Podcast Archive

Podcast Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the BLS podcast. I’m your host and founder of Bridging Legal Solutions, Sukhi Alberga. This is our sixth podcast in a series of educational episodes featuring groundbreaking entrepreneurs and professionals coming together to discuss the creativity that inspires them and makes their businesses flourish. To be clear, the podcast is not a platform to provide any legal advice, but strictly an educational tool For our listeners, welcome to the BLS podcast. I’m your host and founder of Bridging Legal Solutions, Sukhi Dhillon Alberga. Today I am thrilled to have our special guest, but before I introduce them, I’d like to just introduce our topic today. We’re going to be discussing how to take off the ground, and so I’d like to take the time now to introduce Michelle Fedorowich, and she is the founder of LocAlley that provides small businesses and startups with market support and alternative funding options. Such funding opportunities provided by Clearco or Co-founded by Michelle Romanow of Dragon’s Den. And best of all, it is a hundred percent Canadian, serves Canadian businesses and they’re passionate about serving international communities by providing education and resilience entrepreneurship. Michelle, thank you so much for joining us today.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Thank you so much for having me. Sukhi.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Michelle, before we start, I thought it might be interesting for our listeners to sort of get an understanding of your own personal entrepreneur journey, like what inspired you to be a business owner, like from the early beginning to present day?

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Definitely. So I’m very fortunate to come from a long line of entrepreneurs on both side of my family tree. So I’m carrying on the tradition of more than 100 years of family business here in Canada.

(02:29)
So growing up as a young person from early days of three years old, we would always go and visit my grandparents on my mom’s side, on both parents’ side, but specifically on mom’s side. I would always have to go to the office to visit my grandparents. They were always there. They were kings and queens of their small town community in Canora, Saskatchewan, and they really valued local businesses. They only supported local. So that’s how things are. My origin stories, it’s the ancestry behind me that’s carrying this on. And actually, I was one of my mom’s first music students when she started a music teaching business in Peterborough, Ontario. So I was three years old. I was one of her first students. Fast forward, her and I have become business partners, so we run a music school together. We have a combined more than 65 years of teaching experience between us and beyond that.

(03:35)
At the time, the biggest risk that I had taken in my music teaching business is I pressed pause on my clients. At the time I moved halfway around the world. I lived in Padia, Thailand from 2014 to 2015. And the reason why that was a huge risk for me at that time is I had a great client load. I had repeat customers, people that were really following me along on that journey, even in spite of that move to the other side of the world before video calls and working collaboratively so successfully and relatively effortlessly on the internet, what we all are experiencing today as a result of the pandemic, that wasn’t as big of a thing back then. So I was working with an organization called the Father Ray Foundation, who at that time they were feeding a thousand people three times a day. So this is a massive organization that supported all kinds of marginalized populations.

(04:40)
So at this time, I should mention that I do have a background in social work as well as education and teaching. I’ve done both for multiple decades at this point, and it was my group of students that I worked with in Thailand. I was working with physically disabled adults, teaching them English, and they were the single most inspiring group of students I have ever met in my entire life as someone who’s been teaching for a long, long time. And if it wasn’t for that experience, I never would’ve enrolled in post-secondary education. It was that experience of seeing people with serious physical limitations and challenges working through that to get their butt to my classroom to learn English that maybe start thinking about my own education and journey as well. That group of students who inspired me to pursue a post-secondary education in social work, because I have a background in social work, I wrote a paper about them as part of my university degree that was recognized internationally with the Global Undergraduate Awards. And so

(05:51)
Yeah, thank you. It was a phenomenal experience to have your work. My university sent me to Ireland to represent them on the international stage, and it was around this time in my education background that I stumbled into startup land. So I, like I said, went to school for social work because that’s where my background is. And as I was moving through my university degree in that final year where I was doing my internship, finishing up my last courses and so on and so forth, I stumbled into something called the Zone Learning Network, which is an incubator and accelerator housed inside of my university. I graduated from Ryerson University and then I convocated from Toronto Metropolitan University when they renamed that. So that’s my education background. And because I was going to school for social work, I had no idea about the strength of the entrepreneurship ecosystem.

(06:51)
People go to that school specifically for entrepreneurship and business. I had no idea. So I started inside of something called the legal innovation zone. So if you’re in the legal innovation zone, you have a business idea that’s trying to solve a legal problem through the use of technology. That started for me in fall of 2019, right around the time of the Global Undergraduate Awards. So a lot of chaos was happening, good chaos, but a lot of chaos. And I was on the winning team of the pitch competition right before the world shut down in March of 2020. And I just was so enthralled with the magic of startup land and entrepreneurship, it was a natural transition for me. And with that exposure to the zone learning network, I continued on my business journey when the world shut down. And so we’ll get into that as well with LocAlley.

(07:47)
But I am now currently housed in what’s called the Social Venture Zone inside of the university incubator. So that’s a little bit about how LocAlley was born and the backstory with that. More specifically, how did LocAlley come about during the pandemic? A lot of my friends and colleagues are business owners and startup founders, and so I was watching businesses being closed, left, right, and center with all the limitations that were imposed on us personally, I retained a 100% client retention rate during my teaching studio, which is unheard of in my industry because I knew how to use tech tools to keep things going and keep my students engaged is really what I believe is the key to success there. So that got me thinking about how to support other businesses that were being closed and through being incubated inside of the social venture zone and the development in the early days of LocAlley, what are we going to do here?

(08:50)
How are we going to help these businesses? What is our positioning? The focus on marketing supports for small businesses and startups as well as funding became very clear in our early days, these are what people needed at that time, and those are critical components for any business to survive and thrive. The last thing I’ll mention about my wacky startup life as a serial entrepreneur at this point is in addition to running a music business and being a startup founder, I also work in the Ted Rogers School of Management Marketing department. So I went to school for social work. I ended up in the business school because of course what I do there is I help connect businesses and startups to free marketing consulting. So Sukhi, you and I are going to get into that more in the call, but for anyone listening so far in the podcast, if you are a startup founder or business owner and you like the idea of free marketing consulting, keep listening and we’ll chat more about how you can become involved with that opportunity.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
Yeah, absolutely. We’ll definitely go into that. Michelle, I know with your social work you were involved in, I think it was the BSW initiative for sustainable water use in India, and you happened to be there during that monsoon flooding. I think that took place. Was it 2018 when that

Speaker 2 (10:14):
Happened? You bet. Yes.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
Could you give us a little bit of what happened there? Did you navigate that? What was that like?

Speaker 2 (10:22):
For sure. So that has to do with my social work self, although there is a connection to my startup self. So thanks for asking Sukhi. As I mentioned, I went to school as a mature student because of the group of students that I worked with in Thailand who inspired me. And as part of my degree in three years, my university sent me to India and Ireland. So not too bad for getting your money’s worth with your education. So with the project to India, I always tell everyone, open your emails. That’s where all these opportunities are. And so subject line of this opportunity will change your life. I was like, okay, click bait. I’m in. And I read it and I applied for something called the Live in Labs program. So that is offered out of Amrita University in Carala, India. And I was working with an interdisciplinary team of Ryerson students.

(11:25)
We were in engineering, nursing, social work, nutrition, a lot of very diverse backgrounds, both academically as well as personally, professionally and privately. And so we were sent to India to represent Ryerson, and we were supposed to be working on a water and health research project. Well, the minute that we touched down the area was experiencing what became the worst monsoon flooding in over a hundred years. We were literally emergency evacuated from the site that we were in. And what it transitioned to is emergency disaster, medical relief, picture like Doctors Without Borders, that kind of thing. Communities were shut off from resources. It was just chaos as natural disasters can tend to be. And so pivoting along the project, everything was just pivoting and constantly for the month that we spent there. And the connection to my startup life is that some of the people that I worked with on that large interdisciplinary team that included masters of social work, students from Rito University and Tamil Nadu, doctors, pharmacists, all of those kinds of people, one of my Ryerson friends who I’m still in touch with to this day, she is a startup founder herself. She founded a medical device company and she has received the free marketing consulting that we’re going to talk about. She is just a force of nature for sure. So that was not conceptualized at all when we were living through that kind of perspective. And on the Indian counterpart, one of the students that I’ve stayed in touch with, she works in the university in a similar role that I do here in Canada, and her and I have talked about collaborating between our own experiential learning kind ventures internationally as well. So yeah, interesting connections there.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
Oh, wow. To have experienced that. And then also being able to, I can’t imagine what that was like for you and to pivot in those kind of constraints and stress and limitations and I mean disaster relief, just being in the thick of that, that’s an experience I think that will definitely be with you for the rest of your life. And I’m sure there’s a lot of takeaway there that you can take from that that can also help you in what you do. Now, am I right to say that?

Speaker 2 (14:08):
100%. So what all of us said, coming away from that is when you go into interviews and as a startup founder, this is the first time I’m ever being interviewed on a podcast before. I’ve been through all kinds of other interviews, but you’re on the spot, you’re thinking on the spot, you’re reacting and responding to the questions that are being asked and oh, Sukhi, that looked like it paused. Are we still good? We have a connection here. Yep. Okay, great. So we would say going into interviews that question, can you describe an experience where you had to overcome a challenge, game set match, just busting out that story like you’re good, and as a startup founder and a business owner, serial entrepreneur, you’re putting out fires all day every day. That is your job. So that skillset, I’ve had that for much of my life. It’s just to a completely different level of surviving, something like that, for sure.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
Yeah, absolutely. I have great respect to what you went through and how you’re actually implementing it now. It’s awesome. Thank you. I would like to ask you, having spoken about entrepreneurship and your background from where you came and how you started, it seems like you were exposed to a very young age and how cool it is is that you’re now doing this with family members and it’s always fantastic to see family coming together and being able to be entrepreneurs and working together. What do you think is the most critical thing that startups or small businesses need to do to get their business launched successfully?

Speaker 2 (15:41):
Definitely. I speak to entrepreneurs and startup founders all the time. That is very much a center of my world. And for people listening on the call that are in those really early beginning stages, maybe you’re in ideation, you know that you want to do something like this, but you have no idea where to start. I’ve been there. My advice to you would be to definitely get connected to something larger than yourself. I talk about this all the time. I use the analogy of picture like a large boat in an ocean, and then the barnacles on the bottom. You can benefit from the strength and resources of larger well-established entities. And what I mean by that is, for example, the early stage founders listening on the call, getting connected to incubators and accelerators to tap into all the sports that you need to be successful is one way to do it.

(16:38)
I have personal experience with that being connected to my university’s incubator, by the way, anyone listening on the call that is interested in exploring that further, you don’t need to be enrolled in a university to access these kinds of resources. They are available to the external community as well. And some of those resources and supports that I have received as in my own startup journey, is mentorship, learning from people who have been along your journey and are further along. I cannot say enough good things about my business coach, Mr. Ryan Willock, who has provided to me through my university’s incubator. So he has absolutely vital for LocAlley success. He’s been there from day one before we were even called LocAlley. We pivoted to a different name. He’s helped us through that journey as well. So being connected to people that can help you along that way is key.

(17:36)
Along those lines, just networking in general. I’m a bit of a networking queen. I do it virtually. I do it in person. I met a family when I was recently in Jamaica when I was busy and unplugging, they might become my new music client. So this can happen anywhere. You have to be ready, you got to have your cards and your pitch and your elevator pitch ready to go. But yeah, networking is absolutely key. I would also mention not being afraid to ask for help. Nobody has all the answers. So when you’re stuck on something, find someone to help you work through that particular challenge. And personally, I cannot say enough good things about my own team with LocAlley. I have an absolutely incredible team behind me, which we have a common background of growing up in competitive sports, and anytime I’m pitching and talking about my team, I’m like, that is key. Learning how to win together and lose together as a team, being hungry for those wins is absolutely critical. So find people to mobilize around you to help you get to where you’re going as a founder would be part of my advice as well.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
Michelle, I totally 110% agree with you. The team members that you have are like the strength, the stronger you are as a chain is so important. And the fact that they are buy into your vision, they buy into what you’re doing and they’re also inspired and they work alongside with you. That’s just success together being a success. So those are really critical things to have around you and team members I think are really important. Sometimes hard to come by, but when you do, you have to hang onto them and

Speaker 2 (19:25):
Then work

Speaker 1 (19:25):
Together and like you said, celebrate the winds together and even go through the storms of being entrepreneurs, right? Because entrepreneurship has its roller coaster ride, but it’s also about persevering as well, right? Through those times, and when you have team members that are alongside you to help you get through those times, I think is an added advantage, right? It just makes you stronger that way.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
Definitely.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
Getting back to what you were saying about funding options, can you explain LocAlleys funding options for startups and businesses and how do you determine what’s the best funding option for a particular business? How would they know what’s best for them?

Speaker 2 (20:09):
Definitely. So funding, as I’ve learned from personal experience, it seems like an impossible journey. Like a lot of things that are involved in startup life, particularly in today’s challenging economic climate. There are no shortage of challenges for startup founders and small businesses accessing funding for their businesses. That’s exactly why LocAlley has a focus on creating funding supports that are under the larger financial term umbrella of alternative funding supports. So what I mean by that is what would be a typical traditional way of accessing funding for a business, going to your bank, applying for investment through pitching and things like that. Those would be traditional ways of accessing funding. So alternative funding would be to helping non-traditional founders. So I’m talking about female founders, I’m talking about bipo founders. When you’re talking about barriers to accessing funding, it’s so much more significant if you identify in those demographics that’s very well researched and documented.

(21:18)
So that is why we have a core focus on creating those funding supports. So to date, we have three funding partners with more partnerships in the works right now. Hopefully we’ll be able to do this. Again, Sukhi and I can tell you about additional partners coming down the pipes, but the first partnership we secured was with clearco, as you mentioned in the introduction. The second funding partnership we secured is with a company called esto, and the third is with a company called Merchant Growth. So the first part of your question, Sukhi as a founder, how do I know if I’m eligible for these different funding partners? If you visit LocAlley.ca, we have a funding support tab and form. So that would be the best way to get started. If you’re interested in any of the details that I’m providing here, we will respond to you based on the information that you provide.

(22:14)
I’m familiar with the eligibility requirements and limitations of each of our partners. So I’m the person looking at the forms and making recommendations and introductions ultimately accordingly. For both clearco and merchant growth, they support businesses that make a minimum $10,000 a month in revenue and have been in business for more than six months. So clearco supports us, incorporated businesses. Currently merchant growth supports Canadian businesses that are incorporated currently. So clearco is a revenue share model, which is an iterative process. As you are making money with your business, you’re paying back that revenue share to clearco on a deal that you are negotiating with them directly. CLEARCO supports e-commerce and SaaS businesses, the acronym SaaS for those that aren’t familiar software as a solution businesses. So they’re really invested in the online environment. Merchant growth supports small businesses and startups across Canada. Again, you’re earning a minimum revenue of $10,000 a month, and merchant growth is more of a traditional loan kind of model.

(23:31)
So that would fall under that category or in the financing world, debt-based financing, if that term resonates with you. That’s what I’m talking about there. ETO would be the outlier between the two of them. Equi, Beto is equity crowdfunding, so if you’re familiar with crowdfunding period, have you’ve heard of Kickstarter? Indiegogo mobilizing your community to Raise money? It is under that umbrella. The equity piece is that you’re giving up equity of your company to the investors that are investing in your business. So for Eess marketing is absolutely critical to the success of your campaign, and you can be a pre-revenue company incorporated in Canada and apply for eess crowdfunding campaigns. So that’s a little bit about the three options that we offer. What I would mention is that LocAlley is not the one that is funding your businesses. We’re kind of the middleman here. We’re making introductions to our partners based on the information that’s provided to us about how the business is doing, where they’re situated, and so on and so forth.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
Great. That’s a wealth of knowledge and I think very useful for listeners who may be at that stage where they’re looking at, okay, well use some additional funding and stuff. Is there anything, I think you kind of touched upon it with the last option that should you not be at the stage of revenue yet and you’re just starting out, is there anything openly available in terms of funding or any kind of grants out there that you may know of that might be beneficial?

Speaker 2 (25:07):
I get that question all the time, and I am on this journey myself. LocAlley is an early revenue early stage company, so I am definitely experiencing the same challenges that I’m sure a lot of listeners are. The answer to that is yes, there are other grants. Grants are the best way to go for early stage startups, pitch competitions, those kinds of things help you to get that exposure and get out there. The best recommendation I can provide, if you are looking for grant funding yourself, anyone listening on the call is a company called Pocketed. Pocketed is a grant funding platform, and they help you filter down all of these opportunities based on your personal demographics as a founder, your business metrics and so on and so forth. So LocAlley doesn’t currently have a partnership with pocketed. I have used their platform myself, but that would be the direction I would point people in if that resonates with you.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
Great. Thanks Michelle. And now I wanted to ask you, what is the most effective way to market to your ideal client? Is there any kind of key strategy that can have you a successful presence, or is this something that you kind of go through with trial and error? Is that just the beast of marketing or is there something else to it?

Speaker 2 (26:32):
Yes, Sukhi, we’re getting into the philosophical component of our call today. I definitely thank you for providing some questions in When I saw that one, I actually laughed out loud. As the kids do these days, if you ask this question to 10 different people in the marketing space, you would get 10 vastly different answers. It is such a broad spectrum, open-ended space, and it is constantly evolving. That’s part of it. Some of the marketing options that have been available since the beginning of time are still relevant today. The new piece, which is a huge focus of my own businesses, is the digital space, learning how to market effectively in the digital space. So I will focus my comments on the digital space as opposed to traditional marketing, but all of them are important and all of them are still relevant in today’s world. If you’re not familiar with the statistic, people need to see things like 16 times before they buy, and that can come at them in a variety of different mediums through a call like this, seeing something on social media, having a flyer, being at a trade show course, all of these things work together.

(27:47)
So why is LocAlley focused on marketing for small businesses? For those listening on the call, if you’re not aware of the statistic, 43% of consumers in today’s world investigate brands online before moving ahead with purchases. So that’s exactly why we are focused on providing marketing support in the digital space specifically, even though the others are important as well, is because when you’re looking for anything in today’s world, what’s the first thing you do? You pick up your phone and you Google it. So if people can’t find you or your business on Google, you don’t exist. I can give a personal example of that. When my mom and I first launched on social media with our music teaching business, there were comments that were coming through. Congratulations on your new venture. Well, little did they know that mom had been in business for decades at that point, and I had joined her, but welcome to the internet.

(28:46)
Now you’re real kind of thing is a little bit about that. So with the traditional marketing agencies, this is one of the complaints that I hear often from many, many people that I speak to is traditional marketing agencies. Oh, Sukhi, are you still there? I’m still here. I’m here. Okay, perfect. All good. So traditional marketing agencies are in there obviously to make money. Most people in business are in it to make money, but they’re essentially, I hear it all the time from startup founders and small business owners that don’t necessarily have a background in marketing. They pay inordinate sums of money to an agency hoping that something will come through. They have no idea what the agency has done with that money, and there’s no succession plan, there’s no continuity to that.

(29:48)
I hear it all the time. And so that’s exactly why LocAlley started focusing on supporting businesses through a social media management. That’s one of the ways that we helped to support small businesses. So what that looks like is we take over a company’s platform, we’re executing planning and executing on your posting strategy. Maybe you don’t have one. Maybe you need to get started from square one. That is one of the ways that LocAlley can support you. So if any of this is resonating with you and you’d like to learn more about locality’s marketing support, again, would recommend that you visit LocAlley.ca and we have a marketing support tab where you can fill out our form to get started, which brings me to those people that may not have a monthly budget to pay for marketing services. That is a paid service by LocAlley. One of the other hats that I wear as a serial entrepreneur, we talked about this in the intro, we talked about this in the intro, is that I work in the Ted Rogers School of Management marketing department, and

Speaker 3 (30:58):
Hi Michelle. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
So one of the other hats that I wear as mentioned in the introduction is I work in the Ted Rogers School of Management marketing department. I was actually a former client of this opportunity. It’s called the Advanced Market Planning Capstone course, and the professor, the second time that I met him in the course, he offered me a job and we started working together in winter of 2021. And so what that looks like is if you’re a small business owner or a startup founder and you are looking for free marketing consulting, please follow LocAlley on our social media channels. We will be promoting the next opportunity for enrollment, which will be coming up in August, which is for fall intake, and there is an ongoing opportunity for enrollment. So the course in the university runs year round. So even if you missed the deadline or are not accepted, you can reapply for future semesters.

(32:03)
So you can follow LocAlley on social media or feel free to get in touch with me and I can add you to my outreach list. But what that looks like is for a one semester commitment businesses, students select a company, a client, a real world client to work with. So a capstone course, if you’re not familiar with that, it’s project based learning. The students have to complete this project to graduate. So these are third and fourth year students in the upper level of their marketing degree. Some of them will have real world marketing experience. Some of them will be in the classroom, and they are creating a customized 25 page marketing plan for your business based on your objectives. So at the end of the one semester opportunity, you’re meeting regularly with the student team to answer questions and help develop the plan. Ultimately, we’re talking about funding here. If you are applying for funding at any point and they ask you, do you have a go-to market strategy, your answer is yes through the creation of this plan. So again, if anybody is interested in that kind of support for your business, please reach out to me or follow LocAlley on socials to find out how you can become involved with that.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
Those entrepreneurs that are out there may want to take advantage of that. So please do reach out to Michelle about that. And my next question to you, Michelle, is in my humble opinion, I build clear message branding and fostering relationships are essential to building a business. What do you consider is essential in growing a business?

Speaker 2 (33:53):
Awesome. Yeah, definitely. Some of the things we’ve already touched on during this call, people, nobody does anything in this world alone. So investing in having the right people around you to support you on this difficult journey would definitely be one of my pieces of advice. I was recently on a, or participating in a workshop where there was a very experienced venture capitalist talking about his own business journey and advice. One of the key takeaways that has just been resonating for me over and over again from this particular investor is as an entrepreneur, he said to hire slow and fire fast, which is something that we are applying with LocAlley right now. We’re working on hiring a web developer to develop our community board. So that’s something that I just, it’s in a repeat in my mind over and over again. Also encourage people not to give up. It is a very challenging journey. Focus on taking one step and then taking another As someone who works in education, definitely educate yourself about the different components of your journey and the resources that are available to support you at every stage of your journey as well. And making sure you have a strong supportive network both personally and professionally around you will get you through those monsoons that entrepreneurship throws at you. For sure.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
Yeah, absolutely. A question to you, the critical lesson that every business should grasp for economic

Speaker 2 (35:37):
Climate that we have? Yeah, that’s a great question. Sukhi, many of the speaking engagements that I’ve been booked for are specifically tailored to newcomer entrepreneurs and newcomer populations. So earlier in this call, you and I talked about the live-in labs experience in India with the emergency evacuation from monsoon flooding. So that was an example of how something that wasn’t a traditional startup entrepreneurship environment has connections to my current life and the people that you meet along the way, you never know where those intersections may continue and grow and foster and develop as well. When I’m talking to a newcomer entrepreneur specifically, I always use personal experience to talk about social media. I recognize that people have a very mixed and strong feelings about social media. There’s good, bad, and indifferent, but talking about what it is that you’re working on publicly can definitely help connecting you with people both back home and in maybe somewhere where you’re relocating.

(36:50)
There is opportunity for collaboration and support, especially in today’s world through the power of the internet and how we are all working in a more geo friendly environment because of these tech tools that are available to us. Personally, I haven’t quote done business internationally, even though locale is technically an international company. My younger brother who works with me joins us from Detroit in America, so we doLocAlleyplans to eventually expand internationally, but right now we’re focused on building a presence in the Canadian market, supporting Canadian small businesses regarding how to work collaboratively in an international context. Cultural competence is key, not only to understand your customers in wherever they may be located. What is customary or appropriate in one part of the world is a big no-no in other parts as well. So both your customers and potential employees, you may be hiring internationally as well.

(38:04)
So personally, I have developed cultural competence through my background in social work and education. I see myself applying that all the time in my current endeavors. Regardless of where you’re operating in business, anywhere in the world, I would nail down some core business values and tenants, be real, be honest, always focus on exceptional customer service because that has nothing to do with physical location of what it is that you’re offering. That to me is pretty consistent across the different settings that I’ve been involved in regarding succeeding in the current economic climate. Sukhi, you’re going to have to come back to me for this one. I definitely don’t have the answer to that one. I find that every business owner and startup founder that I’m speaking to these days, everyone across the board is finding it hard to find and secure clients. I chalk that up to the uncertainty that we’re all living through and experiencing and now this post pandemic world. But I definitely don’t have the answers for that other than to keep going and stay true to yourself and keep putting one foot in front of the other. And lastly, go ahead, Sukhi. Yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
I was just going to say I agree with you, please. You were saying lastly. Yes,

Speaker 2 (39:32):
I was just going to say for anyone listening on the call, if you are interested in getting started with entrepreneurship, maybe you have ideas or you’re in those really early brainstorming phases, my advice to anyone listening on the call would be to work with a startup, work with a startup or a business owner to gain the experience and knowledge of what it’s like to wear all of the hats all the time. That’s what running a business is all about for sure. Personally, LocAlley, we’re always looking for new talent and people to help build us build the next level of our early stage startup. So please reach out if that sounds like something you’d like to have a conversation about, but thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
Yeah, there’s a couple of points that you said there that were really interesting and I think very valid in the sense during this new economic time that we’re in, there is a lot level of uncertainty. And I think for every entrepreneur out there, and I mean I come from a family of entrepreneurs as well, and I remember during the recession and I was just a young kid back then, and I remember my father writing those Sterns as an entrepreneur. So it really does require resilience. And like you said, it’s put one step in front of the other. And that analogy, if you want to eat an elephant, you got to take it one bite at a time, right? Sometimes in these circumstances it becomes very true as well. And I think the other important point that you made was look at the market that you’re in, right?

(41:10)
Whether you’re internationally or in a different country, be very aware of what’s culturally acceptable and what’s not and how business is done. And I think as entrepreneurs always have to educate ourselves, and the key to educating yourself is also getting mentors who are already been in that space and asking questions and getting answers and showing your passion and what drives you really makes you attracted to other people when they want to say, Hey, you know what? I see something in you, or I remember I used to be like that, or something or another. And then they connect with you, and then they’re more than willing to answer questions and to kind of guide you. So finding those opportunities. I agree with you, Michelle, are really important. Michelle, I would just finally ask you, is there any other departing words of wisdom that you’d like to share with our listeners?

Speaker 2 (42:06):
Definitely don’t give up.

(42:12)
That would be my advice. Personally, I want to quit all the time, so I am using my own experience as a personal example. It is a long hard journey. There’s nothing easy, simple, and straightforward about what I do in any of my business endeavors. So it’s normal if you want to quit all the time. I know that from speaking to others personally, I’m blessed every time I experience those kinds of things, something happens to encourage me to keep going, whether that is a new partnership that opens up in my startup life, gaining a new client either in my music teaching life or my startup life workshop and speaking opportunities that come up. Those always seem to be perfectly timed with those, but what’s the point of all of this and

Speaker 1 (43:04):
All of that? It

Speaker 2 (43:05):
Doesn’t have just a bad day. It can happen all the time. So sorry, Sue. Go ahead.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
I totally agree with you having that experience as being a business person myself, and yes, I run a law firm too, but I had experience in the corporate world and things like that and probably entering into a new area as well for myself. I hear you. There are times where you do say to yourself, oh my God, I’m just feeling really discouraged. And I think it’s those moments when you do feel discouraged too. It’s important to reach out to accountable people that are in your life that build you up and speak life into you and speak hope and encourage you and remind you of your wins and remind you of your vision and where you’re going. So there’s a lot of surrounding yourself with the right people. And then self-talk. It also comes down to self-talk. You go, okay, look at yourself in the mirror and go, okay, you can do this. You got to keep going. Remember the big picture, don’t lose sight of the big picture. That kind of thing, right? Definitely

(44:18)
Resilience and passion for what you do. And when you combine those two, I think that encourages you not to give up. And I think the most successful entrepreneurs will always say the key to their success is the fact that they did not give up. And some of them have the crazy stories where things were looking so bad, but you know what? I kept going and look at where I am today. Sometimes those stories come out of those kind of mindset thinking, and I think it has a lot to do with mindset as well. So you have to be a certain type of person to be an entrepreneur, right, at the end

Speaker 2 (44:56):
Of the day as well. Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
Well, Michelle, thank you so much for taking the time out to speak with me today. I mean, there was such a great conversation and I do believe our listeners are going to benefit from a lot of the wisdom and all of and tools you shared as well. So thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
I hope to have you again. Would

Speaker 2 (45:22):
Love to. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
Thank you.