"I've got a lot of tools. None of them cut corners." Michael O'Neal

About: Michael O'Neal- Founder of The Solopreneur Hour

Overview: Michael is a self-taught entrepreneur who has a passion for network marketing, branding, life-coaching, and internet marketing. He shares with us tips for how to start a successful company, and what you shouldn't do as well. Learn more about how he started his podcast, The Solopreneur Hour, and how he helps fellow entrepreneurs through his show.

Highlights:

Background: Michael started out in the field as a web designer after receiving his communications degree from Temple University. He worked in that field for 15 years, even starting a company called Whirled Media. From there, he worked a few odd  jobs but became unemployed in 2005 which was when he started his entrepreneurial journey. In 2007, Michael sadly lost both his parents and in 2009, he traveled to Europe as a way to mourn and heal. Following his return, Michael spent the next four years in network marketing, internet marketing, and life coaching. In 2013, he officially started his own podcast called The Solopreneur Hour – Job Security for the Unemployable.

The Solopreneur Hour Podcast: An audio podcast where Michael co-hosts with solopreneurs from all over the world including people with backgrounds in: network marketing, internet marketing, music, fitness, acting, comedy, and more. Michael's objective with his podcast is to take his audience through the journey of his co-host then give them actionable steps to help them with their ventures and inspire them to act. The Solopreneur Hour also shares practical steps and tools including books, smartphone apps, websites, training courses, strategies and stories that will support entrepreneurs every step of the way.

Revenue: Michael does have people pay to advertise on his show but he also offers a mastermind group- Sololab- that listeners can subscribe to.

What Entrepreneurs Can do to Get Started: Michael refers to this article he recently shared on his podcast: HERE. To summarize the article, Michael shares that you have to have good gear, nail your brand, make real connections with people, be patient, study your craft, push through adversity, go to conferences and know your competition, study others who are successful at what you want to do, promote tirelessly, and finally, be thankful and show your gratitude. Michael also feels that it is crucial to get a coach; someone who can support you and help you as you venture out into the entrepreneurial world.

The Worst Thing an Entrepreneur Can Do: Be too impulsive with their business idea before testing the waters and doing it blindly. That's where having a coach involved can be very helpful.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Let branding be your fallback. People will know more about who you are if you nail the brand. If you are introverted, focus on building a successful, well-known brand, and getting to know people; making those connections will come after.

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Connect With Michael:

Website | Facebook | @SoloHour | SoloLab

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"Always remember you only get what you give – so give it all." - Andreia Almeida

About: Andreia Almeida- Founder and CEO of We Love Social

Overview: Andreia is a long-time freelancer turned entrepreneur. She shares with details about her social media company, and the challenges that she faces to help companies understand the need to connect and establish trust with their potential clients.

Highlights:

Background: Andreia received her Bachelor's Degree in Public Relations and later went on to specialize in Customer Relationship Management, and Social Media marketing. She has always been an active person with a strong interest in constantly helping companies, and helping those companies establish deeper relationships with their audience. Andreia is currently living and working in Lisbon after moving there 2 years ago to start her company, We Love Social.

What is We Love Social: We Love Social is an e-PR agency that is all about engagement and providing clients with a fully integrated strategy on PR and Social Media. Their main goal is innovating how brands use social media to connect with their public in the digital world. They provide services such as: consultancy and training-offering specific training plans for companies, according to their needs, and help increase their position against competitors. We Love Social encourages companies to actually talk and get to know their public, but above all to listen to what their potential customers need.

How it All Started: Andreia shares that when she hit her 30's, she realized she wasn't exactly where she wanted to be. So, she started thinking- "what should I do with my life that actually makes me happy?" Andreia knew that she had a passion for social media and by that time was already at TEDxLisbon in charge of Social Media. So she decided to get a talented team together to get started on her own Social Media company. She was able to receive some good advice from two successful entrepreneurs that enlightened her with their insights and expertise.

Setbacks: For Andreia, the entrepreneur life is still fairly new to her, and hasn't experienced a major setback yet, but she does think her main failure in life was not taking the entrepreneurial step earlier. She finds herself more accomplished than ever now – and being on a startup co-working space, she gets the same reaction from other colleagues every day. Andreia states that as an entrepreneur you learn to face failure as a learning experience, and the lessons you take from it make it worth the trial. You may not have the security of a 9-5 job, but you reach the end of the day feeling accomplished.

Biggest Challenge: Something Andreia has learned while freelancing for many years and now as a recent entrepreneur, is that while most people in the world of business have accepted the significance of a digital presence, many still do not understand its terms. In order to survive and succeed online, businesses need to relate to their audiences, and build trust with them.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Andreia shares how important it is for entrepreneurs to connect with their audience, to know their business and customers, and to establish deep connections with them. Always remember you only get what you give – so give it your all.

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Connect With Andreia:

Website | Facebook

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"Change is a matter of practicing small habits everyday." - Joe Jacobi

About: Joe Jacobi: Olympic Gold Medalist (Canoe Slalom), 10x U.S. National Champion, Consultant, and former CEO of USA Canoe/Kayak

Overview: Joe is an Olympic athlete with years of experience in canoeing/kayaking. He shares his experience of getting to the Olympics, and his entrepreneurial journey since. 

Highlights:

Background: Joe started canoeing as an 8 year old boy in Washington D.C., specifically in the Potomac River. When he was 13, Joe unintentionally became involved with a talented white-water canoeing group where he excelled for the next 10 years. Joe went on to win an Olympic Gold medal in 1992 with many of those teammates from that original group. In 2004 Joe competed again at the Olympics (placing 8th). He discusses how much he changed over the 12 years as an athlete and what it was like competing the second time around being in his 30's, with a wife, and a 3 year-old at home.

Joe's Entrepreneurial Journey: Joe was the CEO of USA Canoe/Kayak from 2009-2014, and although it was a big leap of faith, he decided to step down to pursue other entrepreneurial dreams like writing, speaking, and consulting. Currently, every Sunday, Joe writes a newsletter where he shares his thoughts with others, offers encouraging words, tips on improving performance, and other meaningful topics through many experiences. With this newsletter, Joe shares that he is exploring his vulnerabilities writing each week, and has found that people are drawn to that and his email list continues to grow.

Shifting to the Entrepreneurial World: Joe explains that his wife has always been an entrepreneur and is very successful at it. When he decided to make the shift to focus on his entrepreneurial aspirations, he was worried about what his wife and daughter would think, but shares how they were more than happy to support him with his new endeavors. He feels that with this new journey, he has had more time to focus on being a dad, working smarter each day, and really focus on what he wants to do for the future. His life now has space and room to grow and incubate new ideas.

Consulting: Joe works more with the corporate and executive space in the performance and strategy world. He focuses on starting with his clients' health and giving them the capacity that they need to perform successfully in whatever form of work they do. Joe feels that good health is crucial to cultivating a better environment, which in turn will allow smoother-running systems.  Joe wants his clients to be able to continue on a positive path once he leaves.

Work-Life Balance: Joe starts his day on a positive note- he wakes up early, exercises daily, and practices constant gratitude. 

Take Away: Overall, Joe teaches us that we should always strive to have balance in our life and make our personal health a priority. As we do so, all other aspects of our life will flow smoother. He has also teaches us that gratitude is an important part of life and that we should be grateful more often. 

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Connect With Joe:

Website | Google+ | @JoeJacobi

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"True networking is where you are more interested in what the other person is getting out of the relationship than what you get." - David Bradford

About: David Bradford - Executive Chairman of HireVue, Author of Up Your Game: 6 Timeless Principles for Networking Your Way to the Top

Overview: David is an experienced entrepreneur who has mastered networking by simply giving before he recieves. He shares the 6 principles for networking your way to the top, which can be found in his book. He also shares his experience working with Infusion.io, Steve Wozniak, and HireVue.

Highlights:

What is HireVue: It is the largest digital interviewing platform in the world. In order to find great candidates for the job, HireVue helps large companies simplify the interviewing process- find better talent faster, and save money for the company. HireVue aims to eliminate the bad interviews through online interviews, sort of like a Skype on steroids, that involves an entire rating system, recording system, and other methodologies that employers can create.

Biggest Challenge: Once HireVue had the right people on board, it was important/challenging for them to find the right companies to get onboard. When they were able to obtain large corporations as clients, it helped well-known entities feel confident in using HireVue as well.

End Game for HireVue: HireVue believes that they are the next greatest online HR company. They are trying to gather and bring back greater personality to the entire interview process. Nothing is more important to a company or CEO than finding amazing talent.

Working with Steve Wozniak: David was able to work with Steve when David was chairman of a company called Infusion.io. When asked how he was able to get Steve to work with him, David shares, "True networking is where you are more interested in what the other person is getting out of the relationship than what you get." He states that with that attitude, at some point the law of reciprocity is going to help you out. And with Steve, David simply implemented the idea of true networking. (To learn more about this story, check out David's Book)

Up Your Game: 6 Timeless Principles for Networking Your Way to the Top: David has been blessed by relationships in his life and has constantly strived to surround himself with inspiring people. He started this book in an effort to help others learn how to network effectively. In May of 2014 he launched the book, and has had great success with it since. However, David is more happy with the personal feedback that he has had with his book and how many people he's been able to help. Some of the principles include: 1- Start your network by giving with no thought of getting, 2- show up, 3- follow up, 4- link up by connecting with people and forming meaningful relationships and organizing those contacts, 5- stand up, by being a person of integrity and character, and 6- scale up, by working hard at forming, building, and nurturing your network.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: You simply have to be interested in other people- ask basic questions and get to know them. As you begin asking others those questions, people will naturally begin to ask questions about you and as the conversation moves forward, people will begin to build trust with you. It's vital for you to build strong relationships with others as you network, and as you do so, you will become successful.

Connect With Ezra:

Website | Facebook | @DavidBradford | Google+

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"[When starting a company] don't just look at your local state or country...there are bounteous opportunities outside the U.S. and Europe." - Christopher Prujisen

About: Christopher Prujisen Co-Founder of Sterio.me

Overview: Christopher is a driven, entrepreneur who is constantly reaching outside of his comfort zone to help on a global scale. Throughout this interview, he explains more about his company, Sterio.me, a company that he co-founded in 2013 and what he plans to do to help students all over the world.

Highlights:

Christopher's Background: Up until the age of 17, Christopher lived in the Netherlands where he attended public school, then attended Oxford University for about 2 years where he studied Philosophy and Economics. In his first year of college, Christopher went to China and taught English and was fascinated by the amount of learning and homework the students were given. He later returned to the UK and organized a very big entrepreneurship competition, and went on to become the President of the Oxford Entrepreneurs organization. Eventually, through different experiences, Christopher left Oxford to become an entrepreneur and started Sterio.me.

What is Sterio.me: (From their site) "Sterio.me is a technology that saves teachers time by automating the homework process from preparation, distribution and marking to administration, and improves access to relevant out of classroom learning reinforcement materials for learners. Sterio.me offers full reading, writing, listening and speaking pedagogy and is accessible via basic phone, and no internet is required."

How it Started: In 2013, Christopher and part of his team at the time went on StartupBus in Africa where they traveled for 5 days with other entrepreneurs (half African entrepreneurs, the other half Entrepreneurs all over the world) and through these 5 days they saw the need to develop technology driven solutions that would allow students that don't have access to out-of-school resources to continue to learn and complete homework assignments at home. It's been a long process to create the right model for the company, and by coming to Chile they have been able to find the right help to get them to where they are now.

Biggest Challenge for Sterio.me: Money is always a challenge, but through Christopher's experience he has learned that having a team is the most important factor to buoy each other up. So, finding the right engineers, project managers, local market expertise's, etc, is crucial to the success of their company.

Funding: Sterio.me started out bootstrapping, and then they were able to receive a grant from Chile. With the grant, there are some spending restrictions (you can't just outsource the way you want it to), but in general it's been very helpful for the company and for the local economy in Chile.

Future for Sterio.me: Starting next year, they will finish up the Android app for Sterio.me and really focus on driving it towards private schools in Chile, as well as certain wealthier markets in Africa. And then on the GSM solution side, they'd like to launch it in Madagascar. Overall, they really want to help the homework issue on a global scale, and possibly start some other side companies down the road to help.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Decide what your goals are and what type of business you'd like to start. Determine what you're passionate about. When starting a company, don't limit yourself to your country, look internationally and possibly do a fellowship to see what's out there and what's needed. It's also a great idea to consider small markets, like Christopher has done in Chile.

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Connect With Christopher:

Website | @Steriome | Facebook | 

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"We really want to focus on artists that are living and working in New York City because we want to help them out...They [the artists] want to focus on their work, they don't want to focus on selling their work." Andrew Mueller

About: Andrew Mueller - Co-Founder of Mueller + Jacobs

Overview: Through their love for creativity and art, Andrew and his business partner started a company as Fine Art Advisors. During this interview, we learn more about Andrew's background and how quickly the company has grown since they started in October 2014. Andrew also shares some unique advice for entrepreneurs around the world.

Highlights:

What is Mueller + Jacobs: [From their website] "Through our fine art acquisition consultancy, Mueller and Jacobs positions clients as industry leaders, promotes client branding, allows them to make authoritative investments and to become part of a contemporary art dialogue. Their clients range from start-up companies, established corporations, to private collectors."

Background: Mueller + Jacobs launched in October of 2014, even though Andrew did not want to officially launch until March, they immediately began making sales, and Andrew is extremely busy working with clients. Currently, Andrew is working another full time job, while running this company. He received his Bachelors Degree in Art History from Penn State. In 2002 Andrew moved to New York and became an Admissions Director at an MFA program for about 13 years. From there, he worked as a consultant for higher education- and has since left that to pursue advising.

Challenges: Artists can be very particular about their work, and who their work is featured next to, and that has proven to be a difficult challenge for Andrew as he works with these artists and advising for his clients. Another challenge Andrew wasn't anticipating was the money aspect- branding is expensive and he has found it hard to cut costs to have the funds needed to run the company. Andrew also notes that his social life has become almost non-existent because of the work it takes to make his company run smoothly.

Future: Andrew would like to keep the company size the way it is for at least the next three years. And he plans to jump ship from his 9-5 job in April. He's been saving what funds he can to put towards the branding of his company- which he feels is very important for the success of his company.

Revenue: Although, they have only been in business for a few months, their revenue is already around $50,000. Andrew believes that once they are working the company full time, the potential is massive. Their goal for the end of this year is be around $300-$400k profit.

Style/Aesthetic: Mueller + Jacobs has a wide array of styles, but they'd really like to focus on finding artists locally in New York City to help boost their businesses.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Don't be afraid to ask for favors. Andrew has found that by asking his friends and family for favors, he's been connected to some great contacts who have helped get him where he is today.

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Connect With Andrew:

Website | @MuellerJacobs

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"Don't give up, tenacity is huge, it's the whole thing." - Spencer Handley

About: Spencer Handley- Founder of PodClear

Overview: Spencer is a passionate entrepreneur who is out to help Podcasters achieve the greatest results with each of their interviews. He shares his background and what experiences and desires have led him to where he is today.

Click to Tweet: Ep 173: Spencer Handley - Building Crystal Clear Audi Tools

Highlights:

Spencer's Background: Spencer is from Colorado originally, lived in LA- went to UCLA where he studied Chinese- actually lived in China for a year and ran a small little language acquisition tool business where he manufactured Chinese tools. He was also a musician (received an Associates in Music Composition) so he worked as a Jazz Musician/DJ in a night club. When he came back from China he went to Draper University, which is a school for entrepreneurs, and at the end of that program he pitched his business plan to venture capitalists and ended up winning the competition. From there, Spencer ran an enterprise software company for manufacturing for a year- had pretty good traction with it, but ended up folding the company because it wasn't what Spencer really wanted to do with his life. After that, he became heavily involved in consulting and is also planning on sticking with PodClear for as long as possible- it's more up his alley of work.

What is PodClear: A software application for desktop (both Mac and PC) that allows podcast interviewers to interview guests with crystal clear audio quality. It records locally on both people's machines, and you are able to have unlimited guests. After the calls are complete, the audio files are synced to PodClear's servers, processed, and as a result you get uncompressed audio for your podcasts.

How it Came About: Spencer is not a podcaster by trade, but is an avid podcast listener. The idea was evolved because Spencer and his team were listening to podcasts and found many of these podcasts were hard to hear. Spencer and his team were determined to create a way where the podcasts were recorded on both ends, and recorded crystal clear. It took about six weeks for Spencer and his team to create the software application.

How it Works: You simply invite someone to be on the show, start a PodClear session, add your interviewee/s into the session, and then it will send them a 4-step process to follow and then are quickly added into the recorded session.

Goals: Right now, Podclear has about 1,100 users. For Spencer, this is more of a passion product and not necessarily motived by money. The intention is to have this business to support them, and to be wherever they want (location independent) and let them interact with people the way they want to. Spencer does not work on PodClear full time, he is also an independent consultant. The more they can work on PodClear, the better the product they'll be able to have. They'd like to start working on it full time in April of this year.

Biggest Challenge: Finding personal balance- working full time as a consultant and working on PodClear on the side has proven to be a hard task. Spencer shares that it can be really easy to get burned out and lose balance with life, but he also realizes that it's all part of starting a company.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Just keep experimenting until you find what works for you. Build a solid skill set that is marketable, something that has a high hour-to-cost ratio to help you bootstrap if necessary. Premeditate about what you want to do, choose what you love, and do what will work best for you.

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Connect With Spencer:

Website | @PodclearTweets | 

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"You can't wait for perfect...you have to put something out there, and then get a response." Jared Loftus

About: Jared Loftus- COO of Mastery Prep and CEO of College District

Overview: Jared started his entrepreneurial journey 10 years ago as a college student selling t-shirts from his backpack at football games. He shares more about where that journey has led him and what he does with Mastery Prep- an ACT prep program for schools all over the nation.

Highlights:

About Mastery Prep: Mastery Prep is an ACT Mastery program that is a support structure for principals and district administrators that helps them provide best-in-class ACT preparation to the students who need it most. They go in and train teachers and students on the most important information they'll need to know to take the ACT and SAT. Mastery Prep also has an online component with work books that students can use to study at their own pace. Currently, they have about 50-60 tutors with the program, but are continuing to grow rapidly and are preparing to launch in other states.

How it Works: Since they're a new company, their sales team will go out to the schools and pitch what Mastery Prep can do for them. Mastery Prep can create a custom program for each of the schools/districts/states. Right now they are in about 6-8 states. Patrick shares that they are much more confident in the success of their program when they can control what's implemented into each workbook/program. They have seen a huge increase in Juniors' test results and are very happy with the direction of their success.

Jared's Role at Mastery Prep: As the COO there, he handles more of the business aspect of the company. He makes sure that they have the structure, employees, and delivery that they need to make sure the company runs smoothly.

Biggest Challenge: For Mastery Prep, the toughest challenge is managing such massive growth. It's growing so rapidly it can be tough to keep on top of building the team and having the right people on board in the right places. They spend a lot of their time working on this problem. Although sales aren't necessarily easy, it's the easiest aspect of their company right now.

About College District: This company was Jared's first real entrepreneurial experience. In college, he was running for student body office and needed to raise funds. He started selling t-shirts out of his backpack at football games and other college events and next thing he knew, it had turned into a little company. Through demand, Jared eventually opened a retail store next to the college campus where he could sell his t-shirts. About 6 years later, Jared sold the actual store location in 2010 and went fully online. College District also uses a crowdsource to let fans tell the company what kind of t-shirts they want.

Revenue for College District: At their peak, College District generated close to 1M, but it varies now according to the football season and success of their local schools in Louisiana.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: You have to know what your motives are- what you are doing and why you are doing it. You can't wait for perfect, you have to put something out there and then get a response. At some point, you have to make it happen. You have to decide you're going to do it, and then just do it.

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Connect With Jared:

Website | @JaredLoftus | LinkedIn | Instagram | AboutMe

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"[As an entrepreneur] being humble...allows you to forgive other people's mistakes and admit your own." - Patrick Lor

About: Patrick Lor - Co-founder & CEO of Dissolve

Overview: Patrick is a determined entrepreneur in Canada who shares his experiences of working in the tech. His current company, Dissolve, sells high quality stock video clips, and although he is up against some big competitors he has proven to be successful and works extremely hard towards his goals.

Highlights:

About Dissolve: Dissolve is a company that sells high quality stock video clips and has been around for about a year and half. They look for people that have a great artistic eye, buy their video clips, and use them for web-based advertising work, corporate training videos, editorial and documentary settings, along with interactive web sites, video games and mobile applications. These clips are typically about 10-30 seconds long. Currently, they have 550,000 clips and are looking to grow that well over a million clips this year.

Getting the Word Out: Dissolve has dedicated a lot of money to marketing. Their core marketing methodology is to use video marketing. They create their own videos with their clips and push them out on YouTube, social media, etc. Those videos are then re-tweeted and written about because they tell compelling stories. All of the videos they create for marketing are done in house. Another thing they have done is put out direct mail to potential customers (a 2 booklet set) that advertises better footage, and better stories.

Employees: Dissolve's goal is to obtain 5-6 more employees this year, some on sight and some to work remotely. They allow flexibility where employee's can work from home and take time off.

Biggest Challenge for Dissolve: Patrick shares that obtaining resources is their biggest challenge. He feels they could use a little more of everything, but to get there they need more resources. Dissolve's goal is to double their product, and quadruple the size of their customer base.

Patrick's Entrepreneurial Background: Patrick started a company, iStock, around 2000 and eventually sold the company to Getty Images. This experience has helped him start and run Dissolve.

Goals: Patrick understands that it takes a village to accomplish what they need to accomplish, so they are going to continue to focus on getting the best creative content, and provide that to the world.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Be lucky. Don't be so obsessed with being perfect, but work really hard and focus on the right things. Work with people that are amazing and trustworthy and won't fold under pressure. The first six months of any company is incredibly tough. Stay humble, it will allow you to forgive others for their mistakes and to forgive yourself.

Connect With Patrick:

Website | Facebook | @PatrickLor | LinkedIn | AboutMe

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"I don't let my business run me, I run my business."

"If you have the determination to start and run your own business, then you can have the determination to run it the way you want to run it."- Robert Sofia

About: Robert Sofia- Co-Founder of Platinum Advisory Strategies

Overview: Robert shares details about his company, Platinum Advisory Strategies- and offers helpful advice for those thinking about breaking into the entrepreneurial world.

Highlights:

Background: Robert is a long-time public speaker, and hard worker who skipped undergraduate school and worked his way up in the business world where he eventually settled into the marketing/branding scene. In his twenties, he worked for Ford Motor Company where he actually developed a program for them to help build brand loyalty. It was promoted heavily at the Ford dealership where he was working, and then Ford adopted that for their entire company. The experience he gained at Ford leveraged him for more opportunities throughout the years up until he decided to start his own companies.

About Platinum Advisory Strategies: Platinum is a company that helps small businesses market like larger companies. Platinum Advisory Strategies takes all of their efforts and focuses on one niche market, and then they strive to understand the industry, the audience, and the people they're working for to merge that into the right branding message. They offer a unique program where they only work with a select group of advisors that fit their profile and that do not work directly with their competition. These advisors actually pay a monthly fee to Platinum to be their marketing partner. As a client at Platinum Advisory Strategies, you are given a consultant specifically assigned to your account and that consultant becomes your guide, your coach, who builds a personal plan for you. They assess what you're weaknesses and strengths are and build an action plan. Then, they help you along the way and answer any questions you may have. Behind that consultant you have an entire team who works on the back end of things like your website, videos, social media, etc.

Biggest Challenge: Helping potential clients seeing that they need the help and it's worth the price.

Key For Growth and Success: Platinum Advisory Strategies started in 2009. Robert shares that the key that has helped grow was hiring the right team. Robert has many roles he has to juggle and it's very important that he has the perfect team he can trust to help manage things- especially while he is traveling.

Speaking Schedule: Robert could be gone every week if he wanted to, but he chooses only to travel 1-2 times a month. He limits himself to the engagements he wants to do to keep the work-life balance.

Goals: Over the last 3 years, their company has grown over 1,700 percent in revenue. They have continued to cut costs and grow profit successfully. Because the business is growing quickly, they are always looking for more employees. Robert's goal is to make the company better tomorrow than it was today. For the company, he prefers to take his goals daily, weekly, and monthly- in small increments- to make sure that things that need to be done are not overlooked by the long term goals. For Robert, he wants to live the life that he desires- he's not particularly motivated by the desire to have more things or money. He wants to help his company and his employees. Robert's drive is to have balance in life, he's not concerned about what the world sees as wealthy.

Characteristics of a Successful Entrepreneur: First off, being an entrepreneur requires commitment. You have to understand that it's not going to come easy right away- there is a lot of work involved. If you give up too easily, you will not be successful. Have a modest recognition of your own limitations. If you are going to build anything where you'll have employees, you need have good leadership ability. It's also important that you have good business sense. Family support, or support in general is another great tool that will help you do well in whatever you do.

Take Away: Robert reminds us not to buy into the hype of entrepreneurship. Understand that you might fail, and make sure you're comfortable with that. You won't always succeed. If you can, try to leverage your existing relationships or career into a business opportunity.

Connect With Robert:

Website | @robertsofia | LinkedIn | AboutMe

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