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Category: Business

Why This 29-Year-Old Left Her Desk Job To Prosecute War Crimes With Technology

Due to ongoing political turmoil and social unrest, the Middle East is not exactly everyone’s dream job destination right now.

Except for one daring woman, that is.

Sweet, polite, and just 29 years old, Raquel Vasquez Llorente doesn’t look like the kind of person you’d expect to see flying into military airports in the midst of war. But don’t let her appearance fool you — she packs a serious punch.

The lawyer and 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe honoree is an original team member behind the innovative app eyeWitness to Atrocities, developed by the International Bar Association (IBA), which aims to empower civilians to capture and report evidence of war crimes on their smartphones.

I caught up with Llorente about her taste for pursuing dangerous work on this week’s podcast episode, “Fueling Your Passion: When To Choose Anger Over Love w/ Raquel Vasquez Llorente”

Growing up in a tumultuous northern Spain during the 1990s, Llorente was exposed to the harsh face of reality from an early age. It was then that she developed an interest in civil violence and its implications for human justice and desired to pursue a law degree.

Her path to prosecute war crimes started out relatively peaceful, with a government internship at the National Commission of Energy in Spain checking algorithms for electricity prices. “It wasn’t something that kept me awake at night,” says Llorente.

It wasn’t until she ended up in Libya in 2013, at the start of their civil war, that she could see the impact of these crimes on civilians.

In that process, Llorente found that, “The things that drive me the most are things that make me really upset and angry. Impunity for war crimes really upsets me to my limits so I wanted to go into international justice and feel that upset all the time about the crimes that are being committed and going unpunished.”

Llorente’s anger became her fuel and instead of repressing it, she let that guide her forward. Ultimately, leading her to join as one of the first few team members of eyeWitness to Atrocities, where that fuel is used daily through channeling technology as a means for ending impunity for war crimes.

Since launching last year, eyeWitness users can download the app for free to their phones, to record, store, and send footage that can later be verified for use in media coverage or legal cases.

The app automatically records the GPS coordinates of where the image was captured and stores the image in a vault maintained by LexisNexis , the world’s largest electronic database for legal information and public records. It’s aiming to increase the number of successful prosecutions by eliminating the need for the person to show up in court especially if they are unwilling or unable to testify.

Through Llorente’s participation at eyeWitness, since joining in 2015 as a war crimes analyst, she is able to combine all of her passions into one form of self-expression- her love of law, love of being in the field, and love of seeing justice served.

Llorente says. “It is very important to love what you do, but almost more important that whatever you do or are trying to solve makes you upset and angry so you keep going. If love works then that’s fine and if it works better being upset then go there instead.”

It’s not every day a woman chooses to tackle the brutal offenses of war criminals through harnessing her anger. Yet, what a different world we might live in if expressing anger were not so uncommon.

How will you step up to create the kind of world you desire living in?

This article was originally published on Forbes

February 28, 2018
Why One 24-Year-Old Decided To Grow His Business Without Startup Capital

Ask just about any founder the number one resource they feel they need to get started. The answer you will most likely hear? Seed money.

These days, it has basically become a requirement for startups to get funding with venture capital. There’s an emphasis on scaling as quickly as possible, because growth is believed to reflect future success and an eventual high dollar payout.

But does this method actually produce the desired results? Michael Levine of Global Food Solutions, a New York-based company that provides high quality, locally sourced food products to schools across the US, says he’s succeeded by following a different strategy.

The 24-year-old CEO and chef now makes over $15 million in revenue annually, and hasn’t given stake of his business to investors. He says he isn’t willing to force business growth, and instead focuses on staying flexible and present.

I caught up with Levine about his commitment to honoring the process of his startup’s development on this week’s podcast episode, “Why You Can’t Rush Growth w/ Food Company Founder Michael Levine Who Generates $15 Million In Revenue Annually.”

It all started with a muffin. The artificially flavored, high-fructose corn syrup filled bakery item troubled Levine and inspired him to create a healthier version. He swapped oil for applesauce, switched to whole grains, and sweetened it with yogurt. At this point, he had no intention of impacting anyone else (like the three million students he does today) — he was simply focused on creating a quality muffin.

When Levine launched the muffin, he focused on finding existing large scale networks of distribution, which let him to the NYC public school system. After sending a few emails to key decision makers branding himself as a recent college graduate looking to sell his product he was able to secure a meeting. Soon after he began receiving offers soliciting over one million muffins a month.

Levine’s healthy initiative coincided with the launch of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” program in 2010, aimed towards fighting childhood obesity, which put the school food service industry in desperate need of nutritious food products.

Although the monthly output of one million muffins would have yielded tremendous profits, Levine felt it was a stretch. He opted instead to grow the business at a pace he could manage, one step at a time–sourcing local bakeries for production and having his clients pick up the product instead of offering delivery.

Levine was clear that he didn’t want to focus his efforts on playing in the ‘venture capital bubble’. As he saw it, “I struggled to comprehend this philosophy that it’s okay for a startup to not make money for long periods of time. I wanted to create a revenue generating model from the start instead of taking venture capital money, hiring a bunch of people, and growing the company overnight.” Levine goes on to say, “Let it grow at the rate it is supposed to without forcing that growth.”

That choice proved to be incredibly valuable. In allowing the business to unfold naturally, without pressure from funders, Levine was able to focus on quality and production, which set his company apart from others in the industry. Ultimately, this led to over $15 million in annual revenue.

Want to take a similar approach when starting your company? Consider the following steps to know when to back off and let your business run its course for a more natural growth process.

It doesn’t have to be perfect to be profitable. When you let go of the need to be perfect, you open yourself up to release more products that will probably satisfy the market need just as well. “Some of the best baseball players in history bat 300 (out of 1000) and they’re getting paid 100 million dollars. So every ideation you have, it’s not going to be perfect, nor should it be,” Levine says.

Don’t rush into growth. Growing should feel natural — think of how an organism grows at a steady rate to sustain itself every step of the way. If the lungs were to grow too fast, the tissue might tear and the entire breathing process would be destroyed. Allow your company to acquire the necessary resources in every department first, and you will find that when you are ready to upsize, the right opportunities will present themselves at the right time.

Your first idea isn’t always your best. Give yourself room to go through the creative process. Levine shares, “I think a lot of people get stuck in the mindset that they’ve had this great idea and they’ve put the whole thing together and they plan to execute that, but a lot of times you can’t execute what happens on paper because there’s a lot of dynamics that are gonna change when you bring a project from inception to reality.” Be patient and let experimentation happen as often as it needs to.

Failure is part of the process. Making mistakes is part of the natural progression of the creative process — it alerts you to what isn’t working so you can build a better product. The more you fail, the better the result you’ll end up with. Try to disidentify with the emotional aspect of failure and use it as a platform to improve. Levine says, “I view failure more as just you’re turning the car to the left and now you’re not going straight anymore.”

This article was originally published on Forbes

February 28, 2018
How To Move Up The Ranks: 4 Steps To Go From Employee To CEO In 2 Years

Some of the greatest success stories have the humblest roots. Take Apple, for example, the tech giant that began with virtually no capital in Steve Jobs parents’ basement.

It’s amazing how, with enough determination and a will to get the job done, nearly anyone can create a business that is incredibly prosperous.

That’s exactly what we see with the story of Matt Gray, who worked as unpaid employee at Herb, the largest online publication for news and culture in cannabis, until they made him their CEO.

Gray attributes his success to finding problems within the business and then quickly solving them. “At the end of the day a lot of these companies just need a hustler–someone to really get work done at a rapid pace,” he says. “My approach was to just bring as much onto my plate as possible… at the end of a term you’re irreplaceable because so much of the business relies on you.”

Listen for the details about how he managed to pull this off on this week’s podcast episode, “How To Grow A Business By 2000% In 2 Years w/ Herb’s CEO Matt Gray.”

Herb, formally The Stoner’s Cookbook, was originally started eight years ago by two New Zealanders as a user generated site for recipes for cooking with cannabis. Over the last few years, it has evolved dramatically to produce viral, data-driven content around culture, news, and entertainment surrounding the cannabis industry worldwide.

Since Gray joined the Herb team two years ago, he’s helped them grow 2000%. His commitment to setting aggressive goals has elevated their Facebook page above the 6 million follower mark, and built a solid case for his position as CEO.

“Let your work speak for itself,” Gray says. “If you’re having to sell people extremely hard on what your worth is to something, then chances are the actual work you’re doing isn’t speaking for itself. It should pretty obvious to them whether they need you on board or not.”

Want to learn how to start from the bottom and land yourself as CEO? Follow these steps:

Take relentless action

When Gray decided he wanted to leave his tech company and switch industries to the cannabis space, he reached out to 2,500 people in 3 days to get his first lead. The way he saw it, “the more people I talked to something really positive had to happen, it is kind of like a numbers game.” If you want to switch careers or move into a new space, follow Gray’s lead. Every person you talk to will open doors for you in some capacity, even if it is to introduce you to someone else. Stay committed and the results you want will come.

Get on the calendar

Securing a spot on the CEO or founder’s calendar for even a brief phone chat will immediately give you an advantage. You will be able to listen for what is going on in the business and share what you can do to help and get involved. Gray says his first step was sending a simple, compelling email to the company’s founder. He stated his interests, skill set, and availability to work for next to nothing under the subject line, “10 minutes to chat on Tuesday?”

Most CEO’s are super busy, so keep in mind your email will probably be read on mobile. Keep it short and state the value upfront so you can make it an easy “yes” for the CEO to take the next step.

Be a team player

Learning how to mobilize the team and hold each person accountable is what will demonstrate your case for being a leader within the company. “Leaders create leaders,” is what millennial thought leader, Gerard Adams says. Be willing to lead by example in your actions and treat every challenge or problem like it is your responsibility. Your actions won’t go unnoticed and when it is time to make key decisions, your name will be at the top of mind.

Figure out how to help the company grow

When you are able to contribute to the company’s bottom line, your position and value solidify at a higher rank. Start by looking at what existing outlet will help the company’s bottom line grow the fastest and work from there. It could be in direct sales, email marketing, customer retention, fulfillment of services, etc. For Gray, he saw it was with social media and decided to put all his attention on growing their Facebook page. In just 2 years he got the page to over 6 million fans and an audience reach of upwards of 50 million. Ultimately allowing Herb to exponentially monetize and grow and making him the clear choice for CEO.

And the rest is history. How will you write your own?

This article was originally published on Forbes

February 28, 2018
5 Steps To Perfecting A Pitch And Selling With Purpose

We’ve all heard or seen a sales pitch. It goes something like, “look at my this, you need this, let me tell you about this, you should want this, you should really buy this,” etc.

But, that’s the trouble with the traditional sales pitch – it is often unsolicited, immediately putting the other person on the defensive. They feel the need to defend themselves while the one doing the selling feels the need to jump.

It’s highly unlikely you’re going to close a sale when you’ve created a wall between you and your client. The key is, according to the host of The Foundation podcast and founder of the group Selling On Purpose, Frank Mocerino, to “help facilitate your client in discovering what they want and align yourself with them.”

Mocerino has personally negotiated over $6 million in deals, across a wide range of markets, in the last few years. He’s developed a unique method of negotiation based on the psychology of decision-making and the principle of selling on the foundation of integrity.

I caught up with him to talk about his game-changing sales strategy on this week’s podcast episode, “How To Overcome Your Fear Of Selling w/ Selling On Purpose’s Founder Frank Mocerino.”

Mocerino shares, “You should just throw the idea that you should pitch someone out the window. The way people decide [to bite is after] they need to come to an understanding from themselves. Once I started understanding the way people were actually making decisions, what I said didn’t matter as much, my tonality didn’t matter as much, but what mattered was that I was there to help people discover undiscovered problems in their life or business.”

Mocerino has found that the secret to selling boils down to these five steps:

Step #1: Ask Powerful Questions

In order to align yourself with your client, you need to understand what is going on in their mind when they are making a decision. Your role is to ask them powerful, clarifying questions to help them uncover the root of their problem before identifying a solution. Think about the last time you bought a car. If the salesperson was effective, they asked you what you were gonna use the car for, what features you wanted, how important gas mileage was, etc before you made the purchase.

Step #2: Connect Them To What They Really Desire

Ask them what their ideal experience would be like a year from now — where they want to be financially, the kind of experiences they want to have, the freedom this would afford them, and what this looks and feels like. Shift the focus away from their problems and connect them to what they are truly after.

Step #3: Facilitate A Discovery Process For Them

Don’t tell them what they need — help them to come to an understanding of things for themselves. Your ability to listen is what’s most important here. Mocerino says, “be interested rather than interesting.”

Step #4: Align Their Solution With What You Can Offer

Most people don’t realize they have a broken decision-making process.This is the trick to getting them to feel like they thought of your product before you even mentioned it. When they’ve identified a solution, frame your product as the perfect match.

Step #5: Refine Your Approach

Make sure to take note of what isn’t working, as well, so you can make adjustments and be more effective in the future. Mocerino says, “If you’re anything like me, you just want to focus on the things you’re doing well, and if somebody tells you that something isn’t working for them, or they question what you’re saying, you want to go bury your head in the sand. But that was exactly where I knew I could learn the most from.”

This article was originally published on Forbes

February 28, 2018
The Feel-Good Business Model: Why Sticking To What You Know Can Lead To Success

Imagine if you could build your business doing only what feels good to you, all the time. No more spending countless hours learning how to code, trying to become Instagram famous, hacking the SEO algorithm, or self-bookkeeping. Sound impossible?

Meet 28-year-old Jordan Gray, a relationship expert with five best-selling books on Amazon and an audience of over 20 million readers. He’s achieved all this in the three years since launching his personal website.

Gray’s secret to success is what I call the “Feel-Good Business Model,” the simple idea of operating your business exclusively around your core strengths–the things you enjoy doing and do well.

Gray details the Feel-Good approach to his business on this week’s podcast episode, “Why Being 100% Yourself is the #1 Life & Business Hack.”

On his entrepreneurial path, Gray witnessed many of his peers striving to adhere to the “correct method” for success. They believed in a “tried and true” path that involved doing things they didn’t actually want to do, but believed they had to do, in order to make it.

Gray shares, “There are so many things that were constantly being offered up to me, people saying you have to know this, you have to do this, you have to be at least self-sufficient in these things, etc.”

With so much advice out there, and the rise of a $9 billion coaching industry, it is easy to get overwhelmed in sorting information. Focusing on the next “big hit tactic” or the newest social media channel fosters “shiny object syndrome,” a type of thinking that can distract you from your own organic process, while wasting time and defeating passion.

Distinguishing your own set of criteria for what feels good to you and only spending time on the things that are aligned with your core strengths is a key to being successful.

For Gray, that criteria is a unique blend of “stubbornness and ignorance.” Stubbornness to only do what brings him the most joy, and ignorance to everything else. Gray shares, “There was a very conscious shrugging off of all the things that didn’t speak to me… For me, writing’s really easy, coaching’s really easy, so from day one I was like ‘What am I really good at?’ How do I basically only do that and stay as ignorant as possible about everything else that aren’t my core gifts?”

Once you start operating from this new “Feel-Good” criteria you can more easily say no to the things that don’t fit inside it. As Gray goes on to say, “I don’t want to learn how to point a domain name, or set up my WordPress site, or be my own bookkeeper. I don’t even consult, or send out polls and go ‘Hey, what do you guys want to hear about now?’”

His commitment to honoring what felt true for him in each moment helped him generate enough revenue to outsource the things he didn’t enjoy doing, so that he could continue to focus energy into his gifts and profit from what he loved.

With an audience of 20 million readers only three years since he started, Gray’s Feel-Good business model has undoubtedly worked out for him. Consider these three steps to implement the Feel-Good business model into your own life:

1. Hone in on your gifts. Your strengths are the access point to your contribution to the world. Identify what your top three gifts are and stick to them. You were born to do them, so be stubborn if you have to and financial success will follow.

2. Be authentic and you will attract the right group to support your mission. As Gray says, “if you are only willing to show up at 20%, then the best you can do is attract someone that is 20% aligned with you.” If you are willing to show up at 100%, even when it is uncomfortable, stretching, or scary, then you will be able to broadcast all of yourself to the world and attract a full match in line with your desire and intention.

3. Integrate your personal and professional lives. Life is no longer meant to be compartmentalized with strict lines between the personal and professional. The division between being “on/off work” is melting away as we are moving into greater autonomy with our self-expression. Allow yourself to bring play into your work life, and you will enjoy what you are doing and won’t feel burned out.

This article was originally published on Forbes

February 28, 2018