"This moment that you have when you have absolutely no idea how you are going to make something happen, but you know that it has to get done." - Alexandra Clark
Coming from a family of creatives, the time Alexandra Clark spent with her parents always involved working on creative projects. She started Bon Bon Bon with nothing; she completely funded the endeavor. "Ultimately, I knew that if I could find the right space, I could at least get started." She started by sending her chocolate to hotels everywhere for them to use in their turndown service. Now 27-year-old Alexandra Clark made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and she is the first artisan chocolatier in Detroit, MI, in 40 years.
Usually, it's confidence that enables people to prove their product is the best. For Clark, her self-doubt was the moneymaker. "By not opening for retail, thinking that nobody would want the product," Clark's business accidentally made itself exclusive. This exclusivity created hype that Clark didn't even know she was creating. She finally listened to her neighbor, "Crazy Mike," who suggested she opened her little kitchen for retail once a week. The first day she opened for retail brought in so much business that she was able to pay off an entire year of rent.
Listen to the whole story to find out how Clark turned her teenage dream of owning a sweets shop into a reality.
"Whatever I do, I do it with a lot of passion." - Miki Agrawal
A first generation Indian-Japanese Canadienne, Miki Agrawal moved to the United States when she enrolled at the prestigious Cornell University. Being the child of immigrants, Agrawal was instilled with a strong level work ethic at a very young age. Growing up, Agrawal was kept so busy going to school seven days a week that she didn't have time to get into any trouble. Fortunately and unfortunately, Agrawal's "aha moment" was due to one of the most tragic days in history; the first and only time Agrawal slept through her alarm clock which was on September 11, 2001, her second week on the job at a prestigious investment banking firm across from - you guessed it - the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center.
After crossing off all the things on her bucket list (playing soccer professionally, making movies, and starting a business), Agrawal teamed up with her twin sister to create Thinx, underwear that never leaks, never stains, and absorbs blood. For every pair of underwear sold, Thinx funds a pack of reusable menstrual pads to girls in the developing world. When the MTA refused to run the advertisement, Agrawal went to the press. "You can't predict virality [sic]," but the MTA scandal she emailed to Forbes went viral. She spent the next four days speaking to over 40 publications, and that really put Thinx on the map. Now, she's working on her second book and two new projects, both with their own respective missions to help women in the developing world.
Listen to the story to learn how Miki Agrawal, a dreamer and a doer, literally achieved all of her dreams.
“START IMMEDIATELY. There’s nothing stopping you. Even if you have a full-time job and you can’t commit to it entirely, ideas take time. Uber didn’t happen overnight, Air B+B didn’t happen overnight. These were all long thought-out processes.” - Sophia Parsa
Sophia Parsa started her first company at 21 Years old and relied enormously on her tutors to make it happen and because of a specific last minute tutor issue she had, a new idea was born: Toot App.
Sophia is now the proud founder of toot, a mobile app that connects students to tutors in their area to learn anything they want. One would even describe it as a match.com for tutors, which is genius! And in a world where our education system is broken, this idea couldn't have been more timely not to mention needed!
Tune in to her story to hear more about how she has accomplished so much in entrepreneurship and she just turned 24!!
We all know that building a business or creating a product won't go far if people don't know about it. Branding is at the core of your success in building a business that makes money, and you need to play a BIG game to make it happen.
Do you want a brand that stands out distinctly from every other business in your marketplace?
Do you want a brand that generates massive attention?
Do you want a brand that creates a waiting list of clients that only want to work with you?
Do you want the opportunity to deliver so much value that you’re now taking long romantic walks to the bankand having #prettyprofits as your reality?
If you answered YES to any of the above questions, then you WANT to meet the lovely Nicole Lundy and hear what she has to say. For
Nicole is an exuberant multi-passionate entrepreneur. After leaving her demanding Wall Street and Corporate Finance career in 2009, Nicole went back to school to get certified as a Makeup Artist and launched a beauty consulting company. She used her sharp branding skills to get featured in a HarperCollins published book, work backstage at New York Fashion Week with top designers such as Jason Wu and CZAR by Cesar Galindo, and become the first ever Beauty Professor at two colleges in New Jersey.
Nicole now owns Pretty & Profiting™, a branding and marketing consulting boutique for entrepreneurs and small business CEO’s. She also has a ton of resources on her site www.prottyandprofiting.com including free courses on how to go from a #brokebrand to a #bankablebrand.
Take a listen and learn more about her personal journey as well as tips and advice she has for all of us who are looking to bank on our brand.