Day: June 10, 2022

Female Founders: Megan DeCrosta of Cut the Fiscal On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

If you can afford to outsource, do it — I built our website from the ground up, filmed the online course, and edited and produced it myself. While it saved us a ton of money, it was time-consuming, and as a mother of two, it took its toll on my marriage and the amount of time I could spend with our children.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Megan DeCrosta.

Megan DeCrosta is the CEO and founder of Cut the Fiscal which provides financial education to kids, teens, and women in an effort to help end poverty and economic disparity. One of the company’s goals is to raise enough money to educate one million children by the end of 2022 through its GoFundMe platform. Cut the Fiscal Fat’s financial literacy curriculum, titled “Need To Know Life Guide (Level 1),” equips participants with information on how to make the most of the money they have and how to use it to achieve maximum success in life.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I grew up in upstate New York in a lower-middle-class family of six. While my parents worked hard to provide us with a good life, they had poor financial behaviors and habits. Habits my parents didn’t particularly try to discourage in me. Then when I was 15 years old my father was killed, leaving mom a single mother of four kids, with me as the oldest. We had to sell our family home and scramble to try to cover the expenses of his sudden death.

Towards the final years of my father’s life, he very much lived with the mentality that “You can’t take it with you,” and I in turn repeated that same behavior. Maybe it was because I idolized my father after his death. Or, perhaps it was because my mother never knew or tried to correct my poor financial practices.

It wasn’t until I met my husband, Eric, and became familiar with his exceptional credit and money habits, that I realized how much I didn’t know when it came to money, finances, and credit. I always found myself saying, “I wish I knew this sooner,” and “Why didn’t anyone ever teach me this?” I became upset with my parents for not teaching me better until I realized they couldn’t teach me what they didn’t know themselves.

Then the ultimate question came, “Why didn’t I learn this in school?” Which led me to create the website and our online course to teach financial literacy. We designed the “Need To Know Life Guide (Level 1)” to be a fun, engaging, and easy to absorb introductory course to personal finance. Intentionally created to inspire further self-education in all aspects of money management, especially finance.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

We recently were endorsed by a retired NFL player who is a two-time Super Bowl champion; Jeremy Shockey! Financial education is something everybody can get behind and it is always welcoming and heartwarming to see the support.

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 first started out as a YouTube channel until we discovered that not many people cared to watch videos about financial literacy! So we switched gears to really target a specific subset of people: teens and young adults. However, teens do not actively go looking for this information and education until it is too late! That knowledge led us to call on the adults in their lives to help get this information into their hands.

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 about that?

Before my husband, it was my mom. She has always been a source of profound support and unconditional love, especially after my father’s death when I was 15.

When I was 18, I competed in the Miss New York U.S.A. beauty pageant. The final round was held in Albany, NY, a 10-minute walk from where I grew up, and where most of my family members lived. I had 10 aunts and uncles and one grandmother (plus scores of extended family members) and only my mother and younger brothers showed up to support me. There have been many moments prior to that event, and many after, where my mom was the only source of support. No matter the endeavor, no matter the path I choose, she will always be there.

Now I also have the unconditional love and support of my husband, who shares both my dreams and my passion.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?

In my opinion, for many women, it is the lack of education they receive regarding business and finances. Compounded with the fact that women, especially women of color, suffer from the gender wage gap, entrepreneurship seems unattainable at worst, and at best, a long and uphill battle. And if you’re a woman with kids, it is exceptionally difficult to run a successful business and raise a household.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

We as a society have to recognize and acknowledge that fundamental change has to happen, and it starts with education. Giving students and young women a fair education from the start will increase the knowledge and confidence they need.

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

To me it’s simple: Be the change you wish to see. We cannot fall victim to the “bystander effect” where we wait for someone else to make the change for us.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?

One myth is that being a founder is easy. The truth is that it’s hard, constant work! Social media can be very deceiving in making us believe that one can go from a “nobody” to an overnight success with relative ease.

Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?

It all comes down to your personality and your passion! While you might not have the skills and knowledge to complete certain tasks, you can absolutely bring people to the table who can. But no matter how much money you have and/or can make, that cannot and will not make up for personality traits or passion. A brand above all else is genuine and authentic.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

If you can afford to outsource, do it — I built our website from the ground up, filmed the online course, and edited and produced it myself. While it saved us a ton of money, it was time-consuming, and as a mother of two, it took its toll on my marriage and the amount of time I could spend with our children.

Be prepared for the hustle — When you are first starting out, you are building your brand’s authenticity and trustworthiness. And this does not come overnight, so be prepared to put in the necessary time to build your brand.

Success takes time — When I say this I mean it! For many entrepreneurs, “success” didn’t come until after two years of the grind. Prepare yourself to work with what feels like no progress! But if you are taking steps to move forward, and are really dedicated to building your brand, you’ll get there!

Prepare yourself to hear “no” — Working my entire adult life in sales, a male-dominated industry, I’ve learned you have to always be ready to hear the word “no.” So when I started my own business, I was not afraid of that word, knowing I can always overcome and readjust my approach! What I was not prepared for was the number of times I have heard “Yes! I love it,’ with no follow-through. Be ready to outmaneuver this!

If it were easy everyone would be doing it — This is really self-explanatory! Even if you see an “overnight success” know that there are MANY years of hard work and dedication put in that you cannot see.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

We are here to disrupt the way that teens and young adults approach money and credit! Financial illiteracy is one of the largest contributing factors to income inequality and I want to inspire young adults and teens to further self-educate in areas of personal finance. The “Need To Know Life Guide (Level 1)” is an introductory, 48-minute, online course covering the five keys to financial literacy: Earn, Save and Invest, Spend, Borrow, and Protect. The 5-hour course is a more in-depth look at each key.

We created a crowdfunding campaign, #12to1million, to get our intro course into the hands of one million teens by the end of 2022.

We started it in our own community with the Boys & Girls Club, and hope to spread across the state and then the country. Our end goal is to make financial literacy education a main part of the high school curriculum, which would have a direct and significant impact on the wealth gap as more teens equip themselves with the knowledge and protection of their financial futures.

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

The earlier we start to teach our kids about money, the better off they will be in their adult lives. Money and credit have been taboo subjects for far too long.

We are hoping to be THE MOVEMENT to demand more for ourselves, our younger generations, and for the generations to come!

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Eli Manning. He’s a two-time Super Bowl winner and MVP, and I am a huge Giants fan. Eli is amazing off the field too. He is a businessman, he is a husband and father, a philanthropist, a comedian, and a total class act. For a man who was born into a famous family and blessed with talent and success, he seems just as genuine and relatable as the next guy.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

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Female Founders: Megan DeCrosta of Cut the Fiscal On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Beverly Price of Nastava Jewelry On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Emotions are a rollercoaster — they never teach you in business school about the emotions involved with starting a business. Moods can swing up and down with revenue. Fear can paralyze you. I know that I wondered why I had a down day; then I realized I hadn’t earned any revenue the prior 5 days.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Beverly Price.

Beverly Price, founder of Nastava Jewelry, is an intuitive designer whose custom creations reflect the journey of self-empowerment, self-expression, and beauty. Inspired by the elements, Beverly lets the internationally sourced stones speak to her when crafting her bespoke pieces. Through her methodology and endless style options, the artisan jewelry she creates energizes and connects to her clients, reflecting their true self while empowering them to try different looks.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I was a financial services and advertising corporate executive for most of my career (and also a single mom). When I started my career in corporate America, women were taught to dress similar to men and identical to other women. There was even a book called “Dress for Success” to guide us. There was practically a basic uniform — a gray or navy suit with skirt, rounded collar blouse, little bow tie, and black low-heeled pumps. There were no accessories, no makeup,and no jewelry except for a small string of pearls! Everyone looked the same, scattering the workplace.

I went along for several years, until I moved to an advertising agency where everything was creative, colorful, and exciting. But I was insecure because I didn’t know how to dress. So, I made an investment in myself and visited a fashion stylist who showed me that color, style, and accessories including jewelry could change the look of any woman from drab to exceptional, professional elegance. I could express myself in bold statements and feel empowered.

I had always done something creative on the side of my leadership and managerial roles. Being creative let me create visible and tangible outcomes that my corporate life could not. I gave my daughters a gift certificate to a jewelry making shop, and they had fun but I loved it and became obsessed. I began making bold statement jewelry to accentuate everything I wore.

One day a woman that I worked with said, “Is that your piece?” and it was. She said, “It’s gorgeous! You need to sell your jewelry.” That was just the nudge I needed, and Nastava Artisan Jewelry was born. Named after the three women I admire most — my daughter Natalie, my daughter Stephanie, and my mother Virginia — Nastava fueled me with energy and excitement. After a year or so, I decided to take a leap of faith and move full-time into my jewelry business, selling to boutiques and stores. Creativity fueled my choices.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

I was hosting a jewelry sale as a part of a fundraiser for a nonprofit, and I got to meet the daughter of Reverend Martin Luther King. She was inspiring, and she fell in love with my jewelry. She modeled several pieces. I felt so blessed. I’ve gotten to meet so many impressive women on my journey. Meeting Cokie Roberts was another thrill.

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 was working towards my MBA, studying entrepreneurship, and we had two international summer study abroad trips — one to South America and the other to Asia. Since I made all one-of-a-kind pieces, unusual beads were essential to my strategy. So, on both of these trips, I looked everywhere and found lots and lots of unusual beads. So much so that I couldn’t fit them all in my suitcases. I asked all my fellow students to put some in their suitcases. As we were leaving at the airport,one by one, each suitcase went over the weight limit. The heavy bag fees mounted up! Then, when we reached the airport on our return, I had to get beads from over 10 people! Looked pretty silly actually, but those beads let me create some very unique pieces.

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 about that?

There are so many. I would say most of all it would be my daughter Natalie who encouraged every step of the way, even when times were tough. She’s an intelligent, capable, creative woman who has developed strong business acumen and strength. She’s also provided me with a lot of her marketing expertise and a sounding board to bounce things off of. I’m very proud of her.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?

I think there are three reasons that women are held back from founding companies. The first is a lack of self confidence and fear. So many women have old tapes playing in their head that they can’t do it, entrepreneurship is too risky, they are not talented enough, etc. There is fear of the unknown and fear of failure. This is a great deterrent because as we know, entrepreneurship takes strength and belief in yourself.

The second reason is financial stability. With the gender pay gap continuing to exist, many women do not have the financial resources to create a company and be financially stable while it’s in its early years. Also, single parent homes shouldering the entire financial burden don’t have excess resources to get a strong start. In addition, women may have a difficult time raising the funding necessary for the business set-up.

The third reason women are held back from founding companies is time. Many women have their hands full with raising a family and a full-time job. There is little time left for the investment required for a start up.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

Many of the changes that need to be made need to happen at a variety of different levels: changing laws, changing social norms, and changing perceptions passed down from generation to generation. The deepest change needs to be how society sees men and women — a change to see them as equal but different. This could change the double standard by letting the men in power see women as an asset rather than a threat. This could then create changes in work distribution at home, acceptance of stay-at-home parents being men or women, more affordable day care, and pay equity. There’s also a crucial need to provide greater physical, emotional, and financial support for single parent households.

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

1. Creativity — many women have a high degree of creativity for start-up ideas.

2. Tremendous work ethic — many women have a voracious work ethic.

3. Determination to prove themselves — women who have grown up being told they can’t do something that is more of a man’s role develop the motivation to prove themselves by proving others wrong.

4. Empathy — research has shown that women have the capability for a higher degree of empathy allowing them to build strong teams, relate well to customers, etc.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?

1. That entrepreneurism is only for those who can’t get a “real job.”

2. That you have lots of free time.

3. That life is much easier if you don’t have to answer to anyone.

Entrepreneurship is ultimately a creation of a new path, whether it’s your first job or something you’ve started later in life. It’s a valid career choice, but it takes much more effort and work than society gives credit for.

Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?

Not everyone is cut out to be a founder or an entrepreneur. Founders and entrepreneurs can handle uncertainty and are willing to take risks. They can survive without the security of a regular paycheck and healthcare benefits. They have stamina and patience for the long haul and a stellar work ethic to tackle the times that the amount of work seems insurmountable. They are willing to take a leap of faith to see their vision through and reap the benefits.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. That you need a support system — as a single working mom, I didn’t have time for developing friendships and support systems, but creating your own business has a significant emotional rollercoaster that you need a strong support network for. I had to build my support system after I started my business. I could have benefited greatly from a support system when I first started.

2. Believe in yourself no matter what — no matter what anyone says or does, no matter what old tapes are playing in your head, you need to believe in yourself. Believe that YOU can do it! I use daily affirmations to help with this.

3. It will take longer than you might thin — patience is a virtue. Most startups don’t have rocketship revenue. It takes time to build a strong and stable business. Hard work pays off.

4. You need to delegate things you don’t like and aren’t good at — let go of doing everything. You can find help, even if you’re on a tight budget, to help you do things you’re not good or an expert at and for things you really hate to do.

5. Emotions are a rollercoaster — they never teach you in business school about the emotions involved with starting a business. Moods can swing up and down with revenue. Fear can paralyze you. I know that I wondered why I had a down day; then I realized I hadn’t earned any revenue the prior 5 days.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I have supported a number of nonprofit agencies with causes near and dear to my heart. I have worked on fundraisers, donating my jewelry products for live and silent auctions, donating a portion of my proceeds to the cause, and providing jewelry for awards at large fundraising events.

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

1. Self-expression is key to women’s self-empowerment. I’m creating a program that helps women walk through insecurity and doubt with the use of self-expression to become empowered to lead different lives.

2. Believe in yourself, no matter what. If we could inspire these beliefs in all children, we could drastically increase their success while also greatly reducing many forms of depression and anxiety.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

1. Cate Blanchett — her sense of style is the essence of what my jewelry brand offers.

2. Oprah Winfrey — her accomplishments in the face of all odds is heart-stopping.

3. Amal Clooney — her style and grace combined with intelligence and efforts to make the world a better place is amazing.

4. Melinda Gates — her dedication to making this world a better place is inspirational.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

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Female Founders: Beverly Price of Nastava Jewelry On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Lessons from a Thriving Power Couple, With Dr Travis Fox and Michelle S Fox of Ultimate Business Quest

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

We always stayed calm, cool, and collective, which would be the second one. Stay calm, cool, and collective within your communication, and remove the tit for tat because the tit for tat is where you start keeping score of everything your partner isn’t doing. As opposed to our model,, we do a tit for tat differently. We look at wow, here are all the things you have done for me or have done, and I appreciate and thank you.

As a part of our series about lessons from Thriving Power Couples, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Travis Fox and Michelle S. Fox of Ultimate Business Quest.

Ultimate Business Quest is in the business of igniting transformative change. Their proprietary platform delivers business basics, blueprints and practical coaching, presented in a world of immersive fantasy gameplay. Those willing to embark on the quest will find that blurring fantasy with reality is a powerful tool for stoking imagination, inspiration, and impact, empowering entrepreneurs to level-up business and life. The company was founded in 2020 and has additional learning gamification apps planned for release this year.

Emmy-award winner Dr. Travis Fox has been architecting lives and uplifting entrepreneurs onstage for 30 years. Holding doctorates in both psychology and clinical hypnotherapy, his mission is to help move entrepreneurs from founder to funding to fortune, and because of this, he was named by Yahoo Finance as a Top 20 entrepreneur for 2020 and a Top 10 Instagram influencer by BuzzFeed. As a business coach, entrepreneurial advisor, and trainer, he has spoken to more than 1M attendees, spent tens of thousands of hours on stage, and has 28 years of CEO-level experience.

Michelle S. Fox has a diverse corporate and entrepreneurial career, having sat on multiple Boards before the age of 30. As the Co-Founder and CEO at Ultimate Business Quest, she’s the first female tech CEO in their headquarters of St. George. Instead of being educated by a traditional institution, Michelle chose to go the mentorship route, and she became a mentee of a Harvard Grad billionaire. This mentor offered her an opportunity to build out the C-Suite at their company, where she oversaw everything from breaking ground to the successful acquisition exit strategy. The move led Michelle to become a serial entrepreneur through investing, business consulting, and her own mentoring. Outside of the office, she is an award-winning competitive bodybuilder who loves challenging herself in new ways.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you two to your respective career paths?

Dr. Travis: When I was five years old, my father put a golf club in my hand and I just took to it; it was natural.From that moment on, pretty much all the way through high school, I thought I was going to be a professional golfer. Everybody knew it; that’s what my father wanted me to be. And I adopted that philosophy intensely from a conscious perspective because I wanted my father’s attention, love, and approval. And after a subconscious realization my first year in college, I decided to have a meltdown. I also ended up becoming a a first-time father, and having my heart completely broken.

I was ill-prepared for all three of those things simultaneously, but thankfully that’s when I met my mentor Dr. Neves and my life changed. I realized from learning under him that I wanted to be involved with psychology. I wanted to be involved with the subconscious mind, I wanted to be involved with how we actually transform. And that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 31 years. working with every kind of entrepreneur corporation, multilevel marketing, solopreneur, online and offline, on how we transform ourselves and do that in business. And then ultimately, how do we do that for our body and ultimately with our relationship, and that’s how I arrived here three-plus decades years later.

Michelle: I applied for a position that was an Office Manager position. When I was hired, the entrepreneur was traveling so much, they just gave me a concept versus systems already in place. So it felt as though I was an entrepreneur because I was building and creating everything from the ground up. After I left that position, I became an employee. It was actually the individuals who purchased the first original business and I had escalated into that company to the COO of their tech company. I stayed in the C-suite Executive role for quite some time, until I was approached by an individual that asked for a side project.

That was when I got a taste of, wow, I can be an entrepreneur, I can consult businesses and it was that first step to entrepreneurship. So I moved away from Corporate America and started my entrepreneurial journey. It was client after client after client that I began to obtain based on referrals and word of mouth. That is how I originally started getting into entrepreneurship and building my businesses. From there, it expanded based on the knowledge and experience and the new people that I had met, and more opportunities were created organically.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened since you two got together?

Dr. Travis: Well, I’d say it’s kind of like you saw an Indiana Jones movie meets some secret super spy agent meets natural disaster movie: you slam those all together, and you’ll come to watch one of the most interesting periods since Michelle & I have known each other and been working together. We were in the Philippines working on a corporate turnaround at the time and establishing deeper offices and a larger employee base there. We got caught in the eruption that happened in 2020, which sent the entire country of the Philippines into disarray. We had to make preparations to help not only our office but also the Filipino people that were working for us at the time. While we’re doing all of that, and going into this near-emergency situation, Michelle ultimately started to get this symptom called vog, which I had never heard of before. I thought it was some strange thing from Mars, but sure eenough, it’s an actual situation where you get a bronchitis type of scenario in your lungs from the volcanic ash in the air. So it started to worsen over a 24 to 48-hour period, and we had to get out of there. Simultaneously and concurrently, I was racing back to get back for the premiere of “Beyond Rhe Secret, The Awakening” at Universal Studios. We thought, how are we going to do this? We can’t fly out of Manila because it’s covered under volcanic ash. So we flew on every plane possible, got down to Dumaguete and then Dumaguete to Cebu (both are in the Philippines), and then jumped a plane over to Bangkok going the other way away from volcanic ash, and we ended up spending three days in Thailand.

We flew from Bangkok to Manila, jumped on another flight, flew all the way back overnight, and landed in Las Vegas. I got up the next day to fly down to LA, and as I’m getting ready to go to the premiere and I got a call from my ex-wife. She said, hey, I need to let you know your father died. I said oh, okay, and I start doing the first part of the press and interviews for what we were doing for “The Secret” film. And the first podcast I was on was David Meltzer’s podcast, David and I had been friends for a long time. On the show, I announced right then that I had just found out my father had passed. And that entire experience between the two of us — if you could survive that over a three to four-day period and do that all over the world, you can survive anything.

We knew we were going to be able to work together as a team, it was almost intuitive and innate that we just knew each other’s next move. We knew when that person needed to step in the lead and guide the couple, and it was always done smooth as silk. And that’s been the craziest situation,we knew when we got through that experience, we were going to be in a great partnership.

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

Michelle: I was consulting a Med Spa, and had no idea about Botox, fillers, nothing of the sort. The staff was asking for more product to stock up on. So me, not being the wiser, started Googling and looking online for places to buy Botox and Fillers and found a bunch of different sources. Well, I came to find out that where I was trying to source from was highly illegal. I had no idea until I was told, it was very embarrassing.

What I learned though is that you really need to understand the industry before you get into it, especially what the rules and regulations are. Do your due diligence before you jump in to helping a client, or if you jump into a new industry make sure you have mentors or do the work and understand the industry that you’re getting into.

What do you think makes Ultimate Business Quest stand out? Can you share a story?

Dr. Travis: I think what makes Ultimate Business Quest stands out is that it’s entirely based on fun. It’s real, it’s relatable, it’s not just a game that you play to kill time and distract yourself from that what you want. And yet it simultaneously gives you all the steps in a blueprint kind of way to go from the founder, to funding, to fortune, rooted in experiences that we all have experienced. I think that makes it stand out because it’s easy to understand yet so rooted in common sense principle, but beyond, hey, here’s a couple of ideas or going to the extreme on a spiritual side. Two, we have fun doing it, and three, our culture is about fun. And every step that you see us doing as a company and whatnot is exactly what you get in the quest. So we’re moving through each map right along with you; it’s not, hey, let’s stand on a stage and tell you how great we are, and then you go figure it out on your own.

We’re questing too; we’re building in a completely fantastic company and doing it exactly as you do it in the quest. And I think that rule is still a more profound sense of connection and confidence in what they’re doing and why they’re doing it and why they’re doing it with us. We’re building a community, we all speak the same language and as a collective we’re making business fun again.

Michelle: Why Ultimate Business Quest stands out is that it is the very first full gamified way of learning entrepreneurship for free. There’s nothing out there that gives you the whole blueprint, the map on how to start your business from the moment of conception or idea to implementation and how to move through even expanding your business. Along with what fears come up as being an entrepreneur or a business owner or moving up the ranks in an organization as an employee. When I was in business consulting, it was sad to see how many businesses had launched, but they really didn’t have any of the fundamentals.

How will the launch of this app help people to uncover their true passions and take the first step toward them?

Michelle: The sequence that we positioned all of the training within the app in really gives individuals a beautiful look at what is deep down there — that burning passion, a burning desire? Whether it’s starting a new company, expanding, pivoting, wherever someone may be in their current entrepreneurial journey, we can provide them the tools to mitigate the stress, the fear, the anxiety around those passions to really bring them to life. We help entrepreneurs bring ideas to life in a system that makes it fun and exciting to learn and grow their business, as opposed to, hey, here’s just some enthusiasm but no step by step guide of actually how to do it.

Dr. Travis: I actually think that’s the biggest misnomer when people say, well, how do I find my passion? Or, as the question was asked, how do I uncover my passion? That implies that you need to go out and find it, which means you never had it, or that someone’s got to give it to you, or uncover it as though it was buried. And uncovering it is, because it is an uncovering.

You’re supposed to just kind of innately know it, okay. That model doesn’t work, we’ve tried that for decades now, and it still hasn’t happened, so let’s do this differently. The UBQ app is going to help you not just uncover your passion but more important, reignite that spark in you — that was once there that has been diminished and dulled and shut down. And not from a motivational point of view or an inspirational, although that’s there, from a depth within you. Because that’s what it takes for the visionaries, for the adventurers, for the entrepreneurs, the onliners, the influencers, they’ve got a burning passion, and they’re willing to keep it flamed, and the rest of us out there have let ours be dull and this app is going to walk you through that. It’s going to do it in an adventure style because the truth is we’re all deep visionaries, we’re all deep adventurers, we’re all explorers, and we all want to experience all the zest of life.

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

Dr. Travis: Well, I’m not one to give advice, but if I were to give someone a guidepost and help them through their own quest, I would say that to make your employees thrive it’s about figuring out the puzzle of who are the archetypes within your organization. Who are the wizards and the warriors and the barge and the jesters? If you don’t know what that means, go through the Ultimate Business Quest app and learn so that you can make it fun for them too. Because we’re all programmed that work equals not fun, work equals necessity, and work equals what you got to do to live a fun life. So when we look at it from that perspective, it’s one of the things that a founder and a CEO or an entrepreneur can do.

Employees wants to be a part of something bigger than themselves; they want to feel like they’re on point in passion and purpose. And most importantly, people want to feel like they’re playing and it’s fun so that the time that they’re investing in as an employee or a partner, or a senior manager or a sales director. Whatever their role is; it’s not just being given away for a paycheck, but is something that they can feel a part of. That’s that deeper sense of vision that really comes from the CEO to ignite those parts of them and let them fly with it.

How do you define leadership?

Michelle: Leadership to me is understanding who is on your team to lead. Do you genuinely have a relationship with them? Do you understand them? Then the next piece is where are you teaching them — do you know what your company culture is? Do you know what your mission-vision is for the company, and are you staying true to that? And last but not least, a powerful leader is not leading from I’m the CEO, and everybody is beneath me. On the contrary, it is I’m the CEO. I’m at the bottom of the funnel, and I’m lifting everybody and guiding them out because that’s what starts to create that substantial wide span outward, as opposed to your bottleneck. You can’t expand that leadership, because your team doesn’t grow. It’s a very different concept from leading from the bottom up.

Dr. Travis: I define leadership as not just, I go first or I’m the last one. I think it’s about being with the entire team, getting to know the team and understanding them at a deeper level, moving from “I” to “We.” I think good leadership is always thinking from a “We” perspective and not necessarily without the I involved, but when you really look at leaders take the time to connect with every one of their senior executives or salespeople, their senior customers, you essentially see masters at inviting people to become the better version of themselves, not telling them how to do it.

Guiding them to say why not, guiding them to go have fun, guiding them to make better choices for themselves based on what they know and the instincts and knowledge they have possessed to be in the position they’re in. And yet, at the same time, allowing them to learn and learn new skills and techniques and ways of doing it. It’s about bringing out that beautiful unrealized potential sitting on the bench of their subconscious asking the right questions for them to unlock themselves and become the leaders that they are finally born to be.

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

Dr. Travis: There have definitely been people who have helped me. I always go back to Doc Reeves, because Doc has the one that kind of guided me through my entire journey. He was always kind of that rock in the river, so kudos to him. Another person is my ex-wife Jessica — I learned so much from her, and she’s one of the people who have made me who I am and I will always love and cherish for that.

Michelle: My very first mentor, his name was Glen and I’m very, very grateful for him. He taught me how to be an entrepreneur, but I was still an employee. How he helped me achieve success was by putting me into this big role and then stepped back and said, create it, figure it out. But not in a dismissal way, but in an invitation. That invitation was one of the best experiences for me to really understand what it took to build a business from start to finish. And then my stepfather, my stepfather when I really stepped into business, was my mentor.

Every single day I talked to him so many different times and I’m extremely grateful for how much he mentored and taught me. Now in my life, I have Travis. I am extremely grateful for his patience, teaching, love, guidance, and most importantly, the partnership that I have with him and how we can create together.

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

Michelle: How I have been bringing goodness to the world is with everything we do within our companies. I test and implement everything, whether that be our products, all of our business tools, the foundation, everything that we do and creates, I test. The reason why I test is I want to honestly know that it works before it gets brought out to the world because I don’t want to put out anything that I really can stand true behind.

Dr. Travis: I think I’m just beginning to use our success and my success personally to bring good to the world. The free app and communities across the world that are starting to jump into the quest are also beginning a whole new piece of “good global work” for me. I’ve been preparing my entire life for this company. I’ve been preparing my entire life for this team; I’ve been preparing my entire life for this relationship, I’ve been preparing my entire life for me to get to this space. So I would say my successes in the past have all taught me different versions of it.

What are the five things you need to thrive as a couple? Please share a story or an example for each.

Michelle: Communication is extremely vital. We have been in the most stressful situations as a couple and the very first one was a company turnaround, there was so much stress and pressure. There was a huge lawsuit involved, and our job together was to mitigate the risk for this particular company. How we did that together is through our communication. Our communication was so on point that we didn’t have any friction or frustration because we were constantly communicating together, but it was all done in a healthy and productive manner.

We always stayed calm, cool, and collective, which would be the second one. Stay calm, cool, and collective within your communication, and remove the tit for tat because the tit for tat is where you start keeping score of everything your partner isn’t doing. As opposed to our model,, we do a tit for tat differently. We look at wow, here are all the things you have done for me or have done, and I appreciate and thank you.

Now the third thing is taking time for each other. Taking time to take care of each other. Because we’re both working together as a couple, it can get so easy as one is supposed to take care of the other. In our relationship, we’re constantly checking in with each other, especially when one of us is maybe going through a hard week. Travis will come to me and say, hey, you need a bath. He’ll turn on a bath for me, put on some music, and gives me that time to relax because he knows and he can feel that I’m stressed or that I’m having a hard day. And the same goes in reverse.

Dr. Travis Fox: The fourth is laughter by far, and I mean, I don’t think that’s anything I need to go too deep into, most people get it. But to laugh with each other and, most importantly, laugh at yourself. I mean, I have been guilty of being caught up in an image and thinking I was supposed to look this way or act this way or talk this way. ‘m sure many others have been as well, but realistically, come to laugh at yourself, man. Life is short, we all know that, but I think we often hypnotize ourselves to believe that we have time, and we get examples every single day where that is just not true. So laugh your butt off, have a great time, laugh at each other, laugh at yourself and let it go. There’s such healing us in laughter, and it keeps the relationship alive on another level.

The last, and certainly not least, is to keep the adventure in the relationship. It doesn’t have to be going on a worldwide trip and spending a bazillion dollars, although that’s great, and it’s one of the experiences everyone should have while they’re here on planet earth. Instead think of new things you can do every single day that are within ten miles of where you are, but could give you a new perspective that you never thought of before. Because that’s essentially what constitutes an adventure, otherwise it would be called a memory or an experience of the past that you’re repeating. Keep the adventure alive and learn new things, see the monuments out there, explore the geography and how the planet is constantly changing. Go into the water and mountains and experience everything with the sense of awe that you did when you were a kid. Because everything, when you were a kid was new and it was amazing, it was exciting and you didn’t have to be inspired or motivated, you just naturally were on fire and that came from that sense of adventure.

You are people of great influence. 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 idea you can trigger.

Michelle: I would say BPR, and that stands for Business Personal and Relationship Ratio. So the times that we talk about the work life balance, there’s no blueprint out there. There’s no “how do I do this?” There’s no secret sauce. So I created a formula that really helps individuals with the blueprint on how to really balance your business, your personal and your relationships simultaneously throughout the day. The movement that I would love to see is that everybody starts utilizing the terminology, have you balanced your BPR? What’s your BPR percentage? Or wow, you really got that BPR down. Everybody is really present in every moment of their day and experiencing it and enjoying it.That’s what the BPR helps balance, is truly living your life on a daily basis.

Dr. Travis Fox: I’m going to be a bit of a dork here and say I would be exactly what I am because I believe that’s exactly what the quest and the all realms company are doing. We’re bringing true entrepreneurial and self-transformation together simultaneously in a fun way where we can make business fun again, and we’re giving the app away, so everybody can have it on a global scale: to me, that is the movement. The movement of cooperation and creating a fun environment and living and chasing your dreams in a fun blueprinted kind of way, just like the game of Life that we all played as a young kids.

Can you please give us your favorite life lesson quote? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Michelle: My life lesson quote is actually one that I created and it is fear is excitement without breathing. Now, there was a time in my life that I was very afraid of so many different things and it was based off of trauma. I devoted myself to conquering all my fears or battling all my fears in one day. While I was going through that process I would freeze, and when I felt that freeze, I noticed that I stopped breathing, literally stopped breathing, and then it took me into that fight or flight. That’s when it triggered for me, fear is excitement without breathing.

As soon as I started to breathe, I was able to turn that fear into excitement and really move through all of my fear. I started using that about seven years ago and it has significantly helped me throughout difficult business choices or situations in personal and in so many relationships where, when I feel myself starting to hold my breath, I start to consciously breathe. With that, I’ve been able to move through my fear and really take that fear and move it into excitement.

Dr. Travis: Ellen Watts has a famous quote that says life doesn’t define death; death defines life and that impacted me, it still impacts me to this day to be honest. Candidly, we all have a date with destiny and it’s something that, you know, I have been my own way for the last three decades, inviting people to look at. And I always say, hey, if you only had 30 days left to live, would you be doing anything in any part of your life that you’re doing right now? And if any part of your answer is no, I wouldn’t be, and then you owe it to yourself to transform.You can’t take it with you, but you can leave an amazing legacy behind; an amazing adventure that you experience as you go on to the great beyond.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in business, VC Funding, Sports and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with and why?

Michelle: I would ike to have a meeting with Donald Trump. I am not a political person in any way, shape or form, but what I am interested in is how he still takes two hours a day to plan his day out. What about that process works for him? How does he do it? What does he do during those two hours? What is his step by step blueprint? Because of the BPR and how passionate I am about that work life balance. How does he fit everything in his day? And are there things that are out of balance and what would he do differently? That’s why I would want to sit down with him and have lunch.

Dr. Travis: Believe it or not I’ve always wanted to meet Shaquille O’Neal. Shaquille O’Neal to me is truly someone who has balanced life and relationship and himself and his business, and he is still very good managing all the wealth that he has and all the reach and the fame that he has acquired. He never forgot who he was and where he came from and always has time for the people, he laughs at himself, he makes fun of himself. He can be serious when he needs to be, he’s never a bully. He’s always polite, he stands up for the underdog and he’s a good, smart businessman who’s willing to do things that people weren’t willing to do. And so for me sitting down with Shaquille O’Neal and hearing his story and learning some more lessons from him or having him be a part of the quest in some form another. I think that would be absolutely, you know, the best half court, three point shot I could ever do at least in the near foreseeable future. Hey, Shaq, if you’re out there, man, I’d love to do lunch.

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.

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Lessons from a Thriving Power Couple, With Dr Travis Fox and Michelle S Fox of Ultimate Business… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Chelsey Roney of Proxi On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Learn how to communicate the progress you’re making in your business/successes in a succinct way. People want the ‘TLDR’ and will be able to help you much faster once you’re able to condense your thoughts. I used to be indirect in my communications. I worked on my first business with my husband. He once told me he had no idea what contributions I was making because I was being too indirect with my value-add. This taught me that I need to say what I mean without hesitation.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Chelsey Roney.

Chelsey Roney brings her business-building and strategy experience to Proxi, where she serves as COO and leads a team of 5, growing the business through sales and marketing. After graduating from Texas A&M, Chelsey joined Boeing where she worked in financial planning and analysis and Microsoft where she worked in a demand center that focused on B2B omnichannel marketing. She grew and sold two businesses: a SaaS business in the University space, and a local services business.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

Sure! Looking back, there were signs that I was going to be a female founder very early in my life. I started my first operation at around age 5. I set up a restaurant in my grandmother’s kitchen complete with menus, prices, and table settings. I took orders, ‘cooked’ and of course collected a little extra change. As a child, I went on to sell flower bouquets to neighbors, start a very profitable pet watching business, a very busy private swim lesson company, and in high school repackaged my notes for others. I went on to start my first SAAS company at age 21 (I sold it in my late 20’s) and bought my second company at 30. Meanwhile, I went to Texas A&M University to study Finance, which is what I thought and was told would lead to a very steady career. I subsequently worked at Boeing, earned an MBA and then worked at Microsoft. I very much enjoyed my time at both companies and learned a lot while I was there but looking back at my passions and how I spent my free time, I was always called to spend my time as a founder.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

The most interesting thing happens to us daily — people and businesses find and use Proxi for use cases that we never would’ve imagined! Proxi is a free technology anyone can use to create and share interactive, branded maps. We have had thousands of maps made on Proxi. Many of our highlighted use cases are ones customers have come up with. Individuals have created such varied maps as guides for their out-of-town wedding guests to spots that marathon attendees can cheer on their loved ones. Businesses and non-profits have mapped everything from volunteer events to the stores that carry their inventory. One of our most unexpected but exciting use cases was Seattle Restaurant Week creating a map to show where all participating restaurants were located! There were several hundred thousand views by the end of spring 2022 restaurant week.

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’ll tell you the (now) funniest mistake I’ve ever made in my career. When I was at Microsoft, I sent emails to customers who were interested in the Surface line of products. Once, on accident, I sent a completely blank email to several hundred thousand people. I still feel horrible about it, but now I laugh about it too. It had the highest open rate of any email sent around that time. If only I had included a single link to a product in that email! I’ve learned to have an outbox delay set and have extra eyes on any outward communication that goes to a large number of people. You can never do enough double checking!

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 about that?

I am most grateful towards my parents. They consistently told me I was/am an intelligent, strong human who could do whatever I set my mind to. They spoke this into me so often, that I really believed it and still do. To this day, my parents are invested in whatever I am passionate about and devoted to. It gave me the confidence to go after big ideas at a young age and think ‘Why not?’ to things that seem out of range.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?

I absolutely think it’s the support she has around her. Women need other people to 1) pour education and encouragement into them and 2) physically support her dedication to her company. If you are a founder, you will have less time for household activities of which women typically bear the load. The people around a woman can make or break her dream of being a founder. In my opinion, women should verbalize what they need from the people closest to her in order to start a company and people should help her remove as many barriers to entry as possible.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

Two things. 1) It would be very helpful for governments to provide (limited time) stipends to live on if you are a woman (or anyone) starting a business. Starting a business is oftentimes saved for those who have the financial capacity to reduce their earnings for several months or even years. To open founding a company to more people, there must be financial support. 2) This is probably top of mind because I happen to be a mother of two young kids, but as a society, and especially during COVID, childcare for working parents (especially for moms) has been an incredible burden. Childcare is enormously expensive, and therefore prohibitive to start a business and have children at the same time. We need to find a way to subsidize this expense and make it very reliable (you can’t make much progress when your child is at home every other week due to closures!).

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

Women can think about many aspects of a situation at once and organize the workstreams for each because a lot of the time they are doing this outside the workplace and have been doing so for their whole lives (not saying this is the way things ‘should’ be but it does so happen that it is the way things are a lot of the time). This is a highly applicable skill as a leader of a business because there are lots of facets to work through and many things/people to care about.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?

I think the biggest misconception about founders from the public is that they always know what to do next. This couldn’t be farther from the truth! Most founders do not know what the exact next step should be, but they make educated guesses based on research or experience to move forward. People ask me often, “How did you know to do that?” I research, plan, and take moderate risks. I act confident about my decisions and then learn from the outcomes.

Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?

No, I do not think everyone is cut out to be a founder. I think everyone has the *ability* to learn how to be a founder, but you must really want the career path because it is grueling and impacts all aspects of your life. If there’s even a 5% doubt on if founding a company is a good idea, then it may not be for you. Being a founder means figuring things out with the resources and connections you have, much of the time on your own. If you feel like you need to ask someone the next step for a new topic you are learning, it will make life as a founder difficult, because you must learn to move fast on you own. Being a founder means working toward something against doubt and odds. It means pushing through on days when you think things might fall apart. But pushing through is where the magic happens! Consistency is key.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. You’ll need to learn how to bounce back from adverse situations quickly. A growth mindset is key to development. When you hit an uncomfortable situation, acknowledge the negative feelings, but then turn them into learnings. If you can reframe thoughts about how you wish you could change something to ‘I learned this for next time…”, you’ll start to see yourself grow over time. I’d recommend keeping a list of your lessons learned! One day, it will be fun to look back at. When I was early in my career at Boeing, I was surrounded by very experienced professionals. If I made a mistake, I used to get incredibly embarrassed. It led to me keeping my opinions to myself and making myself small. When I got to Microsoft, ‘growth mindset’ was talked about often. I began transforming any negative interaction or feeling into a learning. It truly transformed the way I conduct myself in the workplace and how I interact with my employees today.
2. Train your brain to speak positively about yourself to yourself. Turn every thought about imposter syndrome into something you like about yourself. Eventually, you’ll believe the positive thoughts more than the negative thoughts. Like many people, I have struggled with self-doubt. About 7 years ago, I read somewhere that every time you have a negative thought about your abilities you should turn it into a positive thought about yourself and repeat it over and over again. Now, in situations where I feel I’m out of my league (especially as I learn more about growing a rapidly expanding venture backed company), I pump myself up with positive thoughts when I feel nervous. But that was a learned behavior!
3. Always speak with confidence. Remove any doubt, extra words and “I’m sorry’ s” from your vocabulary and speak with conviction. You’ll notice a huge difference in how people respond to you. It took a long time for me to realize being apologetic about myself or my hopes/dreams was not doing me any favors. I edit my communications to remove language that might convey anything but confidence and conviction. These written edits also help me when I am verbalizing.
4. Be the most prepared person in the room. Come with agenda items, good questions, and thoughtful insights about what others are staying. I sometimes ask myself, “What can I do to have the most informed opinion in the room?” The extra prep might take 10–15 minutes per meeting/interaction, but it will help you get so much more out of your scheduled time with others as well as improve your image. When I was at Boeing, one of my mentors gave me this advice. I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t able to participate meaningfully in meetings. He told me that I need to come to the meeting as the most prepared person in the room. Putting this into practice radically changed people’s perceptions of the value I create. Sometimes now, I don’t have the time to prep for certain meetings, and I notice the impact. Coming prepared is the biggest factor in future success, in my opinion.
5. Learn how to communicate the progress you’re making in your business/successes in a succinct way. People want the ‘TLDR’ and will be able to help you much faster once you’re able to condense your thoughts. I used to be indirect in my communications. I worked on my first business with my husband. He once told me he had no idea what contributions I was making because I was being too indirect with my value-add. This taught me that I need to say what I mean without hesitation.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I have used my ‘success’ to employ people both at Proxi and at my prior two companies. I think job creation is one of the best ways to support your community. However, it’s not just enough to be an employer. I work hard to create a positive environment for my employees in which they never dread coming into work. It’s my hope that happily and gainfully employed citizens contribute to their communities in positive ways.

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

I would like to teach people how to find a job that aligns with their passions. This might mean helping people feel confident enough to make a career change or learn ways to monetize what they enjoy thinking about and doing in their free time. I strongly believe there’s a way to at least have some portion of your job align directly to your biggest passion. Personally, I am so much happier when I concentrate on what I love every day. For me, I am most engaged and gratified when I spend my days figuring out the pieces to put together a ‘successful’ company. If everyone were able to feel as happy as I am to wake up in the morning, I think the world would be a better place for everyone.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

I’d love to have a private lunch with Sarah Blakely. She’s got incredible work ethic, treats her employees well and sticks to the vision!

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

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Female Founders: Chelsey Roney of Proxi On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.