Day: February 12, 2021

It’s OK for ask for help, but “experts” aren’t always expert!! Illustrated in all of the above. But still be careful. When I first took ownership of the restaurant, I didn’t know anyone in New York. I was recommended a liquor lawyer who put my application in to the State Liquor Authority. We attended the Community Board meeting and did everything I thought we had to do. We were granted a license to serve beer and wine.

As part of our series about “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became a Restauranteur”, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Elizabeth Green.

Elizabeth Green was brought up in London. After her divorce in 2007 she set off in 2009, for a ‘new life’ in New York. She only knew three people here, luckily one of them suggested she look on businessesforsale.com to buy a business. Surprising herself, she found a fabulous location in the West Village, opposite Washington Square Park, and she started her restaurant business. After a couple of incarnations, the restaurant became Planted, a plant-forward bistro. In 2020, although it was a lockdown year, for Elizabeth it was a busy, momentous year as she published her first book, ‘Not In The Script’, and opened Planted. This is her coming of age moment, her coming out of the shadows moment, her having a voice moment. She has three grown up children and two small grandsons in London, just a FaceTime away.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?

My journey is quite interesting. I have a great backstory, great for everyone except me. I like to joke, I’m a jokester, maybe to cover the hurt I have experienced with my family? I would like to do stand-up comedy, if I have the courage!! We’ll see.

I was brought up in London, I lived in India for two years and now I live and run my own plant-forward restaurant called Planted in New York.

My brother Sir Philip Green is a famous entrepreneur and billionaire businessman known and probably hated by many. He was knighted by the Queen in 2006. He owned Topshop in New York for ten years before it closed in June 2019.

My son the business journalist could tell you the whole, real, backstory. I can only tell you what it has been like being not loved, not included, and certainly not encouraged. My mother was besotted with her son, I called her flat the ‘Philip Green shrine,’ she had pictures of him on every wall, it looked like she only had a son.

This is all in my memoir. It’s called ‘Not in the Script.’ I called myself ‘the black sheep in the billionaire’s family.’ After my divorce, I escaped to New York to be away from the constant mention of him in the British newspapers, particularly the Daily Mail, which sometimes stretched the truth.

I was interviewed by the Daily Mail in October 2020 to precede the publication of my book, the headline read:

‘Sir Philip Green’s sister details in memoir her tempestuous relationship with billionaire brother’

I did not intend to buy a restaurant, it just sort of happened, I’d never run a business, much less a restaurant. I couldn’t have chosen anything harder if I’d tried. But I wouldn’t have learned the things I learned sitting in the pandemic in London. I do the payroll, my mother must be turning in her grave, she thought I couldn’t do figures, in fact she thought I couldn’t do anything.

To read the rest of my story you’ll find it in ‘Not in the Script’ or come by the restaurant for a mango lassi and I will autograph a book for you.

Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

The good thing about being Sir Philip Green’s sister? I have some of his tenacious qualities. I have drive, I have persevered and pushed through and taken the knocks, just as he has.

I have a sticker on my fridge that says, ‘NEVER NEVER NEVER GIVE UP’. I believe that’s attributed to Winston Churchill.

Yes, I had a little extra money, but that would never have been enough to cover the pain and hurt from being raised in a family that did not show me love or support for anything I did.

So, how are things going today? How did grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?

I came to New York to start a new life in 2009. I always had this joke, if only my grandfather had stayed on the boat one more stop! He fled from Russia in 1900 with his ten brothers and sisters to escape persecution of the Jews, and some of them got off in England, some here. I’ve always wanted to be American, more outspoken, more grit, more upbeat, it seems to me. Just took me a while longer.

By coming here to New York, I learned things I never knew I needed to know. I had to put aside many of my precepts. All that stuff that runs through my mind every day. I declare to myself in the morning:

I’m good enough, I’m worthy, I can do whatever I say. I have to ask if I need something. I have to trust my gut and my instinct. I have to stop judging people, and at the same time be kind and compassionate.

That’s why I am on the path to success with my book and my restaurant, Planted. In the summer of 2020, I pivoted and changed the concept of the restaurant during the COVID-19 lockdown from comfort seafood to plant-forward bistro. It matches my own vegan diet and that was important to me.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

‘Laugher is very cleansing. Sidarji, the turbaned Sikh at the gate, does a laughing meditation. We just laugh, he has the most infectious laugh and you feel it in your belly, it shakes your very being. We had true belly laughs.’

Just a small quote from Chapter 14 of my memoir about my time with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh guru in India in the 70s (watch the documentary about him on Netflix called Wild Wild Country).

Of course, running a restaurant, I am not having quite those sort of laughs, but most of the occasions that later were funny concerned alcohol. When left alone, cooks would help themselves to a drink or two, or more! Best remembrance is one night when I was sitting at home and I took a glance at the camera on my cellphone. I discovered the cooks were indeed in the kitchen drinking, drinking toasts to me, to the camera, raising a glass.

You have to admire their cheek, their boldness and well, just laugh.

And lock up the drink, make sure there is someone in charge at all times, and if you’re sure, write warnings and if it continues, fire the culprits.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

Planted is an independent, woman-owned business. This stands out in an industry known for male restaurant owners financially backed. By accident, I found a fabulous West Village restaurant location after arriving in New York knowing nothing. Our restaurant stands out for the plant-based food, the service, the ambience, the location and the live jazz.

When the restaurant was Seabird, I was on Brighton Beach alone one summer’s day, and I needed some sun cream on my back. I saw a group of women sitting across the beach and went and asked them to help me. We get chatting and I am always interested in what people do. I tell them I have a restaurant in Manhattan and the name.

‘Oh I’ve been there, I had a first date there.’ One of the women tells me. We shriek and exchange names, numbers, cards, etc.

Fast forward: one night, maybe a year later, five women arrive at the restaurant, excited.

‘Do you remember us? We met on the beach.’

‘OMG, yes, how lovely to see you!’

They come in and drink cocktails and we take pictures. I feel hugely validate and love that I love to network.

We’ve put up a poster saying, ‘Planted owner writes memoir.’ Now I sell books as well as making sure my restaurant is popular. I’ve sold many with dinner.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

I like to treat my staff well and have an open channel of communication with them. They know I’m a plain speaker, as is my consultant chef. Be straight with people. Don’t put up with things you know aren’t right. Strive for excellence, don’t compromise, and old fashioned maybe, but listen to your gut — mine is very good. Also, delegate. Have the whole weekend off when you can. Don’t be ‘married’ to the job. They won’t put on your headstone: ‘Worked hard’

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

Yes, my friend Jake Stackhouse has been the head of my support team. First a quick thank you to my brother who gave me the money to get started on my first business venture in an unfamiliar country. My brother’s involvement ended at the money, and he asked his businessman friend Robert Earl, owner and founder of Planet Hollywood to mentor me. Robert passed me along to his manager at Planet and no question was ever a question too far for Jake.

We became fast friends. He has taught me a great deal. I ask about restaurant matters often. Now he talks to me about his job too. I learned patience from him, I learned to accept criticism without it being an assault on my character, and most of all I learned how to run a restaurant and manage people.

A few years ago on New Year’s Eve, Planet Hollywood held one of its big events and I went up there to be a helper, and pay something back. I had to arrive before 3pm as the police close the streets in readiness for New Year’s Eve in Times Square. I would be a greeter and the British people who were there for the event loved me. Even though I sometimes got things wrong, it was a blast, a busy, noisy and slightly drunken event.

At 11.45pm, Jake ushered myself and other staff outside onto a space reserved for us by the police. At midnight I would stand in awe with Jake and the others to watch the ball drop in Times Square, and wipe back tears as they blasted out ‘New York, New York,’ sung by Frank (Sinatra), of course. I felt very lucky in that moment. Our friendship still exists to this day.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

I want to make a difference, I like to think I’ve made a difference. I am a huge supporter of people. I tell everyone they can have what they want. Ask my friends, they love and want to kill me sometimes in equal measure. I listen as well as I possibly can, that’s an art in itself. I speak my mind and I encourage everyone, always, ‘Speak your wants and desires out loud, into the universe so the universe can hear you,’ so that, as women we can stand up and have a voice.

My book ‘Not in the Script’ is an example of that. I knew if I wrote it, my family would be upset, and sure enough they are. I had to write it, I declared I wanted to be a writer aged 18 to my mother and I never gave up on that dream, so now, aged 72 I realized my dream. That should be encouragement enough, to follow your dreams, always.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started leading my company” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

NUMBER 1: Don’t wait for approval in life or in business. Consult, by all means, but don’t settle for less than your vision. When I started to set up my new restaurant, I was sure I wanted to have a vegan concept. ‘Oh no,’ people said, so I put an advert on Indeed for a new chef last January and got 110 replies, and with the help of Jake and his team, picked a consultant chef. After much discussion we couldn’t quite work things out, so we didn’t move ahead. I brought two restaurant trained friends on board. After two weeks it was evident they could not do the job. A little embarrassed, uncomfortable but determined, I called the original chef back and asked her to work with me and she agreed. I chose the name Planted, it was my pick and she loved it too.

She came to work with me and we are now ‘plant based,’ serving the most delicious food, loved by all who try it. We added fish and chicken for those who can’t face beautiful vegetables yet!

NUMBER 2: It’s OK for ask for help, but “experts” aren’t always expert!! Illustrated in all of the above. But still be careful. When I first took ownership of the restaurant, I didn’t know anyone in New York. I was recommended a liquor lawyer who put my application in to the State Liquor Authority. We attended the Community Board meeting and did everything I thought we had to do. We were granted a license to serve beer and wine.

Five years later, as I’m applying for a license to play live music, yes the SLA has to give you a special license, it comes to light the lawyer started to apply to serve drinks outside on the patio, but at the last moment he cancelled that portion of the application.

Turns out we’ve been serving drinks outside without a license for five years. In the end with the help of another liquor lawyer who abandoned me midway to get married, I made the many calls to the SLA and resolved it myself. I went alone to the Community Board, in fact I went so many times in 2019 they asked me not to come back. So the last time I needed to go I reminded them of that, and they gave me a waiver. Yes, sometimes you can just do it yourself, with a little help.

NUMBER 3: Follow your gut when managing your staff. The hardest part of running a restaurant is managing the staff, the customers are a breeze. If you have a feeling someone isn’t doing a good job, they probably aren’t. It’s difficult with a small business because if you fire one person, you’re many people down, they might be very important. But trust yourself.

Recently, in these pandemic times, a server I knew came by and asked for a job. I knew he’d worked in a large restaurant setting. His work was sound, if a little unruly. I arrive one morning, and he’s round the side of the restaurant, mask pulled down, having a cigarette and talking up close to a homeless guy. When I go inside the restaurant, the cook is upstairs, watching the place, because the server asked him to whilst he has his cigarette break. First of many such breaks, cook can’t get his work done. We had to tell him it won’t work out, even though we really needed him. In a large restaurant, behavior can be hidden better, but in a small restaurant it is all out there to be seen. Personable but unruly.

NUMBER 4: You will always be the first person to be blamed if something goes wrong. DON’T TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY. At the end of the day, things go wrong, not your fault. It’s OK to apologize. An apology means you’re taking responsibility, it doesn’t mean you are to blame or you’re wrong. It just shows you have empathy.

NUMBER 5: If you are a woman, you will be spoken down to often, expect it. I didn’t. Great example: At one time, I had three male business partners, one of whom was in sole charge of financial matters — big mistake. I found out the hard way when I had to remove him and the other partners too in a hostile way. I went to the bank for them to be taken off the bank account. I sat down with Eric, the bank manager, and he showed me a letter on his computer screen from the financial partner saying:

‘TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN [Partner’s Name] IS THE PRESIDENT OF THE COMPANY AND HAS COMPLETE CONTROL OVER ALL BANK ACCOUNTS.’

Except it was a lie, I was (and still am) the President and the letter was forged, as was the signature.

I explained, I’m the President, but to prove it I had to bring in bank statements, a utility bill, passport, and the company documents.

When the partner established himself as ‘President,’ all he’d had to do was produce a letter on company letterhead (forged as well). Oh, I had to do that too.

Discrimination? When they asked my former male partner who I was, as we’d all initially gone into the bank together to sign up for the new accounts — he told the bank manager I was the secretary.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

As mentioned, I spent a couple of years in the 70s with a guru in India, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, I was a sannyasin. I write about him in my memoir as he said some very special things. I quoted Rajneesh:

‘A life without love is a life not worth living’

Healing, for my life, your life and business too.

After all my years of searching for love all around me, I discovered I need to love myself, in order to be loveable. And then find ‘my person.’

I just watched a movie about Bob Marley. He summed it up well:

‘I don’t really have no ambition you know. I only have one thing I’d really like to see happen. I’d like to see Mankind live together, Black, White, Chinese, everyone. That’s all.’

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Planted’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/planted.ny/

Elizabeth’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/libbynotinthescript/

Planted’s Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/Planted-102423318279163

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Elizabeth Green of ‘Planted’: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became a Restauranteur was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Betsy Scanlan of The Good Patch: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a CBD Business

You will have imposter syndrome for the first year of your startup. I had no idea what I didn’t know, after running the company for a year, I was an expert. No one knows my company better than me.

As part of my series about “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business” I had the pleasure of interviewing Betsy Scanlan of The Good Patch.

While engaged in an 18-year career in Real Estate, ranging from agent to contractor to investor and property preservation company CEO, Betsy Scanlan acted as the primary caregiver to four family members during their losing battle with cancer and the chief cheerleader to one whose fight is so far successful. From the fear she witnessed at the initial diagnosis to the pain and fatigue brought on by various treatment protocols to the grim courage required to soldier on and finally to the grace she beheld in late night prayers and early morning goodbyes, she was profoundly moved and inspired to participate, advocate and contribute to the important work of using cannabis to alleviate both the agony and the anxiety of those who are suffering.

Ms. Scanlan began participating in the medical cannabis industry as an investor in 2012 through The Arcview Venture Capital Fund. She was the founder and CEO of The Downing Group which was developing OTC products integrating CBD into gels, creams and patches in order to reduce inflammation, pain, fatigue, nausea, anxiety and loss of appetite for those undergoing chemotherapy or radiation treatments. In mid 2017, she was contacted by a close friend to help create CBD and Plant based ingredients for the topical patch market. The Good Patch was born. She is also an active investor and participant in the process of gaining legislative approval for the use of medical marijuana in Tennessee.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you share with us the story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I had several family members succumb to cancer and wanted to find a way to lessen their suffering. My initial goal was to create products that would mitigate the side effects of chemo and radiation. While pursuing that goal my sister in law called me to join her and a friend to get in the CBD world and my trajectory changed. I am thrilled she thought of me, we’ve had a blast!

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

The one thing I have learned from leading, in any capacity, deals with ego or the loss of one’s ego. It’s like being a parent — there is no more “me” it is about this entity that is totally dependent on you to provide its every need.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I have made so many mistakes on this journey and most of them weren’t funny. However, on one trip to the West Coast, I was so tired that I rubbed tincture on my face thinking it was face serum and my partner Kelly looked across the table and commented on how strange my complexion looked. We laughed so damn hard. We try to be on top of everything, but sometimes it’s not possible! Of course, this was after we had been traveling nonstop. The lesson learned — look at labels!

Are you working on any exciting projects now? How do you think that will help people?

We are constantly working on new and exciting products. Usually, our customers reach out and ask us to create something they wish they had. That is usually the genesis of our products, and all our products aim to help people with life’s everyday ailments.

Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

My husband, Bill, he is a husband extraordinaire! Anytime I, or the company, needed someone to do something he was always there! Once we needed a PO in an emergency, so he got in his car and drove all day and night to get it to the warehouse — I’ll always be grateful for all his help.

Do you use any clever and innovative marketing strategies that you think large legacy companies should consider adopting?

The CBD industry is notorious for having to be clever regarding social media. I would love to be able to have a level playing field with other industries but we just aren’t there yet! If anyone has anything to offer, I am all ears!

Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the Cannabis industry? Can you share 3 things that most concern you?

I get really excited about new products, delivery mechanisms and what new discoveries are happening in research.

Research into Cancer and Cannabis — those results I believe will be momentous in years to come.

This plant is amazing, we know just a fraction of its potential, I can’t wait to see what transpires in the future.

One of the most disconcerting issues is the delay of the rules and regulations we have all been waiting for from the FDA. Shady players concern me, they can be detrimental to the whole industry.

Can you share your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business”? Please share a story or example for each.

1) You will have imposter syndrome for the first year of your startup. I had no idea what I didn’t know, after running the company for a year, I was an expert. No one knows my company better than me.

2) Educate yourself with all things financial: board meetings, terminology: preferred stock, common stock, cap tables, contracts, liquidation preferences etc. Early on an investor walked up to me and started a conversation and asked what our cap table looked like; I had heard of a cap table but not much other than that. My response was a mumble. Since then, I understand what a Cap table is and know that it’s no one’s business unless they are in due diligence with a serious term sheet.

3) 1 Startup year in Cannabis = One Dog year = 7 human years — no explanation needed

4) Watch out for the unscrupulous. I learned this one in the school of hard knocks! I got into the business in 2017 and a large majority of players were conmen/conwomen. Lesson learned: keep my mouth shut and listen. Watch what people do and not what they say. If you are around long enough, you know who lands in which category: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!

5) Follow your own True North. Everyone will have an opinion on how to do something better than you. Remember no one knows your business better than you

What advice would you give to other CEOs or founders to help their employees to thrive?

Have a quick weekly update where everyone can talk about updates (hits/ misses). This keeps everyone connected in this remote and isolated world. Face to face as much as possible and always be available.

If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

Already done- Pay it forward- regardless of the context or business!

What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?

https://www.instagram.com/thegoodpatch/

https://www.facebook.com/mygoodpatch/

https://www.pinterest.com/TheGoodPatchLaMend/_created/

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Betsy Scanlan of The Good Patch: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a CBD… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Dr. Tom Lutz of Repour: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A Founder

Failure is a part of success. Part of succeeding as an entrepreneur is failure. How you deal with failure will determine whether you achieve success or not.

As part of my series about the leadership lessons of accomplished business leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tom Lutz, Ph.D.

With a doctorate in chemistry and a career in product development, Tom is no stranger to innovation and bringing new products to market. His experience extends across a variety of consumer-packaged goods (CPG) industries — from laundry detergents to aquarium and pet products.

After pouring yet another bottle of oxidized wine down the drain five years ago, he knew there had to be a better way of preserving wine. So, he got to work. Eighteen months later, the result is Repour — the first wine preservation product on the market using oxygen absorption to eliminate all the oxygen in a bottle of wine, completely stopping the degradation process. With Repour’s patented technology, keeping an open bottle of wine fresh is as easy as putting a stopper in a bottle.

Since Repour’s launch in late 2017, wine professionals and consumers around the world have adopted Repour as their wine-saving tool of choice.

Outside of developing innovative new products, Tom’s passions are his family and triathlons — he’s completed fourteen Ironman competitions since 2003!

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I’ve always enjoyed problem solving. More specifically, I love using science to address real world problems with real world solutions. Six years ago, I was keeping an eye on our two-week-old newborn son in the middle of the night while my wife was sleeping. On the couch at 2:00 a.m., I started thinking about that leftover half bottle of wine we had just poured down the drain. My wife was starting to enjoy wine again after our son’s birth, but we didn’t have the chance to finish that bottle before it became oxidized and undrinkable.

As someone who has always enjoyed wine, I knew that oxygen causes wine to go bad. I also knew that the only way to keep an opened bottle of wine fresh was to get rid of all of the oxygen in the bottle. At the time, there was no solution currently on the market that effectively accomplished this.

As a chemist and problem solver, that’s when I had my aha moment. I realized I could use an oxygen scavenging technology that had never been applied to wine preservation before. Using my professional experience bringing consumer products to market and business skills developed through the years, I set off on my journey into wine preservation and entrepreneurship.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?

I’ve found that success in being a founder and leader of a company comes not from being good at something, but from being aware of the things I’m not good at. Then, quickly finding advice or help from people who are.

We had this great technology that was actually saving open bottles of wine. I didn’t trust my own palate enough. So, after a year of testing we solicited a local sommelier group who conducted a blind taste study using what is now Repour against alternative preservation options. Quite humbly, the technology overdelivered and we quickly knew it was time to bring the product to market. The only problem, we didn’t have a brand or name for it yet.

As the inventor and founder, I wanted to put my own touch on the brand name. My wife (also a scientist) and I racked our brains for weeks trying to come up with a name. The best we came to was “Echo” to represent the wine returning to you as you had it when you first opened it. Realizing there had to be a better name out there, we turned to a local entrepreneur support group and branding agency. We quickly settled on Repour.

Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

I’ve always had a very high internal drive and motivation to succeed. In my personal life, I’ve enjoyed taking on the challenge of long-distance triathlons (the Ironman distance). In races of ten or more hours, something will always go wrong and at some point, you won’t feel the best. Yet triathlons have taught me that strong preparation and an attitude of adjustment to adversity can get you through an awful lot.

I take that same approach to the challenges we face in our business. Yes, things will go wrong, but how you respond to those challenges will chart the next steps for your business. It’s also important to realize that the course will change. You have to be able to accept intermediate failure and setbacks. Then, move forward without dwelling on them.

So, how are things going today? How did grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?

COVID and the world today couldn’t be a stronger example of taking things as they come and making the most of what you have available. In the beginning, our business philosophy was to target wine industry experts (high end restaurants, top Sommeliers around the world, etc.), followed by layering in a focus for home wine preservation needs years later.

Our go to market strategy was building wonderfully, then COVID hit. In March 2020, 90% or more of our customers literally shut down overnight. Rather than lick our wounds, we immediately scaled back our overhead and asked ourselves what we could do in this current market environment. We quickly accepted that our existing customer base of restaurants, bars and resorts were going to be idle for a long time. So, we pivoted our energy, focus, and business strategy.

The audience of at home use was completely different from our core customer base before COVID. We had to build marketing initiatives and structure around sharing our message to this audience. The grit to scale back our business, challenge everything we were doing, and ask everyone to wear multiple hats, has led to an amazing transition with a rapidly growing successful new customer base for Repour use at home.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

We ran a Kickstarter campaign as part of our launch. In the campaign, we called our product the “Repour Smart Stopper.” The campaign was going well, but we kept getting questions around the “smart stopper” name. We (and the branding agency we partnered with) thought it was a clever way of calling out how easy to use and effective our product was.

In reality, we couldn’t have been more wrong. Everyone was looking for the electronics (of which there are none) and how that was supposed to save their wine. In the end, this made us realize that clarity over being clever is the way to go for our brand, which is now the Repour Wine Saver.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

Before Repour, two thoughts came to mind regarding wine preservation: gimmick or expensive. Previous products either didn’t work at all and were perceived as gimmicks OR to be effective they had to be expensive and often hard to use.

Nearly every day we hear a story of a customer that looks at Repour and says, “How can that little stopper keep my wine fresh?” Then, they come back after a week or two of using Repour in awe of how well it works and that it’s really as easy as putting a stopper in a bottle.

Repour stands out because it truly under promises and over delivers in wine preservation.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

There is always going to be more to do than time in the day. Make sure to take time for yourself and your family. It’s the hardest thing to do and something of which I personally need to keep reminding myself.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

I live in Cedar Rapids, IA, which has a robust entrepreneur environment and a community truly built on helping one’s neighbor. The success we’ve had comes on the backs and generosity of so many people who have lent their time and talents, not the least of which are my parents. At 70 years old, they’ve spent countless hours helping. They’ve done it all, from packing Repour stoppers into their retail boxes to picking up packing materials from a factory 200 miles away and driving through the night to make sure we hit a deadline early in our business. Their support has been invaluable to our early success.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

We work with other local startup businesses to help mentor and support them in their journey, as so many had done for us. We also work to support up and coming sommeliers and students studying wine with programs that help them in their wine education endeavors.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started leading my company” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

1. To start a new business takes twice as much time and twice as much money as you expect under your most honest forecast. I’ve been around and involved in a number of startup businesses. In all cases, even using the most conversative sales and growth plans, every single one has taken at least twice as much start-up money and twice as long to hit their original business plans (if they make it that far).
2. Overnight success comes after years of hard work. Most people look at a successful business and think the success happens overnight. Very few, if any, success stories follow this trajectory. The trigger of high sales that appears outwardly as an overnight success has been built on years of foundation, sometimes within that business and sometimes from failures of others along the way.
3. Recognize your weaknesses and don’t be afraid to accept help and advice. As an entrepreneur, we’re often driven into working for ourselves for the independence and autonomy it brings. Ironically, I’ve found the best way to succeed as a startup, was to realize that I don’t know everything and to turn to subject matter experts to guide me to the right answers. My business is so much stronger and better as a result.
4. Be vulnerable and don’t fear mistakes. Fail Fast! In any new business, certain things work well and others don’t. You won’t know if something will resonate with your target audience and customers until you try it. Don’t be afraid to try something new, but also don’t feel so committed that you can’t pull the plug when it’s not working.
5. Failure is a part of success. Part of succeeding as an entrepreneur is failure. How you deal with failure will determine whether you achieve success or not.

For each of us failure will look different. For me, it was a failed first entrepreneur business venture and lots of life lessons that came from it.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

The world around us is such an amazing thing. Through the world of wine, I’ve had the opportunity to travel to some amazing places and meet incredible people. It’s an industry of passion, food and beauty. I’d inspire a movement that would help others see the beauty of nature, from around the world to our own back door. A movement that would make us pause from our crazy day to day and take a minute to just enjoy.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Instagram: @repourwinesaver

https://www.instagram.com/repourwinesaver/

https://www.repour.com/

Facebook: @repourwinesaver

https://www.facebook.com/repourwinesaver

Twitter: @repourwinesaver

https://twitter.com/repourwinesaver

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-lutz-ph-d-12484910/

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

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Dr Tom Lutz of Repour: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A Founder was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Linda Diakite Karressy of Insight Financial Group: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A Founder

Team: you need people, lawyer, accountant, mentors etc. They will help you fill in the gaps you do not know. It is worth the money to pay upfront instead of when you are in trouble. When I started my business, I did not know another entrepreneur. Once I made up my mind, I wanted to start a business, I started meeting people. Individuals started introducing me to one person then that person would introduce me to another. You have to put yourself out there.

As part of my series about the leadership lessons of accomplished business leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Linda Diakite Karressy.

Linda is an Accounting Coach and Outsource CFO. Linda is founder of Insight Academy, an online business school teaching all things accounting. Linda’s motto is keeping accounting simple!

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I took my first accounting course in high school. I cannot remember why I chose to take the course. I never heard of accounting before high school. It was the first course I found super easy. I like the process of completing steps to create something. I like the feeling knowing everything equals. Also, several high school teachers such as Mr. Neal, Mrs. White, Mrs. South, and Ms. Ashley encouraged me to pursue accounting.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?

I struggled with wanting to service everyone. I knew all small businesses and nonprofits need accounting services. However not everyone was a fit. With trying to service everyone I was losing money. I learned you can have clients who can actually prevent you from growing your revenue. I had to invest in marketing and sales courses to identify and attract my target audience.

Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

My drive came from not wanting to go back to a full-time job. I worked for an organization that promoted five people who either started after me or I trained to do their job. Another organization would not invest in training or hiring competent individuals. I was tired of caring the weight of the team. I kept pursuing different avenues to get my business off the ground. I attended as many free events and workshops as possible. I had to keep trying different things.

So, how are things going today? How did grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?

Things are much better. Instead of having multiple contracts I pursued one large contract. This has worked out because it allowed me to help our kids with virtual school. Also, I am able to put systems in place to offer additional services. I recently partnered with a CPA who will perform taxes and tax planning. Having a mindset that I can be more and have more has gotten me this far. Some days I am so tired but I ask myself what I want out of life. I watch motivational videos on grit and resilience daily. This habit helps my mind be focus on the end goal.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I hired a social media consultant. At the time I did not even know what social media was. Things were not working out. The job was very sloppy, so I let them go. I started to look at my Twitter feed. The consultant had me following celebrities such as Hulk Hogan. I find this funny because he was my favorite wrestler growing up. Still to this day I am not sure why an accounting firm would follow him. My biggest lesson is when you outsource a service, check on the work performed. Do not assume things are getting done.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

Our jam is we teach! At Insight Financial Group we do not put together the financials to send off by email. We want the client to understand how the business is doing so they can articulate to their staff, investors, and other stakeholders. Accounting tells you how you are using your resources. If you are using them well, you have a net profit and cash in the bank. I am currently working with a client who provides meal prep. They have been in business about two years. We spent just one hour reviewing our data. She did not realize how much she had made in revenue. I showed her a two-year comparison. She now wishes she met me when she first started. Now she can make better businesses decisions because she knows where the business stands. Most importantly she understands what the financials are telling her!

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

1. Take a day off. This year I have decided not to work on Sundays. No exception. Our brain needs a rest.
2. Know when to shut down. As accountants we wake early and stay up late. As I am getting older, I cannot stay up with the Late-Night Show crew anymore. Learn what works for you.
3. Learn to say no. As I stated earlier, not every prospect is a fit for you. If you are going to have to spend additional money and time, rethink the offer.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

I have to say two people, my mother and husband. When I started my business, I was working full-time. Both of them step in with the kids. They are both my ambassadors. They let everyone know about my services. During a really bad day at my full-time job, my mother called out the blue. She stated she was reading a Bible scripture. The holy spirit told her to tell me to keep going. Having individuals who want you to succeed pushes you through the hard days.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

I believe we are all here to serve. A friend and I created Sister’s Alliance. It is a support group for Black women entrepreneurs in Indiana. We are announcing our first business grant winners March 16th. Black women are the fastest group starting small businesses. We lack financial backing, but the emotional support is needed. Many of us do not have the relationships or information needed to grow our business. Sister’s Alliance wants to create a space where Black women will be supported emotionally.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started leading my company” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

1. Train: Develop and invest in your professional and soft skills. I love free webinars and events. However, I realize in order to propel my business I need to invest dollars into courses and workshops with leading experts.
2. Study your competitors: So, you can do it better and not reinvent the wheel. I follow other accounting firms on social media. I read their newsletters. This allows me to study what they are offering and who they are targeting.
3. Replenish: Always revisit why you started; it will keep you motivated. I learn from Les Brown the motivational speaker, to write and read your goals daily. Reading my goals sets my day up for success. My tasks have to align with my goals.
4. Mental Fitness: Control your thoughts by who you surround yourself with and what you listen to. I will be honest when I first started my business, I thought this was crazy. I listened to Les Brown everyday for about two months straight. I had a new outlook on life.
5. Team: you need people, lawyer, accountant, mentors etc. They will help you fill in the gaps you do not know. It is worth the money to pay upfront instead of when you are in trouble. When I started my business, I did not know another entrepreneur. Once I made up my mind, I wanted to start a business, I started meeting people. Individuals started introducing me to one person then that person would introduce me to another. You have to put yourself out there.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I want every high school to teach financial literacy. We all need and use money. However, it’s the one concept not taught in schools. Teaching financial literacy would be a game changer for so many students. Why is college debt so high? We have 17- or 18-years old signing documents they do not understand the financial consequences. We could use the Girl Scouts motto to teach how to earn, save, invest, and donate.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Instagram: www.instagram.com/insightfinancialgrp

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/insightfinancialgrp

Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCagsc9OWR_HN4cI2MhgoUXQ

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

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Linda Diakite Karressy of Insight Financial Group: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Jonathan Fishbeck of EstateSpace: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before Became A CEO

Find a mentor who can help you personally and professionally. I mentor entrepreneurs who are trying to get started. No one part of a business is harder than the next, it’s all tough, but getting good advice when you first start can be the costliest of lessons.

As part of my series about the leadership lessons of accomplished business leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jonathan Fishbeck,, Founder & CEO of EstateSpace.

Jonathan B Fishbeck is the founder and CEO of EstateSpace, LLC, a technology platform that enables and simplifies how you handle lifestyle management service and operations to maintain real-property assets to help reduce risk and protect wealth succession. EstateSpace is a licensed Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) in order to support our enterprise clients.

Before devoting his work fulltime to EstateSpace, Jonathan served as the Founder and CEO at a design-build firm whose focus was advising, designing, constructing and operationalizing sizable estate properties for ultra-high net worth families and family offices. It’s this experience and expertise combined with Jonathan’s technology background that was the genesis for EstateSpace.

The firm is family funded and operates as a modern business model (MBM) consisting of three main components. Packaged offerings with a multi-sided subscription model, a marketplace for all sides to interact and AI machine learning to personalize each experience.

In addition to being a technology provider, Jonathan serves a number of philanthropic organizations where his passion for helping veterans, children, and cancer research shines through. These positions and organizations include Co-Chairman, Fisher House Foundation, Board Member, Children’s Voice International and Board Member, There Goes My Hero, respectively.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Out of college, I had a passion for art and science, and found a beautiful marriage of the two in design-build construction. It was during this time where I was able to serve UHNW families, work with private service professionals and family offices, and gain insights into the operational aspects. I also witnessed the good and the bad that came with estate management, from lavish parties to sibling divorce of real-property assets, and knew technology could help people through these situations. This was the inspiration for EstateSpace, the idea that we could help everyone we ever met come together and design family asset management to best serve everyone involved, while creating an everlasting positive impact.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?

Each time I started up a new venture, all the same challenges came with the journeys. Figuring out where to start this particular venture was by far the hardest challenge. The vision is enormous, the market is endless, and staying focused seemed impossible at first.

Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

We exist to help people. Some of these people even included our own family members and personal family asset management. So, after years of research and development we knew that no one before ever got it right, and that no one quite got exactly what we were going to do with estate management and how we were going to do it (even after sharing the vision). Our hardest moments were met with great people who came into our lives. We also got great advice, at the right time, and we listened.

So, how are things going today? How did grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?

Today we’re still in the beginning stages of business for EstateSpace, but things are going very well. Never giving up is easier said than done. It’s actually exhausting. But we stay motivated by loving what we do, having a peerless drive to help the families we service, and working with an amazing group of people. We all believe this company is on a path to be the world’s #1 private platform for luxury business and family offices. Those are the things that make it easy for us to never give up.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Prior to starting my first company, I wanted to present well. I had business cards made and shirts, hats, and other apparel designed. Then I decided the name was wrong, my title was incorrect, and that I didn’t like the logo. So that business became known as a “t-shirt company,” one of two in my career. Yes, I made the same mistake twice.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

We always go back to the “why we exist.” Simon Sinek has been a great inspiration in this aspect of the company, which has led to an amazing culture at EstateSpace. We believe in building relationships and that by leading with the “why” you surround yourself with likeminded people. We believe that within seconds you can know if you like someone, within minutes you can know if you want to keep talking to them and know if you ever want to talk with them again. If you start with your why, you save yourself time. This has served me well.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”? This is one of the 5 things I wish I knew before I started…

“Slow Down to Speed Up” is something I learned only a couple of years ago. By slowing down, you can take a breath, be methodical, and really think through the path ahead. Then you can execute a well thought out plan the first time. I believe that everything is 70% preparation and 30% execution. This will do two things for you: 1) it saves time and eliminates a tremendous amount of rework and 2) it allows you to be even more agile. If you’re intimate with every detail in the plan, you can process new information and apply it with a higher degree of confidence. I have a couple of great mentors to thank for this great lesson in business and life.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

Most of my life, my mentor was my father, a successful entrepreneur whom I was able to absorb, observe, and listen to for the past 30+ years. Most recently, Mark Wallace and Barry Libert came into my life at the exact right time. The company was not where I wanted it to or intended it to be. This was one of the hardest times in business I have had in almost 20 years. I lost focus, exaggerated the situation, and lost the vision in the clutter.

As I sat in Barry’s kitchen outside of Boston, he continued to ask me the same question over and over until he heard the right answer. I didn’t fit Barry’s typical client. Knowing this, I asked him why he took me on. He said, “You’re a smart guy, with a great idea and most importantly you’re a good person.” These two men helped me get back to clarity, turn the business around, and find success. It took 20 months to clutter it up and every bit of that time to get back in focus. I’m forever grateful for them. The best part about this story is that professionally things are better but personally my relationships are improved beyond measure and that is what life’s all about.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Looking back on everything good in my life, more than anything I want to be a better husband, father, son, and friend. I’ve had service in my heart for as long as I can remember. At a young age I got really good advice from my father on philanthropic ventures, “if you have the passion for something and the time to commit to help a cause, then go for it.” From there I joined my first board and have served countless non-profits with time, money, and experience for 18+ years. We’ve helped raise over $35M in that time and have touched so many lives. This is the legacy that I want to outlive any of my professional accomplishments.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started leading my company” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

First, find a mentor who can help you personally and professionally. I mentor entrepreneurs who are trying to get started. No one part of a business is harder than the next, it’s all tough, but getting good advice when you first start can be the costliest of lessons.

Second, take care of yourself first, then take care of your family, then go to work. You’re human and can only do so much. Start with taking care of yourself and your family. The work is hard enough but even harder when you’re sick or preoccupied.

Third, keep a flat model and work with people at all levels. Stay active, work with everyone in the company, set the ethical standard with your effort, and listen to your team. You’re not perfect and you will make mistakes. A good team will tell you what they think, so you better listen and apply feedback. This makes you a better leader and the team feels heard (#thisisabigdeal).

Fourth, be an active founder and leader, stay connected to your business, listen to your clients, and engage with your team. Your clients will become your greatest idea machine. Your partners become thought-partners and your vision will change for the better. Never could we have imagined at EstateSpace some of the things we’ve developed and some of the innovations we’re working on. This is a result of working as a team and listening to good advice. Focus is important and challenging but maintaining your agility is equally tough. The more active you are, the more agility you will have.

Finally, slow down to speed up. Breath be methodical and execute. Stay humble and be excited to continually improve and learn. Be a real member of the amazing team you created and work every day to keep your spot. This will serve you well and allow you to never get complacent. Now for my favorite part… the team will help you carry out a vision that was once “yours” and is now “ours.” And you just may find it to be far more rewarding winning together than alone.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I’m currently working on a project for Children’s Voice International, a non-profit organization that is working to create a single platform to connect the network of organizations focused on helping disadvantaged children. From foster care to trafficking, to homeless and poverty, we see a way to leverage what we have done as a platform business and apply it to help all these wonderful disparate organizations to unite and accelerate the ability to successfully help those in need. We have a long road ahead but a passionate board of really smart people who believe. Of course, we start with the “why” and the rest will come together with time and determination.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

You can Search EstateSpace on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter or go to estatespace.com and click in the upper left corner to follow the links. We’re very active thought leaders in our space, so please follow our blog under the resource page of our website to gain a fresh perspective on the market and industry we serve.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

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Jonathan Fishbeck of EstateSpace: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before Became A Founder or CEO was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Make sure to remind yourself that the timelines and goals you set for yourself should be based on your availability, your lifestyle, your capabilities, your resources, your funding and your business plan — no one else’s. Entrepreneurs tend to burn out when they are chasing unrealistic deadlines and deliverables. Remember, you are the boss. You make the rules. Set them up so that you don’t burn-out, but rather, set attainable goals that can actually be met.

As part of my series about the leadership lessons of accomplished business leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sara Alter.

Sara Alter is a veteran entrepreneur, business coach, certified life coach, and the founder of MOMENT Consulting. With 20 years of entrepreneurial experience, Sara advises mothers through the early stages of entrepreneurship, empowering women to build thriving businesses that align with motherhood. As MOMENT’s lead consultant, she helps her clients bring their brands to life while balancing her own career with — what else? Motherhood. Sara launched her first business, Pretty Please Nail Polish, a first-to-market personalized nail polish brand, in 2010 and began consulting for female-owned businesses in 2013. She narrowed her niche to work primarily with moms in 2019, when she founded MOMENT.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I started my first business when I was 19 years old and have continued to build off of that experience for the last 20 years. I began with a personalized quilting business in college and went on to found Pretty Please Nail Polish (@prettypleasenailpolish), a first-to-market personalized nail polish brand. While I had started consulting for women owned businesses in 2013, after having kids of my own, I became increasingly aware of the importance, both mentally, and emotionally, of having a career outside of the home. Leveraging two decades of entrepreneurial experience, I officially founded MOMENT Consulting in 2019, providing support to busy moms as they work to build and scale their small businesses, often without prior business experience.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?

When I started my nail polish business in 2010, I was very isolated as a female entrepreneur. Social media didn’t exist in the way it does today, with so many resources, business tips and women owned businesses to connect with and be inspired by. It also wasn’t commonplace for a woman to leave a career and a good salary to pursue “a dream.” I was told “no” a lot and many men I sought out to work with in the industry didn’t take me seriously, at first. Even when I hopped on the subway down to Wall Street to meet with a free SCORE mentor, I felt slightly dismissed when sharing my business plan. It was an uphill climb to get the respect and support I needed to build a business as a woman.

Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

Two ways: The first was support and the second was mindset. I knew I needed support so I pushed myself to go to networking events in NYC until I found like-minded women founders who could commiserate, inspire, and cheer me on. They were and continue to be a huge support to this day. The next thing I did was commit to a positive mindset. Once I got far enough down the road of building a business, there was no way I was turning back. I was going to find a way to build my business and prove to myself and every person that told me “no” that it could and would succeed. And it did!

So, how are things going today? How did grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?

I think going through any kind of struggle, whether its personal or professional, can always serve as a powerful reminder that you can still rise, move forward, and succeed. It’s the perspective that stays with you. It’s the idea that any big win or big loss is temporary and it’s all a part of your bigger story and experience. As I always say, “add it to the resume!” It was a hard year of balance for working mothers, but I’ve seen so many of my clients rise to the occasion and that has been a huge inspiration. This year mothers put on new masks for protection and took off old masks of perfection. You can only cover up so much at once.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When my nail polish business was starting to make a name for itself, I was invited by a business colleague to set up a booth at a big fundraising event in the Hamptons at the home of a reality TV star. Fancy right? No! We were shoved in the basement pool house with no windows, no air conditioning and no food for the entire day and we weren’t allowed to leave our designated space. I think at one point someone brought us a piece of cheese. My friend and I laugh about that trip to this day, but the takeaway is that I got amazing press with celebrities holding my nail polish in a nationally syndicated magazine. The lesson is two-fold: Building a business isn’t always pretty, but to see results you have to do hard things. And that so much of what you see online and in the media is smoke and mirrors.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

MOMENT is unique in that all of our business services are designed with busy moms in mind. There are plenty of incredible business coaches out there, but to cater to a group of smart, driven, capable women, with limited time to make big impact, you need to understand what both motherhood and entrepreneurship look like, and make those two incredibly important roles work together. I understand my clients in such a deep and personal way. Moms have that in common. Entrepreneurs have that in common. I eliminate the fluff. Moms don’t have time for fluff!

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

Make sure to remind yourself that the timelines and goals you set for yourself should be based on your availability, your lifestyle, your capabilities, your resources, your funding and your business plan — no one else’s. Entrepreneurs tend to burn out when they are chasing unrealistic deadlines and deliverables. Remember, you are the boss. You make the rules. Set them up so that you don’t burn-out, but rather, set attainable goals that can actually be met.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

My mom has been my biggest supporter from start to finish. Over the years she has helped me with everything from sales and packaging to distribution, PR, and most of all, cheerleading. To have someone in your corner who believes in you and your ideas, especially from such a young age, shapes the person you become. I hope to be that kind of support for my own kids.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Between unemployment, layoffs, and an increasing number of women having to step away from their careers to be at home with their school-age kids, the online coaching and consulting space has proven to be a huge support to women looking to make income from home. I offer free advice on my social platforms for women that aren’t able to invest in 1:1 coaching services and I hope to continue to inspire more mothers to devote time to focus on their needs outside of motherhood, should they choose, and to have the resources to build profitable, buzz-worthy brands.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started leading my company” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

• It takes more than a good idea to build a profitable business
• You will need smart people to help you grow
• Networking is the cornerstone to any successful business
• Get strong business and operations systems in place or you will always feel disorganized
• To reach your ultimate goals you need to understand your WHY!

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I would start a movement called “MY HOUR”, where every new mom would know that for one hour, every single day, they would be expected to take one hour alone for themselves. Everyone in the family unit, and all caregivers would respect this time and support this movement, indefinitely. It would preserve sanity, promote self-care, and reduce burn-out. Mothers have the hardest job in the world, and we need to have them feeling strong, supported, and in a good head space, from day one!

How can our readers follow you on social media?

@momentconsulting

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

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Sara Alter of MOMENT Consulting: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A Founder was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Managing with encouragement instead of a big stick is the first one. The second is the importance of admitting to your employees when you have made a mistake. Years ago, I had a loan officer who was very talented and always closed his loans as proposed. But he was shy, and not a great salesman when it came to competing. I decided to give him some constructive criticism, but he felt I belittled him for having the lowest loan production and he quit. From this I learned that it was much better to start out by bringing up a staff member’s talents and achievements first and then setting production goals together. I called the guy and told him I had made a mistake by not bringing up how much I valued his great talent in analyzing deals correctly and that he had saved our company a lot of time, headache and money by doing such high-quality work. He asked me if I would help him be more competitive and he came back.

As part of my series about the leadership lessons of accomplished business leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Terry Painter. The author of the recently published The Encyclopedia of Commercial Real Estate Advice, Terry is the founder of Apartment Loan Store and Business Loan Store, two mortgage banking firms specializing in commercial lending in all 50 states since 1997. He has been a top producer for Lasalle Bank and Lehman Brothers and is known for his exceptional investment consultations and stratagems. For 18 years Terry has spoken nationally to commercial real estate investor groups and real estate professionals about commercial real estate investing and lending. For over 20 years, Terry has built strong correspondent relationships representing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA/HUD, Life Companies, Wall Street conduits, Hedge Funds, Regional, and National Banks. He is a member of the Mortgage Bankers Association and the Oregon Bankers Association.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

25 years ago I owned a small fast food chain of French restaurants in shopping malls called “Deli La France”. What I loved the most about this job was designing and building the restaurants, putting the menus together and training the staff. I get bored easily so, about 6 months after opening one, I had no interest in working there anymore. I would start obsessing about opening a new location. This trend started putting a lot of strain on the relationship with my wife and my bank. They both wanted me to slow down and told me “no more restaurants”. I went ahead and built another one financing it from an equity line of credit on our home. Finally, I got it. I needed to find a new career where I could work on putting deals together without risking everything I owned.

Then one day, a banker buddy told me that what he loved about his job was that he got to work on a new deal almost every day with passionate entrepreneurs — and he didn’t have to risk his own money. A lightbulb went off in my head. I thought, “That’s what I want to do”. This was 1996 — I was in my mid-forties, and I knew that if I didn’t make a career change then, I probably never would. I rented a cabin in Bryce Canyon National Park to contemplate this. I opened a copy of Entrepreneur magazine that I had brought with me, and there was an ad that jumped out at me; it said, “Own Your Own Mortgage Company Doing Business and Commercial Loans”. For $10,000, this company that trains loan officers called “The Loan Consultants” trained me to do what I have been doing for the past 24 years. I still use their methods for training new loan officers today. Everyone I knew told me I was crazy, that I had no experience doing loans and I would fail. The only one who believed in me was my mom.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?

The first thing I did to start my new business, Business Loan Store, was rent an executive office suite and buy 3 suits. Actually, before that, I took out a large yellow page phone book ad. Wow! After that ad came out I thought I had hit the jackpot. Selling money for a living was going to be easy. My phone was ringing off the hook. The problem was that most of these borrowers did not qualify for my loans. They didn’t have enough credit, cash, or experience. It was quite a learning curve to figure out how to screen borrowers correctly for the underwriting guidelines for all the loan programs I was trying to do and often I got them mixed up. So, for the first 9 months, decked out in my suit and tie, I essentially played loan officer. I was living on my savings which were running low. To pay the bills I started packaging SBA loans for a $1000 each for other lenders. What I didn’t know was that I would be getting highly skilled at originating SBA loans for small business owners. This opened so many doors.

Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

Because I loved putting deals together and put so much time into it, I got good at it. By 2007, I had 14 incredibly talented employees and we closed $79 million in loans together. Then in early 2008 the great recession hit. Most of the loans we were originating were sold on the secondary market. But the underwriting guidelines for the large institutions that were buying them changed practically every week, getting more stringent. The result was by the time we were ready to close, the guidelines for the loans no longer qualified. I liquidated my retirement so I could keep my employees working. I had no idea that the recession would completely wipe out my business. To survive, we went down to myself and 4 employees in home offices. I never had the thought that I would not make it back. My mom told me when I was a kid that I could do anything I set my mind on. I guess I believed her. I just kept going to work every day hoping a loan would close. Eventually the US Government started buying mortgage-backed security bonds and we had a new source of liquidity to rebuild the business.

So, how are things going today? How did grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?

Today, things are good. I spend most of my time doing what I enjoy the most — assisting my loan officers put challenging deals together and writing. I’m especially proud of my company, Apartment Loan Store. It is one of the most successful online commercial loan platforms in America. Being an author has been the icing on the cake.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you share a story?

I tell this story in my book, The Encyclopedia of Commercial Real Estate Advice. In my second year in the mortgage business, I booked a $2,000,000 loan for a rock quarry business that wanted to build a rock crushing plant. This was the most technical loan I had worked on as it involved appraisals for the land, the new building and a lot of heavy equipment. I met the owner many times at the site and worked over four months on putting the deal together. I got the loan approved for SBA financing and congratulated the borrower and myself. As we were getting ready to close, the attorney for the title company called and told me my borrower did not own the business or the land. Whoops! I believe the guy I was doing the loan for really believed he owned the business. He had bought it on a land sales contract that was not recorded. He had missed 3 payments which put him in default on that contract. The original owner decided to take the land and all the equipment back. I really felt stupid. That’s where I learned how important it is to read a preliminary title report thoroughly on day one.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

First, I am very proud that we have a 97% success rate of closing our loans as proposed — which is not easy to do. This is because we make sure that whomever is going to approve the loan preflights the entire submission package at the beginning. This can be a credit manager or a loan committee. Secondly, we are an advisory firm and we guide our borrowing clients in the direction that not only fits their goals, but also is going to get the job done. Often we have to redesign a deal to make it work. We have a client right now that has a fabulous piece of land that they want to develop. They can literally build 850 apartment units in 4–5 phases. Although they have experience with development, they were not financially strong enough to take on such a large project so we helped them arrange a stronger partner to join them.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

It’s really important to plan ahead to have enough capacity. There is a great need for what we do as commercial mortgage bankers and brokers. You can easily find yourself working 60-hour weeks. I’ve always made sure I have more staff than I have deals so we don’t all burn out.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

Towards the end of my first year when I was still struggling, I met my banker friend Jerry Burns for a beer. He’s the one who inspired me to get into commercial lending. Surprisingly, he asked me if I could help him by taking on some of the business loans his bank could not do. When this happened, his customers would be mad as hell and often take their money out of the bank. My loans were easier to qualify for and my money sources did not take deposits. So, this was a perfect fit. Soon, I had 5 banks referring loans to me with complete underwriting packages, and my business soared.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

I have closed hundreds of commercial real estate loans with experienced commercial real estate investors that are wealthy. But just about every day we get calls from investors who have little money or experience to buy a property. Many of them just have so much excitement that I am hesitant to put that fire out. Instead, I direct them to instructional material on our website and tell them if they find the right property with many upsides, I will help them get started. For years, I taught seminars for new investors on how to identify a good real estate investment, how to evaluate it, how to raise investors and how to finance it.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started leading my company” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

Managing with encouragement instead of a big stick is the first one. The second is the importance of admitting to your employees when you have made a mistake. Years ago, I had a loan officer who was very talented and always closed his loans as proposed. But he was shy, and not a great salesman when it came to competing. I decided to give him some constructive criticism, but he felt I belittled him for having the lowest loan production and he quit. From this I learned that it was much better to start out by bringing up a staff member’s talents and achievements first and then setting production goals together. I called the guy and told him I had made a mistake by not bringing up how much I valued his great talent in analyzing deals correctly and that he had saved our company a lot of time, headache and money by doing such high-quality work. He asked me if I would help him be more competitive and he came back.

Third is failure to time-manage deals. If you ask my staff what my favorite saying is, they will tell you “Time is Not Your Friend on Real Estate Deals”. I learned early on that not time-managing a deal is a big mistake for real estate brokers, lenders, and borrowers. During my second year in this business, I was working on a RV Park loan. It was taking forever to get the financials from the seller and the listing agent. Everyone, including me, was being so nice about it. The bottom line is that no one was willing to take responsibility for time-managing the deal. Months went by and when we finally had what we needed, the sellers got divorced and the deal crashed.

The fourth thing I wish someone had taught me before I started leading my company, which is also illustrated in the previous example, is that as a leader, it is important to get into the face of your colleagues to hold them accountable for their agreements. My problem early on was that I genuinely am a nice guy. I learned that I needed to be firm, yet polite, in getting other people to keep their time commitments and other agreements.

The fifth thing, and likely most important as a leader, is to not micro-manage your staff. This means hiring the best people you can find. Better yet, finding people who can do it better than you can. I have always been really good at crunching the numbers on a deal. At the beginning, I would always check the math of my loan officers. Then I started hiring ones who were even more talented than me in doing that task, and I had much more time to run the business.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

My wife and I spend our winters in the Dominican Republic. Jeffri is a Haitian man that takes care of our home there. One day I asked him what his dreams were for his future. He told me he was very thankful to have a job, but has always wanted to own a store. We made a loan to him to open a sporting goods store and he has been very successful. So, raising funds to help people that are unemployed or in third world countries start their own business and educating them on what it takes to be successful would be my movement.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/apartment.loan

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXUOB1gJYTmcsBAMMhBuPpw

Apartment Loan Store: https://apartmentloanstore.com/

Business Loan Store: https://businessloanstore.com/

Book website: http://theencyclopediaofcommercialrealestateadvice.com/

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Terry Painter of Apartment Loan Store: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became a Founder was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Peace of mind is priceless. Don’t let unreasonable clients weigh you down. Sometimes demanding clients can cause you a lot of stress and turmoil. Your business is very important to you, and when clients aren’t happy with some aspect of it, that perhaps you cannot control, it can be very upsetting. Don’t allow it to affect you to the point where you lose sleep. Know that you are doing the best of your ability, and sleep well. You may be better off without that client.

As part of my series about the leadership lessons of accomplished business leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Denise Barbato.

Denise Barbato is founder and CEO of SoundWaves LLC , a Miami-based mobile diagnostic ultrasound services company that provides state-of-the-art in-office services to Obstetricians, Gynecologists and Orthopedic Surgeons. Founded in 2009, SoundWaves serves over twenty private offices throughout South Florida and has tripled in size within its first eleven years of operation.

With over 25 years’ experience, Denise specializes in high risk obstetrical and gynecologic ultrasounds, and has developed long standing professional relationships with many of South Florida’s top doctors.

Prior to forming Soundwaves, Denise worked for Baptist Health Systems performing general ultrasound. In 1999, she trained with Perinatologists and Gynecologists at private offices as well as at the University of Miami, where she specialized in high-risk obstetrical and gynecological ultrasounds.

Capitalizing on the gains of her start-up company and her entrepreneurial spirit, Denise recently expand her enterprise as the first mobile company to provide musculoskeletal (MSK) sonography services in South Florida.

Denise holds an AS from the Medical Campus at Miami Dade and completed her studies at an accredited ultrasound program at Broward College in 1995. She is a member of the American Registry of Diagnostic Medical Sonographers and is registered in Abdominal and OB/GYN Ultrasound.

Denise donates generously to the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance Foundation. In her free time, Denise loves to windsurf, play tennis, ride horses, and spend time with her family, including her seven year old twins.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

My love for science is the main factor that brought me to this specific career path. When I was taking my core classes in college, I took anatomy and physiology classes because I had an interest in that area. I quickly realized after watching most of the class withdraw, and others struggle with the difficulty of the class, while I received As and Bs, that I knew that I had a natural talent in this area. I knew I wanted to be in the medical field. When an acquaintance told me about the details of a career as a sonographer, I immediately knew that was exactly what I wanted to do.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?

I remember in the beginning stages of deciding to become an entrepreneur, it was very scary because you are creating a path that didn’t exist before. You wonder every day if you are making the right decisions. As an employee, you have people to tell you what to do, it’s easy. As an entrepreneur, every single decision that you make affects how well, or poorly, your company will run, and that is a lot of pressure. I love the saying, “ The best thing about being an entrepreneur is that no one tells you what to do, and the worst thing about being an entrepreneur is that no one tells you what to do”.

Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

I think a strong belief in myself and my abilities, and also a feeling that I was on the right path and that I was doing something great for the community. These are the things that gave me drive when things were tough.

So, how are things going today? How did grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?

Things are going very well today. I feel incredibly blessed that Soundwaves has grown year over year and we are able to provide high quality ultrasound to so many doctors throughout South Florida. My grit and resilience benefitted me because giving up wasn’t an option in my mind, therefore it forced me to be creative and to always find a solution to any issue that arose. I then learned that there is a solution to every problem. It’s just a matter of figuring it out. I found that when I would detach, by exercising and being in nature, those were the times when the answers would come to my mind.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When I finally decided to acquire my first machine, the company that I bought it from told me that the ultrasound machine would be delivered to me on a certain date, which was only a few days before my first day at the office of my first client. I had arranged my start day with the office manager weeks earlier as you have to give the office time to schedule the patients. Well, a day before delivery, the company called to say there would be a delay in the shipping, that it was going to arrive a day after my first day with my new client! I was devastated. I didn’t want to cancel my first day with the office. I reached out to a colleague and asked if I could borrow one of his ultrasound machines. Luckily, he said yes. The machine was an old machine that I was not familiar with. I was struggling all day to use this machine, however, I pulled it off as if everything was fine on my first day at the office. I kept a smile on my face and they never knew how much I was struggling. Lesson learned was, always schedule yourself with plenty of flexibility to take into account for delays.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

My knowledge of Ob/Gyn ultrasound, from working in the field for 15 years before I started my company, combined with my dedication to high quality are the factors that make my company stand out. Operating at a high level takes mastering the small details that make all of the difference. A founder of one of my competitors, was in sales for many years before starting her business. She did not have any knowledge of how to perform an ultrasound. I had many clients who decided to use our ultrasound service after experiencing hers, because they preferred our attention to detail. Her experience in sales helped her acquire many clients, however, she had difficulty maintaining them due to a lack of deep knowledge of ultrasound.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

First, I would say that you must love the field that you are in so that it does not feel like work. Second, I would say that you cannot do it all and you must find people to help you do the things that you can delegate.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

Dr. Ed Phillips and Dr. Nathan Hirsch are two very well respected Ob/Gyns in the community. I was working for Dr. Hirsch for 11 years when I decided to start my company. I sat down with him one day and explained that I was starting Soundwaves and would be leaving his practice. I wasn’t sure whether he would be upset with me. He was quiet for a moment, then he told me that I was the best tech his office had ever worked with and they were going to miss me, then he said, I love your idea and I’m going to help you. The next day he put me in touch with his colleague, Dr. Phillips, who was one of my first few clients. After working with Dr. Phillips for some time, he also introduced me to his colleagues and Soundwaves continued to grow. Both of them were great friends, trusted advisors and they went above and beyond to help me grow Soundwaves. They also helped Soundwaves become a preferred vendor for Femwell, a very large conglomerate of doctors. I am honored and grateful to have the confidence and respect from these two doctors.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Every Christmas, instead of giving the doctors that I work with a present, I donate money in their name to the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance Fund. It’s my way of showing my appreciation for the blessings I receive, by giving back to the world. I feel blessed to be in a field that I love, working with great doctors and giving back to a great cause.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started leading my company” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

There is a solution to every problem, you just need to be creative. Don’t get upset and stressed, get thinking!

Take your time and be diligent when hiring people. No matter how much you need to hire someone to fill a position, follow your gut, don’t rush to hire, and hold out for the right person. I have hired a few people because I was in a bind and needed someone right away, even though my gut told me they weren’t exactly the right person for the position. I ended up letting those people go and it cost me more time and money in the long run.

Relationships/Connections and having a good reputation in your field are your most valuable assets. My best friend who lives in Maryland where I grew up, saw the success that I was having here and she suggested that we try to duplicate it there. We spent several years working hard to get business and have it run smoothly. Not only hiring people was difficult, it was also difficult to get new clients. Of the three we had, I had to sue one of them to pay us money that was owed. Not having long standing relationships in Maryland, as I do in Miami, was detrimental to our success.

Peace of mind is priceless. Don’t let unreasonable clients weigh you down. Sometimes demanding clients can cause you a lot of stress and turmoil. Your business is very important to you, and when clients aren’t happy with some aspect of it, that perhaps you cannot control, it can be very upsetting. Don’t allow it to affect you to the point where you lose sleep. Know that you are doing the best of your ability, and sleep well. You may be better off without that client.

Figure out what your values are concerning lifestyle and plan from there. Sales and marketing are not my forte. My method has been to grow slowly, and most of my clients were acquired through word of mouth. There were times when I felt anxious because I knew my competitors had an entire sales and marketing team and I was afraid that I was missing out on getting clients. After thinking it through, I realized that my style of growing slowly fits me well. I like the flexibility of a smaller clientele, a size that allows me to be more hands on with my clients, and also allows me to be present for my family. I am not looking to create Ultrasounds R Us, I am looking for something more boutique and high quality.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I would love to create a large scale, virtual support system for women going through ovarian cancer treatment. Going through cancer treatment is lonely and as isolating as it is, and this has been compounded by Covid. It would be great to have people in the mental health industry volunteer to take calls from women undergoing treatment, or even set up weekly support groups.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/soundwavesimage/

Twitter https://twitter.com/Soundwaves_LLC

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/soundwavesllc/

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/denise-barbato-r-d-m-s-475a6a39/

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

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Denise Barbato of SoundWaves: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A CEO was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.