Ramon Ray

Tell everyone who you are and what you do.

I’m Ramon ray. I like to impact the lives of small business owners and I’m an entrepreneur that started five companies sold three companies, author, writer, event producer, speaker and the publisher of BWC Daily.com and Zone of Genius.Com, But I think the, “what I do” are two things, I work with large brands and mid-sized brands who market to small businesses. Companies like Zoho or Salesforce or AT&T or Verizon, Microsoft, Dell. Many brands like that and they’re looking for those who have stories to help them add value to small businesses. That’s one thing and I do that as an event host and speaker. Then the other thing I do is build media companies. So, I’ve started several media companies where I’m providing value producing content. That content is usually sponsored by a brand that would supply value added services to the community via premium content. That’s the two broad things that I do if that makes any sense at all.

Tell us who are some people that inspired you to get to where you are today?

That’s a dicey question. Well, there’s two people, I guess. I was fired from the United Nations some years ago and there was a gentleman there named Chidambaranathan, Mr. Nathan for short. I can’t say he inspired me to be who I am today as it were. He’s the one who would tell me Ramon slow down. I know you’re frustrated. Slow down, be careful before you write that e-mail, sleep on it. Things like that then my good friend Yacov Sarinsky. He and I are similar ages, but he was in the business world before me and just being able to be a bird on his shoulder and just watch him build his businesses, inspired me and I would be remiss if I didn’t, of course acknowledge my mother and my father and I’m a person of deep faith. So, God, I thank him for his ability. So, those are a few people who’ve inspired me.

So, what made you want to be an author?

Well, I didn’t have a PhD. I wasn’t very smart. I didn’t look very good, and I figured you know what, all the cool people have books, so that’s it. So I wrote a PDF of about 30 pages, a long PDF and I was using that as a download on another company I started, Small Bids Technology.com and years ago I shopped that PDF to a number of publishers and one of them, AMAcom American Management Association, said, you know what, If you did this, I’m sure you could do a full book and they signed me on for my first published book by the American Management Association.

Ok, Let’s get into your book. The celebrity CEO and the motivation behind this book.

The bottom line of the book is I’m a firm believer that small business owners need to be well known in their marketplace. Celebrity doesn’t mean celebrity like Kardashian, Beyoncé or whoever the famous person of the day is, But that means you’re well known to your core target potential customer base. It could be in your local geography, in your small town. You’re well known, or it could be in your niche in your market. So that the purpose of the book is to give people kind of a road map to how I built my business, and how to become well known to large brands who reach small businesses.

Did you deal with any writer’s block when writing this book? Not really, I mean, writing comes easily to me and I work with a good team. So, it’s not like a very thick book, but I must say to answer that question in a side way about writers block any time writer block comes you just take your time, breathe, do something else. Open Netflix or you can work with a freelance writer who can help with some of the details, but I don’t think I’ve suffered any writers block, but I did have a good editor and she helped me add life to it and gave me guidance.

So, what are some tips you can give a person aspiring to be a small business owner and they are having some challenges? Sure, what I would do, is go open National Geographic and watch a lion that is starving and hungry. They go hunting because they must eat. So that’s one inspiration of these small business games, in the beginning you’re hunting. You must be nimble. You must be persistent. The second thing I would do is go look at an eagle flying, and look at the freedom that eagle has. That’s the other side of success that entrepreneurship has, the freedom to dominate the industry you are in. To serve who you want, when you want, and how you want. On one hand it’s a struggle and on the other hand, once you get it running right, the sweet taste of success and freedom is beautiful.

Yes, and I love your examples. So, what are some of your goals you want to achieve for 2023. Well, I don’t know if it’s mainly for 2023 or not, but I would love to pay myself more consistent revenue so that I can possibly get some bigger accommodations for our family, and give away my time and my money to help those in need. I want to make the world a better place with my time and my mindset. That’s the end game for me.

Alright. I like that. So, what has been one of your most satisfying moments in your life?

Absolutely, when I was a speaker and having people come up to me and tell me how I transformed and helped them. That’s exciting! People don’t understand when you’re on stage, at least for me, there’s always these little thoughts, you’re not good enough, you’re not impacting, it’s stupid what you’re saying. It happens. When people tell you, “Ramon, when you said this to me, it encouraged me”! It makes it all worth it, so that’s kind of one of the impactful things that happens to me.

Well, what was one of your challenges being an entrepreneur? Sure, I had a whole lot of challenges, being strategic. The beauty of Ramon Ray is I can think and move very fast. The challenge of being Ramon, is I could slow down just a bit more, so I wish sometimes I’d slow down a bit more, and as my friends Lolita Walker and Larissa Harrington would say, slow down or pause to speed up. There’s power in the pause.

All right, so who is one of your favorite authors?

Seth Godin! That’s my guy. For some reason, I guess it could be his quirky glasses. Could be his quirky socks. Could be how he presents himself. Could be how he speaks. His slides are full of color and vigor. Could be his cadence, how he talks. But Seth Godin, I’ve just admired his vibe. His books are all kinds of different colors and shapes and sizes. Of course, as a marketer that just spoke to me.

What is one message you would like to give your fans right now. Be persistent. Few people are going to cheer you on. So, suck it up and move forward. Know why you’re doing what you’re doing. Let that be your guiding light and seek to encourage and inspire others because this world is a jacked-up place. People have gone through trauma, abuse and lives that we can’t imagine. So, if the people listening and people reading this can be a small ray of light and encouragement every day, we will make the world a better place.

What can we expect from you coming up?

Yeah, the biggest thing I’m working on is a community that I’ve been leading, that has been around for about two years. It’s called breakfast with champions and people can see that at BWCdaily.com, where every day we motivate, educate and inspire through a lens of activity to help people live a better life and grow their business. We have events people can see on the menu. We have a podcast. We have live programming with 60 experts. 8 hours of live content a week. So, we are a fast-moving ship, moving full steam ahead and we invite people to have their lives changed.

What makes your podcast unique and makes it stand out differently than others?

My podcast is the funniest, fastest, most informative, high-energy Podcast you will ever get in your entire life. Guaranteed if it’s not, I will give you your money back.

Shout out your social media where everybody can follow you.

They can find me on LinkedIn. Ramon Ray smallbiz. Instagram, Ramon Ray smart hustle. If people want a list of some of the top small businesses, they can just DM me on Instagram. Best books, e-mail me DM me for a list of my best books. I’m happy to send that to them for sure.

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