I always wanted control over my time and my future. I started cold calling local businesses and getting on sales calls to offer my services. I gained communication skills through that, and I just kept going. I got one client and now I’m working with a real estate agency. In the start, it was cold calling and again, I didn’t get a lot of clients from that, but it was a good learning experience just hopping on sales calls with business owners and talking with them. Then after that, I ran ads through Facebook.

We help local businesses get more opportunities. When I say opportunities, I mean I would offer customer lead generation to businesses. Most companies fall short, what they do is gather contact information like name, phone number and email. We take it a step further when we lead. We nurture that relationship, make sure they qualify and actually convert to business. We book them on the business owner’s calendar so all the owner has to do is show up and do what they’re best at.

First, I was booking appointments on the calendar. Once you nail down that lead generation aspect where you’re getting leads and booking them you get on a call with them. Sales is a life skill that you can take on. You can’t learn it in a week or a month or even a year, but you can improve on it. Getting better at sales and showing your proposition is really just showing them that you’re the person to work with and handle objections overall. I need to focus on more and improve sales because that is pretty much the bottleneck to any business out there and you can always improve sales.

I would say consistency and not letting feelings get a hold of you. That’s a huge thing that is pushing me through hard moments. Getting a grasp of the person you’re going to become in this process because we become a new person ultimately when we get through this whole journey. Aspiring to be that version of yourself that can achieve those goals versus hoping for just that end result.

You never know until you try. You can debate all day and think about whether it’s a great idea or not but you’re never going to know until you actually get out there and do the work and see if it works or not. That’s a problem that I had is debating whether to do this or do that. I’m always trying to get it perfect from the start, but I realize now that you know you’re not going to be perfect from the start. You have to make mistakes and that’s how you become better. I say just take action, take massive action. It’s a form of procrastination when you think you have the best idea or something you should start but wait. If you have an idea just start it right now. You should have a business by tomorrow. You shouldn’t really wait and keep thinking about it. You should take action; that’s the only way to figure something out.

Getting more clients and being able to service more people, but right now I’m kind of dialing-in on my fulfillment and getting the best results for each client. Also, providing more value to businesses out there and really transforming how client acquisition is done ultimately.

I’m going to Cuyahoga Community College for two years and then transferring to another college. I also want to network with people as well; talking to people, meeting new people – opportunities can arise from that.

The Veale Foundation is providing opportunities for young people to show their passion and show their entrepreneurial spirit. Kudos to you guys. If you are a student, definitely attend these events. The network and people that you meet there is valuable. It’s awesome all the way around. I would say, definitely attend those events because what do you have to lose? Absolutely nothing.