Woman Entrepreneur | October 2018 | Issue 1 by Woman Entrepreneur Magazine

Empowering Women In Business

October 2018

Dr. Dalal A KO U R Y

GROWING MIRACLES OUT OF DIFFICULTIES

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GRANT CARDONE

10x your business, income and life

BODY LANGUAGE SIGNALS four things to look out for during interviews

FIVE BRANDING MISTAKES and how to avoid them

ON OUR COVER: Dr Dalal Akoury is the founder and Medical Director of The AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center. She is trained and certified in Integrative Cancer Therapy, Anti-Aging, Regenerative, Metabolic and Functional Medicine, and has more than 20 years of accumulated experience in emergency medicine, paediatrics, and has a masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree in public health. Dr Akoury has focused strictly on stress and its impact on ageing, sexuality, cancer, and addiction. She has written several pieces on the topic of addiction and is a well-known advocate and speaker. Dr Dalal Akoury is a seasoned Media and Community Public Speaker. She is an authority on obesity, fitness, nutrition, and sexual medicine.

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FEATURED EDITORIAL

Dr Dalal Akoury is the founder and Medical Director of The AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center. She is trained and certified in Integrative Cancer Therapy, Anti-Aging, Regenerative, Metabolic and Functional Medicine, and has more than 20 years of accumulated experience in emergency medicine, paediatrics, and has a master’s degree in public health. Dr Akoury has also served fellowships in paediatric haematology/oncology and has performed research in leukaemia and the effects of smoking at Emory in collaboration with the CDC. Dr Akoury has focused strictly on stress and its impact on ageing, sexuality, cancer, and addiction. She has written several pieces on the topic of addiction and is a well-known advocate and speaker. Dr Dalal Akoury is a seasoned Media and Community Public Speaker. She is an authority on obesity, fitness, nutrition, and sexual medicine. Dr Akoury is not only a living proof of the benefits of stress relief, diet and exercise but also a medical expert guiding audiences to understand the fundamentals behind proper stress relief, nutrition and wellbeing.

Give us a bit of background about yourself and when and how your entrepreneur journey started?

orn in Alexandria, Egypt, I am the eldest of four. My father was a renowned engineer and we lived in a historic apartment building, built by my maternal grandfather, which overlooks the pristine waterfront of the Mediterranean Sea. My grandfather was a self-reliant man whom I always admired, but never had the pleasure of meeting. He was an intelligent, frugal, real-estate entrepreneur and a self-made millionaire. I believe he incited my entrepreneurial spirit. There were a few significant influencers that marked my path in life: my father, my mother, my grandmother, and the Catholic nuns at my school. I always admired my dad and dreamt of becoming an engineer just like him. Whenever I passed the beautiful school of engineering in Alexandria, where my father was educated, my heart skipped a beat. I felt an indescribable joy and excitement; my eyes grew bigger, and my little heart beat faster. In my mind, I was confident that this was where I would learn nuclear engineering. In 1971, my beloved father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I believe he was under tremendous stress, like each and every human being I have come across in my life journey. He was a heavy smoker, he drank at least 3 to 4 cups of Turkish coffee daily. My dad’s passing was my wakeup call, the turning point, the new beginning, my REBIRTH. I recognized that STRESS, cigarette smoking, and coffee drinking were at the root of his cancer. My dreams changed, and I found myself following a new direction. My main focus became “How can we conquer cancer?” I mused, “How do we stop young children from losing dear parents?” My life mission became to help prevent and cure cancer. My father’s death from cancer was the birth of the New me, and the very essence of my medical career. My mother was always a generous, humble, loving, and giving soul. When my father passed, she was left a widow at 35 years of age and never remarried. Instead, she dedicated her entire life to ensure that we, her four children, never missed a chance for love, education, or success.

My lovely grandmother was my teacher, guide, and storyteller. She taught me everything of consequence I know: how to pray, forgive, and love. She also told me wonderful stories about my great-grandparents and how adventurous they were. She also told me the most beautiful love story of how she met my grandfather. The French Catholic nuns at the upper class school I attended, St. Jeanne Antide in Alexandria, helped shape my understanding of the society. I am privileged and grateful to have attended this excellent school from kindergarten through high school, where I learned class, elegance, respect, etiquette, and how to give, forgive, and live a life of purpose. They taught me manners, Savoir Vivre, music, and harmony. Sometimes it feels as if I betrayed them when I chose a civilian life by entering medical school in 1972. They always imagined me to be a future nun; they believed my mission was to be carried out in a convent. In 1979, I married a fantastic Orthodox Christian man, who was a practicing doctor. He was very understanding and caring. In 1982, my husband supported me unconditionally in pursuing my dream of finding a cure for cancer, even when that meant staying in Egypt, while I pursued research opportunities in the United States. He sacrificed his career as a physician and anesthesiologist to take care of our two children for two years before they joined me in the United States in 1984. When we were finally reunited, I was a stranger to my children. It was heartbreaking, but looking back, I am confident that I made the right decision.

Acknowledge and accept your flaws and who you are.

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Woman Entrepreneur | Global

Do you ever get demotivated and what do you do to keep moving forward? Like everyone else, I sometimes get demotivated. I remember being overweight as a child, compared to my schoolmates. I was embarrassed to be fat. At times I was teased, and even perhaps bullied. I loved everyone around me despite the bullying; and at times, despite the shame of being overweight, I gave them my all. Many people found it difficult to understand how I would respond to their intimidation tactics with kindness and empathy. In fact, my schoolmates and even some friends thought I was fake, but that never changed my compassionate nature. I am still as compassionate, maybe even more so. When my father was diagnosed with cancer, and finally succumbed, it tested my faith. I made the decision to enter medical school, and once there, I was again bullied, shamed and discriminated against. At times I was persecuted because of being different: my religion, my way of dress, my way of thinking, even my gender. When looking back at the hurdles I’ve overcome, the pain and melancholy of leaving my young infants in Egypt for over a year, while I tried to make it in the United States, is forefront in my mind. When I first arrived in the United States, I had a temporary work visa and was unlicensed to practice medicine. In order to become licensed as a medical doctor in the United States I essentially had to start over from scratch. I then carried the shame and despair of going from being a well respected Pediatrician in Egypt, who had maids, nannies and cooks to care for me as a child, to being an amateurish waitress and house maid until I worked my way back into the medical profession. Despite making it back into the medical profession, the feelings of vulnerability did not end, even as I trained as a Pediatric resident at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital and as a Pediatric Oncology fellow at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Due to our visa, I was the sole breadwinner for a family of four, barely making enough money to survive in the US. Amazingly, these painful moments became the reason for my success. These vulnerable and discouraging times are the miraculous hidden gifts that marked new milestones in my life. What kept me moving forward?    

               

My unyielding faith in the Divine. My belief in my mission. I had a primary goal driven by purpose. I always felt unstoppable because I knew that I had no option but to reach my destination. I continually see, feel, and smell my assignment. I know my mission is more significant than me, and I am a part of a higher purpose. I know who I am. Prayers, Meditations, Trusting the Divine. My appreciation of the good the bad and the ugly. My continued unyielding gratitude. My intuition and gut feel. Accepting and owning my weaknesses and flaws and seeing them as strengths instead. Accepting, loving and appreciating my roots, ethnicity, gender, size and flaws, and cherishing them. I do not waste energy on pretending to be someone else. I have no time for self-pity or getting depressed. I embrace new experiences. I never accept being cornered; I bounce back. I love and forgive unconditionally. I never see the bad in anyone around me. I genuinely do not see enemies. I can never hate. I appreciate adversaries and often welcome and befriend them. I also help them. I do not take no for an answer.

What business and life lessons have you learned on your journey so far? Self-Discovery, and Self-Development. To acknowledge and accept my flaws, and know who I truly am. These are the first building blocks in my successful business journey. I have learned to forgive my shortcomings, and love myself despite them and move on. I accept my heritage, I acknowledge and respect my ethnicity, my gender, my physique, and any disability. I search deep to know “Who am I?” “What makes me happy?” “What makes me tick?” These discoveries establish authenticity and uniqueness. How do I accept my uniqueness? How do I find my true-life mission? I believe in myself and my mission. This leads me down the path to self-development and helps to crystallize my vision. Finally, continued education and relentless learning have produced a laser focused vision and goals which create my roadmap to confidence. Focus on what matters and don’t sweat the small stuff. Money and possessions come and go; wealth is way beyond physical possessions. Wealth is a manifestation of abundance as a result of alignment with spirit, heart, mind and body with the universe. It is a manifestation of one’s essence. My ability to substantiate abundance and light is what I was put on this planet for. I forgive my shortcomings, and love myself despite them and move on. Befriend adversities, be they an illness like cancer if need to be in order for you to tame it, learn from it, use it a turning point, remember my father death from cancer shaped me to be who I truly am. The bullying I endured as an overweight young child; the intimidation I suffered from in medical school just for being from a different faith, gender, and social class; The torture of being a minority in Residency www.womanentrepreneur.co | 3

in the USA another subject in itself shaped me and moulded and established a resilient power house, called DALAL AKOURY with a mission bigger than herself. Those hurdles and impostures made the Impossible is possible. Never give up and don’t take no for an answer. No one can define you if you define yourself. When you have a mission greater than yourself, you become invincible and determined to complete your task, like fighting addiction or an illness like depression. Obsess over customers, not competitors. I am making this point very clear that I only obsessed over my patients’ well-being, over finding solutions that solves the Healthcare dilemmas, never obsessed about my opposition or so-called competitors. That is how I built a 7-figure business. Take risks for market leadership. It took me many trials of failures and successes, I left my country my younger children at a tender age, left the comfort of my large home, the cooks, the servants who served me to be a maid, and live on old run-down furniture from the salvation army. I never knew I will succeed I took a massive risk. Bezos, Amazon founder wrote in his very first annual letter (1997). “Failure and invention are inseparable twins. To invent you have to experiment, and if you know in advance that it’s going to work, it’s not an experiment.” Take risks. Make employees think like owners. Your power is your people, you cannot do it alone. I focus on hiring and retaining versatile and talented employees, and continue to offer them stock sharing. My success depends on my ability to attract and retain a motivated employee base, each of whom must think like, and must actually be, an owner. Build a culture that’s right for your company. Creating a business culture by attracting like-minded people. Folks who find our approach energizing and meaningful. Focusing on Customer experience, Cost-conscious, and healthy profits.

What are your core business principles and values you adhere to?  Excellence  Love and compassion  Honesty. To stay true to myself and other people.  Authenticity and genuineness.  Refuse to accept or tolerate mediocrity.  Despise pride with arrogance.

From your many achievements, what is your most significant accomplishment and why? Making a dent in treating and preventing cancer, and working toward transforming Healthcare into Wellness-care, touching many hearts, giving hope and being an example to many to succeed despite all the odds, make my heart quiver. Discovering my mission is the most enchanting.

What do you think is more important, motivation or execution and why? Both are indispensable. Mission is step one: The ﬁrst step the “Mission” is the Sparkle. Motivation is step two: The Gas. Execution is step three: The journey and the action to make your way to manifestation.

What inspires and motivates you? Basically, why do you wake up every morning, get the work done and do it all over again the next day? I feel an urgency to accomplish my mission. I have discovered many secrets to healthy living, wellness and Dis-EASE free states, treatment and prevention of cancer, chronic diseases and addictions that are so vital to helping everyone and raising awareness about how to stay healthy. I feel compelled to train healthcare providers and the public on restoring health and Wellness. I also invented several health products that will revolutionise healthcare, and they ought to be available to folks as soon as possible.

What has been your biggest fail to date and how did you overcome that and what did you learn from that? When for a short-lived ﬂash, I believed I am in total control of my destiny I almost lost it all. When I, for a split second, thought that physical and material possessions bring happiness and joy, I almost lost my vision I overcame this the minute I realised who I truly am, why I am on this planet for, what my mission is, and what really matters. What counts is health, family, relationships, friends and humanity. It is now so much easier not to get upset for what I consider insigniﬁcant losses (losing money or homes.) I just lost an $800,000 home, but I am still grateful for the master plan. 4 | OCTOBER 2018 | ISSUE 1

You are a very successful and influential entrepreneur. From your experience, what is the best way to market your business or yourself?       

�Results Service Oﬀer Exceptional Experience Excellence Authenticity Diﬀerentiation Be the brand

What is the secret to your success?  My belief that my mission is greater than me helped me to align my Spirit, Heart, Mind and Body with the Universe and Be one with the Universe  Persistence  I never took no for an answer  Never give up  Being Coachable  Realizing My limitations and overcoming it  Giving everything, I have and not sparing anything  Taking risks  Giving up the need to be in control and accept that things are as they should be and then see it all unfold

Since you have become so successful, how do you handle haters or people that don’t support you? What advice do you have for fellow female entrepreneurs? I do not see haters. I don’t waste my energy on haters or hating; I let the Universe handle it. I believe a diamond will remain a diamond and continue to shine even in the mud. My advice to fellow female entrepreneurs:        

�Keep shining, Diamond always shine Keep going relentlessly Align yourself with people with positive energy Focus on your mission and your goal Breathe, relax and trust Give it your all Be you Fear not Haters, when you are aligned with your mission and the universe

What quote do you live by and why? If by Rudyard Kipling If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’ If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can ﬁll the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son! I chose it as my roadmap. It resonated with my being, my inner ﬁre, and my core values. Woman Entrepreneur | Global

Entrepreneurship is a journey of failures and successes; it is a learning experience.

What advice can you give fellow female entrepreneurs that are on the same journey and want to achieve the same success?           

Find a real coach whose energy aligns with yours Invest in yourself; your education and coaching Invest in relationship capitals Nurture good relationships aligned with your core Engage in a business you love, a business that aligns with your core, and give it your everything. Assess and reassess Use technology Leverage all resources Perform with class and excellence Believe, exude conﬁdence, feel, look and act conﬁdent Be you

How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors, what makes you Unique?              

I am persuasive yet compassionate Dedication and devotion to my Divine mission To never lose the kindness in my heart I want to be an example to women so they know that nothing can defeat them I am powerful but still down to earth Innovative Revolutionary Personable Coach by nature Hands-on My strong energetic presence; I motivate & invigorate Being conﬁdent and not intimidating - I help lift people up Forthright; Direct however still a great communicator My passion and my mission are to ensure an appreciation and availability of health and wellness to everyone, at every stage of life. I do this through an understanding of the body’s innate healing ability, and to ignite the spark of health that all people carry deep inside. I help them rediscover that sparkle of wellness in both a personal and global way by continuously and synergistically aligning body, mind, and spirit.

What is the hardest thing about entrepreneurship that no one told you? Entrepreneurship is a journey of failures and successes; it is a learning experience. It takes time and eﬀort; it takes sacriﬁces and long nights of work. It takes tears, laughter, pain, joy, happiness, small successes, obstacles, challenges, mistakes until you perfect it. You need tenacity; you need commitment. You need guidance and nurturing, and you need healthy mind, healthy body, and healthy spirit. Keep your mind on the destination.

What can we expect from you in the next 12 months? I will be on TED’s Talk moving people, Changing Hearts and HELPING individuals to ﬁnd their spark and ignite it. I will also be raising awareness about the eﬀect of stress on the body. Flooding the market with the health rejuvenating products that can maintain and restore health, age and beauty: Magic Energy. Have my Integrative Advanced Medicine Institute Platform available worldwide to educate both the public and professionals.

If you could do it all over again, what will you change and why? Absolutely nothing, I love my journey with the pain, falls, sacriﬁces, successes. All of it with gratitude.

GET IN TOUCH WITH DR DALAL AKOURY Personal Website: www.drdalalakoury.com Integrative Advanced and Regenerative Medical Services: www.awaremed.com Natural Infusion Center for convenience and Wellness: www.getyourivnow.com Social Media: dalalakourymd dalal.akoury DrAkoury dalalakoury www.womanentrepreneur.co | 5

My favourite month is finally here. It is not because it is my birthday month - or perhaps it is - but it is the first month of the final quarter for the year. For many, this is the busiest time of the year, and for others: they cannot wait to get 2018 over and done with to start a new chapter in 2019. For the final three months of the year I would like to share my three ups that always keep me motivated and driven: 1. Dress Up 2. Show Up 3. Never Give Up Whenever you feel unmotivated, simply do these three things: dress up, show up and donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ever give up. The greatest thing about these three ups is that they are all 100% free! Erna Basson is an award-winning entrepreneur, world-class business coach and international keynote speaker. She is well known for starting, growing and selling companies fast and her passion is to help people become entrepreneurs so that they too can achieve and live their dream. She is the Founder and CEO of Erabella Beauty , the fastest growing hair extensions brand in the world. She is the CEO and Founder of Woman Entrepreneur, a global platform to Empower Women in Business

May the final quarter of 2018 be your best months ever! Kindest Regards,

Erna Basson Founder and CEO | Woman Entrepreneur

editor@womanentrepreneur.co www.womanentrepreneur.co

OCTOBER MEETING

We are not your usual networking group for women. We are a club with a difference; a club that is genuinely focused, passionate and dedicated to supporting women to succeed both personally and professionally in an empowering, inspiring, and supportive environment. Most importantly, a club for women who want be part of a sisterhood. Every month we deliver valuable content and tips and tricks from our success manual we will work through together. There is even HOMEWORK! We are your accountability partner to ensure you implement the strategies and keep moving forward on your journey.

WEDNESDAY, 24 OCT AT 18:15 UTC+10 Bayview On The Park | 52 Queens Road | Melbourne

Caterina Dornbrach Club Director

Erna Basson CEO & Founder

how to build a 7 FIGURE BUSINESS MODEL FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Are there any age restrictions? Yes, you must be 18 years or older How much does it cost? Your first event attendance is FREE! Be our guest so you can experience the vibe and culture of the club and decide if it is the right fit for you. If the club resonates with you and you would like to attend future events, you can either pay general admission for the main event or invest in an annual membership which gives you access to the Monthly Online Woman Entrepreneur Magazine, VIP Online Membership, Private Facebook Group and more! Can you bring a guest? Yes, of course you can! You can bring as many guests as you like, we love meeting new female entrepreneurs. Simply register your guest(s) with the following information: name and surname, email address and phone number. You canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t use your email address when registering your guest(s). A repeated email address will cancel the registration. Street parking and parking at the venue is available. Please contact the venue for parking fees. What should I bring to the event? Business cards, notepad, pen and the best version of yourself. What is the dress code? Business attire or smart casual. Remember, for many of us we feel how we dress. Also, first impressions matter, so put your best foot forward! How can I contact the organiser with any questions? Email : wecmelbourne@gmail.com | Mobile: 0423 005 297

WomanEntrepreneurClubMelbourne

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Woman Entrepreneur | Global

4 major body language signals to look out for d

You have all heard the expressions “actions speak more than words” and “it’s not what you say, it’s what you do.” These expressions exist for a reason as they are true. Body language experts explain that, from how we cross our legs to our eye contact, and even the way we swallow, give away emotions we are feeling. Studies say that 40-60% of people tell at least one lie per day. So, if we average that out, 50% of the population will lie at least once during 24 hours. If you interview six people for a position, there is a good chance that three of the six will lie to you in some shape or form. This does not mean that people will share detrimental lies with you, it can be simple things we refer to as “white lies”, or an extension of the truth, or not sharing all the details of a situation, which mean they are hiding something from you. As discussed in my April 2018 article, when conducting interviews, it is an HR practice to have another leader present and not be by yourself. The importance of having another leader is to get someone else’s point of view, to protect yourself from accusations and also to have someone else help you ask questions, take notes and pay attention to the applicant’s body gestures. One frequent habit leaders have, is to interview applicants in their office, at a desk, or at a table. If you want to promote an open and honest environment and you want to be able to read someone’s body language, you need to be able to see the applicant. Remove physical barriers, place a table to the side and your chairs 1.5 meters apart to not invade someone’s personal space. EYE CONTACT: One of the most important things you should exhibit and also look for from the applicant is eye contact. Hopefully, you have two people interviewing the applicant; therefore the applicant should be making contact with both of you. Eye contact demonstrates that the applicant is engaged, interested and paying attention. This does not mean that the applicant needs to stare at you consistently. What you are looking for is a break in eye contact and looking down, which is an indication something is odd. There are also several articles and studies that state when someone looks up and to the left, they remember an “imagination”, and looking up and to the right, is recalling a memory. FIDGETING & OVERALL BODY: Playing with one’s nose can be a sign that an applicant is lying, as blood vessels in the nose dilate which make them itchy. Rubbing the side of one’s nose can mean the person disagrees with what is being said. Touching hair, braiding it, twisting it, or twirling it

is a sign of nervousness. When someone is grabbing or touch it can represent “hear no evil” so they do not like what they or it’s a protective reaction because what they are saying is and they do not want to process it. Legs and feet facing the the applicant is anxious and may want to leave, legs crossed protective gesture, legs and arms crossed could mean they ar from the conversation.

MOUTH: After eye contact, the other most important part of is their smile. Someone’s smile - or lack thereof - affects all body and mind. An open mouth smile usually means the pers and more honest, and a closed mouth can mean the person polite, reserved or perhaps they are hiding something. When interested, they will naturally smile.

LANGUAGE: When someone starts a sentence or uses th words they are usually not being truthful: “It’s obvious / Just / I’m not going to lie to you / This may sound strange/ I kno going to believe me.

Look at their face, hands, and legs when using these words. may be touching their ear, nose, have their legs crossed, fee door, feet wrapped around each other, or getting an “itch” These actions are the body’s natural reaction to “not telling someone was telling the truth, they would not need to use th

My personal favourite is: “I’m not going to lie to you.” Wh uses this expression, I like to reply: “Then don’t lie to me (ha-h catch people off guard when that happens.

You should use this information as a method to validate your as they are not 100% foolproof. For example, I prefer to smile closed as I have one tooth that is slightly crooked, and after h twice, it is still crooked. It bothers me, even though most p never realise it. It is important to understand someone’s h judging them through body language. This may not be possi 30-minute to 1-hour interview, therefore as noted, have a se in the interview with you and base your hiring decisions o package: Experience, knowledge, the interview, your instinct body language.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Josée Larocque-Patton assists organizations to develop their people and train their leaders. She guides leaders when their employees are not following procedures and policies and act as a consultant when organizations experience legislative infractions. Josée Larocque-Patton | Founder and CEO of The HR ICU www.thehricu.com | email josee@thehricu.com

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www.womanentrepreneur.co | 11

ONE

Forgetting to plan and do research

The start of any good brand is built on a strong foundation of knowing all the details. We feel that this essential step of creating a good brand is skipped since having a great plan with thorough research is severely underestimated. A common mistake in entrepreneurship is jumping in without a plan or knowing what else is out there. A strong brand needs a solid foundation. A few things we highly recommend in many of the workshops we present is taking the time to explore what inspires you, what your competition is doing and what your market wants. Once you have done this, you are ready to continue to the planning phase and ready to get your message out there. By now you should have a clear vision of what your brand’s message is and, more importantly, ensure you don’t deviate from your brand over time because you hadn’t thought about these factors.

TWO

Failing to identify a target market

Not everyone is your market. Experimenting has become part of a start-up strategy. Instead of a long-term vision, entrepreneurs are taking a wait-and-see approach during the birth of their brand. Just because you’re waiting to see how customers respond to your product before deciding on how to proceed, doesn’t mean you can afford to develop a brand without a target market in mind. To brand like an absolute badass and own what you do you must identify a target market from the very start. Your messaging needs to speak to someone otherwise no one will hear what you have to say. You cannot be everything to everyone. We are guessing you have heard the saying “you can be the ripest peach, but there will always be people who don’t like peaches.” This saying really sums it up; make sure you speak to the peach lovers instead of those who are just not that into you.

THREE

Ignoring the value of their customers

It is a straightforward rule that every entrepreneur should build into their mission. Without customers, you are nothing as a business. Value your customers’ thoughts, opinions and emotions around what you do. Be strong enough to listen. If they buy from you, love them and celebrate that they chose you. Don’t brush them aside and move on to the next. Repeat business is king if your product allows it. If a customer is unhappy, ask them why and learn from it. If your unhappy customer is public – address it. Don’t complain or pick a fight, as many potential customers are also watching you. They associate your value in customers with your brand and in turn, will base their decision to purchase from you on this. Don’t underestimate the value of either a happy customer or an unhappy customer. Both are important to the growth and survival of your brand. Many entrepreneurs become so focused on a product and forget a brand requires customers.

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FOUR

Deviating from your brand

The first mistake was around researching and planning. When you fail to consider that process, it leads to a much bigger mistake; usually because of the initial mistake. When you create a brand, it is a successful method to develop a set of brand guidelines that you use to direct decision-making and to shape messaging. These guidelines don’t lock you in, but they certainly should influence the choices you make. A mistake many entrepreneurs are falling victim to is deviating from their brand’s guidelines in the early life of their start-up, and this can have a devastating effect on your business. Let’s break this mistake down a little further. Let’s say you’ve decided that the three primary colours your brand will use in all advertisements are pink, white and aqua. You consistently use these colours, but then one day decide you want to put out an ad that’s black and red. You might be saying what is the big deal? Well, naturally you are risking to confuse customers, diluting your message and diminishing any brand that you likely put so much love into creating. Deviation, although it seems like something so small, can be the rise and fall of popular brands.

FIVE

Making your faults public

Let’s talk about visibility. A brand is something that is displayed in public, which means many eyes are on you. Even when you think no one is watching, someone always is. Always having people watch you is a wonderful thing for your brand, but in the same breath, it can be a curse too. This is a massive mistake we recommend entrepreneurs avoid at all costs; don’t pick fights! We don’t need to harp on about this as it isn’t a complicated topic. If you think it is, you are justifying your own bad brand behaviour. Fights with people are public most of the time, whether it be on social media, in your shop or even via email. Remember, they can share that with whomever they please, and in today’s times, that is likely to be a social media post. We are not saying that you need to say they are right or give in to stupidity. However, you do not need to fight with them. Simple, right? Even the biggest companies in the world have feedback they respond to even though they disagree. But still, never pick a fight. It is ok to stand for something, but you don’t need to argue about it. Arguing confuses people as to who is in the wrong, and the majority of the time they will not pick the company’s side and potentially will see you as the bully. You never want to become the bully. These simple mistakes may not seem like a big deal, or you might not even realise how common they are. It is likely you don’t know how well-known these mistakes are because those brands no longer exist. When you think of it like that, it is a big deal, right? But it is ok – if you have fallen victim to any one of these mistakes, there is a great time to work on these pain points and that day is today. Here is to seeing your brand grow and rise above these common mistakes. Woman Entrepreneur | Global

It is a common trend to see entrepreneurs come up with a great idea. But it is just as common to see entrepreneurs make mistakes with their brand, which in many cases is the rise and fall of their start-up. An essential rule every entrepreneur should know is that your brand isn’t your work life – it is your life’s work, and you should be able to look at it and feel motivated to do more and to be more. We have noticed a trend in today’s society where entrepreneurs are asking themselves what the least amount of work is that they need to do to look cool. They want to be cool - like right-now cool - before putting in the work to actually be cool. This trend derived from the phrase: “fake it ‘til you make it.” People have become so hung up on faking it, and they end up forgetting about making it, as they have measured their success on the number of likes they got on social platforms. We are sure you know that social likes are not going to pay the bills. Many entrepreneurs are falling into this trap and end up never reaching their full potential. We believe this downfall starts with these five branding mistakes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: WOLF AND GEEK Serial Entrepreneurs | Brand Strategists | Social Savages Obsessive Compulsive Disruptors | Imagination Engineers www.wolfandgeek.com.au wolfandgeek wolfandgeek

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SUCCESS STORY

PIP

BLOCK

Pip Block has been a teacher in the United Kingdom and New Zealand for 25 years. For the past five years, she has been delivering the Arrowsmith Program at schools in Auckland, an educational programme initially introduced in Canada. Pip has always been passionate about educating eager children and, when approached by her principal to take up the position of teaching this brain-changing programme, she did not hesitate. In March 2017 Pip met with the founder of the programme, Barbara Arrowsmith-Young, about expanding the Arrowsmith Program to be accessible to students who were not attending the school Pip was teaching at. Five months later Pip attended an event presented by JT Foxx, the world’s number one wealth and business coach. For a year she allowed herself to be mentored and worked hard on following JT’s advice and valuable suggestions. In August 2018, Pip launched her own business, A1 Student, and is now presenting the Arrowsmith Program to students in Auckland. Pip remarks: “I could not have done this without him (JT Foxx) and the support of my family.”

What are the three business and life lessons you have learned on your journey so far?

I have learned to be disciplined, coachable and laserfocused. I realised I wasted a vast amount of time each day doing what I thought was constructive, but in reality, it was not getting me anywhere. JTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mentoring gave me a structure to work from and helped me stay focused each day. His coaching showed me what I was truly capable of doing.

What are your core business principles and values you adhere to?

To be authentic, honest and humble. I cannot forget the underlying reason for starting my own business; to help students. JT always talks about the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;wowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; of any business. My wow is the positive results I have witnessed and the recognition from parents and students who have been involved in the programme. I always say, â&#x20AC;&#x153;If itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not going to benefit the student, why would I do it?â&#x20AC;? I will not compromise on quality education. Teaching is not a 9 to 5; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a nine until DONE.

From your many accomplishments, what is your most significant achievement and

why?

In only a year, I saw one of my students progress from being a shy, 12-year-old boy to a self-assured 13-year-old young man. He had no confidence, considered himself dumb, was not keeping up in class. He was disengaged, not only with school but with life in general. Within a year he managed to attain the confidence to talk to 70 parents about his journey in the programme. He is now a role model to all the other students and is competitive in mainstream classes with grades higher than students who had been in mainstream classes all along. The results speak for themselves.

What do you think is more important, motivation or execution and why?

You need both. Motivation without execution is like buying a gym membership and end up never going to the gym. Getting motivated will initiate the tasks you need to execute. I had to create task lists for what needed to get done each day and then ticked them off as I completed the tasks. My husband Michael is a great motivator who made me accountable to keep me on track.

What inspires and motivates you? Basically, why do you wake up every morning, get the work done and do it all over again the next day? There is nothing more fulfilling to me than helping other people reach their potential. They are thrilled when they achieve, and this makes me happy and gives me that buzz. I have students depending on me to guide them in their learning. I treat my students like family, and I would not let them down. Seeing them improve and be happy to learn is the best reward. Knowing that I contribute to their achievement is what gives me a reason to get up each morning and go to work.

GET IN TOUCH WITH PIP BLOCK Pip Block A1 Student BlockPip BlockPip office@a1student.com

www.a1student.com

What is the secret to your success?

Three things: Firstly, having a supportive husband who shares my vision and who is willing to work as hard Woman Entrepreneur | Global

as me to get things done. Secondly, I would not have been able to get my business off the ground without quality coaching from JT Foxx; I have followed his advice and done the training. Lastly, I have never given up. Faced with a mountain to climb and no experience whatsoever in business was a daunting situation, but I worked harder than I’ve ever worked in my life to learn and make things happen.

Since you have become so successful, how do you handle haters or people that don’t support you? What advice do you have for fellow female entrepreneurs? I have been fortunate to face very few haters so far, but the ones who have tried to put me down or instil fear or negativity have not succeeded. I did the groundwork and the research to ensure I had a solid product. I have been laser-focused on the WHY of my business and know that I offer a programme that is in demand. People who don’t support you are either afraid, ignorant or jealous. If you are 100% sure of why you are doing something, nothing will put you off.

What quote do you live by and why?

“There is always a way.” Throughout my 25 years of teaching, it has been my quest to find ways to help students learn and understand. If one way didn’t work, I would find another until they understood. Sure, there may be some fish who got away, but if you are continually looking for solutions instead of barriers, you are bound to catch a lot more fish than if you didn’t.

What advice can you give to fellow female entrepreneurs on the same journey who want to achieve the same success?

Always be coachable. Even the most successful entrepreneurs in the world have coaches. If you do not change, you do not grow. Investing in your business is the most sensible thing to do. Never ask yourself how much it is going to cost you.

What is the hardest thing about entrepreneurship that no one told you?

The hardest thing for me was moving into a territory I had never been in before. I was concerned about leaving a paid career that I had been in for 25 years. However, I ‘jumped out of the plane’ because I knew there was more to my life than what I had been doing and if I did not make that leap, nothing would change.

What can we expect from you in the next 12 months?

I am delighted to report that I already have students going back into mainstream learning who are achieving higher grades than their peers who have remained in ‘regular’ classes. I receive a constant stream of enquiries from parents who want to know how they can access my programme to help their children. I also have adults who are enrolling in my course next year because they see the benefit of changing their brain. www.womanentrepreneur.co | 17

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SUCCESS STORY

Originated from a lovely area in Southern Germany, I always lived in beautiful places in Germany and Switzerland where other people would go for holidays. En route I was in a longterm relationship with my partner and an amazing patchwork family with two wonderful children whom I had the honour to accompany for years. One of them called me her “2nd chance mum”, a title I am honoured to have. I now live and work in the area of Bonn, the former capital of Germany. After I completed a financial and tax diploma, I worked as a German Tax Official at the Tax Authorities. Considering my thriving career accomplishments, one would expect that I was happy. Especially after making it through a life-threatening illness. But I wasn’t; I knew it was time for me to move on. After more than 20 years, I stepped out of my putative comfort zone and quit my job. Looking back, I now know that illness emerges when you are not living up to who you truly are; in both your personal and professional life. More than 15 years ago, I started building my business as an astrologer, coach and event host. Only three days after I established my business the first event took place. That’s what I call speed of implementation! All along I was working on integrating a vast number of coaching techniques, psychological studies and studies of Eastern and Western alternative healing arts into a coaching practice that I now offer my clients. Combined with the gift of my healing hands, I refer to this method as a deep-going process. I do continuous research on numerous subjects within these fields and adapt my teaching along the way. It is an ongoing process, and I use this fusion to my clients’ advantage. I now offer support services and life- and business coaching to professionals and individuals across the globe. My main focus is to help people process emotional times and experiences from the past so they can turn a new page over and live a thriving life and succeed in their businesses and careers. My clientele stretches over three continents, including coaches, therapists and business owners, members of the European noble houses, and individuals who seek clarity in their daily lives. I often find that, soon after a first appointment, my clients can feel an immediate positive transition in their lives because they open themselves up to change and are willing to receive it. On a personal level, I am also an outdoor and sports person. I formerly did ski races, coached skiing to children for ten years and led the skiing school in my city in my early twenties. The practice of a variety of sports shows, I just love to move my body.

Tell us about some of your amazing achievements? One of the greatest achievements to me is that I feel content with my life. I take pleasure in enjoying myself, being who I am and what I do. And, at the same time, being curious about the MORE of people and reaching out to the possibilities. My most significant achievement is knowing my capacity to start over again and again in every situation that shows up, no matter how uncomfortable it may be. Knowing that I have a tremendous amount of strength, courage, power and laughter and that I can influence people with that. Why? Because that is how you create everything you want to have in your life. I ask open questions, for example: What might be possible here, that I couldn’t even imagine? With every question we ask, we are opening a space for what we are asking. Another achievement I treasure is having my unique business model and seeing the change it has on my clients. I’ve included my knowledge about the YUEN Method™, created by Dr Kam Yuen. I was one of the first European instructors of this method and he told me that, apart from himself, I was also the one presenting the most classes worldwide. I have given hundreds of classes in all the modalities I combined, and thousands of coaching sessions live and online. But, it is not about the number of sessions presented, it is about the change we created for people and their lives and businesses. To know and experience a total consciousness and how, with every decision we make, we are creating what will show up in our lives and businesses. To see how it evolves, how change, possibilities and people show up in ways and numbers you couldn’t even imagine, and to see how the magic works. I thoroughly enjoy travelling the world, in private and for business. To have clients in different parts of the world and to have such amazing people in my life. I just love life and being here on this planet Earth with its stunning beauty. 20 | OCTOBER 2018 | ISSUE 1

Do you ever get demotivated and what do you do to keep moving forward? I feel every individual, whether they own a business or not, has days where they lack motivation. When I get demotivated I would ask myself something in the lines of: “What would it take to be happy today?” Automatically my face would brighten up. And then I would ask: “What is the next step from here?” I never fail to get an answer; I don’t care from whom or where. I then revisit the situation and say: “Universe, PLOT TWIST!” Then I move on and open myself to immediate change. It is also always a great idea to call my coach. You need both a personal and business coach. The moral support and contribution from a coach are invaluable. If you don’t have a coach yet, get one! The best one you can find. I know there is always more to achieve, more to explore and experience, new things to learn and better ways to live. It’s this innate curiosity that keeps me going. Always this: What else might be possible I haven’t yet considered? Where could I travel that I have never been before? Whom else could I talk to today to open up new possibilities? Asking these kinds of questions is part of several coaching modalities. And in truth, it is a lifestyle.

What three life and business lessons have you learned on your journey so far?  Even in tough times - and most business owners know them - never give in, never give up, never quit. GO GET IT and BE and DO whatever it takes.  Walk your talk. If you don‘t, people will remind you to!  Always take care of your relationships. Connect with people and stay in contact. Be on a par with people, no matter who they are or where they come from. And never forget where and what you have been through. As a business owner, it’s a huge contribution to love people. Woman Entrepreneur | Global

What are your core business principles you adhere to?  Treat people like you want to be treated. That, to me, means to be kind, caring and to be of excellent service.  Be generous with what you Be, know and are capable of.  Be grateful to each and every one of your customers, clients and partners. All of this will come back to you in multiple ways.

What do you think is more important, motivation or execution? Find out why you are here, what is it you are meant to be and do, and what’s your purpose. Take that as your motivation every day. If you don’t know what your purpose is, you will lose motivation, and there will be nothing to execute. You will stay in a routine that isn’t yours. Stop meandering through your life and take care of your purpose. Allow yourself to leave behind what holds you back from your ultimate purpose. Finding your purpose is about listening to the whispers of your being. It is allowing yourself to realise what makes you happy. When you start to smile, and your body relaxes, and you have the urge to do that what makes you feel lighter. If you go with this lightness, you will find out who you are and what you are here for. Life isn’t about taking the hard road. That doesn‘t mean to be lazy. It means, if you do what you love, working a lot can be an ongoing creation, so satisfying and enjoyable.

What has been your biggest fail to date and how did you overcome that and what did you learn from that? I thought, as a tax and revenue official, I knew everything about business. And I did for years. It was only until I owned a business that I realised I didn’t know enough about it, especially in these fast-changing times. It took me a while to get that I needed business coaching and more time to start with it. Without being coached for running my business, it wouldn’t exist anymore. You never know everything. Always seek to learn more. Not only about your field of business, but also about running it. From my point of view, this is an absolute must. If I could start over again, I would hire a business coach from day one.

From your experience as an influential entrepreneur, what is the best way to market your business or yourself?

Sometimes these people are throwing at you what was thrown at them. Even if they hated it, they have this inner force to project it onto someone else. Also, be aware, you experience what you have inner resonance for. Clear your own stuff, and it will become better and easier.

How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors, what makes you unique? I received this letter of appreciation recently, which sums it all up: “What I value the most and what makes you so different from others, is your kind of approach to topics clients bring with them. One never ever hears a word of judgement from you. And you see so much in the field of a person with precision so that the limitation can leave. That is just wonderful. In our online class series in the mornings you got exactly what we all needed. Your work is so different from others. The class with you and the tools you gave us, are so helpful for everyday life and initiated such an ongoing and continuous change. Most of the time, the effects of a class are gone very soon, that’s different from your class. It was one of the best, if not the very best, class ever. We all arrived with a huge backpack of topics and went home with a lightness, loping and in a great mood. The change is unparalleled. Thank you!”

What can we expect from you in the next 12 months? First up, I will be on a German TV Talk-Show, Ways to Success, on Saturday, 6 October, primetime 7 pm. I am in the process of developing an entirely new website with fresh content and a beautiful modern look. The site will be in German and translated into English shortly after. I am currently writing two books. The first will be published in German as an eBook this November, and will also be available in English soon after that. The second one will be released as an eBook and as a hard copy, probably in spring, summer 2019. I will now start travelling the world again! Meet me at Mega Success in LA, November 5 - 10. From Mega Success on, we will open a new business which will be announced on stage. Stay tuned! Who knows what else might unfold by travelling, making new friends and building new business relationships? Opening doors always creates more open doors for what you‘re choosing. It is up to us to initiate this. We ARE the creators and leaders of our lives and businesses, even when we’re not aware of it. So it‘s up to us to set our mind for success.

It’s all about the branding of yourself and your business; going out and showing up in every possible way with who you are and stand for. This helps you building and keeping relationships. People know what they can expect from you and your service. It’s about letting your light, your uniqueness and the value you contribute shine into the world.

What is the secret to your success? What advice can you give fellow female entrepreneurs on the same journey? It’s the value people get from my unique coaching combined with my infectious giggling, laughing, smiling along with the courage to face everything. People just love that. It reminds them that, even in tough times, there is always a way for change and always time and space for a good laugh. Really, even in the toughest days of my life, there has always been a reason to laugh. People can sense that. My clients know, they can entirely rely and count on me. My advice is: GO ALL IN! Enjoy yourself while being in business. If you could change the world with YOU being YOU, would you? It is not about being perfect, because who decides what perfect is? Perfect doesn’t exist. It is just a point of view that could be a box for you if you believe it. In truth, that box is none of your business; it belongs to others. So, allow yourself to be your unique version, also in business.

How do you handle haters or people that don’t support you? What advice do you have for fellow female entrepreneurs? Most of the times, haters send some inquisitive people your way, so they may be a free ad! I know some business owners whose businesses flourished after being vilified. Haters and nay-sayers spend a lot of energy on what they are doing, and that energy can support YOU. Firstly, I wouldn’t give that much alertness. You know, your energy flows where your attention goes. What you can always do is say: “Hello beautiful energy, what would it take for you to work to my advantage?” Let that energy in, instead of refusing it. What you are resisting, will persist. It is just the label you’re giving it that is causing the damage. Use that energy to lift yourself and your business and to become a stronger version of you. If you know the people, you always can talk to them. If people continue defaming you or your business, make it public on your own. Tell people who you are, what you do, how you act and what is going on. And remind people, that they know the truth. Ask them to ask themselves: “Who tells the truth?” People know. I experienced this years ago. A guy copied a considerable part of my homepage, but he couldn’t deliver the service. I went out and let people know about it on social media. I made that part of my website public again, and also that it was used without written permission. I encouraged people to book the service. It worked. The copied homepage didn’t exist that long!

GET IN TOUCH WITH ANITA WÖSSNER www.meetanitawoessner.com | aw@anitawoessner.de Personal: anita.woessner1 Business: AnitaWoessnerCoaching anita_woessner AnitaWoessner anita-woessner-913b56b1 www.youtube.com/channel/UC4bS6UkY4x_JfKUD2P_CeVA

www.womanentrepreneur.co | 21

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D E D I C AT E D T O E M P O W E R I N G W O M E N I N B U S I N E S S

SUCCESS STORY

Ă&#x2026;sa Granberg is the founder of AimHill Consulting Group, a company that works with a variety of tools, systems and programs ensuring rapid business growth, acceleration of revenue, as well as a range of working capital efficiency solutions to their clients. She has extensive experience in various high-end fields of the financial services industry. Over the years Ă&#x2026;sa has developed expertise in how to navigate around challenges presented by cultural differences, integration, mergers and acquisitions and significant organisational transitions caused by changing business strategies, environmental changes, regulatory changes and technological developments and innovations. One of her greatest assets is her global, ever-evolving network of business partners she has built up throughout her career.

Give us a bit of background about yourself and when/how your entrepreneur journey started:

I remember an all-time low moment in my life when my son was five years old. I was responsible for a large, very complex re-financing capital markets transaction of a clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s business to a value of just over 250 Million USD. The market was going against us and at 10:30 pm one evening, after I put my child to bed at 8, I was sitting on his bedroom floor in an emergency phone conference with senior management of the bank where I was working. I had been on the phone with our client, the financial markets department, the treasury department and various stakeholders for more than two hours. My son woke up and crawled out of bed to where I had been sitting in the dark on the phone. He probably heard in my voice that I was not in a good space. He sat down on his knees before me and gave me a tender hug and took his little hand and swiped it slowly over my face and my hair like he wanted to comfort me. He kissed me on my cheek before he crawled back into his bed. It was a terrible moment of feeling incompetent as a mother, especially since my son only had yoghurt and sandwiches for dinner because I had been in emergency phone conferences since that afternoon. It really had me wondering what I was doing with my life. I earned an excellent salary, but at that moment, money was of no value to me. That particular night was probably the beginning of the mind-journey that led me to start my own business. If you have to work this hard in life anyway, why not do it on your own account? I believe, at the pace of new technology development, we are moving towards a future where we will soon not be permanent employees of a company anymore. There is a term called â&#x20AC;&#x153;Gig-Economyâ&#x20AC;? that describes the workforce I see happening. With the technology already available - email, audio- and video-meeting tools, and software that allows us to share and access workstations and documents from anywhere â&#x20AC;&#x201C; we are bound to have project-employment instead of permanent employment. Why should a company settle for a person that is just â&#x20AC;&#x153;okâ&#x20AC;? skilled purely because that person is located nearby when you have an â&#x20AC;&#x153;expertâ&#x20AC;? in another part of the world available with whom you can connect virtually instead?

Tell us about some of your amazing achievements? What is your greatest achievement and why?

I think my most significant achievement is never giving up during all those years I struggled to become successful; I started at the very bottom. For the first couple of years, I stayed in a suburb outside of Stockholm. One of those suburbs where mostly immigrants and refugees lived with a lot of crime and gangs. I was a hotel receptionist and had to work shifts. I left my apartment at 5 am and sometimes got home after 1 am. I was so afraid of going from the subway station down to the small studio I rented and often had the taste of blood in my mouth and the eco of my beating heart in my ears. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s where I started, and now I live in one of the more fashionable areas of Stockholm, and I drive a Porsche. It took years of hard work and studying before any financial results started to come. But, I never gave up, and I never quit. It is not in my blood to quit. Nevertheless, I am always humble because I know where I came from and I know that anyone can end up there. That is what makes me different from many people in the financial industry; when I see homeless people, I know it could have been me. As soon as I had a steady income, I started donating 300 USD a year to a nursery in Kenya offering education to abandoned children. I knew that, even though I had almost nothing and no savings, I still had more than a street-child. As soon as a child graduates, you are allocated a new child, and I am proud to say that I am now supporting a third Kenyan kid. I call them my â&#x20AC;&#x153;fortune-childrenâ&#x20AC;? because shortly after I â&#x20AC;&#x153;adoptedâ&#x20AC;? my first child, amazing things started to happen in my life which finally led me to the financial services industry.

What three business and life lessons have you learned on your journey so far?

I have learnt many lessons in business and life, and I am continuously learning new ones. Three prominent lessons I have learned are: 1) You have to be prepared for the unforeseen. You never know what is coming, but you can try to estimate the risk of when things do go wrong and have a mitigating risk plan in place. I am referring to worst-case scenarios: you get no clients/customers which means no income; your business partner betrays or walks out on you; an innovation hits the market that makes your product obsolete; a distributor goes in default while you are expecting a vital delivery from them; new rules or regulations causes you to change your product range or your business model; or a sudden downturn in the economy etc. If you have a risk plan in place, you will not be paralysed when this happens. I often say that the only thing you know is that you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know the future. 2) You canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be an expert on everything. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be embarrassed to ask for help or to tell a partner or a client that you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have the correct answer. Tell them that you can make a qualified guess but will find accurate information and get back to them. I have met people in the financial services industry who pretend to know something you know is not correct, and this results in losing faith in everything they say. It is hard to earn a good reputation, but incredibly easy to destroy it. It is better to admit you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know the answer and offer to find out instead. 3) Knowledge is ever evolving, and you have to keep studying throughout your life. I study all the time. I do research on the internet, I read books, and I learn from people more successful than me and apply the knowledge. And then I study again. I think that is the beauty of life; you can never become fully knowledgeable because the world is in constant change. I am so much looking forward to growing older to study all sorts of subjects; astronomy, history, different kinds of science, and psychology and the human brain and medicine, and of course advanced technology which I have always found fascinating. You might be an expert in a subject today, but if you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t keep on studying, you wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be an expert tomorrow. I have been attending lectures at the Google Digital Academy the past month to improve my digital marketing skills. I befriended some of the digital coaches and have been asked to present a guest lecture if I want to - of course, I do! I am now busy preparing the lecture to be offered to the public through Google Digital Academy.

What inspires and motivates you? Basically, why do you wake up every morning, get the work done and do it all over again the next day?

I was born with drive and inner motivation that burns inside of me and will do until I am no more đ&#x;&#x2DC;&#x201E;

What has been your biggest fail to date and how did you overcome that and what did you learn from that?

I have had several fails, and I think it is part of the journey to have set-backs. You need compelling goals and extremely high targets to aim for if you want to become successful. One of my biggest mistakes during my career within the Financial Services Industry, was when I turned down a headhunter. I was 30 years old at the time and was so stubbornly determined to stay close to the trading-floor that I was not interested in what they had to offer. Two months later I found out they reached out to me because UBS, one of the worlds larger Investment Banks, had seen me give a lecture on derivatives in front of 400 retail clients and wanted to offer me the position as head of the Swedish Marketing & Sales department! I have wanted to turn back time for 20 years after that phone call (laughing). My career and my life would have been a whole lot different if I had given the headhunter a chance that day. Since then Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve never turned down a job interview, and I always listen to opportunities that people want to discuss with me. The second â&#x20AC;&#x153;hinderâ&#x20AC;? in my career is terrible to say, but that is having a child. Now, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get me wrong, I do not regret having my beautiful son who is my world at all! What I mean is, as many, many women around me and in the rest of the world know, as soon as you have a child the career ladder closes on you in many industries and countries. I think that one of the best careers a woman can have is to become an entrepreneur. It allows you to have both children and a career since nobody can stop you from reaching your targets but yourself.

You are a very influential entrepreneur. From your experience, what is the best way to market your business or yourself?

I think it is essential that you find something you feel is interesting enough for you to become an expert in that field. Being an entrepreneur, you have to work hard and spend many many hours doing your job. Sure, if you are not interested enough, you can still do the job, but I think it might be difficult to live and breathe a job you are just not that interested in. It is difficult to find the knowledge to be the best in your field if you have no interest in it whatsoever. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not passionate about what you do, it will be harder to motivate yourself for late nights and early mornings and doing whatever it takes to succeed. When you are passionate about your field of expertise, you will not consider it to be a career, and your eyes will start to shine when you talk about your subject. When this happens, half the sales work is done because people will believe in you. You will be authentic, inspiring and come across as trustworthy. You will not mind to keep up with the trends and technology in your field - even during your holidays - because you will always be interested in staying ahead of the game. Being an entrepreneur means typically not having a clear line between free time and work time. Being an entrepreneur means you are always the ultimate boss. If your business or your clients have an emergency, so do you. đ&#x;&#x2DC;&#x201E;

What is the secret to your success?

I will reveal three secrets to my success at the Mega Success business event in Los Angeles in November. 2500 delegates will be attending the event, including entrepreneurs, investors, celebrities and billionaires. Maybe you will be there too, and then I will tell you all three đ&#x;&#x2DC;&#x201E; One secret that I can reveal that is more on a personal basis, is that I practice Yoga and Mindfulness to increase focus and energy. (I have an instructor certificate in both fields.) I receive a lot of love from my son which gives me extra positive energy!

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Woman Entrepreneur | Global

to program AI), Blockchain and Digitalisation. My interest gives me the advantage. I think it is essential that you find your calling, and then you build your business image around that. That is what makes you unique; you are you, and there is nobody with the same DNA. I like to joke about myself, to play as though I am still a child and I enjoy some adrenaline-kicks as well. I use all of these personal features in my marketing. I am launching two new brands now where I will literally do a skydive for one of the brands, AimHill Consulting Group since the firmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s slogan is â&#x20AC;&#x153;Takes Your Business to the Top.â&#x20AC;? AimHill Consulting Group helps corporate clients increase revenues by assisting them with digital marketing and branding, strategic sales (I won the prize for the best salesperson in the financial industry), working capital- and business financing solutions and offer advice for the strategic decisions related to implementing advanced technologies. I thought: â&#x20AC;&#x153;why not take my followers, and hopefully future clients, with me on a skydive by filming my parachute jump, so it feels like they are jumping with me?â&#x20AC;? Then I am genuinely taking you to the top! The other brand that I am launching is called â&#x20AC;&#x153;The U Lifestyleâ&#x20AC;? where I offer lectures on how to cope with stress and find happiness instead. I offer these lifestyle lectures in cooperation with a famous Swedish doctor and TV-personality since we both like to assist people with increased wellness and motivation. We both enjoy entertaining people too, so we are a good match for this joint venture-lectures!

What is the hardest thing about entrepreneurship that no one told you?

In my opinion, how to make the puzzle fit if you decide to have a family with children, especially if you are a woman. I had my son at the age of 42, which of course is a blessing. I am very glad I did not have children earlier for many reasons. One of the reasons being that I was so caught up in my career and would probably have been frustrated with my life if I tried combining my career with motherhood.

Since you have become so successful, how do you handle haters or people that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t support you? What advice do you have for fellow female entrepreneurs?

This is a dark chapter for a hard-working person that has the ambition to succeed in life. Less ambitious people will want to pull you down and hold you back simply because they do not have the same drive as you. I have not been exempted from these issues. I even had to involve authorities to assist with fighting off envious people less successful than me who terrorised and harassed me all that they could. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just so sad how some people cannot handle someone else having more in life than they do. I usually do not bother about these aggressive people, but when it affects my health or my sonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s health, I turn to authorities for help. My best advice is not to let anyone get to you. Be all that you can and know that you deserve the success you have been working so hard for. In Sweden, car insurance for Porsche is much higher than for other cars. Not because Porsches have more accidents, but because the brand provokes so many people if they cannot afford one themselves, so they end up damaging the cars when they see it parked somewhere. Nevertheless, the angry people are just miserable because they are wasting their lives by being envious of you instead of doing something about their own lives. Try not to acknowledge them and leave them be. Go out there and be all that you are destined to be. I will be cheering you on all the way, so at least you have one big fan right over here!

What quote do you live by? How do you apply this to your journey as an entrepreneur and what can fellow female entrepreneurs learn from it?

I want to do everything really good; like being an excellent mom and simultaneously being excellent at my job. By the time I had my son I already had a great career as a senior banker, having done business at the executive floors of all the largest American Investment Banks of Wall Street. When you have children, in my opinion, you have to set yourself aside a great deal. Children never asked to be born, so they need to be provided for. I know several women who decided not to have children because their lives are so fulfilling in itself. I was close to making the same decision; I was living this fabulous life of travelling all over the world and doing business with brilliant people. Everything was so exciting, and I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t understand how the years were passing me by so quickly. My son is my world now, and I feel so fortunate that I have had this chance to meet him and get to know him. My body is just like my brain now; we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t understand that we are â&#x20AC;&#x153;oldâ&#x20AC;? (laughing). If you do decide to have children and have a career or be an entrepreneur you need to know that there will be occasions when time becomes a scarce resource and it is more complicated when you have children. If you need to go to a meeting and you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a babysitter, take your child with you. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t decline a meeting or a business event because you have children. I think that women are sometimes a bit worried that men might be annoyed because they have to bring their children into a business meeting. I was the chairman of the board of directors of a large real estate company for two years when my son was 2. I had to take him with me to some of the meetings and sit with him on my lap and execute the meetings. All the other board members were senior men, and they re-elected me as Chairman for two years. When I resigned, they tried to persuade me to stay! So, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be embarrassed if things donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t always work out with childcare; accept that you are a mother and donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t overcomplicate things. I reward my son when he behaves by taking him to the park, not spending time on my phone and rolling in the grass with him. I have ruined some suits doing exactly this, but it is totally worth it!

One of my life-mottos has always been: â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is always too soon to give up!â&#x20AC;? I have had this motto in my head for so long that I cannot even remember when it started. It is not until you give up that your efforts become a â&#x20AC;&#x153;failureâ&#x20AC;?. I am not implying you should be banging your head against the wall until your forehead bleeds! What I mean by this is that you should never let any setback discourage you from going after your dreams, goals or visions. I often think about how it must have been for the first person who decided that humans would walk on the moon. How many people must that person have met that said the idea was insane, it was not possible, and that this dream would never come true? How many battles this person must have fought and yet kept on going until the vision finally became a reality. Every person with a vision should think about and be inspired by it: what do you think people said to the person who decided that humans would be able to travel to the moon? đ&#x;&#x2DC;&#x201E; I have had the pleasure of meeting some of the smartest people on the planet; people who have received Nobel Prizes. These people have discovered significant scientific things that nobody had succeeded in proving or detecting before. The only way they could discover their findings, and the only way that science and innovations and technology can move forward is because people will not accept the reality as it is now; they see a new reality where humans have not travelled before. If you are an entrepreneur, I suggest this is how to envision yourself. So many people you will meet will want to stop you, say you will not make it, that you shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even bother because it is no use and all of these negative statements. Some people might even think they are protecting you from getting hurt by failure by trying to talk you out of becoming/ being an entrepreneur, persuading you to get a 9 to 5 job and be part of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;regularâ&#x20AC;? group of people that do not dare to follow their dreams. Whatever happens, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be discouraged from pursuing your dreams. If you slip down into the dirt, get up and wipe it off and keep moving towards your goal â&#x20AC;&#x201C; just like the person who got us to the moon. You will reach your goals if you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t give up. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why it is always too soon to give up! The world needs people like you. If there were not people like you on earth, humankind would still be sitting around campfires in the Caves of Altamira and draw animal paintings on the cave walls.

How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors?

I come from a financial services background where I have been the Global Senior Relationship Manager for the revenues and the risk, that is to say, profit/loss responsibility for the International Investment Banks and the International BrokerDealers portfolio at the largest Nordic Bank. I have done business at the executive floors of the largest Wall Street Banks. I have also worked at Nasdaq Nordic Exchanges as a derivatives and equities trading specialist, as a Business Consultant and Advisor to Equities- and Derivatives Exchanges and Clearinghouses around the world. I was a Business Configuration Analyst at Nasdaq Technology, and finally, I have been a Strategic Advisor to CEOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, CFOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, COOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and Head of Treasuryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s for 12 years where I have been assisting them to finance/re-finance their corporate businesses, business acquisitions, equity-bridges and money management and -securities finance. An extensive background like this makes me unique in many ways, and I continue to keep up with the industry. I am personally interested in keeping up to date with Advanced Technologies and IT-systems and talking to young professionals and experts in the field. I am currently diving into Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data (that you use

1. BE YOURSELF

3. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

The people you attract into your life will always be a mirror, reflecting what you’re putting out into the world. If you’re putting on a show or being less than your authentic self, you’ll attract others who are posing, pretending or putting up a front. If you’re judgemental or critical of others or yourself, you’ll attract others who are acting the same. The secret to walking into that room with complete comfort and ease is to shine your true authentic light bright for everyone to see. Be who you are and trust that you’re about to attract the exact right people into your surroundings. I know it’s not always easy to do, especially when perfectionism has been programmed into you for many years. But it’s a choice. It is a decision to embrace all the parts of who you are, even your imperfections, instead.

Before you walk into that room, take a quiet moment with yourself to reflect on your life. Think about some of the moments in the recent past that have made you the proudest of yourself. Allow that feeling of pride to wash over your body, and walk into the room in that state.

3 SECRETS TO BECOMING MORE LIKEA

No one in this world is entirely perfect. And when you embrace your imperfections, you give the other women you’re meeting permission to do the same. If they feel like they can be their true selves around you, and let down their armour, they will most certainly like you. Not only that, but they’ll feel completely comfortable with you! You’ll find yourself leaving that new experience with lots of new friendships and bonds formed.

2. SHOW THEM YOU’RE ENGAGED There’s nothing worse than meeting someone for the first time who is totally obsessed with talking about themselves and doesn’t even care to ask you a single thing about yourself. Like excuse me... you can go toot that horn of yours somewhere else, sister! If you really want to make a great impression, show them that you care! Be engaged, ask them questions about themselves, their life and their business. And be a great listener! People love talking about themselves, and if you show them that you’re truly curious to find out about their life, they’ll instantly trust you. This is also a great way of identifying if this person is in alignment with you as a person. You’ll get to see what they’re interested in, what’s important to them and what they’re going through. Its a great indicator of whether or not they’re someone you’d be interested in starting a friendship or business partnership with. There will be time to share about yourself, I promise! Let them go first, ask lots of engaging questions and show them that you’re listening and that you genuinely care!

LINDSAY ADAMSON International Speaker, Success Coach and Author email lindsayadamson@gmail.com lindsayadamsonofficial lindsayadamsonofficial web www.lindsayadamson.com

If you truly believe in yourself, your self-worth and the value that you bring to the world, you will radiate that exact energy. And, guess what? It will make it a whole lot easier for others to see the immense value that you bring to the table as well! It might sound simple, but if you love you, they’ll love you! So don’t forget to take a quick second in the mirror before you leave home to wink at your sexy self, or blow yourself a kiss! Tell yourself ‘I love you’, because girl, you’re a total rockstar. And if you feel it, so will the rest of the world!

ABLE AMONGST WOMEN IN BUSINESS We’ve all encountered it before; you walk into a room full of brand new people, and you wonder if you’ll fit in. You wonder if you’ll be enough, if you’ll make a good impression or if anyone will even like you. And, if there’s any group of people that’s scary to impress, it’s other women. We can be so judgmental of each other! You take a deep breath, put your best foot forward, plaster a smile on your face, and you walk in. You’re all in your head, obsessed with saying the exact perfect thing and making a lasting impression. You convince yourself that your performance at this event will weigh heavily on your future and you simply can’t afford to screw it up! Sound familiar? I thought so... But what if there were another way? What if you could walk into a group gathering, conference or event with absolute certainty that you’d connect with the exact right people without putting on any show or pretending to be something you’re not? Let’s talk about my top 3 secrets to becoming more likeable amongst women in business:

www.womanentrepreneur.co | 27

6 Styling

KEEPING YOU F

Most of us have been stuck in a style rut at some point in time. For most women, getting stuck stylewise is usually only limited to their casual and weekend wardrobes. Professional attire takes a back seat because, in our minds, workwear should be boring and plain. While the age-old professional standard of “less is more” still stands where professional wear is concerned, there is a general culture of lazy or very casual dressing in the working world. Remember when I say working world, I mean every working woman, whether you are an employee or self-employed. It is time to bring back your A-game when you want to dress for success! These little style mistakes won’t cost you your job, but they could impede your professional growth and success rate. Not making the best of your professional appearance, is a mistake. These are six mistakes you are probably making on a regular basis that could be limiting your success.

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Mistakes

FROM SUCCESS

Lack of grooming

Being well groomed completes the whole picture. Think hair, skin, makeup, nails, hands and feet. All these elements need to be taken care of all the time. These are usually the things people notice about you. You can be dressed in the best outfit ever, but if your grooming is not intact, it will ruin your entire look and decrease your overall professional appearance.

Wearing tired items

Your suit from 1994 is tired of this life, do it a grand favour and put it to rest. It really does not need another exhausting day out. So many women have very old items in their wardrobe that they still wear to and for work. Yes, you need a white blouse, but you can replace your 5-year-old blouse with a newer modern version. Your professional attire should be current and relatable to your work culture.

Dressing like an old lady or dressing like a sex bomb

As mentioned earlier, you should make sure that your style remains modern and stylish. You should also be concerned about what you are attracting attention to with the way you dress. If your style personality is sexy and you like to show all your curves, adapt your look for work. Certain body parts should never be on show in any professional setting.

Only wearing pumps

You know the pumps I am talking about; those horrible flat ones with the round toes. Can you wear flats? Yes! There are many incredibly stylish flat shoes out there, yet most women choose the ugliest ones. Their reason? Pumps are comfortable. So are a million other flat shoes out there! Choose a style that flatters your feet and legs while giving you that professional edge. Please just throw the others away, it will do your style level a favour, I promise.

Not owning a blazer jacket

Not wearing any makeup

Every woman should own at least one modern classic blazer jacket. When you wear an extra layer like a blazer, it raises your professional level and style.

Unless you have perfect skin, complete the professional picture with a little makeup. A little can go a long way.

Carissa Bosman from Image Avenue Image Consultant and Stylist www.image-avenue.co.za

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