HER MILLION DOLLAR MY$TERY: EPISODE 010 – ALISHA GRIFFEY, DAINTREE CAPITAL

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On this podcast, we have been digging into the possible reasons that we just aren’t seeing the revenue results in women-owned businesses like we are for male-founded entities. Much of what we are learning is that Venture Capital is just not being invested into businesses founded by women and/or minorities. In fact, for women, it is only 3%!

Alisha Griffey, Founder, Daintree Capital, says “enough of this!” Let’s stop beating our heads against a glass ceiling and walls that might not even be the right room we are trying to enter! Bring on Daintree Capital and reinvent the industry of capital for women owned businesses. Leave it to a bright young woman to figure this out. Many women owned businesses need a capital infusion, but not the traditional VC funds that create a loss of control and/or revenue over time. Alisha has reinvented “debt funding” by offering non-collateralized loans to women owned businesses with a solid track record and at least $100,000 in revenue.

I love how Alisha Griffey calls the VC world the “Death Valley of Funding” for women. I couldn’t agree more. VC is sometimes exactly the answer, and I don’t discourage the right type of business at the right time to seek out Angel and VC funding, but many businesses founded by women just don’t fit the mold. And that is just fine but we need more options like Daintree Capital to provide fertile money ground for women and minorities in ALL industries. Listen in to this episode to hear how Alisha developed this concept and attacks the “3% issue” head on!

Listen to the podcast here.

Her Million Dollar My$tery: Episode 009 – Allison Chaney, Bootcamp Digital & Bare Knuckle Marketing

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Allison Chaney all but invented “SEO.” She was perfecting SEO for businesses before SEO was even a “thing!”  She spent 12 years doing marketing, digital, and SEO for a company she worked for when she decided to go out on her own and freelance. As a single mom, this was a huge leap of faith, but she took her own advice and ‘Stood Up, Stood Out, and Stood her Ground.” That moxie paid off as she left to do her own thing. Social media was emerging, and she knew how to create fully-integrated strategies long before businesses knew how to use social media to market their brand and sell their products.

Talking to Allison, on the podcast or in everyday life, is a full-energy experience! Positivity and “I can do this” emanates from her every pore! This energy drove her to build her business, with the help of Aviatra (when we were Bad Girl Ventures), take the advice of trusted mentors, and eventually exit her Bare Knuckle Marketing business for a tidy sum and freedom do what she really loves.

Listen in on how this “Bad Girl” created an industry around her skill set and teaches others to do the same!

Listen to the podcast here.

 

 

Her Million Dollar My$tery: Episode 008 – Carla Dearing, FlexWage/Sum180

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From Wall Street to non-profit CEO to a FinTech founder! Carla Dearing and I could have gone on for hours.

FinTech is not a place for the faint of heart, but Carla Dearing was a woman on a mission. Her education and Wall Street experience with Morgan Stanley’s consulting department set her up with the knowledge and connections–but it was her grit, determination, and smarts that assured her success in the FinTech space. Carla shared that her secrets (many!) to success were creating a disruptive FinTech product, maneuvering a strategic acquisition at the same time she acquired capital (very rare, and not easy!), and making her product “mission-critical”. FlexWage/Sum180 grew out of this richly cultivated field of know-how and determination.

Carla also warned that the FinTech space requires significant capital to be successful–upwards of $500,000,000 in some cases. Given the challenges that women can face in accessing capital, that benchmark seems daunting when looking up at it from the ground floor of a FinTech startup. That’s where the brilliant move of acquisition meets capital really paid off well for Sum180. She also shares that in the FinTech environment, as a founder, you literally have to do everything right. No mistakes allowed. But the pressure didn’t stop Carla Dearing and her team from positioning themselves as an institutional startup, incubating inside an innovative partner’s organization, and shooting for the stars.

Join Carla and me while we dig into this perfect equation for success on Her Million Dollar My$tery!

Listen to the podcast here!

Her Million Dollar My$tery: Episode 007 – Christy Pretzinger, WriterGirl

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One of the best rewards of interviewing women for the Her Million Dollar My$tery podcast is that every single woman and every single business is perfectly unique! This was really evident when talking to Christy Pretzinger, owner of www.WriterGirl.com. When she bought this business from its founder, she actually really only bought the name! But Christy soon became the actual “writer girl” as she landed a huge contract with The Ohio State University and literally created a new category of business writing services by bringing groups of writers to a business writing project.

Christy has rocked the “Million Dollar My$tery” right out of the park with current annual revenues well over $4M, and she cracked the $1M ceiling all the way back in 2009 – without any capital whatsoever! Well, that’s not exactly true – she focused on human capital, and that was the investment she needed. Human capital and top-notch quality, as well as focusing on the soft skills needed to build and maintain client relationships.

Christy attributes her rapid and growing success to several basic concepts:

We are smarter together (great team building, which has assured that no one she has ever hired has actually ever left!!) Don’t compete with your salespeople, play the long game, and follow the Golden Rule. She says getting out of her own way was a game-changer.

You will be super motivated after listening to Christy Pretzinger on Her Million Dollar My$tery Episode #007!

Listen to the podcast here!

 

Her Million Dollar My$tery: Episode 006 – Mavis Linneman-Clark, The Delish Dish, Made by Mavis & Kickstart Kitchen

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Journalist Food Blogger turned Culinary Queen! This queen took her hometown by storm and became the “caterer to the stars” in the Cincinnati/Northern KY region in a fast few years.

In business now 8 years, Mavis Linneman-Clark began with a love of parties – hosting parties and serving creative delicious meals to friends. She continued to work full-time on her blogging and other journalism work while she went to culinary school in Chicago, moved back here, and got her catering business off the ground. She is on track to break the million dollar barrier, and would have hit that mark in 2020 had COVID-19 not jumped in her way.

Even in challenging times, Mavis kept her eye on the prize. It was a CHOICE to scale her business, and was the goal all along. Constant pivoting along the way as the business climate changed or as opportunities presented themselves. Leaning on the advice of good mentors, knowing where your talents are best used…these are some of her many “ingredients” for success.

Join us on Episode #006 of Her Million Dollar Mystery to learn more about the Amazing Ms. Mavis of The Delish Dish, Made by Mavis, & Kickstart Kitchen! Oh, and spoiler alert – her famous woman entrepreneur that she would have dinner with built an empire LONG before social media!

Listen to the podcast here!

Her Million Dollar My$tery: Episode 005 – Heather Doeberling, Boca Loca & Boss ChickNBeer

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Whenever I talk to Heather Doeberling, I feel like I have just stepped into a Disney movie and am chatting with a new woman superhero! Heather has more energy in her little finger than most people possess in their whole body! But besides the energy, what is most striking about Heather is how incredibly generous she is with her time and talents. She has a genuine interest in seeing others succeed and taking care of her employees like family. And it pays off! She has loyal, dedicated employees who feel a sense of ownership at Boca Loca and Boss ChickNBeer – which then translates to very happy customers who are regular, repeat visitors.

What started as great food, out of a passion for creating and sharing culinary creations, became a food truck because that was the smartest, most cost effective channel of distribution. Necessity is the mother of invention, and this single mom had little cash to start with, so a food truck served as the kitchen and the restaurant. An awesome product and a creative method to reach her community to sample her amazingly tasty fresh burritos and bowls was a winning combo as she recouped her investment in the truck in just 3 months!

“I can make anything happen” is a mantra of Heather’s. “If you do it, do it full force.” Those are her sage words of wisdom to others as well as know your runway of cash and don’t let debt get ahead of you.

I can’t wait for you to join me on Episode 005 of Her Million Dollar Mystery – the podcast where we dig into what holds women back from breaking the million or multi-million dollar revenue barrier, and more importantly what propels women forward? Heather Doeberling is definitely on the propel forward path!

Listen to the podcast here!

 

Her Million Dollar My$tery: Episode 004 – Ann Keeling, Cristofoli-Keeling

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“You don’t know everything!” It isn’t every day that someone is brave enough to say that about themselves, but Ann Keeling, Founder/Owner of Cristofoli-Keeling and her new startup Cristofoli – an American-made, European-inspired line of sustainable branded accessories, is confident enough to say it right out loud! “Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you.” Great advice for all of us.

For 21 years, Ann has been supporting the growth of B2B, B2C and Non-Profits with her high-end marketing strategy business. She now offers very affordable a la carte marketing services to start-ups, who traditionally don’t have the funds for a big expensive marketing company, but are in the stage when investing in branding, market research, and other needs is most critical for the sustainability of the business.

So, what does Ann think holds women back? Lack of confidence, not trusting your own gut, and a lack of focus or a focal point that is hard for others to understand. Great thoughts for other women-owned businesses who want to break through that million dollar ceiling.

Ann is seeing more women acting on their ideas, leaving corporate America to start their own gig. They are rethinking their priorities and taking risks associated with building the life they want to lead.

Join me in listening to Episode #004 and hear more from Ann Cristofoli-Keeling. You will come away feeling brave and inspired. I know I did!

Listen to the podcast here!

 

 

Her Million Dollar My$tery: Episode 003 – Laura Borsky & Francie Ruppert, SaferSit

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What could be better than a partnership between a stay-at-home mom who needs intermittent childcare and an enterprising high school student at an all girls’ high school?

That’s how SaferSit got started! Think “Rover.com” but for little people instead of pets! All background-checked and cleared for sitting. No worries for mom, and safe environments for the sitters.

Laura Borsky was at home with her young children and found it difficult to find safe, reliable childcare since she wasn’t looking to hire a full-time nanny. In comes Francie Ruppert, a high school student with a “Babysitters R Us” business through which she frequently delegated her extra jobs to her friends at school. The idea percolated between these two amazing women to join forces and formalize Francie’s lunch table business into an actual start-up.

Now SaferSit has over 700 high school and college girls who love kids and want to make some extra money in three different regional markets. Laura and Francie know that the secret to success will be the mobile app they are working to build. It will be direct from your phone and customized to the market and needs of the customer and suppliers (sitters!) They know it needs to be fully automated, because with this much business they obviously can’t book all these sitting gigs by hand! The challenge – finding good, affordable tech support to build out the app. Doesn’t seem like that should be a problem, but more and more we are hearing of great technology that never gets off the block because talent is hard to come by. Staying local limits the talent; going national or to the coasts increases cost and risk substantially. The answer? We need more women in tech who want to work in their own markets and can price themselves competitively.

Laura’s dream for SaferSit is to see what life is like with the SaferSit app. She knows what she went through trying to juggle small children and multiple phone calls & texts to find sitters. Full time moms (or dads) need breaks, and when their spouse comes home after a long day of work, watching the kiddos for a couple hours doesn’t always work out so well.

When asked what apps THEY would put on their phones in addition to SaferSit, Francie would have her 3 go tos: GroupMe to stay up with her 700 friends who babysit, The Hopper because she has the travel bug, and the PostIt app – she is obviously an organizer! Laura on the other hand, in a different stage of life, likes Venmo – because that’s how SaferSit gets paid, and Amazon Whole Foods app for the deals and extra 10% off, and her Mind Body app because moms need to practice self care for sure!

I loved talking to these two inspirational ladies who came through Aviatra EXPLORE® just 4 years ago! You will love hearing their stories on Episode #003 of Her Million Dollar My$tery!

Listen to the podcast here!

Her Million Dollar My$tery: Episode 002 – Lisa Woodruff, Organize365.com

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Never a dull moment when hanging out with Lisa Woodruff – founder and CEO of Organize365.com! Thanks for being one of our first Her Million Dollar My$tery Podcast guests, Lisa Woodruff!

So what are Lisa’s secrets to crashing through the million dollar barrier? Focus, pushing past the 5 year mark, and keeping your eye on the prize 10 years out from today. Lisa decided she was going to be THE national expert in “online organizing.” She determined where she wanted the business to be in ten years and drilled into that goal with laser focus! She built a timeline and stuck to it. At times she had to back up to keep going forward. At one point she hired 7 experts to focus on 7 areas of her business and for 7 weeks she honed in on each of those areas of the business and built the structure of the business to match the timeline to reach her 10 year goal. That was the secret sauce to blowing past the revenue barriers.

Lisa also always does her homework! She reads and consumes more information that I think is humanly possible and magically retains and applies what she consumes to grow her business and enhance the lives of her clients.

Hang out with Lisa and I on episode 002 of Her Million Dollar My$tery and catch her enthusiasm. I promise it is contagious is a good way!

Listen to the podcast here!

 

Her Million Dollar My$tery: Episode 001 – Eisha Armstrong, Vecteris, Inc.

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After spending time with Eisha Armstrong, cofounder of Vecteris, Inc., I always come away feeling wiser, more motivated, and strangely calm! She has that impact on people.

I am pretty sure she was born this way – exuding leadership, remaining calm, and always successful–but she says, “not necessarily so.” During our podcast, I learned that her highly successful- business, Vecteris, Inc., which had hockey stick revenue growth in its first year, followed what she calls “a complete and utter disaster” of another business. So in other words, she cut her founder teeth on a business that just didn’t work, and took what she learned and applied it to Vecteris.

For Eisha, it all comes back to her personal “why.” Mindset is the most critical component of her success. Fearlessness is a corporate value at Vecteris, and putting the customer first and understanding their goals is paramount. When asked why women-owned businesses might struggle to break through the revenue barriers, Eisha sights mindset and not asking for help as two factors that can hold us back. She is also wise about the importance of doing your homework. Spend time and money early on consumer research, validating ideas, and having those tough, in-depth customer conversations.

Even though this isn’t Eisha’s first rodeo, and she did draw on her extensive corporate background and connections, Vecteris’ trajectory is super impressive and a company to keep an eye on in the coming year.

Oh, and by the way, she practices what she preaches and gives back 5% of net profits in dollars or time to organizations that empower women. Aviatra Accelerators has definitely benefitted from that mindset and generosity as Vecteris has created and developed our Aviatra365® online digital curriculum offering!

So, Eisha, while you seem calm, cool, and collected, you have an inner drive that is infectious! Thanks for sharing with me on Her Million Dollar My$tery Podcast!

Listen to the podcast here!