Scott Williams is the CEO of Batteries Plus, which he joined in January 2019.

For over 25 years “in retail and e-commerce,” Scott Williams has proven herself to be a “highly accomplished executive.”

Batteries Plus chose Scott Williams as CEO because of his “perfect combination of experience, expertise and vision.”

Before Batteries Plus, Scott Williams “held a number of positions at Cabela’s,” which include being the “President of Cabela’s Inc., Executive Vice President, and Chief Commercial Officer.”

For 6 years at Cabela’s, Scott Williams has delivered significant achievements. He has improved “retail operations,” revamped “marketing, as well as many others.”

Scott Williams has also served in senior management roles with Fanatics, Samsclub.com, and OfficeMax.

While pursuing his MBA at Northwestern, Scott Williams didn’t learn much about “retail, e-commerce and omnichannel capabilities” during business classes. He “didn’t anticipate that I would become focused on this sector.”

However, OfficeMax tasked Scott Williams to run “all the marketing, e-commerce, and direct-to-consumer messaging” for the company, which became a “pivotal moment in my career.”

The company was a “Top-6 e-commerce site,” and Scott Williams “was thrown into the deep end based on my propensity with CRM experience.”

Scott Williams also had a “background with successful advertising campaigns, such as The Rubberband Man.”

In 2000, Scott Williams had already begun working in e-commerce while it was “still seen as small and emerging.”

Check out more interviews with e-commerce executives here.

I saw early-on that Batteries Plus had a lasting competitive advantage. Scott Williams, Batteries Plus

Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

Scott Williams: I grew up in Kansas and graduated from the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

Eventually, travelling north to Chicago to pursue my MBA at Northwestern.

During business school there wasn’t much being said about retail, e-commerce and omnichannel capabilities, so I didn’t anticipate that I would become focused on this sector.

However, a pivotal moment in my career was being tasked to run all the marketing, e-commerce, and direct-to-consumer messaging for Office Max.

I transitioned from serving as the SVP, of Marketing with Boise Cascade to the SVP of Marketing for Office Max, the newly acquired company.

It was a Top-6 e-commerce site and I was thrown into the deep end based on my propensity with CRM experience and background with successful advertising campaigns, such as The Rubberband Man.

At that point in 2000, e-commerce was still seen as small and emerging.

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share an “Aha Moment” that influenced the success of Batteries Plus?

Scott Williams: As I joined Batteries Plus my analysis focused primarily on the question “What’s our moat?” — meaning what protection can we build or fortify to avoid attacks on our castle — in this case the castle being the company — from competitors aka primarily online retailers.

Despite the articles written about the difficult future for retail and those public failures and store closures, I saw early-on that Batteries Plus had a lasting competitive advantage.

We’re a specialty retailer with a real niche as our categories are primarily product plus service — hence the plus differentiator.

For example, we install auto batteries that cannot be shipped to homes (as they contain lead) and are challenging for most to install.

Also, our key fob business reduces the hassle of any at-home programming and saves consumers time from having to schedule an appointment at their auto dealership. Service in this case is both knowledge and installation.

In fact, 97% of our e-commerce orders are ordered online and picked up in store or serviced on-site (BOPS or buy online, pickup in-store), compared to single digits for most omnichannel retailers — this is our moat!

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were hard?

Scott Williams: When I joined, sales were a bit sluggish, franchise owners were seeking momentum, and new franchise sales were relatively flat, causing me to explore the root of the challenge.

Interestingly, we had many of the fundamentals in place — but we weren’t telling our story or getting credit for all the services we provide.

Some customers didn’t know about our device repair business or key fob programming and some were confused by the Batteries Plus Bulbs naming, which limited our scope to consumers.

That was another pivotal moment internally as we recognized that our greatest brand story was not being told.

Fast forward two years, we are now no longer positioning Batteries Plus as the best retail franchise opportunity, but rather the most predictable investment opportunity due to the multiple revenue streams, essential products and growth potential with commercial, national accounts and ecommerce.

We found our mojo.

Not all solutions can be taken from a text book.

Jerome Knyszewski: So, how are things going today? How did your grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?

Scott Williams: We have the momentum we were seeking, as evidenced by the nearly 40 new store signings over the last year and start of Q1.

Also, our existing franchise owners have reported returns of comp of +5% over the last eight months of last year and the sales growth has been across a variety of commercial categories including transportation and customers seeking more hands-free technologies.

In fact, a handful of our owners have signed on for expansion agreements to open new stores based on the business stability throughout the course of the pandemic.

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?

Scott Williams: As I was graduating from undergrad, I was racked up in student loan debt. I had one suit from my dad that I was wearing for all my interviews.

Once I landed my first job, I was informed that I had to wear a suit every day, and I realized I was not going to be able to afford four more.

To work around that, I purchased two different color shirts and five ties to disguise it that I wasn’t wearing the same shirt/suit jacket and I’d take the jacket off as soon as I got into work.

That lasted me long enough to wait for a couple of paychecks.

The takeaway is that people are often more self-conscious than they need to be. It’s more important to put in the thought and effort versus focusing on the outward appearance.

It’s more important to put in the thought and effort versus focusing on the outward appearance. Scott Williams

Jerome Knyszewski: Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Began Leading My Company”? Please share a story or an example for each.

Scott Williams:

1. The pronouns change as you progress through your career. When people are talking about management it’s often said that “they need a better strategy or they need to communicate more.”As the CEO, you learn that they means you.

    

2. Not all solutions can be taken from a text book. There will be things that need to be solved that cannot be addressed by pulling a book off a shelf.It’s more about using common sense, leveraging what you know and asking the right questions to get to the root of the problem.

   When the pandemic hit, there wasn’t a manual for how to host daily war rooms. We knew as a team we needed to quickly offer solutions and resources for franchisees.

   No matter the severity of the new circumstance, it’s the leader’s responsibility to lead.

   Don’t wait for the playbook, make the playbook.

3. It’s not a popularity contest or about being liked. There are times that the best decision is a difficult one.There are times when I might have an 80/20 split of overall approval, it’s more important to make the right decision versus waiting for 100 percent collective agreeance.
4. You’re the protector. As a franchisor, with 280 franchise owners who decided to invest in Batteries Plus as their livelihood, and in many cases uprooted their lives to open their stores — there is a great deal of responsibility.I don’t take that lightly, the team and I do everything in our power to protect the system and provide them with everything they need from quality product, PPP guidance support, innovated technology and more.

   I’m always blown away by the amount of franchisee testimonials we have, and what they’ve been able to do long before I arrived.

5. The golden rule of making sure to get the right people on the bus and in the right seat as soon as possible.It’s important to navigate the culture and people need to be able to feed off of one another.

   I learned early-on in my career and its helped me ever since, that it’s not always what you work for but who you work for.

Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?

Scott Williams: You can learn more about me and Batteries Plus on LinkedIn.

Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!

The post Scott Williams: 5 Great Tips Founders Should Know Before Starting a Business first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Jerome Knyszewski

Madeline Pratt is the founder and CEO of Fearless Foundry.

With Fearless Foundry, Madeline Pratt has started a “creative consultancy that supports ambitious humans in building branding” and “marketing strategies.”

Likewise, Madeline Pratt helps clients build “business development strategies that allow them to make a meaningful impact in the world.”

Throughout her career, Madeline Pratt has become an “outspoken force for promoting equity, collaboration, and community in business.”

Madeline Pratt also “spends her time working with clients, creating content, and growing her team.”

Before starting her business, Madeline Pratt has “always felt compelled by the inequities in the world.” She has also been “curious about how we could use intellect and creativity to solve them.”

A daughter of a single mother, Madeline Pratt has watched her mother handle “all the burdens that came with trying to run her own business while providing for her children.”

She also noticed that the pressures her mother felt didn’t really go away even after she remarried. So, Madeline Pratt “realized that the burden was one that working women everywhere seemed to be carrying.”

While working at a start-up, Madeline Pratt found herself “spending almost all my free time coaching women on the strategies and tech they might need to bring their business ideas to life.”

This side project soon took over “the whole of my heart,” which showed Madeline Pratt where her true passion lay.

Check out more interviews with successful coaches here. You can also watch Madeline Pratt in conversation here:

I have always felt compelled by the inequities within the world and been curious about how we could use intellect and creativity to solve them. Madeline Pratt, Fearless Foundry

Jerome Knyzsewski: Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

Madeline Pratt: I have always felt compelled by the inequities within the world and been curious about how we could use intellect and creativity to solve them.

Looking back, I think this is something that was cemented into my subconscious from a fairly young age, as I watched my mom navigate single motherhood and all the burdens that came with trying to run her own business while providing for her children.

Even after she remarried, the pressure on her didn’t seem to subside, and I realized that the burden was one that working women everywhere seemed to be carrying.

I became a mother myself during my junior year of college, and within a few years was raising my son on my own.

I had graduated with a degree in Medical Anthropology but immediately set it by the wayside to take the first job that was handed to me, which happened to be in sales in the software industry.

As a single mom, I had more tenacity than most to make sure I hit quota, and over time I rose the ranks of different companies until I became a leader of Global Business Development of a fast-growing start-up.

While I loved the team, and the industry I was in, over time, this same issue of inequity kept showing up seemingly everywhere I went.

Female friends of mine would share stories of trying to start their own businesses and having bank loan applications be denied.

Women strangers would approach me in coffee shops sharing their ideas for a company, and then point out all the hurdles standing in their way to putting their ideas into motion.

Eventually I found myself spending almost all my free time coaching women on the strategies and tech they might need to bring their business ideas to life.

What started as a side project began to take over the whole of my heart, and I realized my passion lay in helping ambitious founders, particularly those that are traditionally underrepresented, start, grow, and scale companies.

So, in 2018, I left my day job to begin consulting full time, and in the past three years, I have grown my company to be able to offer well-paying work to a team of 10 women, and creative consulting services to dozens of clients from around the globe that believe in the power of business to change the world for the better.

Jerome Knyzsewski: Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

Madeline Pratt: I will never forget when I took my two-week-old baby to a tech conference.

After my second son was born over two weeks past his due date, I made the difficult and post-partum addled decision to still attend a conference that I had planned to participate in prior to getting pregnant.

What I had planned to be my first trip back after at least 4 weeks of solid bonding and resting with my new baby, turned into an intense and eye-opening experience with my mom, my new baby, and my 6-year-old son in tow.

While the company I was working for was supportive and gracious of me taking my family along for the ride, I had no idea how challenging it would be to pump or nurse my son in between sessions, and by the last day of the conference, I decided to just carry him around all day strapped to my chest rather than be separated from him any longer.

It is one thing to be a woman at this tech conference, as we’re among the minority of attendees, and it was another thing entirely to be walking around with a baby strapped to my body.

I might as well have had two heads based on some of the looks I got.

But as the day was ending, and I was waiting in line to get a coffee, I saw a woman trying to get a peek into the baby carrier.

I caught her eye and smiled, realizing she was happy to have a baby in the midst of the male-dominated space.

Her smile back made me realize that despite how challenging the past few days had been, it was critical for me and other women to show up and be seen in the tech industry, even if it means we bring our babies along for the ride.

Embracing our identities as mothers instead of shying away from it is the only way we will shift culture.

From that point forward, I have made a point to bring my sons to the office whenever I needed to, to demonstrate that my identity as a mother wasn’t something that I could simply drop at the door, and make a point to encourage the creation of a culture where others embrace parenthood proudly.

Jerome Knyzsewski: Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Madeline Pratt: I’ll never forget one of the first times I flew internationally to meet with a large consulting client.

Although I had taken many meetings like this earlier on in my career, this meeting was the first I had taken while representing solely on behalf of myself and my company.

I spent hours pouring over what I should wear to look the part of a “highly valuable consultant”, and ultimately settled on a pencil skirt, blazer, and heels.

Fast forward to the day of travel, and my flight is delayed by almost 11 hours, and my only option was to fly a redeye and head straight to the client’s office from the airport.

With my bags already checked, I had no choice but to buy makeup and hair products in the airport so that I could “put myself together” on the plane, and change as fast as possible in the bathroom once I landed before beelining it to the client’s headquarters.

When I finally made it to their lobby and took a look around, I realized that everyone at the tech company was dressed in t-shirts, jeans, and sneakers, just as I had been on the flight.

While I had been losing my mind over how to showcase myself as a “put-together consultant” despite the circumstances, I could have absolutely saved my energy.

I was wildly overdressed compared to everyone I met and needless to say, I showed up the next day in the same casual attire as everyone else.

More importantly, though, I realized that I didn’t have to be anyone other than myself to impress the client, and if I did, then those weren’t the people I wanted to work with.

It was an important lesson that I’ve continued to carry forward in my career, and I’ve now got a rule that if someone doesn’t approve of me in sneakers then we likely aren’t meant to work together, and that’s okay by me.

I have come to find that the most meaningful experiences and lasting relationships in business have come from the situations where I have shown up as 100% who I am.

Jerome Knyzsewski: Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?

Madeline Pratt: My favorite life lesson quote hangs in my office and comes from the words of Brené Brown:

“Let go of who you think you’re supposed to be; embrace who you are.”

When I began building my business, I would lose a lot of sleep and energy over thinking about who I had to be to impress a certain kind of client, or to attract the types of companies I wanted to work with.

Over time though, I have come to find that the most meaningful experiences and lasting relationships in business have come from the situations where I have shown up as 100% who I am.

Jerome Knyzsewski: Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Can you please share 5 things that can be done or should be done to help empower more women to become founders? If you can, please share an example or story for each.

Madeline Pratt:

1. More Funding — Starting a business costs money, and women are already at an economic disadvantage due to the wage gap.Without funding, we’re slower to start or scale our companies.I know countless women with dreams of owning their own business, but they don’t have the dollars to get things off the ground.

   It’s critical that we build better pipelines for financing and investments to be funneled into the hands of women founders so that we have the resources to bring our business ideas into being.

2. Systemic Support — We still live in a world where women bear the brunt of caring for family members, managing the mental load, and taking on way more than our fair share of household responsibilities.In order for female founders to be successful, we need support systems in place that give us the time and capacity to commit fully to our companies.We need better childcare resources, encouraging partners, educational opportunities, and incubation programs that are designed specifically to be supportive of women so that we have the backing we need to succeed.
3. Mentorship — Building a business is a big deal, but it seems less scary when you have the guidance of someone who has walked the path before you.Women founders need more opportunities to meet and be matched with mentors to serve as a sounding board and source of advice for us as we navigate the uncharted waters of entrepreneurship.The more female mentors we have step forward to offer guidance, the more future female founders will follow.
4. Media Coverage — There is a saying: “If you can see it, you can believe it.” However, when it comes to women in business, there aren’t enough examples being highlighted of women that have walked this path before.Until we see authentic examples of female founders who forged their own path being represented equitably in our media, women will continue to doubt their abilities in the world of business.We need media coverage to expand and to celebrate the stories of all types of women founders, not just the ones that make it to wall street, so that we can see that the example already exists and that we have the right to walk the path of entrepreneurship and found entities of our own.
5. Community — The most important thing on my journey as a entrepreneur has been connecting with other women that are walking this same path with me.Community is essential for us to bounce ideas off each other and to ensure that we don’t feel alone.By creating community, we as women build meaningful support systems, and also have the opportunity to economically uplift each other by buying from and supporting each other’s businesses.

   In my mind, community and collaboration are essential to ensuring women don’t just start businesses, but that they also grow and thrive.

Jerome Knyzsewski: We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Madeline Pratt: I would love to have brunch with Shelley Zallis of The Female Quotient.

I have long admired her work and company, and in particular, am inspired by what she has brought to the gender equity conversation around the importance of women taking up space in otherwise male dominant events or industries.

Community is essential for us to bounce ideas off each other and to ensure that we don’t feel alone. Madeline Pratt

Jerome Knyzsewski: How can our readers further follow your work online?

Madeline Pratt: Readers that want to connect and follow with my work can find me on the Fearless Foundry  website, LinkedIn, or on social media (Twitter, Instagram & Clubhouse) by my handle @madelinekpratt.

Jerome Knyzsewski: Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

The post Madeline Pratt: 5 Great Ways to Empower More Women to Start Businesses first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Jerome Knyszewski

Neil Robbins is the founder and leader of Silverbean, a “global leader in the affiliate and partnership marketing space, with offices in the UK, US and Australia.”

Likewise, Neil Robbins is also the founder of his “agencies’ parent company, N21 Group, in 2002.” He “values a positive culture where people are supported and helped to grow with the company.”

Neil Robbins began his career as an entrepreneur “after a few internet sales jobs.” Then he “found myself working at a startup digital marketing agency.”

The guy who ran the agency also taught Neil Robbins “everything about how to not run a business.” He was a “brilliant salesperson,” but the “rest of his approach to leading a business was something of nightmares.”

In 2002, Neil Robbins “decided to take the plunge and go it alone, and I’ve never looked back since.”

Neil Robbins grew Silverbean “into the leader for the online sports betting industry in Europe.”

To deal with the 2008 financial crisis, Neil Robbins “introduced new services in early 2009 and moved the agency into new sectors.”

This move “managed to win new clients” for Neil Robbins, and allowed the business to “shape a fresh and exciting future.”

Neil Robbins has since “created a group of performance marketing agencies which operate across Europe, Australia, and the US.”

Check out more interviews with digital executives here.

When the pressure is on you have no choice — you have to go on! Neil Robbins, Silverbean

Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

Neil Robbins: My path to becoming the founder of his own business, one that now spans three continents and works with many famous global brands, was rather unusual.

Born and raised in London, I met my future wife at university.

After she decided the bright lights of the capital were not for her, at the age of 22 I found myself on a train with an old suitcase heading to Newcastle upon Tyne to try a new life.

After a few internet sales jobs, I found myself working at a startup digital marketing agency run by a guy that taught me everything about how to not run a business!

This chap was a brilliant salesperson, one of the best I’ve seen. But the rest of his approach to leading a business was something of nightmares.

It’s at this point, in 2002, that I decided to take the plunge and go it alone, and I’ve never looked back since.

I hired my first employee after nine months, and early on I built Silverbean into the leader for the online sports betting industry in Europe.

At the end of 2008, when the global economic crash was starting to bite hard, the firm lost most of its clients in a three-week period.

You really do grow as a business leader when that happens.

In an effort to save the business, I introduced new services in early 2009 and moved the agency into new sectors.

Fortunately, all of this had the right effect, and we managed to win new clients and start to shape a fresh and exciting future for the business.

Since then, I have created a group of performance marketing agencies which operate across Europe, Australia and the US.

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

Neil Robbins: Being frank, I didn’t face any hard times in the first five years, it was quite the opposite of what 99% of founders now have to contend with at the beginning.

When I launched the business, it specialised in a niche that was high growth and under-served. It was 2002, so it was easier to do that then!

My biggest challenge came at the end of 2008.

The global economic crash meant that investors in the markets were pulling their cash out, and many of our clients were backed by investors.

In a three week period in late November, I took calls from virtually all of our clients to say they were having to pull our contract.

Some went out of business, and others just held on.

At the time I had twelve people in the business, so we were like a family. But I had no choice.

I had to make some tough decisions, and reduced the team down to six people, including myself.

I knew I had less than twelve months to successfully implement a new plan, otherwise I was likely to go out of business.

When the pressure is on you have no choice — you have to go on! I’m fortunate because I enjoy pressure. I know it’s not for everyone, but it works for me.

Fortunately, I made the right decisions back then and by the end of 2009 we were in calmer waters and ready to push on from 2010.

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?

Neil Robbins: I’ve made many mistakes! And I look back now at many of them and wonder how I did that.

But it’s about experience, when you are a founder of a business you can read books, listen to podcasts and take advice from people.

But, it’s your own experience that ultimately shapes you as a leader.

The funny mistake actually turned out to be a life saver for the business.

When it was just me in the early days, I managed to get a pitch opportunity with a major business.

Like many one-person businesses, I had spent time creating the perception that I had a bigger operation than just me, so customers had more confidence to buy from me.

I was halfway through this pitch when the Director I was presenting to calmly said to me: “Neil, tell me the truth, is the business actually just you at the moment?”

My immediate thought was that I had blown in. And the hundreds of pounds I spent on the flights and accommodation for the pitch.

Of course, I confessed that the business at that moment in time was just me.

He immediately said he was going to give me a contract, but it was going to be paid on a results-only basis.

That’s not what I was after: I needed a guaranteed income stream so I could hire someone to join me. I had little choice but to accept, so left a little deflated.

The irony is, that contract was one of the most profitable we’ve ever had and played a major part in keeping us afloat in 2009!

Jerome Knyszewski: Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things one should know in order to lead a company from Good to Great? Please share a story or an example for each.

Neil Robbins: I think the fundamental difference between good companies and great ones is their people.

After all, this is where the majority of our competitive advantages come from.

I believe if a business leader wants to build a great company, they need to focus on these five things:

• Create the right direction and frameworks for managing performance, and then trust your employees.Give them autonomy, whilst ensuring they are accountable for delivering agreed outcomes.
• Create an environment where people can do their best work — give them the tools they need to be great.
• Hire the best people you can afford. And make sure they have the attitude you need to be a great member of a team and buy-in to your vision.
• Invest in your people so they can grow with your business.I’ve always been proud to see people in my business build a career with us and I think it is critical for great companies to retain people that have been part of the journey whilst complementing that with outstanding external hires.
• Have a vision, align a clear strategy against it and communicate it well, regularly.I’ve come to learn that even your best people are so focused on their own jobs that a gentle, consistent reminder of what we are trying to achieve keeps them moving in the right direction and simplifies the decisions they have to make.

Jerome Knyszewski: Extensive research suggests that “purpose driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. Can you help articulate for our readers a few reasons why a business should consider becoming a purpose driven business, or consider having a social impact angle?

Neil Robbins: Well, first of all It’s the right thing to do. I am a firm believer that businesses should be investing back into their communities or supporting local causes.

Not for any other reason than we often have access to resources that can make a difference — and we should be seeking ways to help.

However, I do believe there are reciprocal business benefits to being purpose-led, or to having a clear commitment to creating social impacts.

I think employees really value it. In my business we give 100 working days a year to our community or causes, meaning our people can take time off without using their annual leave to do this.

I find our people respect the fact that the business is trying to support social causes and is encouraging its people to participate without taking away from their personal time.

That said, I still feel that being committed to a cause relevant to your business or customers can be a point of difference for a business, and that it can actually help to drive revenues.

I am a firm believer that businesses should be investing back into their communities or supporting local causes.

Jerome Knyszewski: As you know, “conversion” means to convert a visit into a sale. In your experience what are the best strategies a business should use to increase conversion rates?

Neil Robbins: Naturally, the approach required to improve conversion differs from business to business, sector to sector, country to country.

I run a B2B services company and there are two main things we have done in the past couple of years to improve our own conversion rates:

• Firstly, we focused far more on our ideal customer fit. We have worked out which businesses are more likely to buy from us and we focus hard on that.
• Secondly we implemented a sales methodology that each of our salespeople fully understand, and most importantly are accountable for using.

Jerome Knyszewski: Of course, the main way to increase conversion rates is to create a trusted and beloved brand. Can you share a few ways that a business can earn a reputation as a trusted and beloved brand?

Neil Robbins: Building a trusted brand can mean different things to different people, including your customers who are ultimately the ones whose trust you need to earn.

I feel there are some threads to what a business leader needs to try and achieve through their teams in order to build a brand that is trusted, regardless of which industry they operate in and the type of customers they serve.

Honesty goes a long way! Social media has made it impossible for businesses to hide behind their mistakes or their issues.

I think most people accept no business is perfect, but by being honest and transparent with customers you can manage any negative stories whilst building a brand that people come to trust.

One thing I focus hard on in my business is delivering on our promises.

Making sure our clients get what they need on time, that we focus religiously on what they are paying us for which is ultimately to grow their revenues.

As simple as it sounds, customers just want what was promised.

If you deliver time and time again, then eventually you become trusted for this, when often many of your competitors will be failing — and most likely not being transparent about their issues in delivering, too.

Once you have a business that is prepared to be honest, and focuses hard on delivering on its promises, then for me it’s about exceeding customer expectations, giving them pleasant surprises, delivering more than you said, and delivering it early.

As simple as it sounds, customers just want what was promised. Neil Robbins

Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?

Neil Robbins: You can learn more about me and Silverbean here and here.

Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!

The post Neil Robbins: 5 Great Tips to Take Your Company from Good to Great first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Jerome Knyszewski

Luca Gualco was born in Genoa, Italy. He is a former “professional water polo player.”

Upon his retirement, Luca Gualco finished his doctorate in economics and started a career in banking.

In his new career, Luca Gualco started “developing financial loan opportunities to help people cope with their financial burdens.” Then he decided to go to the next level.

In 2005, Luca Gualco started Ferrari Financial Services, “developing financial instruments tailored to Ferrari’s client base.” Later, Fiat Chrysler acquired the company.

Five years later, Luca Gualco left Ferrari to earn his MBA at Stanford University. He also taught economics there. When he graduated, he “went on to help lead growth at startups including Uber, WeWork, and Acorns.”

With co-founder Alexi Suvacioglu, Luca Gualco started Because Market, “based on a mission that started long ago for them: to help older adults live active and vibrant lives.”

Luca Gualco saved “all the money I made playing” and applied to Stanford for his MBA. He had been rejected 3 times, but the university ultimately accepted him.

His tenure at Stanford helped Luca Gualco “believe that I could pursue my dreams of creating meaningful relationships around a common goal.”

Luca Gualco also says that he was “fortunate to be an integral part of the growth of Uber, WeWork and Acorns.”

Check out more interviews with athletes turned executives here.

My time at Stanford helped me believe I could pursue my dreams of creating meaningful relationships around a common goal. Luca Gualco, Because Market

Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

Luca Gualco: I jumped from a professional sports career to the luxury industry in Europe to Silicon Valley.

Back when I was in Italy training 8 hours a day, it would have seemed impossible to think I’d end up here.

I grew up in the water in Portofino, training and playing water polo till dusk; I was an adventurous kid that loved to be a part of any team.

Besides Water Polo, I was also on the soccer, diving, scuba, track and field and horse polo teams.

As my dad taught me, people and friends are everything and we loved to create connections.

I saved all the money I made playing and I applied to Stanford MBA until they accepted me after 3 rejections.

My time at Stanford helped me believe I could pursue my dreams of creating meaningful relationships around a common goal.

I was fortunate to be an integral part of the growth of Uber, WeWork and Acorns after which I felt I had enough credibility to win the support of incredible partners at venture capitalists (VCs) and pursue my dream of starting a company to help the ones who gave us our wisdom in the first place, our grandparents.

With my co-founder Alexi, we launched Because Market to help older adults live the fullest lives possible and regain independence.

Jerome Knyszewski: What was the “Aha Moment” that led to the idea for your current company? Can you share that story with us?

Luca Gualco: It all started with our own families — we were helping our grandparents and I remember driving to lots of different stores searching for supplies for them.

We often came up short, unable to find all the necessary products at the supermarkets and pharmacies.

Alexi and I had a conversation about this and realized we had stumbled upon something untouched.

We both did some research and found out that incontinence impacts about 25 million people in the US — and most people go through it alone.

That didn’t sit well with us and we thought the world needed to be different. We believe that we should care more about older adults like they cared for us.

Retail products, we noticed, revert to the average — average sizes, average tastes.

For most products and services, while a 20 year old doesn’t behave so differently than a 30 year old, a 60 year old may be worlds apart from someone who is 70.

Alexi and I decided we wanted to build an authentically curated one-stop-shop where older adults can find the exact products they need.

We wanted to put individuality back in the formula.

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

Luca Gualco: In the beginning, we considered giving up every day. We aren’t the kind of people who fool themselves, thinking we have some kind of invincible powers that could make this work.

To build a company for older adults, you have to go through a very deep self reflection. You have to become more vulnerable, to think like older adults.

We considered vulnerability to be a gift and embraced that failure is a real possibility. Everyday we thought about that risk and how to mitigate it.

We started in a small studio in Palo Alto, with boxes of product surrounding our little office.

There were plenty of moments when we looked at each other and said “what are we doing?”

It seemed absurd to try and build a company for older adults, when all of Silicon Valley was going after Millennials and Gen Z.

The older adult market is difficult and an unpaved path, especially in Silicon Valley.

If not for the support from our investors, we would have failed 20 times over.

We realized that we were building three companies: one for 60 to 70 year olds, one for 70 to 80 year olds and the last one for 80 to 100 year olds — each with diverse needs and attitudes.

Additionally, this past year has been especially challenging for obvious reasons.

COVID-19 has forced us all to work with resilience — remote working, shipping services being overwhelmed and an unexpected surge in demand created potential roadblocks for our company.

What keeps our team driving forward stems from the original purpose of Because Market — serving our customers, who are also at a greater risk during this time.

We refused to give up on the people who need us the most. With that determination from our whole team, we doubled our business in the last year.

Jerome Knyszewski: So, how are things going today? How did your grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?

Luca Gualco: Before Because, senior personal care products had not seen any innovations in decades.

Older adults were left with limited selection, lack of informed advice and poor product design.

If e-commerce left anyone behind, it was the senior citizen community!

When we started, very few focused on this market. Now people have come to realize that the senior market has been underserved.

We knew at the time that it was going to take longer and it was important to invest in building a team that would push through any failure.

First, everyone in our team had some exposure to the caring of their older parents and grandparents.

I think everyone keeps that in mind when they show up everyday, working harder than anyone else out there. It’s why we’re here.

Secondly, Alexi and I were able to channel our experience as tech and e-commerce founders to support a fantastic team of believers with amazing investors who supported us and saw the opportunity in what we’re building.

We knew that success would only come after a lot of research.

We invested our own money and conducted years of research with tens of thousands of consumers, resulting in hundreds of product iterations.

We were working towards restoring dignity and confidence to the millions of people living with incontinence.

We eventually built a gigantic focus group that could tell us first-hand what was needed — this became our members’ community.

When we felt comfortable that we could do it for the long run (and do so profitably), we added a layer of awesome tech to enhance our ability to listen to feedback and extract even more insight from a simple buyer-seller transaction.

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?

Luca Gualco: I recall one situation, back when we had a small customer service team in charge of taking care of every single call and request.

We accidentally sent 300 bags of a product to a consumer instead of the three ordered.

All the products arrived at the customer’s door in sequence for a few days. First a few bags, then a few more and so on.

I believe the customers called us after the 30th bag.

We could not stop the shipments from arriving! He even got a call from the local post office, telling him that he had a couple hundred waiting to be delivered.

Thankfully, our products ship in boxes that conceal the content, so the customer didn’t feel embarrassed.

Of course, the customer wasn’t charged for any of this. He took it well and he wound up giving the excess products to charity.

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share a few examples of tools or software that you think can dramatically empower emerging eCommerce brands to be more effective and more successful?

Luca Gualco: A great library of products will only get you so far in e-commerce.

Without accessible and quick customer service, your brand can quickly fall to the wayside and a few bad customer experiences can tarnish your reputation rapidly.

At Because, we pride ourselves on great customer service and have many options for our customers including chatbots (powered by Chatra), emails and traditional phone support with a live customer support representative to answer any questions.

We knew that success would only come after a lot of research.

Jerome Knyszewski: As you know, “conversion” means to convert a visit into a sale. In your experience what are the best strategies an eCommerce business should use to increase conversion rates?

Luca Gualco: There are numerous tools to help e-commerce companies increase their conversion rate, but here are a few that I’ve found the most useful for Because:

• Google Analytics — allows you to see what parts of the website are driving the most traffic and what types of keywords they’re searching for, allowing you to optimize your pages and make it easier for customers to find the right products quicker.
• High Quality Product Images — Of course you want your customers to see the best side of the products you’re selling, so take the time to produce high quality images for your e-commerce site.
• Free Shipping and Coupon Codes — Customers are sensitive to shipping costs to the point where it will greatly influence where they end up making their purchase.Prioritize offering free shipping, especially for customers making large purchases.

Jerome Knyszewski: Of course, the main way to increase conversion rates is to create a trusted and beloved brand. Can you share a few ways that an eCommerce business can earn a reputation as a trusted and beloved brand?

Speaking to your customers, hearing them and engaging with them is a great way to build your reputation.

Specifically, with our customers’ age group, they still want and need the human connection of picking up the phone and talking to customer service, sharing their gripes and likes — and we genuinely listen, hear them and take their feedback to heart and put it into action.

Speaking to your customers, hearing them and engaging with them is a great way to build your reputation. Luca Gualco

Jerome Knyszewski: Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things one should know in order to create a very successful e-commerce business? Please share a story or an example for each.

Luca Gualco: Anticipate your customers’ needs (and be able to pivot to accommodate)

• From the beginning, we realized that we could only build a company for older adults by creating a brand that resonated with their experiences and reflected their values.We started to take calls as customer service agents.

  Listening to a few calls per week was not enough.

  I started out working in the customer service room and wound up being either on the phone with customers all day or listening live to calls.

• Most of the time, customer service is seen as a cost center, something that you need to have but you try to keep the cost as low as you can.We believe that talking and listening to our customers is a worthwhile investment.

  In fact, many of the features of the products we launch are derived directly from customer feedback.

  The most active members are offered to become part of an always-increasing group that test products before launch.

Look for gaps in the market and work to fill the gaps in a unique/useful way

• More and more brands are being born and many are successful.They all focus on an unmet need and they speak more to the language of their audience compared to big brands. Big brands have an obvious advantage.

  They are established in retail, they can afford big advertising budgets and most of the time they have an advantage on production economies of scale.

• The passion that is put behind many digitally-native brands can do an exceptional job at enticing a demographic.If you solve its needs in a better way, or the values of your brand relate more with them, that’s an opportunity for a win!
• We have been able to constantly carve out more margins out of the “non-core” part of the business.Being able to execute on that is sometimes as important as having a wonderful brand or the right price.

Look people in the eye

• This can be taken literally but also more figuratively, as in taking a problem head on! Look directly at the problem and immediately face uncomfortable situations.Don’t find the solution before you talk about the problem, look people in the eye and find a solution together.

Sing in the shower

• For us, it means to always be ready to find the funny side in any situation. A way to demystify demons is to laugh at them.If when you wake up and take a shower and you are not able to sing (even in your mind), we believe you are set for a very hard day.

Have ambition

• For how much everyone tells you that you have to be humble, don’t forget to also dream big. We started a brand rooted in incontinence!Everyone made jokes about us in the beginning but we had a secret ambition. We knew we were building a brand that resonated with our customers.
• Investors didn’t see an incontinence company. they saw two bold entrepreneurs that dared to venture where nobody wanted to.Because Market is becoming the leading digitally-native brand for older adults today. We thank our team and their ambition to be part of our mission.

Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?

Luca Gualco: You can check out the assortment of products we offer at our website and follow us on Facebook.

Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!

Luca Gualco: Thank you!

The post Luca Gualco: 5 Great Tips to Lead a Successful E-Commerce Brand first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Jerome Knyszewski

Mike Dragan is the founder of Oveit, a “global company focusing on live experiences technology, both virtual and in-person.”

In 2016, Mike Dragan started the company “with the goal of improving how brands deliver live experiences to their customers and now serves over 3000 customers across 4 continents.”

In 2020, Mike Dragan also launched Streams.live, “a live commerce software that is transforming retail.”

For over 15 years, Mike Dragan has worked to build “digital products, with a focus on digital shopping.” He has also “worked with some of the largest consumer brands in the world, advising on their digital go to market strategy.”

Mike Dragan holds two degrees. One of them is in International Economics; the other is in Computer Science.

In the early 2000s, Mike Dragan started his career at an anti-virus company, which was later acquired by Microsoft. He “worked on building the website, which was the kind of work the older programmers wouldn’t do.”

During this period, Mike Dragan “knew I wanted to work there even if that meant working for free.” He learned several things in “such a short time that in just one year I was getting multiple job offers.”

At 24 years old, Mike Dragan started his own company “with little to no managerial skills.” He grew his company in 4 years, with “45 people, in 4 cities.” They also “won more than 30 awards for creative digital projects.”

Check out more interviews with tech executives here.

I loved working with websites and building web tech so when I applied for the job, I knew I wanted to work there even if that meant working for free. Mike Dragan, Oveit

Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

Mike Dragan: I’ve started in the early 2000’s in the tech industry, at an anti-virus company. The company was later acquired by Microsoft.

I worked on building the website, which was the kind of work the older programmers wouldn’t do.

I loved working with websites and building web tech so when I applied for the job, I knew I wanted to work there even if that meant working for free.

As I never had a job before I actually asked for less than the minimum wage, which was something they couldn’t legally do.

I learned so much in such a short time that in just one year I was getting multiple job offers.

I switched jobs to an up-and-coming software company.

It was a very diverse and interesting group of people that worked on all sorts of cool tech stuff, outsourced by other companies.

I was the only one doing web tech. I worked a lot on user interfaces and because it really caught on, I started building a team around me.

It was all organic and if you were good enough at your job, you could choose any title you wanted, and I chose “Creative Director”.

I noticed advertising agencies all had this cool, bohemian character working for them.

They were getting the best projects and lived a thrilling life.

Being in my twenties, I thought — I want to be a Creative Director as well.

And very soon I was. The company shifted to a new niche — digital advertising — and soon enough I was a Creative Director in a Digital Agency, doing creative and fun projects on the web.

Soon, I hit an upper ceiling. I am a fast mover and I noticed that in my third year I didn’t grow anymore.

It seemed there was no place for me to evolve so I thought — what else can I do? “I guess I’ll start my own agency”.

And that I did. At 24 I started my own company with little to no managerial skills. All tech and user interface design.

I knew I wanted to continue building great projects, so I started solo.

As more and more projects came in, I hired some of the people I knew were most skilled and wanted to work with a new company.

We quickly grew from one to five employees, from five to 25 and so on. We started with one office and grew.

By the time I was 28 we were around 45 people, in 4 cities and we won more than 30 awards for creative digital projects. And then the 2008 recession hit.

A lot of our customers were businesses in areas that were heavily impacted by the recession in 2009.

We took a hit as well and I thought we would be ok, and I’ll manage to get the company across the recession without having to fire anyone.

We actually acquired another competitor, and we were struggling with integrating the team and its technology with the existing one.

It didn’t work out. By 2011 the issues were so hard to fix that I was just putting out fires every day and couldn’t really manage the company.

I downsized, closed all offices outsized the core but it was pretty clear that the issue was deeper than the management and financial issues.

The whole concept was flawed and by taking agency projects we were actually onboarding unprofitable segments of other businesses.

I decided to close the agency and not look back into building another one. It just wasn’t a good fit for me.

I went back to my roots and start a software product company.

I was a bit tired and demoralized by the last years, so I asked a few people to work with me on building an ecommerce business as a cofounder.

I actually didn’t use the term cofounder and I didn’t know exactly why anyone would share their company with another person, but I knew I wanted to share the workload and risk with someone else.

I knew Andrei, my current co-founder, had an Ivy League financial education background and had managed loads of people.

Most important was the fact that I respected him and I felt he was someone I could really trust.

It took us about two years to build and sell an omnichannel retail software company.

The product helped merchants that sold both online and in-store have control over their sales across all channels.

It was a much better experience than my previous one. So, we thought — that was nice. Let’s do it again.

We had noticed just how popular festivals were becoming and at the same time just how low-tech events were, compared to the retail world.

We set out to bring a better experience for people planning large events and managing large venues.

To make this happen, our team invented a system that allowed anyone to manage cashless payments, with very large numbers of people in the same spot, even when the internet was down.

We called it Oveit Pay. Oveit as in Love it.

That looked a bit like magic so it was a global hit. We now have more than 3000 customers from all over the world.

To make up for changes in our market, in 2020 we launched a digital version of it that combines shopping and entertainment into a thing called live stream shopping.

Jerome Knyszewski: What was the “Aha Moment” that led to the idea for your current company? Can you share that story with us?

Mike Dragan: We’ve actually launched our company already in the event management space.

We built an awesome tool to sell tickets and accept visitors at your event. It had all the great features that we noticed meant the world for online retailers.

It’s just that it didn’t work. The market was crowded and there were literally hundreds of other solutions that were doing something similar.

We had some initial growth, but we understood we would be no leaders in the field. So, we were looking for a “killer app”.

We’ve been experimenting for sometimes with using RFID in venues. This was in 2016.

We knew just how useful RFID was in retail, managing movement of goods so we thought we could use the system to allow visitors to skip the queues.

But in 2017 we received a call from someone doing a festival on an island. About 3000 people, 5 days, EDM, camping, drinking and lots of fun.

They wanted a way to allow people to pay without using cash. A deserted island and cash were not a good combination for a festival.

People quickly spent their money and then had to travel by boat, drive an hour, get money from an ATM and come back if they ran out of money.

So, it had to be cashless. Cool, we said, we have this project that we can use to store value on RFID wristbands.

There was only one thing — the island had no internet, no electricity and no mobile phone connectivity. Nothing.

There was no way for us to use our servers. And there were three more months left until 3000 people would arrive on the island in search of fun.

We tested all sorts of combinations of technology that might work. We knew we could only build one fully.

There was not enough time for failed tests, so we went with something that sounded really cryptic — a sort of blockchain that ran locally, on mini-PC’s, through the wireless network, disconnected from the internet.

The payments were processed on mobile devices.

It was really scrapy, but it worked. We were on the island, no technology outside our own. No internet, no mobile signal.

But people paid using cashless wristbands. It almost seemed magic.

And we saw just how impressed they were when they tapped their wristbands, a small chip holding funds.

Just how much more careless they were that they could enjoy themselves without any fear of losing their money.

We loved the combination of technology fully embedded in an environment where culture and nature came first. It was magic.

That was the a-ha moment. We knew this was our spot in the world. We knew we wanted to bring technology that combines entertainment and shopping and do it at scale.

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

Mike Dragan: Yes, we did consider giving up.

In the early days we’ve spent a lot of work on some product features we discovered were useless and the market had no need for it.

We already had spent most of our cash on those product features and couldn’t really raise more if we didn’t show product market fit.

So, we had to work with what we had. We discovered there was a small piece that we’ve been working on that had some potential.

The RFID cashless payments part. So, we decided to go with that and hope it will all work out.

The second time when we considered closing shop was when the pandemic hit.

The stark contrast between what we’ve planned and what was actually happening due to this unforeseen event was what made everything worse.

We’ve planned global rollout of our new products and now the whole industry using our products came to an abrupt halt.

We actually asked ourselves — will live, in-person events actually come back? Like — ever?

We could have waited to see, close the company and return the remaining funds to our investors or we could, again, run with what we had and do what we could in a reality that was shifting daily.

So, we decided to reinvent ourselves while keeping our core values intact.

I think people often think of the backstory and give themselves more credit than they should.

The truth is that in both cases we didn’t have another choice.

We needed to find a way out. We’ve already burned all our bridges behind so there was no way out but forward.

We had no savings, no side-projects. If we couldn’t reinvent ourselves the future didn’t look too good.

One thing that I did notice is that in every seeming failure there is always, always a way out.

A way to create something amazing when all seems lost.

You just need to trust you are capable of finding it and put all your energy in transforming that little glimpse of light into a bright star.

I think that’s the most amazing thing about us humans. We can literally wish reality into existence, if we concentrate our efforts.

We knew we wanted to bring technology that combines entertainment and shopping and do it at scale. 

Jerome Knyszewski: So, how are things going today? How did your grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?

Mike Dragan: We went from a small EU company to a global company worth north of $10 million in just two years with our cashless payment solution.

We went from 30 to 3000 customers in that same timeframe.

When the storm hit again, we used the same technology to transform ourselves into a leader of live stream shopping software and now are onboarding hundreds of corporate customers and helping thousands of retail workers find meaning in their work again.

Most important — we survived.

Our whole team survived.

We haven’t fired anyone and hopefully we’re helping create new, more fulfilling jobs at a time when this is very much needed.

We expect 2021 to be our best year yet financially. What matters more — we feel we have become a company that really serves society when this is surely needed.

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?

Mike Dragan: It’s 2008, I think. We just did a bunch of creative digital campaigns for mid-sized brands. One of them involved cats.

There was this craze back then with using cats in digital media that worked really well when communicating to end consumers.

It worked really well in a fun game we did for an audio ecommerce store.

It was basically Street Fighter with cats, on an audio store. It generated buzz and people flocked to the site and subsequently purchased audio gear.

I know — quite a stretch but the team was young, creative and basically did everything because it was fun.

We had a good run with this and other projects. So good that we were invited to one of the largest pitches for digital advertising.

The customer was a big telco company. Given the fact that the project was so important we had our presentation with members of their board.

All seasoned executives, trying to understand and adapt to this “ecommerce thing”.

We brought in the big guns. Cats. Our whole presentation was illustrated with cats and our previous successes.

We really wanted to stand out. I read somewhere that that’s what advertising creatives were doing. Exploring the limits of interaction, standing out, being different.

The presentation starts with a cat message. Another one. And another one. By the middle of our presentation, we knew we lost them.

Eventually, one of the executives stops us. Basically, they wanted to know whether this was a prank or something.

They were expecting strategy for their ecommerce store and we were showing them cats. What’s happening?

We didn’t get the contract.

What I’ve learned from this was there is no one size fits all and you should adapt your communication style to the audience.

Quite an important lesson if you’re working in digital advertising.

There is a reason that top Fortune 500 companies either make products, make and sell products or just sell products. Mike Dragan

Jerome Knyszewski: Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Began Leading My Company”? Please share a story or an example for each.

Mike Dragan:

1. Raise funds. Capital works: I used to think we could bootstrap our way to a million dollars in ARR. It’s very, very hard to pull off something like that and very taxing on your mental and physical health.

There are many VC funds out there and raising funds is part of building a business.

Of course — you will get a lot of no’s — and we did get plenty but the good thing about people telling you no is it doesn’t cost a thing.

Once you understand it’s just a numbers game — you’ll be fine. The more no’s you get, the closer you are to a yes.

Obviously — you shouldn’t just hunt for people that say “no — we will not fund you”. Try to understand why they won’t fund you. Be flexible, adapt and in the end, you will reach your goal.

2. Focus on the right metrics. This usually means financials and product usage. I am a very technical person. I like coding and designing apps.I like bits and servers and databases.

   But a business is a very complicated system to pull off and its essential metrics lie in the financials.

   Revenue, profit margins, annual and monthly recurring revenue, forecasting, cost of goods sold and all these financial indicators — they are really, really important.

   Ignore them and you are basically flying blind.

3. Don’t trust your guts. Trust data. I’ve heard somewhere that 95% of our brains don’t understand written language.That part of our brain acts like we’re living 20.000 years ago. It helps if you’re chased by a tiger but not really helpful in the age of electric cars and AI.

   This means we are not evolved enough to just trust our guts. Get data, understand it and act on it.

   I now understand that yes, Jeff Bezos might trust his guts, Elon Musk might as well but their intuition is much better than mine. I need data.

4. Focus on products, not services. A service-based company is hard to scale. Build products or products-selling companies.There is a reason that top Fortune 500 companies either make products, make and sell products or just sell products.

   Services are a great way to build tailored experiences for your customers but what gets you to the top is working and improving your products and the marketing strategy.

5. Building a great product is really useful only if enough people hear about it. Build a strong marketing and sales operation.You know of the old saying “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”.

   The same thing goes for great products. If no one knows about it — you might as well have never built it.

Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?

Mike Dragan: You can find me on our blog at https://streams.live/blog or on my own blog at https://netonomy.net . I tweet at @mihaidragan and I’m on LinkedIn.

Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!

Mike Dragan: It was a pleasure sharing my thoughts. Thank you for the invitation!

The post Mike Dragan: 5 Important Things CEOs Should Know Before Leading a Great Company first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Jerome Knyszewski

Stephanie Summerson Hall started Estelle Colored Glass in 2019.

The company is a “luxury brand of hand-blown colored glass cake stands and stemware,” which is “taking the world by storm.”

Before becoming a serial entrepreneur, Stephanie Summerson Hall worked as a lawyer. Since then, she has started two family businesses and has grown them from the ground up.

Stephanie Summerson Hall says that she has “always had an entrepreneurial mindset.” She adds that this mindset is “one of the main reasons I pursued law at the beginning of my career.”

For more than 10 years, Stephanie Summerson Hall practiced law in Washington, D.C. Then she moved back to her hometown of Charleston, South Carolina with her family.

In her hometown, Stephanie Summerson Hall founded two businesses. They are a “wedding rental company,” called Ruth’s House Event Rentals and Wedding Flowers for Rent.

Then Stephanie Summerson Hall launched Estelle’s Colored Glass, which was “inspired by my grandmother’s love for colored glass.”

The company offers a collection that “includes original commissioned pieces made by glass artisans in Poland at a glass-making company with a rich 100-plus-year-old history.”

Stephanie Summerson Hall hopes that their “vintage-inspired yet refined and modern colored glass collection starts a revival of colored glass that is reminiscent of a pastime.”

Check out more interviews with serial entrepreneurs here.

Today, Estelle Colored Glass is a luxury brand of hand-blown colored glass cake stands and stemware in a mix of jewel tones and soft pastels. Stephanie Summerson Hall

Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

Stephanie Summerson Hall: I’ve always had an entrepreneurial mindset, as it was one of the main reasons I pursued law at the beginning of my career.

After obtaining my degree from The University of Chapel Hill, I practiced law in Washington, D.C., for more than a decade.

Once I started my family, my husband and I decided it was time to move back home to Charleston, SC.

My career as a lawyer had been fruitful, and I was ready to enter the next chapter of my life not only as a wife and mother but also as an entrepreneur.

In Charleston, I opened two businesses with my family, a wedding rental company, Ruth’s House Event Rentals and Wedding Flowers for Rent, before launching Estelle Colored Glass, inspired by my grandmother’s love for colored glass, in 2019.

My grandmother Estelle inspired Estelle Colored Glass.

She loved antiquing and had a particular day of the week where she visited her favorite shops looking for new treasures in small neighboring South Carolina towns.

Throughout my childhood, during the summer months, I enjoyed accompanying her on many treasure hunts.

My favorite collection of hers was her colored glass collection. Her collection initiated my love for colored glass and became the blueprint for my company.

Today, Estelle Colored Glass is a luxury brand of hand-blown colored glass cake stands and stemware in a mix of jewel tones and soft pastels.

The Estelle Colored Glass collection includes original commissioned pieces made by glass artisans in Poland at a glass-making company with a rich 100-plus-year-old history.

Best described as “jewels for your table,” we hope our vintage-inspired yet refined and modern colored glass collection starts a revival of colored glass that is reminiscent of a pastime.

Jerome Knyszewski: What was the “Aha Moment” that led to the idea for your current company? Can you share that story with us?

Stephanie Summerson Hall: My husband and I had a new family home built.

While furnishing the house, I started looking at it from a “forever collections” perspective, which meant I was sourcing pieces that would eventually become heirloom pieces.

With that in mind, I wanted colored glass stemware in my collection (an ode to my grandmother) but discovered the only place where I could find a large selection of colored glass was on the secondary vintage market.

When sourcing, I would often find much of the glassware sets were incomplete. I soon realized colored glass was a dying art form.

I started researching how I could offer an extensive collection of colored glass in one place. It took five years for me to bring our offerings to market.

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you tell us a story about the hard times you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

Stephanie Summerson Hall: One of the most demanding challenges with starting Estelle Colored Glass was finding a company to produce our pieces.

Initially, the goal was to have the pieces made here in the U.S., and I came to a dead-end on that effort as it was hard to find an artisan able to capture the essence of the brand through glassware.

However, I persevered, and I eventually worked out an agreement with a 100-year heritage company in Poland.

They were able to bring my vision to life. I am incredibly pleased with the finished product.

Jerome Knyszewski: So, how are things going today? How did your grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?

Stephanie Summerson Hall: Through everything 2020 has presented, I have to say this year has bought our company tremendous success.

Since the company’s onset, I’ve been laser-focused on creating a range of products that people will love and find as useful as they are beautiful.

I am not new to entrepreneurship, so I would say my grit and resilience come from knowing if I’ve done it before (i.e., create a profitable, successful company), I can do it again.

I’ve proven to be successful twice.

In this somewhat new endeavor that is Estelle Colored Glass, the brand’s popularity has grown so much that our company hired new members to keep up with our products’ demand.

The ability to hire on a tram during this time one of the tenants of our success and something I am incredibly proud of.

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?

Stephanie Summerson Hall: Initially, I wanted to offer a gift box in every color glass we were producing, which was crazy; however, we eventually settled on a white box with gold lettering.

The end product is a simple, elegant look that our clients love and has become a signature with our brand.

The “unboxings” we see with the product are fabulous, and the simple white box with gold lettering adds a nice touch.

I learned through this process that simplicity could be the best route to take with packaging.

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share a few examples of tools or software that you think can dramatically empower emerging eCommerce brands to be more effective and more successful?

Stephanie Summerson Hall: I talk with many new business owners and entrepreneurs in the e-commerce space, and I often suggest Shopify as a great platform to get started.

The site is extremely user-friendly and offers several integrations to help new users get up and running in no time.

The ability to hire on a tram during this time one of the tenants of our success and something I am incredibly proud of.

Jerome Knyszewski: As you know, “conversion” means to convert a visit into a sale. In your experience, what are the best strategies an eCommerce business should use to increase conversion rates?

Stephanie Summerson Hall: I think this ties to having a product consumers want to purchase.

Our products are niche, so the conversion becomes about finding a consumer who is the right fit.

Conversion will always be about the correct positioning, messaging, and partnerships to amplify your brand.

We have been effective in doing this by reaching out to influencers and working out partnerships that allow for increased visibility and a more significant customer connection, leading to more sales.

Jerome Knyszewski: Of course, the main way to increase conversion rates is to create a trusted and beloved brand. Can you share a few ways that an eCommerce business can earn a reputation as a trusted and beloved brand?

Stephanie Summerson Hall: You cannot negate the power of authentic storytelling, engaging content, customer review, and endorsements.

These four components are the tenants of social proof, which makes a business more trustworthy.

Reviews from customers carry more weight than a manufactured message, and it’s something we truly pride ourselves in when it comes to instilling trust with our customers and supporters.

Do not invest in products that are overcrowded in the marketplace. Stephanie Summerson Hall

Jerome Knyszewski: Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things one should know in order to create a very successful e-commerce business? Please share a story or an example for each.

Stephanie Summerson Hall:

1. Offer products you are passionate about and will love promoting.

   Our products are passion products, and this makes a world of difference in our enthusiasm level.

2. Do your research. Do not invest in products that are overcrowded in the marketplace.

   I believe failure to study your industry will make you another fish in a crowded sea.

3. Invest in great photography. We use the same photographer for all our projects and have learned how essential lighting components make a world of difference in the finished product.
4. Create fresh content. While this can be difficult, content creation is a must.

   Even in our busiest moments, we make time to produce content that we can use repeatedly. Content creation is one of our biggest tasks currently.

5. Make friends and build a social media community.

   Building a tribe of loyal customers and supporters has made a world of difference for our company, and we actively give support and, in turn, receive help.

Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?

Stephanie Summerson Hall: Our handle on Facebook and Instagram is @estelecoloredglass.

Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!

The post Stephanie Summerson Hall: 5 Great Tips to Succeed in E-Commerce first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Jerome Knyszewski

Victoria Pelletier is an experienced senior executive.

For over 20 years, she has amassed “corporate and board experience in strategy, operations, growth initiatives, M&A and business and talent culture and development.”

Moreover, Victoria Pelletier is a published author. She is also a sought-after public speaker, and she “regularly appears on national television and radio.”

As a leader, Victoria Pelletier is a visionary. She has a passion “for innovation, creativity and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.”

Because of her work, Victoria Pelletier has won the 2020 Mentor of the Year Award from Women in Communications & Technology. She has also won the 2019 HSBC Diversity & Inclusion in Innovation Award.

Victoria Pelletier overcame a troubled family environment to get to where she is today. She says, “The pain and loss of my past feeds my drive and resilience.”

When she was starting out, Victoria Pelletier also came across her “share of setbacks, obstacles, and disasters.” She worked too much and her health and relationship suffered.

However, Victoria Pelletier decided to adopt “balance, choice, and discipline.” She chose to “drive toward happiness, health, and a high quality of life.”

As a leader, Victoria Pelletier also understands the need to delegate tasks. She says that leaders should show their team “how to do it right.”

Check out more interviews with visionary executives here.

The pain and loss of my past feeds my drive and resilience. Victoria Pelletier

Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

Victoria Pelletier: My backstory is the kind you tell a therapist or police officer, not necessarily an audience.

Essentially, I was born into in a broken family environment. My drug addicted biological mother had mental health challenges and quite abusive.

The fact that I’m giving this interview is proof that I survived. Sometimes we learn what “not to do” from our family of origin. That would be me.

The pain and loss of my past feeds my drive and resilience.

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

Victoria Pelletier: If you’ve really put yourself out there in the world, then you’re going to have your share of setbacks, obstacles, and disasters.

When I was just starting to achieve some success in my career, my health and my relationships suffered for it.

I was working all the time, missing milestones with my family, and taking on the kinds of habits that really wreck the body and soul.

I chose to stop marching down the path toward a slow death. What I mean by this is simple: balance, choice and discipline is everything.

I decided to drive toward happiness, health, and a high quality of life. All the above can be accomplished while thriving in the workplace.

If a brand’s employees aren’t “all in” on the merch/services, how can we expect consumers to be “all in”?

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?

Victoria Pelletier: I’ve told this story a lot recently. Many moons ago, I worked for the apparel company we associate with the greatest athletes in the world.

You know the one. One morning, I rolled into the office decked out in another brand’s apparel. I grabbed comfort out of the closet.

My colleagues were incensed that I dressed “off brand.” I didn’t think it was a big deal at the time, but now I understand why the team was frustrated with me.

If a brand’s employees aren’t “all in” on the merch/services, how can we expect consumers to be “all in”?

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you please share your “Five Things You Need To Know To Delegate Effectively and Be Completely Satisfied With the Results?” Please share a story or an example for each.

Victoria Pelletier: Just five? I’m probably good for fifty!

Know the Process and Desired Result

If you are going to effectively delegate, you should not only understand the outcome or deliverable expected, but ideally HOW the work gets done.

Leaders build confidence and trust with their team when they exhibit competence. Leading a burger joint?

Then you better know where to source the beef, cook it to perfection, and get it to customers in a timely manner with excellent service. Now teach your team to do the same.

Set Clear Expectations

If you are delegating, it’s critical that your team know what you expect of them, and by when it is expected. Be very transparent about what success looks like.

Back in my sports apparel days, my team made it very clear that people representing our brand needed to be dressed in our brand.

Explicit and transparent expectations shape behaviour.

Evaluate Progress and Performance

Leading a team requires you to regularly evaluate the work your team produces.

When setting expectations, be transparent about how the team will be measured and link their compensation directly to the performance expectations and outcomes.

When I engage my team on client work, everyone knows in advance that we will sit down when the work is done to put the deliverables under the lens.

Praise is delivered as appropriate, and coaching offered as needed.

Get Your Hands Dirty

When a deadline looms and the work isn’t finished, the leader returns to the tactical level and accompanies the team in accomplishing the work.

Said another way, those who delegate must be willing to do the detailed work also.

I can’t begin to list all the times I needed to roll up my sleeves and help my team get to the finish line.

If you get your hands dirty, you also sharpen your skills and show your team you can be trusted.

Be Open to Feedback

Those who delegate are not above feedback. Even though you’re the one assigning the work, you’re not elevated to some mystical level above your team.

Listen to the feedback from your team. Be responsive when concerns are presented. Fix your mistakes.

In my own leadership, I learn a lot from those I lead. Often, the people working on the front line have a great deal of insight to offer.

If you get your hands dirty, you also sharpen your skills and show your team you can be trusted. Victoria Pelletier

Jerome Knyszewski: One of the obstacles to proper delegating is the oft quoted cliche “If you want something done right do it yourself.” Is this saying true? Is it false? Is there a way to reconcile it with the importance of delegating?

Victoria Pelletier: False, false, false. If you want it done right, show your team how to do it right. Model the behaviour you seek from those you are leading.

Good preparation leads to good results.

If you’re telling yourself, “If you want something done right do it yourself,” then you’ve clearly suffered a leadership lapse.

Look in the mirror, learn from your leadership shortcomings, and help you people succeed.

Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?

Victoria Pelletier: Find me on the social platform of your choice!

My personal website

LinkedIn

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!

The post Victoria Pelletier: 5 Great Ways to Delegate and Get the Best Business Results first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Jerome Knyszewski

Dorka Horvath: 5 Ways Leaders Could Take Their Company from Good to Great

Dorka Horvath is the founder and CEO of BOOKR Kids. BOOKR is an award-winning reading app for kids.

At BOOKR Kids, Dorka Horvath “provides a combination of beloved children’s stories and interactive tools that support literacy development and give families a smart array of digital books in one comprehensive offering.”

Likewise, Dorka Horvath engages in “women entrepreneurship by encouraging young girls and women to make a difference.” This is in addition to her true passion, publishing.

As an entrepreneur, Dorka Horvath has received the “Founder of the Year” prize at the Central European Innovation Awards. She was also nominated for the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

Dorka Horvath is completing her PhD thesis on the relationship between e-learning and new media at the Corvinus University of Budapest.

As a child, Dorka Horvath grew up with publisher parents, which gave her the passion to inspire children, including her son, to gain a love for reading.

However, the world has changed. Dorka Horvath understands that “young generations need smart and interactive content to read and learn.”

So, Dorka Horvath launched BOOKR as an “innovative solution to connect beautiful literature and engaging digital books to develop the love for reading among children.”

Dorka Horvath’s belief and confidence in her company has allowed her to push onward for success.

Check out more interviews with learning visionaries here.

I wanted the love of reading to inspire my son, just like other children. Dorka Horvath, BOOKR Kids

Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

Dorka Horvath: Growing up with publisher parents and being a young mother-to-be, I wanted the love of reading to inspire my son, just like other children.

But the world is changing and young generations need smart and interactive content to read and learn.

With BOOKR, I launched an innovative solution to connect beautiful literature and engaging digital books to develop the love for reading among children.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

As a former athlete, I learned that a match only ends when the referee blows the whistle. That’s why I’m unable to give up.

I believe so much in our mission and in the company we are building, I would not believe anyone who tells me we will not succeed.

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?

Dorka Horvath: In the beginning, we wanted to offer hardware to the software as well.

We ordered 2000 kids-safe tablets from China; when they arrived, we realised they were not only not kid-friendly, but they literally did not function well either.

We invested a lot in manufacturing and lost almost our entire investment. You should never do everything at once.

If you are developing software, do not start a hardware business.

Jerome Knyszewski: Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things one should know in order to lead a company from Good to Great? Please share a story or an example for each.

Dorka Horvath: My ultimate role model is my father who started his first business at the time of the regime change in Hungary and was the first to found a company in the post-socialist country.

He taught me that a successful business person should not just understand numbers but always remain optimistic and be able to renew in all situations.

Looking at colleagues not as employees, but as family members, focusing on value creation rather than short-term profit-making.

And learn more every day than yesterday.

So, optimism, ability to adapt and innovate, long-term impact, giving value and purpose to team members, lifelong learning.

And learn more every day than yesterday.

Jerome Knyszewski: Extensive research suggests that “purpose driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. Can you help articulate for our readers a few reasons why a business should consider becoming a purpose-driven business, or consider having a social impact angle?

Dorka Horvath: Fortunately, we live in an era of business when you no longer have to choose between making a profit and making a difference.

Being purpose- or mission-driven does not mean you have to be a charity, social enterprise, or even not-for-profit.

It simply means that you are using your business to achieve aims beyond the bottom line.

According to our business plan, we need to double our revenue every year, but it also means that more and more kids are studying with us every year and more teachers are teaching with our high-quality books.

Profit and mission can go hand in hand.

Jerome Knyszewski: As you know, “conversion” means to convert a visit into a sale. In your experience, what are the best strategies a business should use to increase conversion rates?

Dorka Horvath: I think the most challenging part is finding the product-market fit. Once you find it, you are ready to scale.

I recently read about Flywheel theory, which has dramatically helped identify the points that help accelerate conversion and revenue. I highly recommend it.

Profit and mission can go hand in hand. Dorka Horvath

Jerome Knyszewski: Of course, the main way to increase conversion rates is to create a trusted and beloved brand. Can you share a few ways that a business can earn a reputation as a trusted and beloved brand?

Dorka Horvath: I completely agree. Building reputation, especially in the online world is a challenging task.

I think the most effective help is to have “super users” who build your brand as volunteer ambassadors because they actually became fans.

Then the word of mouth machine starts to work.

If you also can present partners who already established their reputation in the market can also strengthen your own brand.

Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

The post Dorka Horvath: 5 Ways Leaders Could Take Their Company from Good to Great first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Jerome Knyszewski

Krista Miller: 5 Important Things All 20-Something Founders Should Know

Krista Miller is the founder of Summit In A Box. She “helps entrepreneurs 3x their monthly revenue through virtual summits without wondering where to start or what to do next.”

As an entrepreneur herself, Krista Miller uses a method that focuses on “strong connections, collaboration, and making a difference in the lives of everyone involved.”

Krista Miller started out with a virtual summit with “a tiny audience.” After that, she began hosting “several $60k+ events.”

With her success, Krista Miller has moved on to provide “strategies, templates, and tutorials to others who want to follow the same path.”

Krista Miller had never imagined that she would start her own company. She had been the shy kid who “took bad grades to avoid giving speeches (despite my obsession with straight As).”

Likewise, Krista Miller “hated the thought of any attention pointing my way.” However, she eventually became an entrepreneur.

It was when Krista Miller was browsing Pinterest that she noticed “that there were other young women running their own web design and development businesses, focused on serving other young women.”

So, Krista Miller decided to run her own business. In just a weekend, she had come up with a business name, a website, and an “underpriced offer to build websites for other women in business.”

Check out more interviews with self-made entrepreneurs here.

Founding a company was never something I thought I’d do. Krista Miller, Summit in a Box

Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! What is your “backstory”?

Krista Miller: Founding a company was never something I thought I’d do.

Growing up, I was the shy-type who barely said a word, took bad grades to avoid giving speeches (despite my obsession with straight As), and hated the thought of any attention pointing my way.

But here I am.

Near the end of my time earning a master’s degree in my early 20s, I landed my dream job doing software and web development for a large corporation.

With that first job offer, I had already reached my lifetime salary goal and thought I had it made.

I did enjoy my time in that job for about a year, but then things started to go downhill.

As the youngest and only woman on a large team, the more my team members became comfortable with me, the more uncomfortable I started feeling around them.

Eventually, it turned into a toxic environment. I dreaded going to work every day and would leave in tears a couple of times per week.

For a while, I accepted that as the way it was going to be. I mean, this was my dream job, what else was there to do?

But after a particularly hard couple of weeks, I knew that I couldn’t continue the 40+ years I had left in the workforce going through anything even close to what I was dealing with. I needed an out.

The thought of trying to land another software development job wasn’t appealing.

I’d seen what it looked like to work in the tech space as a woman and I didn’t want anything to do with it.

The problem was, I loved what I did and I definitely didn’t want to waste the time and money I’d spent in college.

One day, while scrolling through Pinterest, I noticed that there were other young women running their own web design and development businesses, focused on serving other young women. It was my “ah-ha” moment.

I had no idea what I was doing, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to pull it off, but I got to work immediately.

In one weekend, I had a business name, a website, and an underpriced offer to build websites for other women in business.

It took a few months to land that first client, but things picked up quickly from there.

Within 6 months, I was making the bare minimum my husband and I would need to get by and I left my corporate job to go full-time on my own.

After 3 years of running that business, I launched my first successful virtual summit.

It went so well that I found myself bombarded with emails and messages asking if I’d teach others how to do it.

And that’s where the story of Summit in a Box began.

Sometimes, the only one who will believe in you…is you.

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you started your company? What lessons or takeaways did you take out of that story?

Krista Miller: I’m always entertained by the way my family views the work I do.

Coming from a small town, the idea of running an online business is unheard of to all of them. Attempting to explain how I teach other people to host virtual summits? Forget it.

Instead of seeing me creating a business that brings in more than I’d make at a “real” job and truly helping people, they see me sitting at home all day, working on my “little projects”.

Over the years, they’ve started seeing that I am doing real work and I’ve been able to laugh at it more, instead of being offended.

But the October after leaving my corporate job, I was so sick of the side comments that I dressed up as “myself” for a family Halloween party.

The costume consisted of messy hair, an “I’m busy” shirt, pajama pants, and slippers.

When anyone asked about it, I mentioned that I was dressing to match what everyone assumed I did every day.

On the plus side, it opened up conversations and opportunities to let them know that I was actually running a business, not doing those “little projects”.

Jerome Knyszewski: Do you have a favorite book that made a deep impact on your life? Can you share a story?

Krista Miller: Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert, is one of the most impactful books I’ve read.

Usually, business books are hard for me to read and the lessons don’t stick, but this is one I’ll never forget.

Part of the book talks about how ideas work.

They flow to one person and that person will choose to either take action on it or not.

The choice isn’t always a conscious one, but it’s one that happens. If that person chooses not to take action, the idea will flow to the next worthy person.

That’s an oversimplification of the idea, but it has always stuck with me and is why I said “yes” to the idea of starting Summit in a Box.

The idea came to me and I knew it was either one I could grab and take action on, or it would find its way to someone else.

There are many ideas I’ve decided to let go of throughout my journey, but I’m so glad that I grabbed onto that one and held on tight.

The truth is, if you’re doing something that isn’t making you happy, only you have the power to change it. Krista Miller

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share 5 of the most difficult and most rewarding parts of being a “TwentySomething founder”. Please share an example or story for each.

Krista Miller:

1. Sometimes, the only one who will believe in you…is you.

Like I mentioned before, when I started my business, my entire family told me what a terrible idea it was.

They viewed it as me throwing away a safe, high-paying, and “perfectly good” corporate job for something that was going to leave me penniless.

I’d be lying if I said it never got to me, because there were a lot of tears shed after phone calls with parents and grandparents, but I’m so glad that I didn’t let the doubt that other people had in themselves hold me back.

When you take a big leap like starting a business, you might find that the only one who believes that you can do it is you.

But luckily, that’s all you need.

2. Only you can control your happiness.

Society tells us that we should do things a certain way.

After high school, we’re supposed to go to college, get a nice degree, find a steady job, and that’s that. If something isn’t going quite how you want?

Well, you better learn to deal with it.

The truth is, if you’re doing something that isn’t making you happy, only you have the power to change it.

It will probably mean getting uncomfortable, making others uncomfortable, and going beyond what’s considered “normal”, but the rest of your life and ongoing happiness is worth that discomfort.

3. Your actions dictate your success.

For as long as I can remember, my mother has been unhappy with the work that she does.

There have been times where it’s been significantly worse than others, but she’s definitely not in a career that has her waking up happy to go to work each day.

About 7 years ago, she finally decided to do something about it.

She applied for a few jobs, I helped her get ready to apply for tech school, and she was ready to go.

But after a couple of rejection letters, she decided that she couldn’t do it. She said she was too old, not smart enough, and didn’t have the energy to do it.

Was any of that true? Nope. It was a decision that she and only she made.

It still breaks my heart to think about, but it was an important lesson for me that your actions will dictate your success.

If you decide that you can’t do something, you won’t be able to do it because you’ll take actions that make success impossible.

Instead, decide that you can do it and take action in that direction. It might not always work out perfectly, but it will give you a significantly better chance than giving up completely.

4. There is no ceiling.

In entrepreneurship, there is absolutely no ceiling to the success you can have. My first goal when I started my business was to make $1500 per month — and I didn’t know if I could do it.

After 5 months, I hit that $1500 per month and set a new goal of $3k per month. Anything more than that felt impossible to me.

Then, I hit it and my goal became $5k per month. From there $10k, $30k, and so on.

Every step of the way, that “next level” has felt impossible. Like I’d hit my ceiling and it was time to sit back and be happy in that place.

But every time, I’ve broken through it and found another goal to aim for.

When you’re doing what you love and helping others along the way, there’s no ceiling for your success.

5. Past limitations don’t have to hold you back.

When working a “real” job, it’s not rare for past limitations and mistakes to hold you back.

For example, maybe the way a project went two years ago is what keeps you from getting that promotion or gets you removed from the job altogether.

In entrepreneurship, that’s not the way it works.

Instead, we can work with our limitations and let them bring us further.

I’ve had some wildly successful launches, but I’ve had some total flops as well.

Instead of being punished for those flops and it affecting my career, I’ve learned from them — what to try next time and what to never do again.

Acknowledge your limitations, mistakes, and failures and leverage the heck out of them in everything you do.

Jerome Knyszewski: What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?

Krista Miller: I’d love to connect on Instagram @summitinabox!

Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

The post Krista Miller: 5 Important Things All 20-Something Founders Should Know first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Jerome Knyszewski

Alexis Artin: 5 Great Tips I Wish I Knew Before I Started a Business

Alexis Artin is a “leading Success Coach.” She is also the co-founder of FreeBody Practice.

Over the past twenty years, Alexis Artin has worked hard “propelling people towards their personal and professional best.”

Throughout her career, Alexis Artin has also worked with “many A-list celebrities across the board in television and film.”

Then Alexis Artin “transitioned her passion and skillset for fostering potential and obtaining results to the world of self-development and transformation.”

Likewise, Alexis Artin has also “worked side-by-side with many of the most revered thought leaders bringing personal growth to the global stage.”

Because of Alexis Artin, “one of the largest and most respected female empowerment companies” has expanded. This growth inspired her to “channel her expertise into creating a coaching practice serving clients worldwide.”

As a coach, Alexis Artin adopts a unique approach. She incorporates “the body, mind, heart, and soul” into her practice. She delivers “powerful coaching” that “gives her clients true and lasting transformation from the inside out.”

Alexis Artin has earned an ICF certification as a professional coach. She is also a Master Practitioner of Energy Leadership, as well as a “licensed Demartine Method facilitator, hypnotherapist, and NLP practitioner.”

In this interview, Alexis Artin discusses the importance of effective delegation in finding business success.

Check out more interviews with success coaches here.

Human behavior has always fascinated me, ever since I was a little girl. Alexis Artin, Success Coach

Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

Alexis Artin: Human behavior has always fascinated me, ever since I was a little girl.

Growing up, I expressed that through a love of acting.

I used to love delving into different characters’ stories, trying on different roles, and seeing life from a different perspective.

Taking on a new persona also provided me with a safe space to experiment with expressing my emotions.

Eventually, I moved behind the camera.

For ten years, I worked as an entertainment executive, supporting, producing, and managing talent.

I quickly realized I had a knack for knowing what people wanted and needed. It was a skill that served me phenomenally well and allowed me to fast-track people to their full potential.

After a decade of catapulting celebrities to success, I decided to transition my skills into the personal development space to help everyone live an extraordinary life — and that’s what I’ve been doing for the past ten years.

However small the step may be, we need to focus on stepping into the next action toward achieving our goals. It’s all progress.

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

Alexis Artin: The really challenging thing for me was announcing that I was going to start my own business.

That was scary for me because I’d thrived for so long being in the shadows — I was famous for making other people famous and successful.

It served me to hide behind those people, and it kept me safe. So, for me to then step out of the shadows was terrifying.

I thought nobody would care, that I didn’t have what it took or the right to be there — it was a serious case of imposter syndrome.

I considered giving up all the time in the early days, and I’ll be honest, I still have moments now when the doubts creep back in.

But what keeps me driving forward is thinking about what life would be like if I didn’t do the thing that means the most to me.

There’s no fate worse for me than that. It’s my passion and alignment with my purpose that keeps me going through even the most challenging times.

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?

Alexis Artin: This is an interesting question for me as I don’t typically believe in mistakes. I believe everything is an opportunity for growth.

I’m not sure I have any hilarious moments to share, but I will say that, as with any growth process, there are growing pains and what I learned from those is the importance of putting progress over perfection.

However small the step may be, we need to focus on stepping into the next action toward achieving our goals. It’s all progress.

Jerome Knyszewski: Can you please share your “Five Things You Need To Know To Delegate Effectively and Be Completely Satisfied With the Results?” Please share a story or an example for each.

Alexis Artin:

1. Know what you’re good at — Ask yourself: “What’s the highest value I can bring?” Identify your top skills — are you great at engaging clients, an exceptional project manager, or perhaps you’re an amazing writer?Whatever it is, identify your “zone of genius” and be clear about what’s in your remit.

   Think about what brings you energy.

   This means you can double-down on what will give you a return on investment of your resources — your energy, money, time, and emotions.

2. Identify the gaps in your skillset — We could call them weaknesses, but we can’t all be good at everything, so be realistic about what’s not your bag.What tasks deplete your energy? These are the tasks you will delegate.
3. Communicate with your team — Find out what your team members are good at and the areas they would like to develop.From there, you can delegate the tasks to the best people for each job. This way, you ensure every task is done to the highest standard.
4. Continuously review responsibilities — Stay in tune with your energy, motivation, and productivity as you perform your streamlined tasks.You might find you need to delegate more tasks during busier periods or when new team members join who excel in a particular area.

   Keep checking in with how you — and your team — are getting on with your agreed workloads and where things might need to be tweaked.

5. Trust your team — Once you’ve handed over a task and given any necessary background, don’t micromanage the person taking it on.Not only does that frustrate and undermine them, but it also doesn’t give you back any time or energy because you’re now spending it looking over your team member’s shoulder.

   Make sure your team knows that you are there for any questions or obstacles they encounter, but don’t impose your opinions or directions unless they ask for them.

Jerome Knyszewski: One of the obstacles to proper delegating is the oft quoted cliche “If you want something done right do it yourself.” Is this saying true? Is it false? Is there a way to reconcile it with the importance of delegating?

Alexis Artin: I don’t believe this is true. I think this cliche stems from the belief we often hold that the amount of work we have proves our value.

Simply put: no-one can do everything, so you can’t possibly always be the right person for every job.

It’s important to know when you are the right person and when it should be done by someone else.

Be clear on your skillset and those of others, and you will be satisfied with the results of your delegation.

Think about what brings you energy. Alexis Artin

Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?

Alexis Artin: I’m on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, plus I update my blog weekly.

Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!

The post Alexis Artin: 5 Great Tips I Wish I Knew Before I Started a Business first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Jerome Knyszewski