Business Enquirer Issue 108 | Pivot | Nov'22

DIRECTED BY Charlotte Billig

Change Yourself, Change Your Business, Change the World

Startinga business is not for - excuse the colloquial term - sissies. Add being young and female into the picture and the barriers to entry rise even higher. However, the world is slowly changing; thanks to those determined individuals who doggedly pursue self-growth, furiously challenge the status quo, relentlessly chase their dreams, and pivot in response to perceived dead ends…

Catalina Valentino is a prime example of one of those described above. Catalina is a driven and dedicated entrepreneur who aims to lead change in politics, education, and leadership. Catalina has built her personal brand and achieved status as a person of high influence in her field, with a 90 000-strong following and 6 million monthly impressions. She has already attracted two investors who seek to invest in her brand and multiple businesses. This becomes even more astonishing upon learning that all these feats were accomplished before her 21st birthday this year.

Her personal branding agency, Pivot, specializes in maximizing the personal brand power of CEOs, celebrities, and politicians. The agency employs six people with plans in place to expand and more than double in the short term. Pivot’s ‘Year Three’ revenue projections see the agency reaching 7-figures by the end of 2023.

Pivot builds clients’ authority by positioning them as experts and people of influence within their industries. Catalina’s clients can connect and engage with a wider audience or generate high-quality leads and sales, depending on their marketing objectives.

Catalina swears by personal branding, saying that the return on investment is unbelievable: “I no longer do any outbound sales. I get three-five leads in my DMs per week, prequalified and ready to buy. Tell me that isn’t impactful.”

In addition to her role as CEO of Pivot, Catalina serves as a role model for many young women with entrepreneurial aspirations and delivers inspiring keynotes, working with the likes of big brands such as Business Insider, ITV, and SalesForce.

She actively promotes self-development and continuously improves her skillset and knowledge. At 16, she began a BA in Business Management & Languages and at 19, she started an MSc in Digital Marketing & Data Analytics. Yet, despite all these achievements and accolades, it has not all been smooth sailing for this young entrepreneur.

From being furloughed from her role in the tourism industry to a short yet intense affair with Amazon dropshipping, Catalina has encountered several challenges on her path to success. Fortunately, Catalina has used every twist in the road as a chance to develop herself, her team, her businesses, and her dreams for the future.

Eager to find out more about this ambitious and promising individual, Business Enquirer sat down for an interview with Catalina to discuss her journey in terms of selfdevelopment, personal branding, and the growth mindset.

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What inspired you to start your business?

“I started my journey in marketing when I was 16, fresh out of school. I started an apprenticeship the week that I left. I worked my way up across different sales, marketing, and account management roles up until my last job, which was a leadership position where I managed a team. I enjoyed that side of things… and then COVID happened. I was working in the travel and tourism industry at the time. Many of the teams were let go, including me,” began Catalina.

Catalina searched for a new job and found one that sounded promising. However, after four grueling interview process rounds, it resulted in a disappointing outcome. Refusing to feel dejected, Catalina remembered a “side hustle” she had seen on the social media platform, TikTok.

“It was about designing notebooks and dropshipping for Amazon. I immediately went and created a website and made sure the notebooks were on the Amazon listings. I worked a 17-hour day on it. But, I woke up the next day and realized I have no passion for notebooks!

“I just thought, what do I know best? I enjoy marketing so I started building a website and marketing agency. From there, I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. I started planning and making goals and tactics. We began as Everything Sales and as of January this year, we rebranded to Pivot, or “pivoted to Pivot”, as I like to say.

“Before, we were offering SEO services, personal branding, and social media - the done-for-you marketing package - and then we decided to solely focus on personal branding as it was our strongest offering. We’ve started to expand the team, we have a new hire starting in a couple of weeks, and we’re getting a new office, so we’re going in the right direction,” explained Catalina.

2021 was an interesting year to launch your business, Pivot. What challenges and opportunities did you encounter and how did you address them?

“It was a very interesting year! We were still uncertain about COVID and at that time, participation in networking events was minimal. Yet, these events are where I received a lot of my business and met new people. The opportunities

Catalina Valentino, Midlands Young Entrepeneur Of The Year award winner 2022.

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that presented themselves at these events were very high-quality leads because the people who attended really needed to be there rather than people who were just going for the sake of a networking event.

“I met some really strong people at these events. I always like to say that your network is your net worth. I connected with them on LinkedIn, interacted with them, and that’s how I started to grow my LinkedIn network through my actual personal network.

“There were weaknesses. [In times of financial strain], marketing is often the first to go. It was difficult to get people to understand how valuable marketing could have been to them at that point, but we did capitalize on that by helping the travel and tourism industry. We launched an initiative

called Project Rebuild where we offered free marketing services to everybody in the travel, tourism, and hospitality industry to give back and support them with marketing,” shared Catalina.

What are your short, medium, and long-term goals for Pivot?

“Short term, I’d like to get to a nice point where we’ve got a thriving culture and where we’re innovating in the workplace. It’s more short-tomedium term as this is something we are already actively implementing.

“Long term, we want to expand overseas. Our legal name is actually Pivot Global Limited so we’re keeping one step ahead of the game. Long term on the leadership side, we are rolling out various

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employee benefits and making sure that they are benefits rather than just free tea and coffee or a few extra days of holiday.

“We want our employees to thrive. The biggest issue we’re facing at the moment, especially since the pandemic, is that people want to go freelance or start their own businesses. The main reason they want to do that is because of the flexibility and freedom that these bring…

“If we can offer that to employees, still giving them the freedom and flexibility in certain roles then we’ll have a happier culture within the business, and within the world in general too. If we can start to lead that change, our competitors will follow, and that’s where we want to start creating change,” assured Catalina.

What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?

“Oh, definitely resilience. There are times when you have a bad day and everything just falls apart. Then, the next day, somehow, it’s all rebuilt. The resilience to remember that you can bounce back from it.

“Second, the ability to pivot. Some things will go wrong on a daily basis and you have to learn what you can do with them. You have to be able to look at different situations and say: ‘this isn’t working for us, let’s try this instead’ and just constantly be pivoting back and forward to move the business forward as well as the team.

“Thirdly, the growth mindset. The first step that I took into entrepreneurship was developing myself. I looked at my actions and how these affected the people around me. I asked people around me about my weaknesses. Here, I had to learn to listen properly, which is a difficult skill because most people feel attacked. But, if it’s coming from people you love, you know their intention is never to hurt you.

“When you make that shift in mindset and try to learn daily, it will not only grow yourself in your business but also the people around you, and that’s what makes a leader,” said Catalina.

What does the future hold for you, Catalina?

“Within and outside of Pivot, we’re exploring ways to shape the future of leadership and personal development. Outside, we have a couple of other brands that I’m working on. Young Accelerators is a program and app I’m designing to help young people get into entrepreneurship. It’s an all-inone space where aspiring entrepreneurs can go to meet people within that space, like mentors. They will also have access to all sorts of courses to foster learning.

“We want to get Young Accelerators into schools. They could promote it or add it into the curriculum to show there are other paths out there. We may, over the next couple of years, look to expand into building schools, which is something I’ve always wanted to do. In that way, we can demonstrate leadership and flexibility in schools. We can teach these pupils lessons that will allow them to evolve in a new way.

“Long term - this is the first time I have talked about it publicly - I’d like to enter into politics. There is so much we could be doing to change things that go on in the world in this society. There is a lot of politics in politics. I want to ensure real change is happening,” finished Catalina.

Catalina’s story showcases how the benefits of entrepreneurship extend far beyond business. Entrepreneurs who seek to better themselves and those around them improve the lives of individuals and communities, the health of the economy, and, in Catalina’s case, the political environment too.

It is safe to say, “Watch this space”. Catalina is blazing the trail to a positive future. Keep an eye out for Catalina; she will be speaking at EMC 2023, ExCel London 2023, Gals Who Gradfuel October 2022, and other notorious events. She will appear alongside some industry movers and shakers, including the famed Steven Bartlett and high-level influencers Grace Beverley and Brontë King.

www.pivotmarketing.co.uk

info@busenq.com