considers his greatest accomplishments as quitting drugs and alcohol. Daniel was addicted to alcohol for a good 17 years of his life. It was a daily struggle which he finally overcame 6 years ago. Having a lovely family means everything to Daniel. He has already achieved quite a lot and he sees himself in the next 5 years teaching and mentoring more and more people about real estate, the stock market, and life lessons.

Global Millionaire magazine recently caught up with Daniel to discuss his journey as a real estate investor and stock market trader and here’s what went down:

Could you please tell our readers a brief background about yourself and how you started in property?

When I was an early teenager, I eventually found out how much the house was worth that I was living in, and I found out how much my parents bought it for. That’s when I realized real estate goes up over time, no matter what. So right away I knew that if you’re going to invest in real estate, it’s not so much the price you get it at, it’s where you buy it and can you hold onto it for a long time.

For example, my house was in Venice Beach where I grew up, and I quickly found out that beach property holds its value and goes up much faster than a property somewhere in the Midwest. So that’s what basically intrigued me and lit my fire and got me started in real estate investment.

I found it fascinating that you can invest in something that pays off in three different ways: it provides shelter for someone, they pay you to rent which of course pays for your mortgage, monthly expenses, and a profit, and at the same time it increases in value. It’s a beautiful thing!

I also started quickly learning about leveraging by using equity in real estate. Meaning, if your house has plenty of equity in it, you can borrow off of that and buy more real estate. However, I learned that that’s only for a long term investment. That can be a dangerous plan for the short term. I found all of this very interesting!

What was the process for you to finding what you wanted to do?

Not until I was about 30 years old did I know that investing in real estate and being in the real estate business, was something that I wanted to do. It may not be the most exciting career or way of making money, but it’s extremely stable and if done properly, it makes you guaranteed money over time. Throughout my 20s I worked odd jobs, and all different fields, but mostly in sales. I worked at Best Buy, worked in the family business selling furniture, worked with my father selling semi-precious stones, worked in over the phone sales, worked in the legal field as a process server, and eventually went back to school in my late 20s. Basically, My 20s is when I figured out what I wanted to do. In my opinion, in your 20s is when you should try different things and by the time you’re around 30, you should have a good idea of what field you would like to be in. And also, there’s nothing wrong with changing your field again.

What has been the most memorable experience of being a real estate investor so far?

I bought a property in 2014 when everybody thought prices were not gonna go any higher. I sold it years later for a 100% return on my investment. Not only was that exciting, but once again it showed me the power of real estate! The fun part was not only watching the price go up and up every year but having people tell me you need to sell immediately if the prices are going to drop. I didn’t listen to them, and I’m glad I didn’t. However, would that property be worth more today than what I sold it at, yes a little bit? There’s nothing wrong with making a profit and reinvesting it.

Who have been the most interesting people you’ve met so far?

I’m lucky to have grown up with a very close family. And even luckier that the people in my family have been not only interesting but role models. My father was and is, an extremely interesting powerful person in my life. He was in the army, an avid hunter and fisherman, one of the countries best investigative reporters of all time, and my hero as well. My grandfather on my mother’s side started a furniture business called Levitz furniture, which revolutionized and changed the furniture industry forever. My mother working in television production always kept my interest in that field as well. She was another strong person in my life. She cared about other people, and always wanted to help people that were less fortunate than her. She shows me about caring for others. My grandmother on my father’s side, who is not only interesting but had wisdom that could stop you in your tracks. The way she lived life, was like no other person I’ve ever met. Happy every day, and could handle any curveballs that life is thrown at her.

And last but not least, my wife who is not only my soulmate and life companion is extremely interesting. She grew up in Russia and made her way over to Los Angeles where we met. Her story keeps me challenging myself and of course, she constantly challenges me! (laughs)

What has been the most valuable lesson you’ve learned while in the real estate industry?

The main lesson that I’ve learned in real estate, is to take your time before investing in a property. If it’s for long-term hold and income property as well, then hold onto it as long as you can. Keep generating the income from it. If it’s a short term investment or a flip, be as cold as ice when it comes to the negotiation process. For short term investments, the initial price that you buy the property is extremely important! That will determine your profit margin, and give you as enough cushion as possible. Because when flipping a house, lots of things can go wrong and the clock is ticking! And of course, it’s all about timing! We all know timing is everything, but it’s very crucial in the real estate market. If you buy a house to flip in a hot market, and it takes you too long, and the market gets Lukewarm or cold, you might be stuck holding that house for a while. And last, the more love and care you put into a home, the better it will sell or hold its value! Remember, this will be somebody’s home for possibly the next 10 to 20 years.

We also note you’re a day trader, what is day trading, and who can do it?

I started day trading in the summer of 2016. I’ve been doing it for over four years now, and it’s my everyday job. Daytrading is a job. You get up in the morning and trade whatever stocks have the most volatility. Of course, it’s not only stocks; you could trade options, commodities, futures, cryptocurrency, ETF‘s, etc. There are many ways to trade. Anyone with an Internet connection can daytrade. Anyone can trade.

How much expertise do you need?

I started daytrading with zero knowledge and zero experience of the stock market. I only knew the simple rule, “Buy low, sell high.“ I knew nothing about daytrading. So anyone can start trading with zero experience.

What are the advantages of day trading over other means of investing?

The advantage of daytrading over other types of investing, is that daytrading will give you an everyday income. We all know investing in the stock market for the long term, gives you fantastic returns over a 5 to 10 year period. Sometimes it can be much faster, like the last three or four years we’ve had in the stock market. The returns have been insane! But you need to have a career or regular job to bring you a paycheck every week or two. So you can pay your rent, put food on the table, etc.

Can you give us a little Day Trading 101?

If you are a day trader, the most important rule is to cut your losses immediately. It’s not about making big profits, or lots of profits consistently in the beginning, it’s about cutting your losses immediately and staying above water. And most importantly, you should trade on a simulation platform so you can get a feel for what it’s like to day trade before you use real money. I didn’t do this, and I got crushed! I highly suggest any beginning day traders to start with “fake money“ before using the real thing. However, don’t stick with fake money for too long, because your emotions are not the same trading with simulated money, compared to real money. You have to dive in eventually

What are some best practices for newbies?

For newbie traders, the best thing that they can possibly do, is take profit off the table no matter what. Consistently taking profits and build your account or consistently put money into your checking account from trading, it’s extremely important! I can’t stress this enough, take profits!

There’s an old saying, “you can never go broke taking a profit.“ every newbie gets FOMO, and they think that there’s never going to be another amazing trade to take after they have just exited the one that they are in. Do not have FOMO! There are thousands of stocks to trade every single day.

How much of an investment do you need to make to get started?

Well, you need $25,000 in your account to make unlimited intra day trades. That means, there is no limit to how many times you can buy and sell in the same day with stocks, options, and ETFS. If you have less than $25,000, you need to hold your trade overnight for at least one day.

However, the amount of money one needs to start with is irrelevant. If you are a retired multimillionaire, and you want to start day trading, obviously putting in $25,000 or more is no big deal. If you are a broke college student, $500 might be a lot of money to you. You can start with enough money to buy one share of a dollar stock. So don’t get scared if you only have $200 to start trading. Because You can grow that $200 into $25,000 very quickly if you are NOT greedy and have the patience.

What do you think are the most common mistakes novice traders make?

Again, I think FOMO and not taking profit are the most common mistakes beginning traders make. They buy a stock, it skyrockets, and sell it. And then they jump back in because they have the fear that they’re not going to get another trade like that again anytime soon. And that’s definitely incorrect! There are many many many stocks every day that can be traded to give you a nice profit. And also they become greedy very quickly. They make $100 in their trade, and they quickly want to start shooting for $300 or $500 for the next trade. Baby steps, one day at a time, an empire is not built overnight.

What kind of money management skills should you have before getting into day trading?

You should know exactly what your financial goals are before starting to day trade. How much money do you need to make and how much can you afford to lose. Before daytrading, you should have discipline with money. If you don’t have any discipline with saving your profits, then you should learn that discipline first. However, you can definitely learn it on the way. That’s what I did. I was not smart with my day trading profits, or the amount of money I lost. I really had to learn everything the hard and painful way. But the most important money management skill that you need to have, is not to be greedy! It’s The hardest thing to conquer in daytrading. Because the whole game is about money. That’s what took me the longest to conquer, but once I did, everything became easier and grew faster. If you can’t buckle down and be extremely disciplined about being greedy, your first couple of years of day trading are going to be hell! So work every day to conquer greed.

Tell us about something you are proud of – about your greatest challenge.

Ever since I was 14 years old I was heavy into drugs and alcohol. For the next 17 years that was my life. I struggled with it day in and day out. I just turned 37 years old, and I’m almost 6 years sober. This has been one of my greatest accomplishments! My other most important accomplishment, that will be ongoing for the rest of my life, is being a loving husband and father. I have learned over the last 5 years, to be a better father every day. To be more patient with my children, my wife, and my family. I continue to learn more about my children and myself every day, and every day that I am patient with my children and happy around them is a priceless accomplishment! Because naturally they learn to be patient, and they are happy!

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

The best advice that I constantly return to, is taking life one day at a time. I’ve heard that from all of my role models and heroes In my life. All we have is day. So keep your focus on today’s issues, challenges, goals, and happiness.

Not taking life too seriously, has also been advice given to me over my entire life. Mainly from my dad‘s mother, Lillian, or “Lakey” as her husband called her. My grandmother always told me not to take life so seriously, and make a joke about your problems. She would always tell me to accept what life gives you, and keep moving forward. Don’t live in the past.

What takes up too much of your time?

I think what takes up most of my time, is actually overthinking situations. One might not realize it, but overthinking is not a good thing. Take enough time to make a decision, and once you’ve made it, stick with it. Do not go back unless you have to. If I overthink the situation it could take hours, days, weeks of space in my head. And that turns into wasted time, and of course, wasted energy! Staying organized is extremely important to me. If I become unorganized, or my office gets messy, that takes up a lot of time to re-organize it. So staying on top of my organization is a key factor for keeping myself stable.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time?

I see myself teaching and mentoring more and more people about real estate, the stock market, and life lessons. Life coaching is something that I would love to get into and help others as much as possible. And of course, not knowing where I’m going to be in five years is also very very exciting! It’s good to plan ahead, but DON’T forget to live in the present! As long as my family is healthy and happy, everything else will follow.

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Meet The Woman Behind The Cover Of The November 2020 Issue Of Global Millionaire: Abhijita Kulshrestha

Abhijita Kulshrestha, is a Senior Director, Astrologer, Life Coach and Astro Gemologist with Gemstoneuniverse. She is a PGA and GIA certified Astro-Gemologist with additional qualifications from prestigious institutions like SSEF.

She is a mentor to several successful entrepreneurs who get benefited from her sage counsel and applying her Sacred Gemstone recommendations.

Abhijita is a communication professional and holds a Master’s degree in Mass Communication and Journalism besides being an NLP Master practitioner.

Prior to her soul-level engagement with the world of Vedic astrology, gemstones, and association with Gemstoneuniverse, she had a long stint in ‘wordsmithy’! She’s had professional stints at Mudra institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA); RK Swamy BBDO, Bangalore, and Times of India. She currently contributes to Thrive Global, is a contributor at Huffingtonpost and Entrepreneur, and has been featured in several international publications of repute.

She is the author of two books – Cosmic Sutra, A Handbook of Healing (self-help/healing/spirituality), and Ambrosia Sides (Poetry) published by Har-Anand- A Leading publishing house in India.

She was the winner of the Ms. Super Brain of India contest 1999 conducted by The Competition Success Review.  Global Millionaire recently caught up with Abhijita and here’s what went down:

These are uncertain times and we would like to know about the most essential trait that businesses and leaders are talking about. How do you approach change?

When a business is established, there is always a vision behind it. I choose not to call it a dream, but a vision. Dreams are evanescent – they vanish. But visions are haunting and in a good way. They are more likely to stay until their manifestation. Good businesses are based on scalability and resilience, among other things. Basic as it may sound, it is the truth. Change is a constant and whether the founders or leaders do like it or not, it will happen externally- with paradigms shifting in terms of political, economic, social, cultural factors, etc. or through internal shifts on your personal trajectory – your own resourcefulness, age, maturity, circumstances, etc. will press on. At Gemstoneuniverse we understand the psychological and seasonal shifts that are inherent to all systems and beings, so there is relative ease in traversing changes. Of course, one cannot anticipate the nitty-gritties of the change but that there will be a requirement to change from time to time is understood well.

How has COVID -19 impacted your business?

COVID-19 has been a real eye-opener in terms of outlook – one’s own as well as what the customer wants and largely towards the environment and the superstructure that we function within. After these few initial tremors on the economic landscape, we pulled ourselves together – Gemstoneuniverse as a brand has been oriented towards providing a solution always – that is our core competency and that’s what we are known for. The very first thought was to care for our own team and I can say quite proudly that the entire team is still with us. We were not pushed into the zone of layoffs. In fact, we are in an expansion and hiring mode globally.

In fact, regrouping has been stronger and even as I say this there are initiatives afoot that will present a more responsive and empathetic team, along with consistent quality products, services and be the bankable presence that we always have been. There are efforts towards making the digital experience more rewarding for the customer, whether it is on the website or through online meetings /sessions. Gemstoneuniverse has been a consistent performer where exports are concerned, we are also looking at enhancing the experience of the local buyers as well, who now have to rely more on digital exploration and adaptation. It is all about the ease of the process and the seamlessness of it all.

Our esteemed mentor, Respected Guruji Shrii Arnav-the author of the magnum opus of Astro Gemology-The Secrets of Jyotish Gems has in fact laid the perfect example of turning adversity into opportunity by expanding into Thailand, a big gemstone hub globally. Truly, one can define reality by carefully choosing the meaning to give to the circumstances.

What are some of the key understandings that have emerged through this situation?

Amongst others, things that sound stand out quite emphatically are that loyalty, trust and credibility are irreplaceable treasures (if I may call them so) and these aren’t won overnight. You need to have the stamina to keep pushing through the years and a strong work ethic to earn them, along with a team that ensures no dilution of quality and promise. This has worked for us.

Two – People, especially clients don’t forget how you make them feel. No matter what the pulse of the time is, the experience that you provide to your customer including shared empathy, true concern, and compassion are never forgotten. This is what helps a business stand out and remain in the mind space of the customer, long after a crisis like this will have blown over.

Gemstoneuniverse is the biggest retailer of Gemstones Online and has attained the tag of Gold Standard. How do you maintain the pole position & what are some of the hurdles faced along the journey?

To have a business rooted in an ancient science like Indian Astrology/ Jyotish is a matter of pride for us and to be the pioneers of the Jyotish Gemstone Therapy an outrageously powerful system of healing with Jyotish Gemstones as developed by Guruji Shrii Arnav comes with a lot of responsibility.

We witness wonderful outcomes for people almost every day and this isn’t a one-off fluke. It is a consistent feature for us for the last two and half decades. However, we live in a world where people with half-baked knowledge or a skewed perception based on “rational/ scientific thinking” have only created confusion. In reality, if a person spends enough time studying – actually studying this discipline he or she will not be able to disprove or disregard it as they seem to, because of social proof or simply because they’ve had a bad experience with an unscrupulous person. As with any other choice, discernment and making intelligent decisions are always in the hands of the end consumer. For us, fortunately, we’ve had clientele we are equally proud of! However, shaking off the labels and perceptions takes time – the handiwork of centuries cannot be undone in a few years

The second challenge has been to have people understand the concept of precious gemstones and the value proposition that Gemstoneuniverse brings to the end consumer. The usual connotation of gems is in association with royalty or something that is typically out of reach. The gemstone industry especially the coloured gemstone market has little organisation and structure. There isn’t much knowledge and awareness about natural gemstones either when it comes to an average customer as well. We decided to put information out there – as comprehensive, open, and factual for anyone to be able to access it. To choose a precious commodity like a gemstone in a market where imitation and synthetic gemstones are aplenty, with sellers attaching impossible legends to trinkets in order to make a one-time fortune, with precedents of having been cheated in the past; buying a high-value item and investing highly valuable personal trust either, isn’t an easy job.

Gemstoneuniverse has educated, been consistent with its pricing, offered reliable, globally accepted certification by best labs and these are some of the factors that have managed to inspire confidence. The language of communication has remained consistent – this is the voice of trust and sincerity. Some of the transformations have been so dramatic that people with their official names and designations verifiable on LinkedIn & other social platforms have vouched for good changes on video!

You see it’s a slightly different business that hinges on privacy a lot, something like image consultancy – everyone wants it, takes help of it but wants the others to believe that one was born with it – the panache, success, and magnetism with no external aid in any manner. No qualms with that as customer privacy is an extremely high priority at Gemstoneuniverse.

As far as Gemstoneuniverse being the biggest source to buy Gemstones Online and being the Gold Standard in Planetary Gemology and maintaining the pole position is concerned we are constantly focussed on customer centricity, involved in relentless innovation & research, expanding our quality network to moving ahead in the Gemstone Supply pipeline so that our customers get the best quality at the least price. The philosophy of Respected Guruji Shrii Arnav is to make the customer win every SINGLE time. He says if the customer wins-we win and every single team member practices that philosophy in heart and spirit.

You are correct. The fact of the matter remains that fascination with gems and jewellery has been there in all human beings from as far back in time as we know. Can you explain this a little more?

It is no secret that all human beings are inherently drawn towards things that have beauty and those which have value to them. You can analyse your point of attraction vis-a-vis anything and these two will be the consistent factors that are invariably present in that equation. Gemstones are a delightful gift of Mother Earth that has both beauty as well as value and therefore it becomes a proposition hard to ignore.

Whether you have a luxury watch company or an exclusive phone maker or a couturier or any designer/ innovator looking at creating exceptional value in their product, they invariably use gemstones to enhance not only the visual appeal, commercial value, but also notional value and pride of ownership. Who wouldn’t feel pride in owning a real treasure!

How does one benefit from gemstones by using them in the way you seem to advise? Does it really enhance one’s luck and fortune?

There are several areas in which a person may be seeking help, a solution, or a breakthrough – professional life (gain of fame and popularity, business growth, partnership assessments, promotion, finding focus, battling odds, interpersonal dynamics, etc.); financial matters (trading, investments, increasing assets/ wealth, etc.), relationships in all their warps and wefts; health matters – (both physical and mental) and so many more things that come associated with the human condition and aspirations.

Vedic astrology helps in drawing up a map of human life that mirrors an individual’s life from womb to tomb – the horoscope or the birth chart. This in turn helps in arriving at an understanding of the planetary energies that will aid an individual and those that will play out the role of karmic teachers, whose lessons may not be easy. Planetary gem therapy is all about using natural, treatment-free jyotish quality gemstones/ Navratna Stones to harness the energy of planets that can aid us in our progress and growth. These are the top 2 percent gemstones in terms of quality.

Each of the nine planets has characteristic planetary energy and color transmitted through light, attributed to them. (Color is a component of light. A colour is energy of a specific wavelength and frequency.) Planetary gem Therapy works on the premise of the passage of light through the gemstone into the human energy system via touch. Natural gemstones are a powerful tool that helps harness the power of this solution. A person, when wearing the gemstone of an appropriate and powerful planetary energy can achieve all kinds of success.

What would you advise a person looking to create wealth?

Wealth is a very broad term and incorporates not just monetary wealth, but also one’s legacy, ideas, and human capital created and curated cautiously in one’s lifetime. In order to create true wealth, one has to have a vision – one must learn to think actively instead of being spoon-fed; must put a premium on one’s time and focus and most importantly invest in people. What also becomes imperative in terms of wealth is that it cannot be thought of without having a system that loops back into taking care of the environment we work within. Sustainability is the backbone.

Websie: https://www.gemstoneuniverse.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gemstoneuniverse/

Instagram:@gemstoneuniverse

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/GemstoneuniverseIn/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/gemuniverse/

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Meet The Man Behind The Cover Of The October 2020 Issue Of Global Millionaire: Michael Smith

A veteran entrepreneur, Michael Smith is the Toronto-based founder and Chief Executive Officer of MDS Media Inc., a disruptive integrated marketing firm. He has built a career solidifying his status as a Market Leader in Integrated Marketing – helping companies execute industry-leading content marketing strategies and achieve profitability at scale for more than two decades. He’s a savvy visionary who does so much more than lead a business – “he elevates the entire digital conversation”.

Throughout his career, Michael has earned many of the media industry’s top honours. In 2019, he received the GlobalTrend Video Awards’ Ascent Award as well as three Triumph Awards; W3 Awards for his work in Branded Entertainment, Health & Wellness, and Not-For-Profit Videos; a Davey Award for Best Social Campaign and two Summit Creative Awards. Michael recently received the highest honours at AMCP’s 2020 AVA Digital Awards in the Corporate Image and Social Campaign categories. Michael’s branding work is recognized alongside the work of globally renowned brands like Apple, Netflix, Disney, Google, and Pepsi. In 2020, Michael was recognized by MADCon as a Top 100 Global Leader in Marketing and Advertising, for setting standards for industry impact, innovation, and future-readiness.

Additionally, Michael is a frequently published Forbes contributor and Forbes Agency Council Member, where he leverages his experience and subject matter expertise to lead a global discussion about branding trends and best practices. He appears on several expert panels each year to share his insights on disruptive strategy, marketing, media, and agency-specific concerns.

Global Millionaire recently caught up with Michael to discuss his journey to entrepreneurship and here’s what went down:

What are you currently doing to maintain/grow your business?

Business is about conversations – with your network, with your staff, with your audience, with the people you want to help. Growth will always be about maintaining and nurturing those conversations. So, when I think about maintaining and growing my business, it’s all about connection.

On one hand, it’s about the value I can provide to all of these people. At MDS Media, we are constantly innovating our marketing models as a way of communicating and providing value to our audience and internal networks. But on the other, it’s about staying visible, letting people know that you’re available to help when they need you, and finding ways to communicate that aren’t necessarily grounded in business. These are uncertain times, and whether it’s a piece of content, an email, or a video chat, I make it a point to check in and acknowledge what’s going on.

There’s tremendous value in cultivating relationships, as you never know what those relationships will blossom into at a later date.

What social media platforms do you usually use to increase your brand’s awareness?

MDS Media primarily operates in the B2B space, and we have found LinkedIn and Twitter to be the most relevant platforms for what we want to achieve. Our clients spend the bulk of their time on these platforms, and if we want to be an active part of trending discussions, we have to be there. Additionally, both LinkedIn and Twitter are really tailored to thought leadership. There are several passionate, niche communities on both platforms, and making meaningful contributions to them pays dividends, not just in actual business revenue, but in brand awareness, authority within our industry, and the expansion of our network.

What is your experience with paid advertising, like PPC or sponsored content campaigns? Does it work?

Paid Media and PPC campaigns work brilliantly if done the right way. I think where a lot of professionals run into trouble is expecting magic by simply running a campaign. A lot of the tools that are available now present themselves as turnkey easy, and it is quite simple to set basic parameters and get an ad going. But just like traditional ads, there needs to be a game plan, clear KPIs, and a goal. There are certain strategies and best practices that deliver results, and if you don’t invest the time in researching them, you can end up wasting a lot of money. So, for those business owners who feel like PPC and sponsored content campaigns are ineffective – this isn’t true. However, they do require expertise.

What is your main tactic when it comes to making more people aware of your brand and engaging your customers? How did your business stand out?

My strength has always been in content. Everyone who knows any of my brands is well aware that we go the extra mile with content to be seen as an authority in the space. The entire Neon Cake aesthetic and value proposition is what drove an audience to a sold-out launch. We pride ourselves on content that separates us from the rest.

We take the time to understand our audience and the greater content landscape. Then we craft messages that not only stand out in every newsfeed but also stand out to the right people. My team and I really understand the power that great content wields, and we know that publishing a few random blog posts isn’t enough to garner attention. We build out comprehensive strategies, we run tests, we dive into analytics, and, ultimately, we take it seriously.

What form of marketing has worked well for your business throughout the years?

We have our own system we have developed over the years – it is a hybrid of content marketing combined with PR. Throughout our time as marketers, we found that agency and PR models were flawed. The way audiences discover content has changed considerably in recent years and continues to evolve at a rapid clip. The traditional models just couldn’t keep up with the speed of change, and that led us to create our own system. We have tested it with MDS Media, Neon Cake, and a number of Technology Experts, and the results have been incredible. We have had a wild amount of success with it.

What is the toughest decision you had to make in the last few months?

In the last few months, I’ve had to let go of things that don’t serve me. If this year has taught me anything, it’s that you can’t take anything for granted, especially when it comes to the business climate. Time is limited, circumstances change, and it just isn’t useful to waste energy and resources on relationships or initiatives that drain me or my business. That realization was tough because I’ve had to let go of some projects that I was excited about. But I had to be realistic and cut my losses. I know that down the line this kind of decision-making will only make me, and my business, stronger.

What money mistakes have you made along the way that others can learn from (or something you’d do differently)?

If I could offer any advice, it’s to take your time and enjoy the process of building your business. A lot of entrepreneurs, especially new ones, are eager for growth. I think this leads them to spend too much money in general or waste it on things that they don’t need – to really focus on honing your product or service first, and once you have money coming in, be purposeful about where you spend it. Do you need a 20-person team, or can you go leaner? Does it make sense to expand into 5 new product categories, or can you refine your flagship product? Don’t rush toward success because it can lead you to make a lot of money mistakes that take years to recover from.

What new business would you love to start?

I would love to start an educational platform for entrepreneurs. I know that there are already nano degree programs and lots of individual classes hosted by successful businesspeople. But I’d love to create something comprehensive, that covers all the topics that entrepreneurs will encounter in their businesses and that’s presented from the point of view of someone who’s been there.

If you could go back in a time machine to the time when you were just getting started, what would you do differently?

I think this aligns with my answer about money mistakes. I’d really take my time, appreciate the journey, and pursue growth more naturally. I’d scrutinize every cost and expenditure, and I’d find comfort in the slow, steady race instead of focusing on the sprint.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

The best advice I’ve received was to pursue a purpose other than money. Sure, there are positive things that come from making a significant amount of money – you can buy nice things, and you’re recognized in your industry as a success. But if that success isn’t connected to something more meaningful, it gets tough to stay committed to your business when the times get tough.

What advice would you give to a newbie Entrepreneur setting up their first business?

Learn how to position yourself – the importance of positioning yourself to your market is the single most important thing in getting started. It needs to be crystal clear not just to you but also to the customer why you’re different. You need to understand your value, your differentiators, and the best way to communicate those aspects of your business to your target audience.

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Meet The Man Behind The Cover Of The September 2020 Issue Of Global Millionaire: The Amazing Rafah Hanna

A veteran entrepreneur, Rafah Hanna specializes in financial technology, property, and security. He has built a career creating locally and globally diverse group of businesses that creates solutions focusing on three core values: sustainability, quality, and innovation. Having built, run, and managed financial technology and information businesses with the likes of the London Stock Exchange Group, the New York Stock Exchange, Euronext, and Deloitte, Hanna has built a strong reputation for delivery, execution, and market knowledge, creating an extensive network of contacts across various financial and data industries. He also owns a highly respected property investment company called NED Capital as well as a security company called Abchurch Group – a company that provides a global response to local and international clients’ needs in the fields of security, risk assessment, special equipment procurement, and specialist training.

Born in Iraq to a Catholic family with Chaldean roots that speaks Aramaic (the language of Jesus Christ), he views his parents as visionaries. After his parents saw the tide changing in the Middle East, they decided to come to London in the 70s to invest, contribute to the community, and build a powerful legacy. He was educated in Switzerland and the UK which gave him the skills and knowledge that enabled him to kickstart all of his businesses.

Fast forward to today and Rafah is now a successful entrepreneur with several businesses under his belt. Hanna has founded companies such as NED Capital and the Abchurch Group and his data consulting arm now serves a global client base as it continues to grow exponentially. Their clients include banks, brokers, regulators, stock exchanges, and the biggest financial website in the world.

His property investment company, NED Capital, is a unique, non-leveraged property investment company based in London that is entirely self-funded. It’s currently building a grade-one portfolio of exclusive residential and commercial assets in the UK. The goal of this company is to continue to grow their grade-one portfolio of investments via their intricate knowledge of the UK property market and unique sales approach, utilizing their fully staffed in-house team of skilled contractors, leading to becoming a publicly quoted company. His security company Abchurch Group, on the other hand, has helped to significantly reduce maritime piracy in the past four years using their specialist maritime protection team and sought after proprietary patented technology.

Incidentally, Hanna’s wife, Dr. Mahtab Hanna, is a successful entrepreneur herself hence the reason why Rafah and his wife are so compatible together. She has built, run, and managed her jewellery business for over 10 years. Her creations have appeared in numerous films and worn by various celebrities and even royalty. With her extensive qualifications (an MA from the Royal College of Art and a Ph.D. from Central Saint Martins) and a unique design approach, she has built a worldwide reputation as a jeweller of conscience.

The Global Millionaire magazine recently caught up with Rafah to discuss his journey to entrepreneurship and here’s what went down:

What are you currently doing to maintain/grow your business?

The business world is not run on “basics” anymore. It is all about innovation, evolution, and revolution.

I am spending time, effort, and money on highly specific marketing campaigns to engage prospects with the message that our trustworthy brands continue to lead their respective markets. We maintain our relevance and criticality in decision-making options and ensure that our quality shines through, not only in delivery, but in every email, video conference, and follow-up.

We have also taken a unique approach to delivery by slashing project times, as we look to act ever more in the best interests of clients. The faster we can deliver without losing any of our guaranteed quality, the sooner our clients realise the benefits of our services.

Two other practices remain vital: one, only hiring the best of the best, and two, even though the businesses are market leaders, acting like a hungry, prudent, and wise start-up.

What social media platforms do you usually use to increase your brand’s awareness?

Each business is unique and therefore needs thorough research and a detailed plan of action. I always correspond the marketing plans to a cycle of client behaviour, the cyclical nature of each business, discrete events, and budgetary matters.

The nature of my businesses does not depend on or utilise the power of social media. My focus has always been on growing businesses rather than engaging in social media.

Today, social media is an important and ever-growing tool in my companies’ brand awareness strategies.

For example, Instagram is driven by stunning visualisations and presentation and is, therefore, most suitable for businesses such as @mahtabhanna jewellery designs and collections.

LinkedIn serves to inform, educate, and engage, but it requires a more medium-term strategy rather than a short-term one.

YouTube is the perfect platform to provide a more in-depth story about a concept or business.

It is important for readers to understand that all these avenues need careful planning. Have a clear objective in mind and allow room for fine-tuning. Do not rush in and make the fatal mistake so many have made; namely, thinking that simply being “on” a platform guarantees success—the opposite is true.

What is your experience with paid advertising, like PPC or sponsored content campaigns? Does it work?

Paid advertising is growing and will only continue to do so.

I passionately believe that one of the best ways to create a market and opportunity is to educate, inform, and offer products and services that would not otherwise be marketed in a traditional way.

Sponsored marketing works! The evidence on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn all support this assertion. These companies have grown to be some of the largest on the planet, and their revenues testify to it.

But we need to remember that their revenues are only part of the story. Paid advertising drives whole industries, fosters innovation, creates a better deal for consumers, provides massive tax income, and generates enormous employment opportunities.

What is your main tactic when it comes to making more people aware of your brand and engaging your customers? How did your business stand out?

The core tactic is to NEVER lead clients but to always be on their shoulders, taking the same journey, developing what they need in real-time, fine-tuning, and evolving.

Another primary tactic is always to deliver quality. Delivering anything less is an offense to the client, to you, your brand, your name, and those that work with and for you.

Brand awareness has changed; we use a myriad of tactics to stand out:

• Be first to deliver and announce innovation; remain relevant and borderless.
• Invert traditional marketing strategy by ensuring that every briefing contains in-depth details regarding competitor offerings – market intelligence is the antithesis of marketing.
• Utilise current affairs to progress the story.
• Utilise known figures in the industry to win, gain credibility with, and retain clients by association.
• Inform clients of changes that benefit them and illustrate the differences between the previous and the new.
• Maintain the very highest levels of investment in staff quality and ongoing training.
• Make staff the cornerstone of innovation – offer incentives to develop new products, processes, and services and reward them for trying, even if it fails.

What form of marketing has worked well for your business throughout the years?

There is no “best;” it is all about context and effectiveness. Throughout history, the most effective marketing tools have always contained three distinct elements:

1.Timing
2. Word-of-mouth
3. Recommendations

Our various businesses have what I call different routes to marketing. There is no silver bullet, but we think long and hard about spend cycles and regional and cultural differences. The biggest change has been the precision of strategic versus tactical online marketing.

For example, we ask ourselves whether we actually need to “sell” to the client directly, or if it would perhaps be better to act as their advisors. Create the conversation you want the market to have.

We no longer need to spend large amounts on general marketing; we can now target and pinpoint the exact right client or prospect base to inform and have the privilege to serve. Marketing is also not about an online presence. It might surprise people to know that one of my businesses does not even have a website yet is the absolute leader in its field.

What is the toughest decision you had to make in the last few months?

We have had the distinct privilege of not having to furlough a single member of staff or put stringent work practices in place. Instead, we have fostered a feeling and community of trust. I entrust the leaders of my businesses to be servants. They are the decision-makers, but they are also (and I never let them forget this) there to serve. To serve means to accept responsibility for outcomes, and therefore the risks and dependencies of those outcomes.

The toughest decision has been a family one; business is never what affects me most. As I read to my children at night, I always remember that their future is dependent on my decisions, not mine. You cannot go wrong doing the right thing the right way.

What money mistakes have you made along the way that others can learn from (or something you’d do differently)?

Mistakes are more important, in my view than success. You learn instantly from mistakes, whereas success leaves a memory you hold onto as you try to retain the emotional attachment of misplaced hope.

Mistakes provide you with an experience, whereas success over-feeds the ego in the short-term.

Thankfully, I had two of the world’s greatest advisors who have taken my raw thinking and morphed it into phenomenally successful global businesses and ever-evolving vision: my amazing wife, Mahtab, and my late father. Their honesty and clarity blew holes in those thick brick walls in the shape of a heart!

My answers should not surprise anyone. Many years ago my greatest mistake was arrogance: I knew better than anyone; no one knew better than me.

That attitude, until I recognised and tore it from my psyche, cost me financially and resulted in lost opportunities.

Another mistake I made was to invest a little in long-term things that won’t change instead of investing more in the short-term things that will change.

However bright your name shines in lights; you must always remember that lightbulbs have a lifespan!

What new business would you love to start?

My passion lies in creating opportunities that were not there, to begin with. The next opportunity that would pique my business interest would be creating a tradable index and fund to benchmark countries, sectors, segments, industries, and governments’ use of plastics.

This venture would deliver an inverted investment opportunity whereby humanity itself is both the investor and the investment.

If you could go back in a time machine to the time when you were just getting started, what would you do differently?

This is a good question because we never remember the acts of kindness that got us here, but we remember the opportunities that got away!

I don’t have many regrets; every small and major decision I’ve made has spurred my personal and professional growth. I have been humbled by the blessings of life.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

Do not dislike that which may be good for you, and do not like that which may be bad for you. This quote, for me, encompasses the essence of learning.

Fear and growth cannot exist in the same space. One has to leave in order for the other to flourish.

What advice would you give to a newbie Entrepreneur setting up their first business?

To a large extent, your mental habits will determine your success.

Build deep relationships with people who have accomplished the goals you want to accomplish. Protect your idea from the very start. Think about what could go wrong and how you will deal with it; plan for failure by not resorting to laziness, self-pity, or any of the mental defeatist tools that we all carry.

If you are selling innovation, be the first to market and create your own destiny. Learn from other fields and bring those insights into your own. Always be thinking about quality: implement it; deliver it. Once you reach that state of mind, you will never allow yourself to deviate from it.

One of the proudest moments of my career was when, sitting on a flight, I overheard two people mention one of my companies and described the service they received as “truly world-class.”

Research and know your market or segment as if your children’s lives depended on it. Make sure you recruit the absolute best candidates you can at every level, be it a janitor, a developer, a salesperson, or even a business partner—they will represent you in good times, and they will fight hard for you during the bad times.

Be proud of your mistakes. If we all said “no” to evolving, we would still be living in caves!

Finally, the greatest advice I can offer when it comes to business is this: it is impossible to imagine a business leader not looking after their health and families and still being successful. Your mind is where it starts; your body powers where it ends.

Part revolution, part evolution.

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Meet The Man Behind The Cover Of The August 2020 Issue Of Global Millionaire Magazine: The Inspirational Chris Graffagnino

Imagine if you had a crystal ball that enables you to see into your future – wouldn’t you use this crystal ball to avoid making any mistakes and use every possible opportunity to achieve success? Well, guess what? There is such a thing as a real-life crystal ball – and it comes in the form of a person you can turn to for solid advice about your business… that person is usually referred to as a “mentor.” Having a mentor is a must for any budding entrepreneur because they’re a valuable resource who have already experienced most of the challenges that you’re still currently going through. So in effect, they actually have a solution to those challenges.

Chris Graffagnino is one such mentor. Chris is a well known New York-born entrepreneur, business influencer, innovator, and avid traveler who is widely recognized as one of the most influential mentors in the world. A former law enforcement officer and combat veteran, he has used his experience in the security and risk mitigation industry and he has applied it to the business sector. With his unique skill set, Chris was able to develop a niche market in crisis management.

Chris was recently named as one of the ‘Top 10 Most Influential People in 2020’ by Yahoo Finance alongside big names such as Gary Vaynerchuk and Lisa A. Romano and for good reason. He has several accolades under his belt; besides being named as one of the Top 10 Most Influential People in 2020, he was also included in Yahoo Finance’s elusive “Top 10 Mentors to Follow in 2020” list. He has effectively developed several global businesses on and off Wall Street and he has several successful entrepreneurial ventures under his belt including a successful global risk solutions company. Chris actually specialises in business development and his passion is to help monetize a budding entrepreneurs’ ideas through his very own non-profit mentorship program “Settle4Success.” Through this detailed program, he’s helping emerging entrepreneurs develop their own businesses. He is helping them monetize and learn the ins and outs of the industry when it comes to business development and risk mitigation.

The Global Millionaire Magazine recently caught up with Chris to discuss his recent success, and find out how he is planning to continue to inspire everyone who wants to lead their business towards success and here’s what went down:

Could you please tell our readers a brief background about yourself and how you started your business?

I am from Staten Island, New York and I guess you can say I am an entrepreneur (laughs). By experience, I’m a traveler and business developer. More importantly, I am a father to my two wonderful kids – Christopher and Chloe and husband to my amazing wife – Danielle. I started my career in law enforcement and took that same service with me to Afghanistan as an infantryman in the US Army. I have culminated all of that experience in security and risk management to the private sector where I’ve helped develop niche market areas in crisis management such as security evacuation and repatriation services. In 2016, I took my own risk (no pun intended) and co-founded a global risk management firm that provides cutting edge global security and logistics products and services. Most recently, I founded Settle4Success to provide mentorship to budding entrepreneurs.

Can you describe your journey to success? When did you start? Did you ever imagine you would become this successful?

I think my journey started when I was a teenager and my brother Michael and I started a landscaping company with our dad. I was 13 at the time and my dad was my mentor. He taught me about the importance of hard work and never quitting without me even realizing it. At the time, work seemed like a chore but I had no idea the impact starting my own business at that age would have on the rest of my life, even if it did take me a while to realize it. I believe everyone has success within them. It wasn’t until I was hurt in Afghanistan at 26 years old did I start wanting more out of myself. Furthermore, it wasn’t until I was 32 years old when I started connecting all the dots from different years of my life to finally realize what I was meant to do. This was the year I left working for someone else behind and promised to never be a part of the 9-5 grind ever again.

What are you currently doing to grow your business?

Social engineering is a critical aspect of business development. I take pride in developing my network and building relationships with my clients around the world. Settle4Success is my newest venture to help enlighten those struggling with finding success. I aim to mentor as many entrepreneurial minds as I can by sharing my experiences and knowledge in the hope that I can educate and motivate people into a successful business outcome.

What social media platforms do you usually use to increase your brand’s awareness?

Currently, my largest presence is on Instagram (@iamchrisgraff, @settle4success). I also utilize Facebook and Twitter as well.

What is your experience with paid advertising, like PPC or sponsored content campaigns? Does it work?

I am very aware of paid advertising; however, I still believe in old-school social engineering, more specifically, targeting industry hashtags and accounts and engaging in direct conversation to introduce yourself and connect through similar interests. This helps build stronger, longer-lasting relationships and can ultimately provide better business exchanges. I do not sell any products or services via the internet; however, I directly engage in conversation with hundreds of social media accounts daily to continue to drive brand awareness for my mentorship platform.

What is your main tactic when it comes to making more people aware of your brand and engaging your customers?

Settle4Success is new in the sense of it providing a free platform for entrepreneurs to connect, download educational material, and network with other likeminded individuals. It is a chance to be motivated and inspired to monetize one’s ideas and dreams. The uniqueness about it is that it’s free. I always say follow your passion, not money. If you follow your passion the money will come. My passion is to help others. In the case of Settle4Success, helping others achieve their version of success through business development is my goal.

What new business would you love to start?

I think starting Settle4Success allows me to see into many new business opportunities. Who knows, I may invest or become partners with ones that catch my attention!

If you could go back in a time machine to the time when you were first making a name for yourself, what advice would you give yourself?

I would tell myself to hold on to the days of having nothing to lose a little longer. When you first start you take big risks, you have nothing to lose and stress is minimal. When you start experiencing success, you can lose everything. That fear of going back to nothing causes hesitation. You’re not willing to take on such risks anymore because you have something to lose. Although I am by no means anywhere near my finish line, I do miss the beginning phases. Enjoy those moments because that is where history is made.

Do you have any favorite business-related or personal development related books that you can recommend?

I don’t want to sound bias, but I have a book coming out end of this year – Settle For Success. I think many people will enjoy it. As far as authors go, I like Jocko Willink and Gary Vaynerchuk. They both have several inspiring books published and I have bookmarked pages that I constantly turn back to for reference.

What money mistakes have you made along the way that others can learn from (or something you’d do differently)?

Entrepreneurship is a risky business. Working in Corporate America and on Wall Street, I’ve seen major companies lose millions of dollars. Fortunately, I was able to utilize my time on Wall Street to avoid many of those mistakes. To succeed on your own, you have to undoubtedly take risks, but those risks can and should be calculated. Start small and scale as you have some experience with success. This will keep your business and any losses manageable.

What have you learned in the process of becoming wealthy that others can learn from?

Being wealthy was never my goal. Like I said, pursuing my passion was and still is. I always wanted to provide for my family. The financial status sort of came once the market started positively accepting my work. That is a great feeling. But being wealthy is organic. It’s open-ended and you have to struggle with the reality that not everyone will like you. My advice to others is to stay humble and realize there’s always something to learn, regardless of the origin nor how big you get.

What form of marketing has worked well for your business throughout the years?

My background lies within the expertise in security and risk management. In this space, relationship building is the best marketing solution. It takes a lot of sweat equity to develop and foster relationships between individuals. However, those relationships will last a long time. In business, I don’t look for ‘one and done’ clients. Developing a trustworthy relationship ensues years of collaboration.

How did your brand stand out from the rest of the other brands out there that is similar to your niche?

Right now, Settle4Success is free and it offers opportunities to connect directly with myself and other business collaborators for one on one advice and mentorship.

What is the toughest decision you had to make in the last few months?

The global COVID-19 pandemic has been tough on everyone and I think many people had to make hard decisions. For me, the hardest decision was to double down on my Settle4Success mentorship and launch throughout this period of uncertainty. S4S requires time and financial resources to launch. I decided to continue moving forward and speed up the launch date because I know there are so many people out there contemplating their careers during COVID and need to consume my information to help them make the changes necessary to succeed.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

The best advice I was given was to always try. Win or lose, you will never have any regrets for trying.

What advice would you give to a newbie Entrepreneur setting up their first business?

When you die, there are two numbers on your tombstone. The year you were born – the year you died. Pace yourself! It is a long, stressful, rewarding road. Enjoy the dash!