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DO MORE BE MORE GET MORE KORIE MINKUS

ROCK YOUR PRODUCT FOUNDER GLOBAL BRAND STRATEGIST SPEAKER, AND AUTHOR

Korie Minkus

Korie Minkus is founder of Rock Your Product and CEO of Industry Rockstar, the #1 global product growth and award-winning business mentorship program. Korie is an international speaker on consumer psychology and brand leadership. She has consulted and trained tens of thousands of entrepreneurs globally. As a relied-on brand expert, she launched and scaled over a hundred products and generated $1 billion in revenue. With deep passion to impact, she delivers outcome-based business solutions connecting people, purpose, and products.

Connect with Korie

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https://rockyourproduct.com/

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BE MORE, GET MORE KORIE MINKUS

ON ENJOYING THE JOURNEY

All photographs in this article supplied by Ms Minkus

It is officially documented that US women first started to run businesses 50 years ago.

And these last 50 years have been a wonderful time of transition for women leaving employment. Before COVID, there was a movement of women leaving their corporate jobs and starting their entrepreneurial journey. Over the past two years, we ' ve seen an unprecedented Great Resignation, with women quitting their jobs and starting entrepreneurial projects. There are now 400 million female founders, CEOs and business innovators globally. Women make up 40 percent of all business entrepreneurs. In America alone, women start almost 2000 businesses a day. That’ s why The GEW: Global Empowered Women is so timely. I collaborate with both men and women but being a woman in business for over 30 years, I certainly understand the power of the female business. Now is a

OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS, WE'VE SEEN AN UNPRECEDENTED GREAT RESIGNATION, WITH WOMEN QUITTING THEIR JOBS AND STARTING ENTREPRENEURIAL PROJECTS.

fantastic time to be a woman in business with tremendous growth opportunities. BEING A WOMAN IN BUSINESS

I grew up very academic. I went to university, graduated, and moved right into corporate. I worked in corporate for 25 years. I was always very regimented and disciplined, focusing on business growth, business acumen, and positioning as a female in a business work environment.

I was a competitive figure skater for 22 years when I was young. It’ s an elegant, graceful sport, with cute outfits. It’ s a masculine and feminine sport at the same time. You have to be aggressive and jump and fall on ice. Yet you need the femininity and beauty on the ice. It’ s very balanced. I was often the only woman at the boardroom table. Women sitting at the boardroom table were new and fraught. There weren ’t many people before me that I could learn from. I had to figure out that pathway. So, five years ago, I left corporate planning to get my MBA, the next business degree. Corporate America sucked that femininity out of me. I burned all my black pantsuits when I left corporate five years ago. It was so powerful. It was so sad to walk into my closet and see how dark it had gotten and how I had lost my femininity. Even my clothes followed the masculinity of the environment I was in.

Being a female today in business is about reclaiming your power, whatever that looks like for you in your industry. I help clients because I' m serious about business. I help them gain the business acumen and skills they need to succeed. But we have to balance that with the divine feminine and the human being, including men. We focus on understanding people, nurturing relationships, and understanding their creativity because men can be less creative than women in specific ways. RECLAIMING THE FEMININE DIVING ENERGY

I had already graduated with a business degree, but I wanted to get to that next level. I was looking for intellectual stimulation. I had grown my career in product and marketing, and when I left, I was the COO and executive vice president for a half-billiondollar division.

I realised I didn ’t want more academics. I needed more intelligence around myself. I always grew, but my focus was on business more than selfdevelopment. It was always part of my journey; you can 't rise in your career and not have self-development as a foundation. But I wanted to take it to the next level. So instead of getting an MBA, I spent a couple of years getting educated about the mind and its power. I found my spiritual advisor, Mahima, and I followed her around the planet. It was like The Amazing Race. She gave me an address and told me where to show up, what to bring and what colour outfits to wear. That' s all I knew. I paid her the money, and went. I did certification around neuro-linguistic training. I took Ms Minkus with Olympic Gold Medalist figure skater Scott Hamilton.

the landmark course and did different kinds of personal development work. And then came the transition from being a corporate leader to being an entrepreneur and learning how to trust me on a whole other level. That was a big transition. The divine feminine energy and spirit are about intuition, healing, acceptance, connecting and restoring. Sacred feminism is about restoring your inner self. Coming from a very masculine dominated work environment, reclaiming that divine feminine was part of that transition. However, we need both. We need feminine and masculine qualities and energies. As entrepreneurs or corporate leaders, we get sucked into male competitiveness. Masculine energy dominates our decision-making and the way we think through things. Undoubtedly, those masculine qualities are vital for doing business. But women can lose necessary divine feminine energy. I' ve spent the last five years unearthing that.

BEING A BUSINESS LEADER

What makes a business unique? There are very few genuine innovations in the world. When you go to the grocery store for ice cream, there are tons of ice cream choices. There are all kinds of bread choices. There are all kinds of soda choices. There are many options in the world because there ' s a lot of competition out there doing what you ' re doing. It doesn 't matter what you do. There ' s always competition. Even if it' s not direct competition, somebody else pulls on that consumer dollar. Whether it’ s a service, a product, or a technology, it doesn 't matter. Consumers have choices. And the most profound thing that an individual can understand is what drives your business as an entrepreneur? There ' s one thing. You.

Trusting in yourself when you become a business owner is so important. For both Uber and Facebook, the idea came from somebody other than who runs those companies today. Ideas are worthless. Action is everything. If you have an idea and don 't facilitate it, don 't push it forward, and don 't actuate it, nothing happens. It' s about leadership. Businesses are nothing without people. The whole notion of B-to-B is silly. It' s P-to-P. People to People. Business owners must understand how to unearth their potential because as they raise that level of potential, it will increase the level of potential within their business. It always happens. That’ s why I love what I do today. I get to see business owners come into their own and develop. They break through the ceiling they thought was impossible. They raise that ceiling to a new level. They say, ‘I can do even more than I thought was possible. ’

Thailand, Asia Silent Retreat - discovering meditation practices and the power of personal Growth with Master teacher Mahima

GEW MAGAZINE| ISSUE 6, 2022 That' s a beautiful vision in life. Whether you ' re an entrepreneur, a business owner, or any human being, you can create a world of abundance for yourself. You can move through those limitations. Your limits are holding you back in your business. So, we fill you with the business acumen, the knowledge, and the experience so that you can then make decisions to elevate your game. It' s just a beautiful synergy. That' s what I do every day. I get to talk to business owners worldwide and help them expand. It doesn 't feel like work at all.

STARTING A PRODUCTBASED BUSINESS

I spent 25 years in consumer products, helping companies or people launch their product concepts to consumers. But a service business is no different in many ways. There are crossovers. Many service businesses today offer products. Some offer digital products. Some supply services they package as products, and some offer physical products. I don ’t set boundaries. I’ m known for launching hundreds of new products to the market generating over a couple of billion dollars in retail sales. So, whenever somebody has heard about me, it' s more likely from consumer products. I work with business owners I feel are authentically aligned with wanting to grow. That is my primary decision-maker. I give you everything; I expect you to give me everything back.

The world of physical products today has become highly dynamic. In some ways, the product world is very different. Some processes allow a company to thrive in the product world. The number of entrepreneurs entering the product world continues to grow. Thirty thousand new products roll out each year. And products can fix problems. They offer solutions that change lives. With 4 billion people having access to the Internet today, there are opportunities to connect with consumers and understand their needs, desires, and motivations. The difference between a product and a service is that there are only so many people I can take on, and only so many can afford my service. Presenting at Empowered Women Event Stockholm Sweden to 1200+ Female Entrepreneurs

When you launch a physical or digital product, you can certainly reach more people and touch more lives. In the physical product space, people who offer a solution can affect a consumer through a physical product, something that somebody can have in their home. I have my water bottle, my cell phone, and my lip gloss. We have all our priorities right around us. So, the essence of the physical product industry is fantastic.

There ' s a lower barrier to entry into the world of physical products. It’ s easier than ever to enter the market with a physical product. We can use technology and talk directly to consumers. So, Rock Your Product, my company, which I started five years ago, gives business owners access to the most effective brand-building methodologies and systems, whether online or offline.

I have had access to the most brilliant minds and experts in my career. During my 25 years in corporate, I recorded the successful steps that business owners took. I distil that down now. I speak and work with entrepreneurs one-on-one to help them be more thoughtful about their business. That is the focus of Rock Your Product.

Whether a company is pre-revenue, just starting their business, or with a seven or eight-figure revenue a year, my clients appreciate the first-hand experience, advocacy, and consultancy that I offer them during their business journey. I set up one-year contracts with my clients, and I have a 100% re-sign rate for a second year. It' s incredible. We ’ re having too much fun. We don 't want to stop. Right?

COACHING CLIENTS

My best clients inspire me because they inspire themselves. But the successful clients are the ones who actuate on the things that I asked them to do. I had a client recently; when I ask them to do something, they take the most immediate action. I asked them to go out to LinkedIn and use LinkedIn to create a network for themselves to start to unearth opportunities. Over ten days, they sent out hundreds of messages to potential partners. When we had our last coaching call, we spoke through almost two dozen opportunities that had come up during those ten days. It was a fantastic demonstration that when you act, you get results. One of the reasons people don 't hire business advisors and don 't hire business coaches is because people are afraid. They don 't trust themselves. It is because then they have to hold themself accountable.

So, it' s not about you. It’ s about themselves. We all question ourselves. I had an opportunity yesterday; somebody presented to me and wanted to partner with me. The first reaction was, ‘ oh, my God, am I good enough? Am I smart enough? Can I do that?’ I' m 50 years old, and I' m a pretty successful businesswoman. And even I had that thought. So, let' s be proud that we ' re human beings and accept that sometimes we have that immediate sense of uncertainty. We question who we are, where we are, and where we want to be. Can we do what we ' re being asked to do? It comes back to trusting yourself, having the Above: Presenting in Zurch, Switzerland, andTel Aviv, Below

confidence in yourself to make your point, trusting the process, and knowing that these opportunities are being presented to you for a reason. I find it sad when I meet a business owner, and they don 't take the opportunity to work with me. Not because I think I' m the greatest coach in the world. There are amazing coaches out there. But I see so much potential if they work with a good coach. So many business coaches have the kind of experience and understanding you want on your team. When people exit to sell their companies for 5, 10, and $100 million, the most important thing that investors look at is the owner and the people they surround themselves with. The profits don 't matter. They want to know who the business owner is and who they surround themselves with.

TRUSTING THE PROCESS

Our book about high vibrations talks about how important a business owner is to project a high vibration. You can 't launch a high vibration if you don 't have it inside, but that vibration attracts people around you. It attracts people to passion and your vision.

It' s been an exciting year of reflection for me. I' m launching my first book, and my business is better than I ever could have asked for it to be. My relationship with my husband of 32 years is fantastic. I have two exceptional children who are doing incredible things in their lives. I speak to women at 50 who are not happy with where they are, and they ' re not ready to take on the next 50. I am so grateful that I' ve done the work to figure out alignment over the last five years. What does prosperity mean to people? It’ s different for everyone. And you shouldn 't feel wrong about what you want. But we have to define what that is for us to achieve it in our lives. You could leave some grey. I like that not everything has to be planned, and not everything has to be perfect. Life is perfectly imperfect, and I' m okay with that. I' m more okay with that today than I' ve ever been. But to be a thought leader and achieve your maximum potential in life, there ' s some real work that you need to do, and not today or overnight or in 30 days. It' s a lifelong journey. We are given a gift every day. It' s what we decide to do with that gift. Every hour that I speak to a client, I learn from them as they learn from me. Even if I' m learning from them, patience or humbleness or foundational skills I need to be reminded of that makes me a better human being. I work with the most innovative entrepreneurs on the planet. I am honoured, whether they ' re in their twenties, thirties, sixties, or seventies, it doesn 't matter. You can learn anything from anyone. To be a good thought leader is to be a consummate learner.

You can never be sure that you know everything because we don 't know everything. We don 't even know a fraction of that exist in the world. We talked everything. It amazes me when we do our live podcast every week, and we have a new guest, the number of things I don 't know about mushroom pinchers last week and something that I haven 't spent the time unearthing in my life. And I thought, ‘ well, gee, that' s something interesting that I could do some research on. ’ With husband of 32 years, Sawn Trevino, and bottom, sons Jacob and Clayton, both competitive athletes.

have to keep planting that seed in life. Don 't rush anything. You want to become a thought leader, then keep working at it, and eventually, you ' re going to get there and say, ‘ wow, it' s happened. ’ BEING AN AUTHOR

I was encouraged to write a book. I' ve never done it before. And to me, writing a book was like a marathon. I knew it would be a challenge, but one I wanted to take on in my life. Because what is life if you don 't have challenges and things you ' re working towards? I like to be challenged. I hired a book coach. Two years ago, I was flying home in March to start writing my book. At my last event, I met a woman named Lisa Vrancken. She was introduced to us through another client of mine, Sasha Ferguson, who is extraordinarily intuitive. She put the two of us together. Lisa called me a couple of weeks after meeting her and said, ‘Hey, you mentioned you would start writing this book. How would you like it if we wrote it together?’ And because I' m such a consummate learner, why wouldn 't I want to write a book with an intelligent, brilliant, and successful woman I admired? She ' s extraordinary. The journey she ' s lived has made her a remarkable woman. So even though we had different backgrounds, I felt that it could be a beautiful collaboration. We got to write this book together and a business book for female entrepreneurs, specifically in the product world. About eight weeks after we started writing the book, my book coach got sick, and she needed to leave the project. Lisa and I started scrambling and went on I

With Be... From Passion and Purpose to Product and Prosperity CoAuthors Lisa Vrancken and Ashley Black.

The more I give to the universe, the more the universe will continue to give back to me. That’ s what this journey is about. The more I put out; I know that opportunities come back to me that I can then expand and extend and create more opportunities. So, it' s always about what you give more than what you get. I' m so humbled by the love I' ve created around me, and I recognise that I’ ve made that love because I give it and get it back. And I' m very grateful for that. After thirty-two years of marriage, if anyone tells you marriage is easy and life is easy, let me tell you, nothing is easy. It is the most demanding job being a mom. So, it all puts in perspective being an entrepreneur. Anyone who invests in a long-term relationship knows that those relationships take time to foster, whether it' s businesspeople or the incredible network of businesspeople that I can tap into. And just like a business takes time to grow, you

this search to figure out what we would do to continue writing this book.

We called a friend whom we had both met. Her name was Ashley Black, and she was a bestselling author already. At the end of a three-hour phone call with Ashley, she decided she wanted to write this book with Lisa and me.

We created this fantastic collaboration, and the book is called Be, from Passion and Purpose to Product and Prosperity. And it' s by Ashley Black, Lisa Vrancken and myself. The book is a culmination of our knowledge, wisdom, stories, learnings, trials, and tribulations of everything we have done in our business lives, particularly physical products. We have each built a successful business. We each have a journey as an entrepreneur. We have branding experience; we have tremendous business experience. And so, this book was a collection of the synergy of the three of us coming together and leaving a legacy of what it means to be a female entrepreneur. Now the book has morphed into different things. It' s being published by Post Hill Press and Simon and Schuster. It' s launching on June 28th of this year. And in it, we expand your mind and help you find alignment with your purposeful approach on your journey. Because what we all see as women in business is a need for business knowledge, but an even more significant need to understand the spirit of business ownership. That' s what this journey is about: self-development, mastery, and achievement. It' s all wrapped into a business book. We are honoured and proud to be doing this. It' s real women featuring real-life stories of real women. And it' s written by three women who have spent their entire lives mastering what it means. We are now doing PR for the book and Vogue Vanity Fair, and all these things, but it' s such a fun journey to do something in collaboration with powerful women who you can learn from. I am forever grateful. We were open to it. We didn 't close ourselves off from this crazy thing. And we didn 't know what we were getting ourselves into. We probably wouldn 't have done it if we knew what we were getting ourselves into.

We do a live podcast every week together, and it' s so fun. I encourage you, as business owners, to find collaborations that will elevate your life. I don 't mean just your business life; find associations that will make you stronger. Live more. Be more. And do more. Get more out of life. Because no matter how much you think you ' re doing, you can do more to get more. And that fills you up. It just makes you stronger. It makes you better. It makes you more whole. Life should be about being complete and bringing so much into your life. So, yes, do more, be more, live more. That' s what I would suggest for anybody. Make it happen.

BE…: From Passion and Purpose to Product and Prosperity by Ashley Black , Korie Minkus and Lisa Vrancken will be available in Hardcover – June 28, 2022 The Writing of the Book

A community of women to support and elevate you in your journey. The real-life pathways to a prosperous business are rife with challenges. In our weekly Facebook Live #TheWritingOfTheBook, we created a contemporary approach to engaging thousands of women to find their voice, strengthen their entrepreneurial spirit, and turn ideas into action and products into profit. Join the tribe

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