Category: Millionaire Interview

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

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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 September 2020 Issue Of Global Millionaire: The Amazing Rafah Hanna

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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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Entrepreneur Of The Week: Meet Uyanga Boldbaatar – The Founder Of Cinderella Beauty Clinic

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Uyanga Boldbaatar has always wanted to become a doctor since childhood and her mother has been by her side since day one helping her to achieve her childhood dream. To achieve this dream, she studied Oral and Maxillofacial surgery in Mongolia, Korea, and the USA, and in 2013, she finally opened her beauty clinic in Mongolia as the culmination of all her hard work. Fast forward to today and Uyanga is now the founder of Cinderella beauty clinic – a clinic that performs cosmetic surgeries and non-surgical treatments and is currently one of the top clinics in Mongolia. Besides being an accomplished entrepreneur, Uyanga also happens to be a model and in fact, she is one of the brand ambassadors for the luxurious OOGII brand.

The Global Millionaire recently caught up with Uyanga to discuss her journey to entrepreneurship and here’s what went down:

What do you like most about being a surgeon?

Surgeons need good organisational ability and effective decision-making skills. We need to be intelligent, skillful, and wiry because we don’t have the option to fail. Usually, surgery is a male-dominated field hence I feel accomplished to be a female surgeon. My profession also makes people happy and self-confident – it’s just like giving them a new life every day and that’s why I love my job.

What is most challenging about what you do?

Plastic surgery is different from other types of surgeries. Usually, physically healthy people can get plastic surgery while people who are injured and functionally abnormal or have some type of congenital disease require reconstructive surgery. Sometimes, we feel bad that we can’t fully reach our goal because many factors can affect the surgical result, but these kinds of cases are few, this is more likely to happen after reconstructive surgery. That said, we’ve always tried to make sure that all of our patients are 100% satisfied.

What do you think is the appeal of surgical specialties as compared to medical specialties?

Plastic and reconstructive surgeons do restore function and normal appearance, as well as congenital deformities on the body. So this job requires medical knowledge and a sense of art from plastic and reconstructive surgeons.

What does it take to be successful and happy in your specialty?

When I make my patients look great and they end up looking exactly the way they’ve always wanted to look, I feel like I am the happiest person on the earth.

If you were to retire tomorrow, what is your most memorable moment as a surgeon?

What an interesting question! I’ve never actually thought about that because I am too young to retire (laughs). But I want Mongolia to be one of the top countries providing plastic surgery when I eventually retire.

How has your specialty changed in the recent past and where do you see it going in the future?

Plastic surgery is developing rapidly nowadays. It is associated with the development of the countries socio-economic growth, globalization, and the growth of the health and beauty industry. Nowadays we can choose any technologies, products, and surgical techniques that we want. It is an opportunity for a better tomorrow. I am quite certain that the things we can only fantasize about in the past will eventually happen in the future.

What advice would you give to medical students interested in your specialty?

Do not ever choose this profession based on your emotional dependency. Think well and plan early. Only consistent people become surgeons. Find out who you are first. Ask yourself if can you stand and take responsibility all the time in the operation room no matter how long the entire operation will be – after that, then make your choice.

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Inside The Mind Of Internationally Recognized Leadership Expert Chris Cebollero

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Chris Cebollero is an internationally recognized leadership expert, bestselling author, Emergency Medical Services leader, and advocate who’s passionate about helping people chart a new direction, even in the midst of the most challenging of situations.

His professional history is showered with process improvement know-how. This knowledge provides executive-level support to achieve aggressive business and personal goals. He brings thought-leadership and over 25 years of organizational design success and his career has been defined by slashing costs and exploding growth in the healthcare arena. In fact, he constructed his healthcare management and small business consulting firm on that foundation.

Some of his key areas of expertise include executive coaching, leadership development, emotional intelligence, change management, Kaizen, Agile & Lean methodology practice, relationship building, business plan creation, organizational process improvement, motivational and keynote speaking, and healthcare/EMS transformation. He has been recognized for his strategic leadership as the Chief of EMS for Christian Hospital, he has been delivering inspiration to international audiences for over a decade as a highly sought-out speaker and he has also been writing bestselling books on leadership.

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

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

The foundation of my career was spent as a paramedic in leading EMS agencies. Being able to manage multimillion-dollar organizations with hundreds of FTE’s gave me the ability to learn the finer points of leading successful and award-winning organizations. As my leadership experience grew, people were now reaching out to me to assist them in developing their leaders and teaching them the finer points of organizational process improvement. In 2014, Cebollero & Associates Consulting Group was started, focusing on Leadership Development, Organizational Process Improvement, and Individual, Group, and Executive Coaching. I am recognized as an International Leadership Specialists, Multi-Number 1 Bestselling Author, and a dynamic and engaging Motivational Teacher.

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

John Maxwell calls it the Law of Process “Leadership Develops Daily, Not in a Day.” One of the biggest mistakes is that we do not invest in our own business and professional development. I am always on the lookout to engage with my mentors, and industry leaders to hear their philosophy, understand their conceptualizations, and analyse the next sets of strategies and directions. In the current pandemic environment, it is paramount to be as fluid and dynamic as possible. We have to polish our processes, become risk-averse, and change with the times.

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

It really depends on the leadership product or service that is being offered. If I am targeting the Executive, LinkedIn is my platform of choice, for the newer leader, Instagram, and the middle manager, Facebook. It is truly paramount for businesses to have a strong social media footprint for new business, bit more importantly brand awareness.

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

I like the PPC model of advertising. Remember, people do no buy products or services. What they buy are solutions to their problems, and it is your products and services that are the solutions to their problem or needs. A big error is that we think the way we market is the way our clients or customers want to be marketed too. But the opposite is true, we have to find the marketing ad that resonates with their needs. If we put an ad online and it gets 5 clicks, we are not reaching our target market. This will cause us to go back to the drawing board and reinvent the wheel. PPC is a great tool for spot-on targeting to the ideal client avatar.

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?

I love offering free content to my present and future clients. I host the Ultimate Leadership Podcast. We have just over 100k subscribers and see 10’s of thousands of downloads. This is a great way to stay relevant and bring brand awareness. If you’re not a fan of the show come on in and join the discussion.

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

I love that we get a majority of our customers and clients through word of mouth. We are a company that develops custom solutions for our clients. It is this service that is appreciated by organizations. Of course, social media platforms are great to share free and paid content.

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

2020 has been an interesting year on many fronts. With the pandemic running rampant around the world, I lost over 50% of clients. When 2020 started, I developed a series of goals for myself and business. It was important to continue along these lines of completing the established goals. Many people are throwing 2020 away as a lost year. This is a big mistake, the businesses that will come out on top are the ones that have used this as a rebuilding, polishing, and setting a new course for future operations.

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

Everyone has a product and service to sell you. In my business and personal life is either investing in these resources that did not meet the caliber of quality they mentioned they would. I wasted lots of money trying to catch the net big wave. Pay more attention to where your investments and funds go.

What new business would you love to start?

I would love to develop a next-generation online leadership academy. In the current times we are in, we are leaning to a more online and virtual business. With that said, if we are to bring more live and virtual training to those who will need it will be a great future business.

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 great question and one that I have tried to remember to share with clients just starting out. My advice is to gain as much knowledge and education you can along the way. This is not just about your job or career, but really becoming a student of business and leadership. One of the most common mistakes by business owners is they do not invest in their own professional development to ensure they are going the best upper hand possible.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

I have to be honest, when I was first starting, I was a wee bit egotistical. The belief of who I was and what I was capable of was blinding. A mentor took me aside and told me this one sentence that totally refocused my direction. Those magic words were, “you are not as important as you think you are. Shut up and listen more.” It was a rude awakening that I was replaceable and needed to earn my value to the team every day.

What advice would you give to a newbie Entrepreneur?

Become a student of your craft, your business model, and the art and science of leadership. Opportunity does not happen by chance, and it is vital for your success that when the opportunity is presented, you are able to first recognize it, second, you are able to analyze it, third, you are in a position to take advantage of what this opportunity means to your business and future success.

if you want to find out more information or contact Chris you can go to his website via this link or email him directly at chris@chriscebollero.com.

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Entrepreneur Of The Week: Meet Stefanie Parks – The Founder Of DermWarehouse

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Stefanie Parks is the founder of DermWarehouse, a leading e-commerce site offering dermatological and skincare products. Stefanie’s digital marketing background and extensive knowledge of skincare products drove her to launch DermWarehouse – a skincare and beauty website, serving customers from around the country. DermWarehouse offers high-quality, professional-strength skincare, makeup, and hair care products as well as expert advice, information, and tips.

MoneyCentral Magazine recently caught up with Stefanie to discuss her journey to entrepreneurship and here’s what went down:

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

I studied marketing at the University of Maryland, and after a couple of years in market research, my brother and I decided to start a business together. The Media Captain is a digital marketing agency that has grown to be one of the largest shops in Columbus, Ohio, where we’re from. Our dad is a dermatologist who opened a practice in Columbus over 30 years ago. After working with many e-commerce clients for The Media Captain, we saw an opportunity to combine our dad’s background with ours and start our own e-commerce site selling skincare and beauty products. That’s how DermWarehouse was born. My brother, Jason, is now running The Media Captain, while my primary focus is on DermWarehouse.

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

We came up with the idea for DermWarehouse back in 2012. That’s when we purchased our domain name and started thinking about launching this new business. It wasn’t until 2016, however, that we started building our website. I was actually living in Thailand at the time, which allowed me the extra time that I needed to dedicate to launching the business. When you visit any e-commerce site, you never think about the work that goes into getting it set up. It took us almost a year to reach out to brands and start forming relationships, add all of the products to the site, and get the website ready to launch. In November 2016, we launched DermWarehouse and have been growing ever since. In the year and a half since we launched, we’ve added over 1,000 products and 60 skincare brands to our website, shipped to every state in the U.S. and have become a top 10 dermatologist-backed e-commerce skincare site. I never could have imagined what running this business would be like and I can honestly say that I feel like I’ve found my calling. It’s a pretty great feeling!

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

We focus heavily on advertising to bring new traffic to the website. We spend a lot of time building our SEO so that our site will eventually rank well organically. We are also constantly adding new brands to expand our customer reach.

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

I am very experienced with paid advertising. We primarily use Google shopping and PPC and this is currently our main source of traffic to our website. We have thousands of different ads running for all of the brands and products that we sell and are always working to optimize our ads and boost profitability. There is always work to be done in terms of optimizing the campaigns to make sure they’re profitable, but yes, the ads certainly do work.

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?

We are in a unique position because we sell brands that many people have heard of. So, even if someone doesn’t know about our company, they can easily find us by searching for the product or brand that they know and love. However, there are certainly other players in the market, so we definitely need to make ourselves stand out. First, our business is owned by a dermatologist. This is very important because anyone can ask a skincare question and get advice from someone who knows what they are talking about and has vast experience with all types of skin conditions. This also gives us access to many brands that not just anyone can sell. For many of the brands that we feature on our site, you must have a dermatologist on-board in order to be able to buy the products. In addition to that, we have excellent customer service. Our customers know that they can reach out at any time and talk to an actual person who is there to help them with whatever they need. Customer service is where we really excel and it keeps our customers coming back to us again and again.

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

Google Shopping and PPC have been the most profitable for us.

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

Since we launched, I was handling a lot of the order fulfillment. In the last few months, we made the decision to hire someone to help with that to free up a lot of my time during the day. It was very difficult to make that move and to let go of a little bit of this part of the job, but it has made a huge difference and allowed me much more time every day to grow the business.

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

With any e-commerce business, there is a lot of inventory involved. It’s tough when you have to order products that you may not know that much about or you’re not sure is going to sell. On the other hand, it’s hard to pass up certain products or brands because you don’t want to spend the money. I’d say my best advice when starting an e-commerce business where you’re selling products from other brands is to try to work with as many brands that drop ship as possible. This will lower your costs significantly and help you figure out what inventory you can move successfully.

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

I wouldn’t have waited so long to get started. As I mentioned, we purchased our domain name in 2012 but did not actually start building our website until 2016. I wish I had another 3-4 years under my belt!

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

The best advice I’ve ever been given was actually by my brother. He told me to make sure that I’m doing something proactive to grow my business every single day. When you own a business, there is always so much going on and it’s easy to get caught up in all of the day to day tasks that you need to take care of. Now, I put aside a chunk of time per day (2-3 hours is my goal) to do something that I know will grow my business. Whether it’s going through our advertising campaign to see where we can expand or cut the budget, working on SEO to grow the business organically, or reaching out to new brands to add to the site, I know how important it is to make sure we are constantly growing.

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

As soon as you decide that you are going to launch a new business, start working on building your SEO. Paid advertising is a great way to get immediate traffic and new customers to your site, but nothing is going to be more profitable or pay off more in the long run than getting that traffic organically. Building up your domain authority to achieve top ranking on Google can take a long time and as soon as you decide that you’re going to start a business, you should begin working on this. When we first decided to launch DermWarehouse, we built a homepage and contact us page for our site. This was over a year before we sold a single skincare product. The reason we did this is that while we were getting the site up and running, we were able to begin building our SEO strategy. Over a year later when we finally did launch, we were so far ahead of the game!

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Bangladeshi Multi-Millionaire Teen Taha Masud Is Changing Lives In Bangladesh By Opening Its First Skill-Sharing Platform

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Prior to COVID-19, Bangladesh was seeing rapid developments in almost any industry one could think of; it was as if every day they were seeing new kinds of services and platforms being introduced to them, and every day they were hearing about new entrepreneurs with brand new enterprises popping up everywhere.  

Amidst all this boom, it was about time that Bangladesh got its first taste of an online skill-sharing platform – and this is where 17-year-old entrepreneur Masud Ashraf Taha from Dhaka enters with a brilliant startup idea – Home Academy BD.

Home Academy is the country’s first online skill-sharing platform that offers international-standard courses teaching a range of courses from cooking to graphic design to business courses, all taught by Bangladesh’s leading professionals in their respective fields. These courses, combined with the most affordable prices and easy payment options, make Home Academy a very attractive venture indeed. But the one aspect that sets them up for success is that the goal of their courses is not only to make you an expert in developing your skills but also to teach you how to capitalize on these skills so you can start earning online and beyond.

Home Academy is all about promoting the laptop-lifestyle in the more traditional Bangladeshi society.

Prior to its rather hasty launch in late May, Home Academy received high acclaim from some local but mostly international media including giants like The Buffalo News, Yahoo Finance, and 20 other such esteemed media companies, all exalting Taha’s startup as the “Next Big Thing in Bangladesh!”

This is definitely a huge title to live up to and so the question arises: Did it live up to its grand hype?

It’ll be a fair call to say it did; it is almost impossible to find anything on Home Academy’s Facebook and Instagram pages except warm testimonies after testimonies from Graduates (Course Buyers), endlessly thanking Home Academy for changing their financial life forever. One testimonial video is even over 5 minutes long. With such feedback from graduates, it is impossible to deny the positive impact that Home Academy has had.

As of July, Taha Masud and his team have already graduated over 200 students from homeacademybd.com. Around 70% of the people – overwhelmingly teenagers and young adults – have reported having already started earning money online applying the lessons they learned from Home Academy’s courses. With such stats to show for, Home Academy can indeed be called the next “big thing” in Bangladesh.

CEO Taha Masud has promised more things in the near future as he is still producing more courses, implementing new marketing strategies, and fixing up systems within the organization – unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has hindered his progress rate along with thousands of businesses all over the world – but he assures everyone that this pandemic might slow him down, but it won’t stop him.

Currently, Home Academy is offering two very lucrative courses – “Dropshipping Business” and “Amazon Reviewer Business” – in fact, the CEO himself is the course instructor of these two courses.

With dozens more premium courses underway, Taha Masud’s Home Academy might just turn out to be more than the next big thing. The odds are definitely in its favor.      

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

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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!

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Entrepreneur Of The Week: Meet Vincent Zurzolo, The CEO Of One Of The Largest Dealership Of Vintage Comics In The World

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Vincent Zurzolo grew up in Rockaway Beach, Queens in New York City. He’s always loved comic books as a kid. He decided to make a business out of something he loves so he began buying and selling comic books with a friend – he was 15 years old at the time. He started at the bottom of the ladder, he was even selling comic books on the streets of Manhattan. When he graduated in 1993, he was selling comic books part-time through school. Six years later he merged companies with his partner Stephen Fishler. After years of working hard, he eventually achieved success and he is now the co-owner of Metropolis Collectibles, the largest dealership of vintage comics in the world. In 2007 they started a second brand called ComicConnect.com which is the premier online auction company in the world and in 2015 they started Metropolis Gallery which is the only gallery in New York City that focuses on comic books and fantasy art.

StarCentral Magazine recently caught up with Vincent to talk about 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 your business?

I grew up in Rockaway Beach, Queens in New York City. I started as a child who loved comic books. I loved everything about them. The stories, the amazing art, the fantastic heroes and villains. I began buying and selling comic books with a friend while in my teens.

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

I’ve been selling comic books since I was 15 years old. I started at the bottom of the ladder, even selling comics on the streets of Manhattan. I worked hard and set goals and I am now the co-owner of Metropolis Collectibles, the largest dealership of vintage comics in the world. I know I would do well but wasn’t sure how I would become #1. I was selling comics part-time through school but when I graduated in 1993, it was only 6 years until I merged companies with my partner Stephen Fishler. From there it was just like Superman, Up, Up and Away!

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

In 2007 we started a 2nd brand called ComicConnect.com which is the premier online auction company in the world and in 2015 we started Metropolis Gallery which is the only gallery in NYC that focuses on comic books and fantasy art.

How did your business stand out?

I believe in our brand. My team is passionate. We believe and know we are the best at what we do. This comes through in everything we do. Our clients know we care about them and treat them with respect and courtesy.

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

We have inventory and auction offerings that are unparalleled in the world of vintage comics and art. Our location in midtown Manhattan makes us easily accessible by the client in the area as well as those flying through. We hold 5 Guinness Records and are ambassadors of vintage comic book collecting and investing including selling the first comic for a million dollars, Action Comics 1 (first Superman) and the world-record $3.2 million for another Action Comics 1.

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

The toughest decision I had to make was whether or not to move into a new area of collectibles. We decided against it and to focus on what we were doing. I am convinced we made the right decision.

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

Looking back, before starting a brand new lease I wish we explored buying a place in Manhattan as the real estate market has exploded.

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

I’ve learned several things. While money can’t buy you happiness it can make life a little easier in certain respects. I feel very blessed in my life. I do something I am passionate about. I have a great partner and team around me. People love investing in and collecting comics and there passion further fuels my passion.

What new business would you love to start?

I would love to start a restaurant. I grew up in the restaurant business. My father was a restaurateur and chef specializing in Italian food. It is in my blood. I know if I wasn’t in the comic business I’d be in the food business.

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

That is a tough question as I feel so blessed with what I have right now. Back in 1996 I started a comic convention business. I left it quickly do to differences with my partner at the time. Looking back on it, I wish I’d have found a way to make it work as it has become a very lucrative business.

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

You should read a lot of them. Some of my favorites are the 1-minute manager, the 4-hour workweek, Who moved my cheese and Tony Robbin’s Unlimited Power CD set. The CD set changed my life.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

My mother always told me I could do anything I set my mind to. My father always told me that knowledge is power. It’s important to know that my parents came to America from Italy with nothing. My father hardly spoke English and worked his way up from being a dishwasher to pizza man to chef and restaurateur. My mother grew up part of her life in an orphanage. She had a very limited education but the wisdom to know how important it was for me to study. Without the love, guidance, and wisdom they imparted to me, there is no doubt in my mind I wouldn’t be where I am today.

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

Believe in yourself, arm yourself for battle with knowledge and an unyielding thirst to succeed. No matter what obstacles you face, overcome them. I started out competing against other dealers who had much more money and knowledge than I did. I saved my money, learned my craft but early on also utilized something I was good at from growing up in the restaurant business – customer service. My ability to give that little extra to my clients has paid dividends throughout my career.

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This CEO Happens To Be The Brains Behind Some Of The Biggest Gym Chains In Australia

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Selena Short’s business acumen was revealed quite early on in her life and in a most unusual way. Short reveals that “as a kid, while others played games, I played shops, would even make up raffles to sell. Actually, I would raffle off my Mum’s frozen chickens, without her knowing about it, sorry mum!”  From that nefarious beginning, Selena Short has built for herself not only an incredibly successful career but one that is full of passion and purpose.

If one hears of a big-name fitness club, chances are Selena Short has had a hand in it.  The New Zealand native holds a Master’s Degree in Commerce from Victoria University in Wellington and has been working in the fitness industry for 18 years.  A fortuitous move to Hong Kong (having previously worked for Air New Zealand as a Business Analyst) gave her the chance to apply for, and secure, a job as Marketing Manager for California Fitness Centres (CFC).  She shares that “over the 7 years with this company, I worked my way up into a senior role as Vice President in charge of Marketing and Human Resources.  I managed an annual marketing spend of over US$5 million and oversaw the HR for over 2,000 employees across 6 countries (Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia).”  When the company was sold in 2005 for a record $1.6 billion US, Short made enough from her shares to be able to make the move to Australia in 2006 and start her first gym.  She reveals that “alongside my husband and business partners Mark Mastrov and Eric Levine we started V Club, a revolutionary concept and a gym that won the best gym in Sydney 4 years straight.  Since then we have grown the business into 10 Crunch gyms across Sydney and Melbourne.”  Selena was also involved in opening the first international locations for UFC Gym and Hard Candy Fitness, the fitness company started by music superstar, Madonna, and her manager, Guy Oseary.

It’s obvious that Selena is passionate about fitness and health.  But the 46-year old is also passionate about, she shares, “seeing people grow in their unique gifts and purpose…we have over 750 in our team who are responsible for close to 55,000 members, I get to equip our teams to inspire and motivate people to live better…I love building strong teams that are on a mission to help people ‘perspire to greatness’…if our business can help someone become stronger and be healthier, then we will have played a part in helping them live their life to the full.”

Massive success has the unfortunate side effect of warping one’s sense of self-worth and sense of entitlement.  But nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to Selena Short.  Take for example her revelation of what has been the most memorable experience of her career so far: “Opening the doors of our first owned fitness club for the first time will always be a defining moment…it is a moment I relive with every new club opening to this day. I am personally on site helping set the club up and finish the final clean! I’m there on opening day and I do the first workout with members. But right before we open our doors I pause and say a little prayer for all the lives we are about to change from that day onwards! It’s powerful, we impact communities!”  This from a woman who has worked with stars such as NBA legend, Magic Johnson; model extraordinaire Cindy Crawford; UFC President Dana White and NBL Australia’s Executive Director, Larry Kestelman!  The half Kiwi/half Cook Islander directly attributes her continued humility and down-to-earth nature to her Christian beliefs – “I believe I am positioned where I am today because it is God’s plan.  All I had to do was obey the signs and work extra hard for it.”

Any successful business entrepreneur got to where they are because there were people who influenced them along the way.  For Selena, these included her business partners, Mark Mastrov (founder of 24 Hour Fitness) and Eric Levine (founder of California Fitness).  But perhaps the most influential, and who provided the impetus for Selena to start her own gym, is movie legend, Jackie Chan.  She fondly remembers “working with Jackie on design concepts for a Jackie Chan-endorsed California Fitness Centre.  He wanted a whole lot of crazy concepts in the club, I was the only one who would tell him ‘no’, but together we came up with some cool ideas!  Jackie spoke life into me, it prompted a confidence in me to move on to start my own business.”  In China, Chan’s philanthropy is as legendary as his acting career.  Short recounts attending Jackie’s 50th birthday party where the action star became annoyed at guests who gave him big, flashy flower arrangements.  He growled that he preferred to be given money – but the money wasn’t for himself.  Selena shares that “he then sent his team out into the party with buckets for all his guests, the who’s who in Hong Kong to take off their expensive watches and jewelry and donate it to his causes.  I love that he is not just about his movies and business, but is driven to help children living in poverty in China.”

The now Sydney-based wife and mother of 3 continue to have big plans to inspire others to ‘perspire to greatness.’  She shares that they “plan to continue to grow our business in Australia and possibly into New Zealand.  We have a few new clubs in the pipeline now.  We are also going into franchising, I look forward to mentoring franchisee owners and helping them build their own fitness businesses.  Personally, I am starting a foundation to help support women and families through health and fitness initiatives.”  And it all started with a few frozen chickens!  But, as Selena shares, you must figure out your ‘why’ first.  She emphasizes to “figure out what it is that you are passionate about.  What gets you out of bed.  What gets you excited.  And go for it!”  She passionately urges others to actively seek their calling, put in the hard work for it, and enjoy the ride – “When things are going well, enjoy it, you’ve probably worked hard for it. When things are tough, don’t give up but fight harder, you are just being shaped for greater things to come.  Love the saying, tough times don’t last but tough people do!”  And there is no better example of this advice than Selena Short herself.

We also asked Selena for some more in-depth business and marketing tips and here’s what she revealed:

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

We use mainly Facebook, Instagram, blogs, and now more on YouTube to engage people through sharing inspiring stories and useful information.

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

Crunch has a unique culture of making fitness fun and affordable for everyone. Word of mouth is our most powerful tool; we ensure our members love the Crunch way especially our “No Judgments” philosophy and our passionate team. We strive to be the best referral business in the universe.

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

In life, you can play now and pay later or pay now and play later. In other words, you can pay the price now to get ahead and improve your life position. You can make the sacrifices now and work harder, give up some of life’s pleasures, go above and beyond and get your qualification, progress your career, sport or business, and enjoy the benefits of progress. Or you can play now and pay later, no career path, confusion in your purpose, and unhappy in your life positioning later.

Be in it to grow! Know your ‘why’ and have a passion strong enough to withstand the challenging times. When it hurts real bad, chances are you are so close to a break-through so don’t give up. And keep a ‘scoreboard’ (in our business this is done daily, monthly, and yearly) to measure actual performance against goals. This makes you accountable and more disciplined around making each day count towards achieving your plans especially the business’s financial objectives. If you do not make money, you cannot grow so what’s the point?

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Meet The Man Behind The Cover Of The Latest Issue Of Global Millionaire Magazine: The Amazing Deven Powers Aka Mr. Hollywood

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Around 18 years ago, Deven Powers had hit rock bottom. Beaten down by life, with shattered self-esteem – his past actions of breaking the law has lead to significant jail time. He was financially, mentally, and spiritually bankrupt. At the lowest point in his life, he eventually realized that a life of crime isn’t something he wants to do for the rest of his life. After months and months of contemplation, he finally decided to pursue a vision of becoming more. In 2003 he made the conscious decision that he’s going to turn his life around by becoming a successful entrepreneur one day – so he began studying and taking classes in business management and consumer science. While he was in jail, he managed to pick up several skills, and one of which is hair styling – he learned how to braid, cut, and style hair. He never in a million years imagine that this particular set of skills would eventually lead to a very lucrative business model.

Along his journey of personal growth and self-improvement, Deven saw an opportunity to disrupt the film festival industry – he somehow found a gap in an established market. There weren’t many festivals in Los Angeles that actually catered to African American Filmmakers at the time so he decided to create a film festival that not only screened independent filmmakers but also applauded them by giving them screening blocks.

Fast forward to today, Deven Powers aka “Mr. Hollywood” is now the CEO and founder of the Black Film Festival Los Angeles, Mr. Hollywood TV Show, Mr. Hollywood Blogs, Mr. Hollywood Magazine, and Discover My Music Radio. He has also been the host of the LA Live Film Festival from 2018 through to 2020. When Deven’s not gracing the cover of magazines or hosting red carpet events, he’s hosting the “Mr. Hollywood TV show” which airs on AT & T, channel 99 in U-Verse, and channel 32 in Charter Spectrum.

The Global Millionaire Magazine recently caught up with Mr. Hollywood to discuss his journey in the entrepreneurial world and here’s what went down:

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

Hi, my name is Deven Powers and I’m The founder and CEO of the Black Film Festival Los Angeles, Mr.Hollywood magazine, Mr.Hollywood blogs, Mr.Hollywood TV show, and Discover My Music Radio. I built my first business “Mr.Hollywood Styles” 10 years ago, as an independent hairstylist mainly braiding and cutting hair. I saved almost every dime I made from the business for a period of 5 years. I was determined to save and I even became homeless at one point in time living in my car just so I can save money in order to be able to invest in The Black Film Festival Los Angeles. My sacrifices eventually paid off because now, my idea is worth millions.

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

My story is actually quite unique. My journey wasn’t an easy one, it began 18 years ago when I was just a young 19-year-old kid sentenced to a stint prison. During my incarceration, I turned my life around and realised that a life of crime wasn’t something I wanted to do for the rest of my life so I decided to make a career change by becoming an entrepreneur. Back in 2003, I began studying and taking classes in business management and consumer science to better myself. by learning the ins and outs of business marketing and consumer spending. Although I was originally trapped under unfortunate circumstances, I made the best out of the situation by turning my life around and becoming a better person and decision-maker. During my incarceration, I picked up several trades – one of them is becoming a hairstylist. I learned how to braid, cut, and style hair. Which would later in life help me to start and invest in my first business. I never in a million years would have imagined that a hairstyling trade would eventually lead to a concept that’s earning millions of dollars in revenue.

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

Online marketing such as adding SEO to my websites, Facebook promo ads, Instagram promo ads, Pinterest ads, TV and Radio commercials, as well as appearances along with magazine promos.

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

My main tactic is effective marketing and presentation. First I have to find a way to market my event to the right audience and I also have to make sure that my brand is appealing to that specific market. For example, if I’m promoting my music I’ll find out what type of music caters to people who are aged between 13-35. I even go as far as doing research and finding out what colour schemes appeal to the audience. I do that by researching other successful brands in my field.

One of my other main tactics is to approach things from a gorilla marketing standpoint. I find a void in a particular market and I target it by providing the need. For example, I would email blast and set up promo ads based on the age and demographics of the target audience.

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

Email promotion. I would gather thousands of emails and send clients up-to-date news flyers. I also use Facebook and the old school word of mouth mixed with building a powerful brand reputation.

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

My brand stood out because for a while in Los Angeles there weren’t many festivals that catered to African American filmmakers. I created a film festival that not only screened independent filmmakers but applauded them by giving them screening blocks.

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

Whether or not to run digital ads or to physically print flyers. Believe or not the old school way of marketing still works.

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

Early on in my career, I used to rely on my feelings when it comes to making an executive decision. But I soon learned that was a bad idea. I’m not going say to my readers and fans to not trust their gut instincts when it comes to making executive decisions because sometimes your gut feeling is right. But when it comes to investing, don’t take anyone’s word for it, please do your research. Take up a few online courses to find out what you can do to improve your business by successfully targeting a market. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of marketing and planning – you can never plan enough. I learned early on that if you fail to plan then you plan to fail. In the past, I failed to create the right business plans which in turn caused me to lose money. I .would have definitely written a stronger business plan so that my weekly, monthly, and yearly goals would have all been properly documented.

What have you learned in the process of becoming wealthy?

I’ve learned that it’s not easy. You’re going to have many sleepless nights and you’ll also run into several unforeseen obstacles. With most of my past businesses, the main issue I ran into was business planning and time management issues. Lots of businesses fail because they don’t market their business correctly.

What new business would you love to start?

I’d love to start a basketball league. I’m in the process of starting a league called the NSBA TOUR.

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 do more business planning and organizing my business structure as well as more brainstorming.

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 not to listen to the haters and dream killers. Remove them from your circle and surround yourself with positive and successful people and spend your money wisely. So many times especially with newer business owners, we invest money in things that we want instead of things that we need. For example, I could purchase a new computer but then a good, used one with up-to-date software can easily get the job done anyway. Make sure you create a list to identify the difference between what you “want” and what the business needs.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

To believe in yourself before others can believe in you. You have to believe in yourself first.

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

Keep God first and pray over your business. Ask God. or your higher power to lead you and guide you in making successful business investments. That’s a secret I’ve learned – you need to manifest your destiny successfully. All great ideas start as a thought first which becomes a word then becomes an action. Which is what I would call the process of creation. Everything in life is all energy so the energy you put out there is what comes back from the universe. Therefore, you need to expect the unexpected. You need to also sure that you have partnership contracts ready to pass on to future investors. I’m going to leave you with this quote: Never give up because if I can make it in business with the odds stacked up against me then you can make it too! To all the readers out there, I represent hope and I’m living proof that you can turn your life around.

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Meet The Man Behind The Cover Of The Latest Issue Of Global Millionaire Magazine: The Inspirational James Purpura

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Around 17 years ago, James had hit rock bottom – beaten down by life, with shattered self-esteem. His addictions had resulted in jail time. He was financially, emotionally, and spiritually bankrupt. At the lowest point in his life, he met his future wife and business partner, Steph, and together they pursued a vision of becoming more.

Along their journey of personal growth and self-improvement, James and Steph saw an opportunity to disrupt an industry that ironically appeared to be perpetually stuck in the dark ages – the personal development industry. As a rag to riches, a non-formally educated, successful tech founder with a serious interest in philosophy, James recognized the uniqueness of his position to disrupt the personal development industry for the better.

Together, James and Steph felt an urgency to pursue their life mission to inspire individuals to tap into their unlimited potential and push humanity forward through a personalized combination of philosophy, science, technology, and community. They agreed it was time to launch their next venture, Powerful U, The World’s First Personal Evolution Company. James and Steph and their team have published a book, produced an award-winning movie, developed a game-changing personal perception assessment, and launched the Powerful Universe, a global platform for teaching and learning personal evolution. James has built strong international partnerships and an influencer network that already reaches over 50 million followers. Onstage and on camera, James is compelling, authentic, riveting and has enriched audiences around the world.

The Global Millionaire magazine recently caught up with James 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 your business?

Only two years removed from solitary confinement in jail, I began my journey into the tech world. In 2007, I took a chance on a small construction software start-up called PlanSwift. I quickly ascended to Vice President of Sales and then, a year later, took over as President and became an equity partner in the company. Under my leadership, PlanSwift grew from $8,000 a month in volume to over $1,000,000 a month in volume and over 50,000 customers in 24 countries, becoming one of the most well-known and largest technology companies in the construction industry.

In 2013, I lead the M & A process to sell PlanSwift to a firm outside of Chicago called Textura. Shortly after joining Textura, I helped the company go public. Over the next few years, I ran four different business units at Textura and played an instrumental role in facilitating a $650 million exit of Textura to Oracle. I spent six months working as a Vice President at Oracle before negotiating the purchase of my original business, PlanSwift, back from Oracle. Again at the helm of PlanSwift, I quickly led the company to generate sufficient revenue to repay the purchasing costs, positioning PlanSwift as an attractive acquisition target. With PlanSwift firmly established, I negotiated a lucrative sale to a large competitor, allowing me to exit and pursue my dream of creating the world’s first personal evolution company.

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

I started my journey to success in a jail cell, solitary confinement as a matter of fact. As I was standing there envisioning what I would make of myself when I got out every night I would yell as loud as I could that I would make the greatest comeback of all time. So yes, I imagined it but believing it took a while.

What is your main source of income?

After selling my technology company, I made some fairly strategic investments, one of which was a large commercial real estate office which is currently my largest source of income.

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

Our business is a little different than most peoples. In an attempt to start a grassroots movement in the personal development space, we’ve spent a lot of time and money to build platforms and services to reach people at scale by facilitating access regardless of their social-economic status. Most of our focus to this point has been geared around impact, not revenue. We believe that by focusing on impact first, generating massive amounts of revenue will be a natural byproduct of the massive impact we create in the world.

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

Mostly Facebook and to a lesser degree Instagram. We believe Facebook still has the largest reach and impact for the population at large.

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

In my original technology company, we did massive amounts of paid advertising campaigns but success in that area is always dictated by having a substantial number of people already searching and looking for your products. Another key piece is having a price point associated with your product that supports that type of advertising model. Lower cost viral type initiatives do not work without massive amounts of investment money to fund those types of companies in the early stages of their development.

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?

To this point, in our new business, we don’t have one because we are just now starting to take our products and services to the market. In the early stages, it’s important to try all of the different tactics to see which ones resonate with your potential customer base.

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

In a business to business software technology with an established market, Google ad words seem to be the most effective. In the early stages of this new business which is direct to consumers, it’s looking like social media marketing is more effective.

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

We strive to have the best quality products and services that are based on solid scientific principles at the most affordable price.

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

In every business that I’ve ever been involved in, there is a point in time that tests your conviction about what you are doing to the ultimate test, and very often it is the difference between success and failure. When you can stand and make a commitment to put it all on the line or more than you ever thought, that is the true test of an entrepreneur. With my new business, that test has come in the last few months as it related to continuing the business in lieu of what is going on in the world with the pandemic.

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

Do not put all of your assets into things that cannot be liquidated easily in an economic downturn. The worst thing that can happen is something like a pandemic that comes along where you find yourself in a cash shortfall even though you have plenty of money tied up in different things like real estate projects.

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

Accumulating wealth is never about doing, it is only ever about becoming which is why so many start-ups end up firing the original founders. They focused all of their attention on what they needed to do rather than what they needed to become and their own businesses quickly outgrew them. The thing you need to know is that your business can never grow faster than you do and if it does you will no longer be a part of it.

What new business would you love to start?

I could tell you but I would have to kill you! No, good entrepreneur give their secrets away. Just kidding! I am already running the business that I have always wanted to start.

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

Put simply, enjoy the journey more.

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?

A simple understanding that not everybody is going to like you.

Do you have any favourite business-related or personal development related books that you can recommend to other entrepreneurs?

Its called “Perception: Seeing is Not Believing” by James & Steph Purpura. Outside of the book my wife and I wrote sharing all of the information we wish we had before learning the hard way, the “Optimal Leader” by Mark Hattas is also fantastic!

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

Success and all of the wonderful things in life were only ever about being of service to others. The way to get what you want is by helping others get what they want.

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

Fail early and fail fast. Don’t be afraid to fail.

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How to Develop a Millionaire Mindset in 5 Simple Steps

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To become a millionaire – this is what many people want to be in their life. It may seem to be too ambitious, but there is nothing wrong about having such a dream. However, as we all know, it is easier said than done. We can all dream of it, but not everyone can achieve it. Your journey towards financial success will not be easy, but if you know how to do it, such will be possible. With this, keep on reading and learn from the insights that we will be sharing on how to be rich. You need to develop a mindset that will help to fuel the realization of your goal.

Visualize and Claim It

If you want to be a millionaire, the first thing that you have to do is to claim it. You need to be focused on your goal and visualize it. I can do it, and I will do it – this should be your way of thinking. You should always stay positive. Emphasize the things that will happen once you have accumulated millions of money. Where should I go? What should I buy? What business should I establish? Thinking about these things will help for you to not lose track of your goal.

Surround Yourself with the Right People

Your external environment will also have a huge role to play. With this, if you are thinking of how to be a millionaire, choose your friends wisely. Be cautious about the people around you. Stay away from those who will drag you down. Be friends with people who will encourage you. Look for an inspiration. By being surrounded with millionaires, you will be more motivated, and you will gain insights that will help you achieve your dream.

Invest Your Money

This is one thing that may seem to be basic, yet ignored by many. To be a millionaire, you must know how to grow your finances. Do not just spend it on anything. You need to carefully choose where to put your financial resources. You need to brave enough to take risks, but make sure that every move is carefully calculated.

Never Stop Learning

Invest in yourself. Read books. Enroll in online courses. Attend seminars. These will provide you with insights on how to be rich, including financial strategies that can prove to be effective. Learn everything that you need to know about market and economic fundamentals.

Rise Up From your Failure

If you fail, this should not be a reason for you to give up. If you want to be a millionaire, you should consider failures as opportunities for learning. Ask yourself about what went wrong, and more importantly, what can be done to prevent failures in the future.

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Inside The Mind Of An Innovative Genius: The Top Secrets To Entrepreneurial Success By Madame Methven

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Meet the woman who has awakened the Dominatrix in every woman through her timeless and sensual lingerie line.

Kaila Methven is the brains behind possibly the world’s most expensive lingerie label, and she’s not only successful she’s also drop-dead gorgeous.

Kaila’s family once upon a time owned The Rainbow Unlimited Chicken Company (RLC), which used to supply 90 percent of KFC’s poultry. After inheriting her family’s sale of RLC shares back in 1991, Kaila decided to step away from the fried chicken business and focus instead on a much sexier line of work: a luxury lingerie company.

At just 16 years old, Kaila interned at her first Paris Fashion Show and went on to earn a Master’s Degree from the International Fashion Academy – Paris. She completed advanced training at Polymodo in Florence.

Kaila has so far been featured in Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, and Maxim and she has dressed some of today’s sexiest stars including the likes of Demi Lovato, Katherine McPhee, The Kardashians, and more.

The Global Millionaire Magazine recently sat down with Kaila to find out more about her entrepreneurial journey and here’s what went down.

How did you become an entrepreneur? Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I’ve always loved negotiating. My parents told me I would probably grow up to be a lawyer, I’ve always had a lot of momentum and drive even as a small child I was always very competitive. I have always been used to calling all the shots, which is something I enjoy even today as a business owner. The creativity involved in running a corporation is something I greatly enjoy on a daily basis as is seeing the ROI (Return on Investment) on all my investments.

How did you get your idea or concept for the business?

I always loved to draw and I was inspired by the fashion industry. When I went to University, I majored in costume design and lingerie, the business was the next step in me working as a designer for myself instead of a worldly corporation.

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

Art inspires me. Love inspires me. So do sensuality and passion. Passion for everything you do is a must otherwise it’s a waste of your time and money.

In one word, describe your life as an entrepreneur.

Divine.

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

An amazing team is the key, plus flexible internal infrastructures and key devotion to time.

How do you generate new ideas?

The world is my canvas. I use everything I encounter as momentum to generate out of the box content. I’m normally the one on my team pushing the envelope and I do this by being open to change.

How did you build up an entrepreneurial spirit, do you believe you were born with it or you developed it?

Both. I was always competitive as a child, but developing real-world experiences definitely helped me perfect the art of winning the game.

What is unique about your business?

I sell a fantasy! Wearable art is the art of seduction and I’m promoting female power with everything I sell to motivate my clientele. My brand grew from couture custom made stage wear into five new contemporary priced collections for mass-market which now includes lingerie, swim, sequins, lace and festival wear.

What sort of marketing do you do to make your image and brand more appealing to the audience?

We do a bunch of stuff from social media, Amazon, ads, parties, and other PR work.

What has been the most rewarding part of your business?

Dressing celebrities and having high-profile clients appreciate my talent as a designer. The pay-off is in my heart and soul. Collaborating with other successful CEO’s is also something I greatly enjoy. I’ve recently been in talks with edm.com and I Want EDM as I prepare to launch my new EDM festival wear collection for 2020.

What was your mission at the outset?

To design couture lingerie, art for the bedroom that induces love and admiration for single people and couples.

What do you hope to see happen in the near future for small businesses in the US?

More female entrepreneurs are something that the USA really needs to succeed. For far too long America has been dominated by men and we women have a lot of talent that is ready to be seen. Men are the tip of the iceberg.

Has your business been recently affected by the COVID-19 crisis?

Thankfully no, but the severity of the effects of COVID-19 worldwide and with the medical industry unable to find a cure for it at the moment has encouraged and motivated me to invest in finding a remedy to help. This is a cause I am so passionate about, as are millions of other people around the world. I want to channel my philanthropic efforts into helping find a cure and potentially saving the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. My charity, “PLUR Association” is also here to help combat the outrageous unemployment rate.

What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs who are starting out?

Be passionate about your goals and dreams, do your market research and hire a driven team that adds value to your master plan.

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Inside The Mind Of The CEO Of A Global Branding And Marketing Firm: Paige Arnof-Fenn

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Paige Arnof-Fenn started a global branding and marketing firm 16 years ago (Mavens & Moguls) after a successful career doing corporate marketing at large companies like Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola followed by heading up marketing at 3 successful startups that all had positive exits. When the company she worked for decided to cut their marketing team, she decided to take the leap right after 9/11 since she had nothing to lose and the rest you can say is history.

StarCentral Magazine recently caught up with Paige to talk about her entrepreneurial journey and here’s what went down:

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

I did not plan on starting a company. I always wanted to go work for a large multi-national business and be a Fortune 500 CEO. When I was a student I looked at leaders like Meg Whitman and Ursula Burns as my role models. I started a global marketing and branding company in Cambridge, MA 16 years ago after starting my career on Wall Street in the 80s, going back for an MBA and having a successful career in Corporate America at companies like Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola and working at 3 different startups as the head of marketing. I took the leap right after 9/11 when the company I worked for cut their marketing. I had nothing to lose.

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

Working for yourself and building a business you started in incredibly rewarding and gratifying. Since starting my business I have joined boards and volunteered at several organizations. I am a mentor to the next generation of leaders and have helped build a very successful anti-bullying program that >50,000 middle school-aged kids have gone through. As a marketing consultant, I am able to write articles, contribute to books and speak at events to share my experience and lessons learned. It has been a lot of fun, I joke that I am an accidental entrepreneur. I knew I had made it as an entrepreneur when Harvard wrote 2 case studies on my business a few years after I started it, we were very early to pioneer sharing resources on the marketing front (before my company it was really only done with HR, legal and accounting/finance). My definition of success has changed over the years but I always felt I would be successful because I knew I would work hard to make it happen.

What is your main source of income?

The majority of the fees come from consulting but I also get paid to give speeches and am a paid advisor to companies as well.

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

Most of my business comes from networking. I think what makes someone effective at networking happens to coincide with things that just come more naturally to them. I am an extrovert and have been told I am good at networking. I grew up in the South so maybe it is both nature and nurture in my case. The traits that work in my favor include: being naturally curious so you ask a lot of question, people love talking about themselves; being a good listener so you can ask them more as follow up; being warm and friendly, smile, be the first to introduce yourself; sending a handwritten thank you note or e-mail referencing something you discussed or including an article you think they might enjoy right after you first meet; and making an introduction for them to meet someone in your network who they would find interesting. When you stop trying to sell and just share what you know and love networking can be fun! People put too much emphasis on trying to be interesting instead of being interested in the other person.

Here are a few networking tips based on my experience it does not need to be a chore:

DO:

Give before you get.

Stop selling start listening.

Find a buddy to go to an event with so you can work the room together, it makes it much more comfortable and fun.

Bring plenty of business cards.

Send followup notes to the best prospects after the event.

DON’T:

Monopolize people’s time or let them do it to you, chat briefly and exchange info so you can follow up after.

Overshare, let them do most of the talking.

Get into political discussions with people you do not know.

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

I stick to LinkedIn and also contribute to other people’s blogs occasionally. Call me old fashioned but I still like the tried and true LinkedIn best. It is the most professional platform, my clients and prospects all use it, it is a great way to stay in touch with your contacts, exhibit thought leadership and do research on people. I like seeing who they are and are not connected to and asking about common interests and people. There is a lot of material there to work with. You do not need to be on every social media site but be strong on the ones you are on. Being invisible online is a very bad strategy. You must exist online today to be taken seriously.

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

I do not use it for my business but I have clients who have found it is effective for them.

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

Thought Leadership is also a great way to build your brand, increase your visibility more broadly, raise your profile and attract more clients. Activities like speaking at a conference, writing articles, building your following on social media all contribute to increasing your awareness with potential customers and building your credibility with a larger community. Instead of trying to start your own blog or newsletter, try contributing regularly to existing well-trafficked blogs in your industry or newsletters of like-minded organizations reaching the same target audience as you. Make sure you put your URL or contact info on it so they can find you and follow up. When your articles or talks become available online, make sure to send them out via social media to all your friends, followers and contacts.

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

Word of mouth, writing articles and speaking mostly.

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

Authenticity, hustle, persistence, and determination. We work hard and love what we do and I think it shows.

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

We parted ways with a client when it became clear that despite our best efforts to delight and service her account she would never be a satisfied customer. The leg work we had done on her behalf we were able to leverage for other women CEOs we are working with so none of the team’s great work went to waste. One woman’s trash is another one’s treasure! Sometimes it is just better to cut bait and move on but it can be hard when you know you are right. Let it go and find the customers who appreciate your work. You will be fulfilled and gratified when you help them achieve their goals.

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

I invested in a startup that folded but that is a risk most of my investments have done well so I cannot complain. You have to make the best decision you can with the info available at the tie but the market can change quickly.

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

Always spend beneath your means and don’t get caught up in trying to keep up with the Joneses.

What new business would you love to start?

If I had a great idea I would start it!

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

Not a thing, I learned from every bump and bruise along the way and it all got me here where I am today. Every bad boss made me a better boss. It is all part of the journey.

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?

It really is a marathon, not a sprint so do not set arbitrary goals like being named 30 under 30 or 40 under 40 because it may take you longer than Mark Zuckerberg to hit your stride and that’s okay. Most people take many detours on their career paths before finding their true calling. Don’t be disappointed if you get to 40 and are still exploring because the journey really is a great adventure so enjoy it.

Don’t be scared to fail, just learn from every bump in the road so you make better mistakes next time, that is where you learn the most! You learn to do by doing. Course correct and pivot along the way, it makes for a fun career path.

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

How To Win Friends & Influence People — it is a classic with timeless advice on manners and people/human nature.
The Tipping Point — I named my company before I read this. He really understands what makes people tick.
Good To Great — another classic that makes you think and ask the right questions every day to build a sustainable business for the long term.
Getting To Yes — I took his negotiations class in business school and this reminds me of what he taught us, we are constantly negotiating in business and you have to always keep in mind what your best alternatives are and be ready to walk away.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

Focus on filling your pipeline, it is the key to any successful business and prospective customers can come from anyone anywhere anytime so you should always be on your best behavior & make a great lasting impression. Be nice to everyone & make friends before you need them, you never know who is in or will be in a position to help! It is true you should never burn a bridge, that really is great advice and I can tell you dozens of stories over the years where that has served me well. You just never know when your paths will cross again with old colleagues, former bosses, etc. Kill them with kindness and don’t ever burn that bridge, trust me it pays off! Also, be the best prepared at every meeting, work your butt off and smile. It has worked for me at least!

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

As far as mistakes go I would caution others that the people you start with are not always the ones who grow with you. The hardest lesson when I started my company was not getting rid of weak people earlier than I did in the first few years of my business. I spent more time managing them than finding new customers. I knew in my gut they were not up to snuff but out of loyalty to them, I let them hang around much longer than they should have. It would have been better for everyone to let them go as soon as the signs were there. They became more insecure and threatened as we grew which was not productive for the team. As soon as I let them go the culture got stronger and the bar higher. “A” team people like to be surrounded by other stars. It is true that you should hire slowly and fire quickly. I did not make that mistake again later on so I learned it well the first time. I wish I had known it even earlier though but lesson learned for sure!

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Meet The Woman Behind The Global Millionaire Magazine’s Latest Cover: The Amazing Brianna Rooney

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Brianna Rooney was initially hired as a recruiter, a career she knew nothing about, yet somehow she managed to thrive in it and even enjoyed every second of it. Two years later, she came to a point where she didn’t feel that the company she worked for was doing her justice. Eventually, she decided to walk out of her job with no plan whatsoever because she just knew she wanted to do better, more quality work – and that’s how Techees was born. Techees is a team of recruiters that collaborate well together and help connect companies and candidates.

Today she’s 34 years old, she owns her own company called Techees, she also has three houses, as well as a  top 100 restaurant (www.mouthfuleatery.com). We recently caught up with Brianna to talk about her company and her entrepreneurial journey 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 a bundle of energy! No coffee has ever entered my body unless you count Dreyers coffee ice cream. I played soccer, swam the butterfly and wrestled in high school. Wrestling was definitely my favorite. I am very competitive, I love playing games, I enjoy dancing crazy and I’m a huge Disney/Disneyland fan.

I was originally hired as a recruiter, which is something I knew nothing about. I thrived in it and enjoyed every second. Almost two years later, I came to a point where I didn’t think things at my current company were being handled the way they should’ve been. I realized how much lives we were changing by recruiting. Before, it just seemed like any sales job. Eventually, it hit me like a ton of bricks – it was so much more. So I walked out with no plan. I just knew I wanted to do better, more quality work. My boss at the time was going to fix the situation and reach out to me by the end of the day Tuesday. I woke up Wednesday morning, there was still no phone call. I was at a crossroads and I felt that I had nothing to lose. I decided to start Techees a couple of hours later. By noon on Wednesday, my old boss called with a solution. I told him it was too late and here I am.

Can you describe your journey to success?

It’s been a long road but it seems to have passed with a blink of an eye. I have made a ton of mistakes. Some financial, some employee hires, managerial issues and I have also been overwhelmed almost the entire time. When I say overwhelmed, I don’t mean that as a bad thing. I was never trained or prepared for my journey. Everything I do, I do with my gut and my instincts. If I misstep, I get back on track as fast as I can and don’t worry about the mess I made. 85% of the time I have been incredibly happy with how Techees has turned out. Most of the time I make decisions lightning speed. There have been a couple of times where took me too long and those are the ones that take up that 15%. I love what I do and I’m so lucky to be surrounded by the people I have in place. The journey to success is more fun than challenging. I think it’s all about how you look at things. You create your positive and everything will go your way, just sometimes you might have to intervene with some hard work.

When did you start?

I started recruiting when I was 22 years old, in 2007.

Did you ever imagine you would become this successful?

I always knew I’d be successful. I always assumed I’d be rich and famous. I don’t know if that’s just something all kids think. Either way, I didn’t only think it, I believed it. I think that’s how things happen. You need to believe you can, and then you will.

What is your main source of income?

My main income is from recruiting. It has been for the last 10 ½ years.

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

I make sure I always do quality work. That’s how you grow your business in recruiting. I have hired up to 8 people. I think that’s a perfect size. We collaborate well and there’s no voice that’s lost.

In the last year, I have been asked a few times to train in-house recruiters of clients I already work with. I have always known that recruiters as a whole, aren’t trained well. That’s why Techees always had the upper hand. I very much believe in the fundamentals. My colleagues, Emily Stellick, Ben Markowitz and I, all decided this was happening too often. It was good money and great exposure for us. However, we didn’t have enough time to do what we love; and that’s recruiting. We decided to make our training accessible to the masses and change an industry for the better. In about two weeks, our 3-hour e-course will be available for the World.

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

Recently I have been using Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to get The Millionaire Recruiter name out there. That’s where we’re featuring the e-course, the book I wrote, articles I’m featured in, and other fun things.

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

I actually haven’t done any paid advertising or content campaigns.

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?

With Techees, our reputation has been through word of mouth. Really there is so much business out there for recruiters, we have never had a hard time. Either they find us, or we find them. When you do great work, especially within an industry that has an awful reputation. It seems to be fairly easy to stand out. We make sure to get recommendations on Linkedin and we have a nice client list we don’t mind sharing.

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

Again, we haven’t done any marketing. I know with The Millionaire Recruiter we will start that soon. With getting my name out there as The Millionaire Recruiter, that will surely get Techees name out there as well. Techees is the foundation The Millionaire Recruiter was built on.

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

Techees doesn’t spam resumes, we don’t force companies down candidates throats and we make sure to keep in touch throughout the process on both sides. Techees is great at finding the specific candidates our clients are looking for. We don’t compromise quality with quantity. We’d rather send one amazing resume a week than 8 “just okay” resumes.

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

The toughest decision I’ve had to make is the one to go forward with being an influencer. I’m putting myself out there, my work, my beliefs and so much more. I love my industry and I love what I do. I have developed a phenomenal company, fantastic employees and an overall great culture. I have industry “secrets” that I’ve kept close. Yet, now I’m releasing them. I have mixed feelings. At the end of the day, I want to give back to an industry that has treated me so well. I believe in what we do and I want to make an impact in the lives of current recruiters and in the lives of people that I will be getting into it.

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

I wish I lived somewhere in between the Brianna at 24 and the Brianna now, at 34. Each year I make more money, therefore, each year I spend more and more money. I do have 2 kids now so I blame them. I wish I saved like I didn’t have money. I know many people in my life that on paper, doesn’t do as well financially. Yet, I’m sure they have a lot more money saved. The problem is, I’ve always been a spender. Even when I didn’t have money to spend. So now that I have money to spend, sometimes I don’t make the best choices. However, I do believe in “living”. You only get one try, so you might as well go for it. You can’t take your money with you. My advice is, don’t live like you’re broke, but don’t live like you’re rich.

What new business would you love to start?

I have many businesses I’d love to start. I get itchy to do things. I would say right now, the one I really want to do is a Nerf Gun Play Place. My son is 4 and he loves nerf guns. It’s really fun. We set up forts, targets and also have drawing contests of the Nerf guns we want to invent. He gets really creative with all of it. I think it’s great for kids to be able to get wild, think strategy, and build teamwork in an environment that is safe. We’ve done the laser tag thing which is fun. Paintball is too dangerous and expensive. So the in-between for us, and I think ages 4-Adult, would be Nerf. Fun for the whole family. Plus, I’d be the coolest mom in the World.

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

If I could have gone back in time, I wouldn’t have made my business partner a full partner. I also would have had a well thought out buyout agreement. We parted ways almost two years ago.

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?

If I could go back in time, I would have branched out and made my name known earlier on. I would have met with more and more clients in person and gone to meetup groups. I was either shy, lazy or both. I never liked technology, even those it’s the industry I work in. Or I should say, I don’t like social media. Yet, social media is so powerful and I should have taken advantage of it a long time ago. Networking is crucial, and I wish I would have told myself that years ago.

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

I stumbled upon Grant Cardone’s “Millionaire Booklet”. It’s a quick, no BS read. I like how he addresses our society not being in favor of talking about money. Yet, that’s what makes the world go round. People think lower of you if you flaunt your money. Or want to dislike you if you’re super successful. Really, people just want to make themselves feel better for not reaching the success you did. I don’t know why people can’t just be happy and motivated by you. This booklet put a fire under my ass that I was very much needing. You go through your career in waves. This is my high tide and I’m ready.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

My stepdad has had his own business for 30 years now. He always says, “What’s the worst thing that can happen? You can always make more money”.

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

Just do it! Don’t let fear get in the way. Channel that fear into the drive you need to get things done. Set your dreams/goals right away. Pick five things you want to accomplish this year and have laser focus. Write them down daily, put them on a post-it for you to see often. Repeat your life goal in your head over and over again. It’s all about making sure you yourself, believe in what you’re trying to accomplish. Never ever worry about making a mistake and failing. You will make many. Just make sure you learn and never make the same mistake twice. Last but perhaps the most important. Make sure you celebrate and acknowledge your accomplishments. If you don’t celebrate the highs, you won’t know what a low is.

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Find Out More About The World’s #1 Expert In The DIY Sewing Revolution

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With over 2.1 million social media followers and 12 million website views annually, DIY Fashion Expert/Girlboss Mimi G has defied all odds to emerge as the most influential woman in DIY fashion, propelling herself into the ranks of Martha Stewart, Lauren Conrad, and Chrissy Teigen.

MimiGStyle.com began as a hobby, and has blossomed into the world’s leading DIY fashion/sewing online destination, where Mimi G models her original designs/patterns ranging from business wear to swimsuits that fit the everyday girl, create free tutorials of her on-trend sewing patterns (Turn Your Jeans into a Skirt, Refashioned Sweatshirt into Dress, Men’s Shirt Into Off Shoulder Button Up), personally answers every DIY sewing question (i.e. what fabrics to buy, what projects to start with, etc.), and so much more. She also created the world’s #1 online sewing school SewItAcademy that works for everyone from the first-time sewing novice to the expert seamstress. SewItAcademy helps fashionistas of all levels master the fundamentals of sewing, work at a pace that allows time to practice, learn the importance of specific techniques, break free from mundane methods, and create trendsetting clothing and accessories.

Mimi G has worked with celebrities like Gwen Stefani and Jennifer Aniston, companies like Target, Revlon, and Google, and has been featured in People Magazine, Parade Magazine, POPSUGAR (to name a few) for making sewing hip and accessible.

Global Millionaire Magazine recently caught up with Mimi G to talk about her journey to entrepreneurship and here’s what went down:

Could you please provide a background about yourself and how were you actually ‘discovered’?

Well, I am a mother of four and a serial entrepreneur who took her love of sewing and shared it with the world. I overcame sexual abuse as a child, domestic violence, homelessness, teen pregnancy and came out at the other end of with a clear vision for my life. I spent many years struggling to make ends meet and working 16 hour days in a field I liked but knew wasn’t my calling. I did the best I could to feed my kids and keep a roof over their heads like many of us do until I started this thing called a blog back in 2008. I didn’t know what a blog really was so those first few years were really just a time of discovery. It wasn’t until 2012 when I decided to blog consistently and launched Mimi G Style, Inc. that I started to focus my energy on teaching and providing tutorials. It was fun to teach people how to make their own clothes when they had never even considered it. My blog grew rather quickly and after that first year I was averaging about a million page views, I quit my job a year and a half in and now 8 years later we reach nearly 12 million people a year and have over 12,000 students in Sew It Academy. It’s amazing. I don’t know that I was “discovered” because there has been so much that has happened in the last eight years that people didn’t see. Growth, planning, strategies, luck, lol but I owe my success to the people who follow and support and share me with friends and family. Starting a business is not something that happens overnight and I feel like I am just getting started.

What do you like most about blogging?

I like having the ability to reach millions of people by sharing my love of style and sewing. It serves as a great journal of sorts to look back and see all that I have done and it’s the way I market new products to my followers so it keeps everything in one place and consistent. Blogging is different now, we like fast information which is why social media is so powerful so you have to really understand the benefits of having a blog and how to use it even with the ever-changing social media climate.

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Can you tell us about your Style & Sew It Academy?

I think my style is always changing, I have moods and I dress according to how I feel. I like simple, easy to put on looks that require little to no fuss. I am a jeans and tee kind of girl but will throw on a cool jacket or cool shoes to take the look up a notch or two. I love clothes and I love shopping but to be honest, shopping can be a little stressful if you are not a sample size or, if like me, have a 10” difference from my waist to hips. That is the reason I started sewing again in my 20’s, I wanted my clothes to fit right. It is also the reason I started Sew It Academy.

I launched Sew It Academy in May of 2016. I founded Sew It Academy to help people who wanted to learn sewing and fashion design but couldn’t afford to go to a traditional design school. I set it up so that you didn’t need any experience to start and just about anyone could afford it. The first course is me showing you what a sewing machine is! (laughs) For the price of two lattes a month we teach you everything you need to know to make your own clothes, fix clothes that don’t fit off the rack, work and design your own collections or work in the fashion industry. There is a ton of free info on YouTube but not all of it is good. I wanted somewhere that had structure and really taught people fundamentals that they could build on. There is no online sewing and design school that offers the variety that we do. We teach sewing, pattern making, draping, fashion illustration for both menswear and womenswear and above all it’s affordable.

What sort of person usually follows your blog and YouTube channel?

Who’s your main audience? I have a very big mix of people who follow me. The youngest I have met was 8 and the oldest was 80 and everything thing in between. Sewing and DIY is something that in my experience has appealed to a wide variety of people. I think in general people follow for the style, for my personality, for sewing or just because they are intrigued that I can make my own clothes. (laughs) I have a very large black and brown following and that is important to me because as a woman of color and a Latina I am always aware of how important it is to be seen and to see yourself represented.

What’s the biggest challenge of running an online business?

There are a lot of challenges when running a business in general and a lot of what I do happens online but the overall challenge is creating content on a regular basis. You have to be visible and stay visible in order to reach people and make an impact among so many other people. My focus is always around creating engaging and visually appealing content. It can get a little difficult when you feel like your whole life is an opportunity for content but that is the world we live in and certainly the way you need to approach an online business if you want to have continuous success.

Have you always wanted to be in the fashion industry?

No, not really. I have always loved to sew and design but I didn’t know how that was going to transpire in my life. It wasn’t until I was in my late 20’s that I decided I wanted to be a “fashion designer” I went through the process of creating a collection in between my full-time job and even put it on the runway here in LA but after that experience, I knew that although I felt accomplished I didn’t want to spend my time trying to sell a collection. There is a lot more to being a fashion designer that people realize, you have to market and sell your line and very little time is spent doing the actual designing. I love the process of creating garments so after starting my first DIY blog and sharing how-to videos that what I really enjoyed was teaching. I won’t say that I don’t want to do retail at some point because I think I do and will but I can now choose how I want to do it.

What’s your personal mission in life?

I have many, but my main personal mission is to be a great mother, I want to be an example to my kids and have a lasting impact on people I know and those that I don’t. I have worked hard to show my kids that you are more than your circumstances and that the power to be great is found within. I want them to see that despite my struggles I am able to make a positive impact on the world. I have a million friends in my head, all of whom follow me and support me and although I don’t know them all personally I want them to feel empowered and inspired by what I have to offer. My mission in life is to be the best person I can be.

What has been the most memorable experience of your career so far?

I have had so many! but at the end of the day, the most memorable moments have been when someone recognizes me not the street and wants to share their story with me or take a pic. Every time I meet a follower I am reminded at how amazing my life is and how fortunate I am. I have one story who stays with me always. I got an anonymous email from a woman who shared that she had just gotten out of rehab and was in sober living housing. She told me that she had once been a professional engineer with a great career, her own home, a nice car and little girl who she loved. She met a man, fell involve and that was the beginning of a very difficult road. The man she had met and was now sharing a home with was addicted to drugs and had introduced her to them. She became an addict, lost her job, her house and eventually her daughter. She said it took her a long time to get her life together but she did. When she graduated into sober living she was not he computer looking something up and came across my blog. She shared that she spent hours looking through my blog posts and that I seemed to jump off the page, she said she felt like she knew me. She started learning to sew with my videos and that new hobby she was learning from me helped keep her sober. She is now a coupler and travels sharing her story. She ended her letter to me by sharing that now when she speaks to groups she talks about a DIY blogger that helped save her life and she has no idea who I am. I still don’t know who she is but I think of her often and wish her well. My blog started as a place to make cool things and learn but over time it has become a safe place for people to find themselves and many times heal.

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

I have had the pleasure of sitting with celebrities like Jennifer Aniston, Gwen Stefani, and Tim Gunn but the most interesting people I have met so far are fans who have had amazing journeys since learning to sew. So many of them have started small businesses, created additional revenue for their families and have even changed careers. I am forever amazed at the stories I hear and how many exceptional people have been brave enough to share their lives with me.

How active are you on social media?

I am pretty active, I post daily and sometimes more than once a day depending on the platform. It is my way of staying connected and engaged with my followers. I spend a lot of time building the sewing/DIY community so I make sure to stay visible and present.

What is your favorite social media platform?

I love Instagram! It is the easiest and fastest way for me to communicate with everyone and to also share the side of me they don’t always see on the blog.

What are your future plans? Inside your career or out of it.

I have so many plans! I am looking to continue growing my business podcast where I get to share all the business advice I wish someone would have shared with me before I became an entrepreneur. It is geared toward people looking to start a business from a hobby or passion. Business SHET (solve, help, earn, trust) has had over 190,000 downloads in less than a year and I am hoping to continue providing resources. I am also finishing my long-overdue book. I also have a few surprises up my sleeves that I can’t share just yet but it will be really exciting.

The ‘LIGHTNING FAST’ Round:

1. Last good movie I’ve seen: Judy with Renee Zellweger was amazing!

2. What do you consider beautiful and why? Laughter. There is something incredibly beautiful about joy and how people express it.

3. What haven’t you done yet that you wish you could? I would love to sit with Ellen DeGeneres and teach her to sew!

4. Complete this sentence: “If I had no fear, I’d…” go hang gliding in Hawaii.

5. What is the one “flaw” you wouldn’t change about yourself? I tend to procrastinate but I work great under pressure so I think I’ll keep it.

Degustation,,Tasting.,Man,With,Beard,Holds,Glass,Of,Brandy.,Tasting

“How This Woman Made The Leap From Motherhood To Becoming A Successful Entrepreneur

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It all started in 2006 when SPIbelts Founder, Kim Overton, went for a run with nowhere to comfortably hold her key. Afterward, she went home and assembled the first SPIbelt. After months of hard work, development, and patenting, SPIbelt officially launched in February of 2007 out of Kim’s Austin, Texas apartment.

Eleven years later you can find SPIbelt products in over 40 countries. Despite SPIbelts international success, its headquarters remain in Austin, Texas where the majority of their products are still being handmade.

StarCentral Magazine recently caught up with Kim Overton and here’s what went down:

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

My name is Kim Overton, I’m from Austin, TX and a mother of three young boys ages 2, 6 and 7. I launched my company, SPIbelt, 11 years ago after having the annoying experience of jogging with my keys tucked into my bra top. The idea for the SPIbelt hit me like a lightning bolt while I was on a run, I went home that afternoon and made my first prototype. Five months later I filed a patent and officially launched my business.

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

After launching my company in 2007, I worked as many hours as I could until needing to hire help. At that time I hired my brother to help with sales. About one year after launch, I was featured on the Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, which gave us great exposure and lead to more press. Our brand took off quite rapidly after that.

I have always been driven to work for myself and approach every idea and company with full passion and conviction. I knew early on that that SPIbelt was different, so I did envision mass distribution.

What is your main source of income?

SPIbelt sales through international distributors and domestic retailers.

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

We are currently expanding our line for our customers to have more products to choose from.

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

We utilize Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest for brand awareness.

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

PPC works to an extent but the algorithms change constantly. We find that shared customer experiences on our social outlets are one of the driving forces for sales and awareness with our products.

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?

We appreciate the user experience the most. Anyone can pay for ad space and expensive marketing, but the real user experience is authentic and invaluable.

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

We launched before FB was a viable platform for businesses, and not that is fading. So we have learned that staying flexible and knowledgeable about what our customer’s habits are is the best way to grow.

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

Our products are sleek but expand a lot! Other phone holders were big and bulky while our stays slim and tight to the body and looks good at the same time.

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

How to divide my time between taking my company to the next level, and being a dedicated mom and wife. It’s a tough balancing act.

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

Investing in a marketing campaign that I knew little about and had little experience with. Early on I produced a mini commercial that the world wasn’t ready for, but cost me $30K.

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

Try to not spend what you think you can sell. In other words, if your customers will buy about $10,000 worth of products in one month, you don’t need to have $50,000 sitting on the shelf for the month. Try to invest in what you think you can turn around in a short amount of time when you are in growth mode.

What new business would you love to start?

I’d love to start a business with my husband that allows us to combine our passions of being parents with helping others. We have one in mind that we’re currently working on! Stay tuned.

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

Nothing. I’m grateful for the journey I’ve had. But if I must pick, I would have let people go quicker than I did. Having the wrong people on the bus can really suck the life and opportunity out of your business. Learn to let people go when needed, you are also doing them a great big favor.

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?

Meditate on a daily basis and keep an exercise routine consistent, no matter what.

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

When starting out, “Think and Grow Rich”, when established, “Traction.”

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

To remember, God made us with eyes in front of our head, not the back. Keep your eyes forward, look ahead! Don’t worry about the past.

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

Identify your customer base and where they are. Go to them and test out your product, your concept, talk to people before spending too much time and energy in one direction just to find out that’s not what the masses want. And launch without waiting for “perfection”, because no one idea will ever be perfect for everyone. Launch when you’re as close to perfect as you can get for the real potential customers you’ve spoken with.

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Rising Entrepreneur Spotlight: Introducing Kiedra Tyson – The CEO Of PR firm, B3 Face Forward

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Kiedra Tyson kickstarted her career by doing basic internships and promo work for a radio station. From there she continued to network, find opportunities and try different paths until she found one that worked for her. She has now been in the industry for over ten years and she never imaged she would be this successful in her chosen field.

StarCentral Magazine recently caught up with this inspiring entrepreneur and here’s what went down:

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

My name is Kiedra Tyson, I have a PR firm called B3 FACE Forward. I started my company after working in the advertising and marketing field for years. I realized that if you can help to advertise and market a small business you can do the same for a person or a brand.

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

My journey has been a long one. I have been in the industry for over ten years. I started off doing basic internships and promo work for radio. From there I continued to network, find opportunities, growl, build and tried different paths until I found one that worked for me. I never imaged I would be this successful especially since growing your own business always has its ups and downs.

What is your main source of income?

My main source of income comes from the retainers my clients pay.

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

To maintain my customer base and business. I remain consistent and never offer something I can’t deliver. I have been very blessed and fortunate not to be forced to advertise. Because our client list is mainly high profile, I mainly deal with referrals. Sometimes I have more than I can handle.

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

I mainly use Facebook for social media awareness. I use Instagram mainly for the person.

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

I use to be in advertising and marketing so I have a lot of experience with PPC and sponsored campaigns. Depending on the type of client or customer base depends if it works. It’s not for everyone or everything. I use it if I am having an event. Facebook ads are great for targeting a specific audience.

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 main tactic to make more people aware of my brand is actually press. I have been working with the press to continue to grow the brand and help with SEO.

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

The forms of marketing that have worked the best for my company have been word of mouth and social media advertising.

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

Our brand stood out from the rest by the type of clients we have and the work we do.

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

I had to terminate a clients agreement for nonpayment. It was hard because I really like her and wanted to see her be successful but I had to let her go because business is business.

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

I have a business partner who I love because we are both very passionate about what we do but we did not set clear expectations or finical splits and responsibilities especially seeing this has been my way of life for a while and we merged companies. I would highly recommend making sure you clearly define your roles and responsibilities from the beginning.

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

I have learned being humble goes a long way.

What new business would you love to start?

I actually started the one I wanted today. I started B3 Face Forward Publishing company. That focuses on songwriting and publishing.

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 establish more business credit from the beginning. I did it 5 years into running my company not even thinking about it. I would cut out more defined for people within the company. I would also establish a mentorship program from the beginning.

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?

When I first started out I didn’t have set prices because I wanted all the business so I would work with whatever budget someone had.

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

I highly recommend The is World is Flat by Tom Friedman. It focuses on how globalization affects the market.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

To define our company roles.

Initially, my business partner and I were running around both doing the same thing. This caused us to start working against each other. It was horrible. Once we defined our roles in the business it allowed us to work smarter not harder.

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

I always tell newcomers that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Growing a business is a process and if it’s your passion then you need to stay with it.

Degustation,,Tasting.,Man,With,Beard,Holds,Glass,Of,Brandy.,Tasting

Interview With A Millionaire: Meet Kelly Bagla, Esq.

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Kelly Bagla, Esq. is a highly successful professional and entrepreneur. As an attorney, she is considered the Queen of Business Law and has been shattering glass ceilings for 16 years. She is a dynamic powerhouse with an amazing business and professional track record of success. Kelly is the founder of three successful businesses, as well as a best-selling author of Go Legal Yourself.

The Global Millionaire Magazine recently caught up with Kelly Bagla and here’s what went down:

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

I knew at the age of 5 that I wanted to be an attorney. I became the first attorney in my family and started my legal career with the largest international law firm in the world. Working for that law firm and learning from some of the brilliant legal minds, definitely allowed me not only to sharpen my wits and become a top attorney well versed in the law but particularly well versed in many areas of legal specialty. Due to the knowledge and experience I gained at being at one of the largest law firms, it allowed me to start my own law firm. Today, Bagla Law Firm, APC., is a successful firm that helps hundreds of business owners with setting up their business for success. I am the creator of the Business Legal Lifecycle® and the author of, “Go Legal Yourself!” which is specifically written for business owners, showing them how to legally protect their business in every phase, be it startup, to growth, or established to exit.

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

Following my passion has been the secret to my success. All I ever wanted to be was an attorney but not just an attorney, one of the best that made a difference to her clients. Attorneys have such a bad reputation that I knew I wanted to be the attorney people wanted to call. I provide hands-on service and I actually care about the success of my clients. Repeating this service and always providing solutions became constant at my firm and before I knew it, my clients were referring me to their family, friends, and associates. It took me 5 years to climb the ladder of success and become a trusted name in law. My clients affectionately refer to me as the “Queen of Business Law” and I wear that title with pride. I have also been recognized as one of the Top Women Entrepreneur, by LA Dreams magazine.

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What is your main source of income?

As a successful business owner, you are always thinking outside the box and therefore, always thinking about another way to make money. I, too have created other revenue channels and some of these revenue sources are my law firm, my Go Legal Yourself business, my book sales, my speaking events, and the royalty stream I receive from my invention.

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

You never give up or stay stagnate in your business. I constantly think about ways to make my clients lives easier and as a result, I founded my second business called, Go Legal Yourself where I sell Startup Essentials Kits, for people that want to start their own business. Currently, they have two options, one is to get their legal documents from a law firm, which can be very expensive, or do it your self online, but the problem with that is you don’t know what you need or have the time to research. That is why Go Legal Yourself was born to provide everything a startup needs for one flat rate.

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

There are multiple social media platforms out there and some people think it’s important to be on all of them. As a busy business owner, you don’t have time to waste. I have found LinkedIn and Facebook to be effective when creating awareness for your brand.

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

As business owners, we don’t have money to throw ways on advertising that does not work. Paid advertising can be a great tool to use but it depends on your business and your target market. Do your homework first to find out if your clients can be found by these types of campaigns.

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

Branding is everything today because that is the only way you can stand out from your competition. My favorite quote comes from the Guru Granth Sahib: “Why blend in when you were born to stand out,” and this is how I have lived my life. Be yourself and stay consistent as this is what people remember. As an attorney, I am supposed to be conservative, dress in a plain suite, have a traditional plain name and logo for my firm. Well, these are things you will never see me follow. I stand out because I have branded myself as the “Queen of business Law” with a memorable logo, and clients love to see things that are not traditional or boring. Clients are more likely to connect with someone that is genuine rather than someone that blends in.

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

The only true form of marketing that has worked well for me is being consistent with my services. By providing excellent service and treating each client as if they are your only client goes a long way. Your clients become your marketing tools and word of mouth is the highest form of marketing any business owner should thrive towards.

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

I can honestly say that there is no other attorney that is marketing themselves like me. I have always looked outside the box or created my own box when it came to competing with my competition. There is a certain level of risk involved in making decisions that are not your industry standard, but that’s why not everyone can own their own law firm or start their own business. Don’t follow your competition, create your own path to greatness.

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

Running a successful business requires you to make difficult decisions and one of those decisions is to hire the right people. When it comes to hiring make sure you hire slow and fire fast because having someone on the team that is not a team player can be draining on your business. You should always look for people who believe in your brand and are willing to represent it willingly.

Business Branding San Diego

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

Be wise with your money when first starting out. You are going to need a lot of things for your new business but make sure you prioritize. I made the mistake of hiring people before revenues started to flow in and I was constantly dipping into my savings to pay for them. Never hire anyone if they cannot produce is the lesson I learned.

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

Rome was not built in a day, neither will your business. If you are determined to become successful stay true to you, your brand and your customers, the rest will follow. Never give up on your dreams as others will tell you that it’s a bad idea or it will never work or there is too much competition. Love the competition as it says there is a need for your services or products.

What new business would you love to start?

I have a very creative side to me and I have taken full advantage by putting it into practice. The second business I have started is called Go Legal Yourself, as my passion is truly to help entrepreneurs succeed and by providing them the right legal tools to start their business I’m helping them lay a solid legal foundation from where they can build their business.

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

I have been practicing business law for over 16 years now and I have had my own law firm for 8 years. As any business owner would relate to, when we first start out, we make mistakes because we didn’t know any better. But if I had the chance to do it differently I would use my time wisely in connection with networking and joining organizations. I would also have saved enough money to spend on marketing and created by the brand earlier. As the saying goes, better late than never.

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

As business owners, it is critical to continue to gain knowledge so you can always be redeveloping yourself and becoming better than the day before. The best way to do this is to read a few easy books that are geared towards helping you become a more knowledgeable business owner. Here are a few of my favorites: The Birth of a Band. Launching your Entrepreneurial Passion and Soul, by Brian Smith, How to Win Friends & Influence People, by Dale Carnegie, Make Your Bed. Little things that can change your life …and maybe the world, by Admiral William H. McRaven, and Go Legal Yourself, by Kelly Bagla, Esq. I would be remised if I did not mention my upcoming book called “Go Own Yourself,” which will be available on Amazon in June 2018.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

The best advice I have ever been given was by my father – If you want something, make sure you want it from your heart, otherwise, don’t bother. I have lived my life by these words and that is what has lead me to success.

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

Before you consider starting your own business make sure you have a business plan, which addresses questions such as, what kind of business do you want? where are you going to find your clients? how are you going to market your products or services? and the biggest question you need to answer is: how much money are you going to need for the first year? Remember to stay true to yourself and go get it with your heart!

Degustation,,Tasting.,Man,With,Beard,Holds,Glass,Of,Brandy.,Tasting

Interview With A Millionaire: Introducing Kyle Golding – The CEO Of The Golding Group

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kylegolding

Kyle Golding is a born entrepreneur who started his first business as a teenager. Over his 30 year career, he has owned and operated businesses in multiple industries. Golding has positioned, marketed and managed musicians, start-ups, small businesses, corporations and nonprofits to local, national and worldwide success. He is the CEO and Chief Strategic Idealist for The Golding Group, an award-winning think tank of strategy, business process management (BPM) and marketing integration experts with offices in Oklahoma City and Philadelphia. Golding specializes in the activation of data for successful business strategy, tactics and measurement.

Golding is also the CMO of a Medtech startup VORTTX Training and Testing, which provides online virtual tabletop exercises for healthcare facility emergency response training. He owns Share Furniture, was a former partner (purchased 2017) at 1219 Creative Co-Work Space + Art Gallery and has invested in and consulted for numerous start-ups and venture projects. Kyle is quoted in Entrepreneur Magazine about “what it takes to be a creative entrepreneur”.

Known as a dynamic public speaker, Golding delivers business advice and motivation via his No BS style of communicating as the host of the Beers And Branding live events, co-host of The Golding Group #NeoMarketing podcast and his #SaturdayMorningHustle social media videos.

We recently caught up with Kyle to talk about his company and his entrepreneurial journey and here’s what went down:

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

Over my 30 plus year career, I have owned and operated businesses in multiple industries. I have positioned, marketed and managed musicians, start-ups, small businesses, corporations and nonprofits to local, national and worldwide success. Most of my time is spent as CEO and Chief Strategic Idealist for The Golding Group think tank with offices in Oklahoma City and Philadelphia. The Golding Group provides strategic, sustainable growth through business process innovation & marketing integration. We build organizations from the inside out by providing expertise in all phases of operation, specific to each of our client’s needs. Our focus is providing expertise to increase income, decrease cost and improve overall efficiency for our clients.

Along with being a partner in The Golding Group, I also own Share Furniture, a partnership in 1219 Creative Co-Work Space + Art Gallery (sold in 2017), Co-Founder and CMO of VORTTX Training plus invested in and/or consulted for numerous start-ups and venture projects.

I started The Golding Group for two main reasons: I was tired of working for people who had no idea what they were doing and I knew there was an opportunity for a new way of providing valuable services to clients other than the current industry model.

Since 1998, I worked in corporate marketing. I started at the bottom as a junior graphic designer. I moved up the ranks by adding skills and experience. Eventually, I worked my way to the Director level. This allowed me to be watch top-level decision making, but not influential or participate in the process. My frustration began when I realized almost everyone above me on the corporate ladder had not earned their way to the top (the way I had). Most didn’t know what they were actually doing other than keeping their boss happy. No one was actually trying to create products, processes or actions that would create value for the company. Ultimately, I was stuck working for people who were not smarter or more talented, had no ambition to actually do what was needed for company success and were simply there to collect a paycheck. This is what motivated me to consider taking the risk of going out on my own.

The second half of the equation was my frustration as the client dealing with advertising agencies and PR firms. The MAR-COM industry mostly works in a traditional model of billable hours and media buying commissions. Campaigns are created to make work for the creative team and scheduling media the agency can bill the client for and get a commission from the provider. Too much of this work is based on making the client feel important, with flashy creative work not based on market conditions. The behind-the-scenes marketing work of research, strategy, and positioning is not sexy at all but the most effective way to create real value for a business. I knew this lack of attention to this important work is where my opportunity was. That was the idea for what would eventually become The Golding Group.

Can you describe your journey to success? When did you start? Did you ever imagine you would become this successful? I started my first business at 15, even though I didn’t know I was starting a business. I definitely didn’t know what it meant to be an entrepreneur. From 15 to 30, I worked in music production and promotion. This included studio and tour engineering, producing and management. When I decided to exit the music industry, I utilized my technical and promotional experience along with my college degrees in mass communications to transition into business marketing. First, as a graphic designer and then marketing director and creative consultant. This all culminated in 2011 with the formation of The Golding Group with my current business partners.

I had a great deal of success in the music industry, and at an early age. So current success isn’t a surprise. The journey to this point is not what I expected it to be. I still have plenty of lofty goals I expect to achieve in the future. Confidence and motivation to constantly move forward are vital to success. I have a lot more tricks left up my sleeve.

What is your main source of income? Consulting. The Golding Group has a small but mighty roster of full-service clients we provide a variety of services to. Each situation has different needs and focus. We do not have a system or preset package clients are forced to pay for. We provide our clients exactly what they need, when they need it, on a retainer basis. We also occasionally invest in select business deals, collaborations like 1219 Creative and companies such as VORTTX Training.

We do have the other businesses and investments, but the majority of income streams from The Golding Group work.

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

Content marketing, CEO level networking and a strong referral program. We have a robust marketing program utilizing our content creation and aggregation abilities to present The Golding Group partners as the strong, decisive business leaders they are. We let our expertise, award-winning work examples, and client references create our future client opportunities. It’s not about flash, but what we can and have achieved for other clients that open the door to our next client. Each new partnership is bigger, stronger and more robust than the last. We do a good amount of community work as well. We engage our local professional groups, civic organizations, chambers of commerce and teach a pro-bono marketing class for adults for the vocational training system in Oklahoma City. We host create events like art shows and non-traditional marketing talks like Beers and Branding from a local beer brand’s tap room.

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

We have a presence on most top platforms, both for The Golding Group plus all the business partners and our associated businesses VORTTX Training, 1219 Creative and Share Furniture. We have The Golding Group #NeoMarketing Podcast featuring myself and business partner Pritch Pritchard on iTunes, YouTube, Spreaker and Soundcloud.

Each company has a different audience, so a different approach to each social media channel as well. The Golding Group is very focused on Twitter and LinkedIn with a secondary focus on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. VORTTX is very focused on LinkedIn, but we have found a few hashtags that work well on Twitter. Since the 1219 Creative space was purchased late 2017, we’ve been pivoting that brand to more general creativity and community activity on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Personally, I’m all about Twitter. That’s my jam! I have been enjoying Instagram for the last year as well. I do a 1 minute Instagram video every week called the #SaturdayMorningHustle. I like working on Saturday mornings and I toss out a helpful tip or inspirational quote for all the hustlers in the office while everyone else is sleeping in. This video series has resulted in more person to person conversations about work ethic and motivation than almost all my other social media efforts combined. People really connect with it. I’m also on SnapChat but the platform has never really connected with me and is moving further away from my interest.

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

It can work, but it’s not as easy as everyone pretends it to be. We have a lot of powerful content created for The Golding Group so sponsored content campaigns do pay off for us. Not so much with PPC because our key terms like business development and strategic planning are oversaturated. Mostly by a bunch of wannabes. We have had success with PPC for certain clients. It works very well for non-profit organizations tied to causes. The biggest drawback is the amount of time and A/B/C testing needed to find the right combination to work well. Most clients do not have enough patience to do PPC correctly. For sponsored content, LinkedIn has been great for us.

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?

We utilize a mixed media approach to delivering our brand message. We are specific in what we offer such as strategic planning, business process development, and communication integration along with service types we do not offer like traditional paid creative/media buying advertising or “Yes Man” consulting. This tends to turn off some people who still want to run their business like the “good old days” and we’re fine with that. We strive to attract the right client who understands how success happens in 2018, not 2000 or 1988. We break stereotypes of what business development is and can be. We don’t think outside the box, we refuse to acknowledge the box even exist.

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

We utilize a mix of content and influencer marketing. Our business offers services based on the partner’s expertise and experience. This lends very well to content marketing. We demonstrate our expertise via blogging/vlogging, podcast, social media, digital channel advertising, PR, media quotes, community relations and speaking at live events. We discuss theory, answer questions and demonstrate real-world examples of successful execution. In the past 18 months, audio and short-form video have been highly successful for us. We keep a consistent disruptor brand voice on all channels. We push boundaries and show what’s possible when you get outside old, tired ways of doing business.

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

We started by telling people that The Golding Group was not an ad agency or PR firm. We are not accountants, HR or a law firm (even though one of the partners is a licensed attorney, it’s not a service we offer). We create a space for business development and strategy between purely creative advertising, traditional sales and compliance management. We work from the center of the spectrum out, providing creative ideas that match sustainable business concepts. We streamline the internal process to create efficiency and focus marketing on the best, most specific target audience. No one else takes this approach to business profitability. Our niche is more like a subset of a small section of a niche.

We set ourselves apart by being consistent and focused on business growth. There is no “weird trick” to success. A business that is growing is moving in the right direction. We demonstrate our expertise daily, we challenge traditional ideas and we back it all up with examples, case studies and client testimonials.

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

Ending working relationships with good clients who kept us from being available for the next level of clients, doing more of the type of work we want to move into and less of what we had been doing before. It’s the growing pains of maturing a business model. It would have been easier to keep those clients, both financially and personally, but that was holding back our collective success. Now, I wish we had done it sooner. But, you know what they say about hindsight.

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

When we started in 2011, The Golding Group took on clients but also projects and subcontracting. We stuck with that “safe” approach for way too long. Our least successful relationships have been project only. Now, we create full-service relationships with our clients. This allows us to offer them everything we have, without reserve. This works better for our clients because they get services beyond what was expected and answers to questions they didn’t even know to ask. Saying no to project work seemed hard at the time, but our slow resolve to that model change definitely cost us time and money. We also tried to manage too many clients at once, in fear of losing potential work opportunities or strangling top-line cash flow. Dropping the bottom half of our client roster provided much-needed attention to our top clients.

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

Wealth is not based on how much money you have in the bank. Sure, economics is part of it but real wealth is being able to make things happen that need to happen when they need to happen. Short money is the fastest route to failure. Never take today’s dime that keeps you from tomorrow’s dollar. Patience and consistency are how you create success. Wealth comes from managing your success for more than just yourself. You stay wealthy by creating opportunities for others to find their success. Thus adding to your assets.

What new business would you love to start?

I want to turn the music business on its head. The record label business model is bad for artist and fans. New technology has changed the business, but not enough. There are a hundred billion opportunities in that space. If I get a chance to make some waves in the music industry, look out. The old models will not stand a chance.

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

Be even more niche in our approach. We built The Golding Group initially on clients who knew of my marketing creative services. But we wanted The Golding Group to be something different. We were slow to make the pivot, mostly because we didn’t think our potential clients would understand what we brought to the table at that time. We utilized existing relationships and reputation in creative marketing to attract client attention for too long. It made the pivot harder and more confusing in the short run. If I could, I would shorten that process.

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?

Shut up! I like to hear myself talk. Often way too much. It’s ok now that I have 30+ years of business experience, but when I was younger I rubbed people the wrong way. I’m sure I made the journey harder than it needed to be with my rookie ego and big mouth.

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

Lately, I’ve been recommending the combination of Simon Sinek “Start With Why” to find the proper inspiration for what you’re trying to achieve and then “Crushing It” by Gary Vaynerchuk for execution and motivation.

What is the best advice you have ever been given? Always accept your mistakes or failures in person. Do not call or send an email when you’ve let someone down. Go, look them in the eye, own up and then find a solution to their problem. Anything less is not enough.

If you start having some success, that doesn’t mean everything will be easy. Pay close attention to the How and Why of early success. Don’t assume you will always understand what worked and what didn’t so write it down. That will serve you better than your memory.

Don’t be afraid of others having success around you. Their wins don’t take away from yours. Jealousy is a waste of time and effort. Let them hate on you, but don’t return it. Keep focused on your goals.

Find mentors. Real people you can talk to on a regular basis with a level of trust, people in your community you can admire and maybe work with/for someday and national figures that you can aspire to be or learn from their advice, mistakes, examples, etc….