The Favorites List: Advice That Resonates and Can Help You Now and In the Future
Hey, everyone! 👋👋🏿👋🏽This week’s newsletter focuses on tips that serve as a “best practices” type of list for you to consider. The advice comes from entrepreneurs I’ve profiled during the first half of the year. The list is a quick read but gives you things to keep in mind as you work hard to make your small business dreams come true.
🌴SAMÍ HAIMAN-MARRERO, FOUNDER & PRESIDENT OF URBANDER
STARTING OUT:
“It doesn’t matter if you’re straight out of college, if you’re 12 years old, you know, and you’re starting your YouTube channel… get a good accountant. That’s it. That’s the #1 advice I give everybody.”
🌴JORGE VALLADARES – ARIA COUNSELING FOUNDER, TENURED PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR & REGISTERED MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELOR INTERN
STEEPED IN SKILLS (mid-career):
“The first thing I would say is, take care of yourself. For the single parent or the working parent or the parent who’s going to school and running a business [and] running a home, take care of yourself. Stay healthy. Stay strong. And if your journey takes time, that’s okay. That’s all right. It’ll be there for you…. When we become frenetic and anxious, we also become messy, sloppy, and we make mistakes. There’s time. And there will be even more time, if you take care of yourself.”
🌴ESTEE SANTONI, FOUNDER & CEO, VIVA AGENCY
STARTING OVER:
Santoni approached this question in terms of how to break it to your current employer.
POSSIBLE SCRIPT: “So grateful for this opportunity. But my side hustle, my passion, has now become something that I think I can live off. And I want to give this opportunity a shot.”
🌴GLADYS SALICRUP – MAJORITY OWNER & OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR OF TRAPLINE PEST SOLUTIONS
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING PROACTIVE TO PROTECT YOUR COMPANY’S FUTURE:
“God forbid, if something happened to him [Wayne, her husband and business partner], we needed to resume operations. I needed to be able to take over. Like not [having] to stress with trying to find someone with that certification and bring them on board. I already took care of that.”
🌴CARLOS TAMAJON – CEO & FOUNDER OF THE CRAFTY GAMER
HOW WHAT SEEMS LIKE UNRELATED EXPERIENCE CAN END UP BEING QUITE VALUABLE:
“Understanding how to talk to people and understand people. That is something that I didn’t realize I needed…”
And now?
“If you asked me when I was 22 if I would ever need it, I would’ve told you, ‘No.’ Now that I’m in my 30s, I would tell you, ‘Absolutely. I wouldn’t trade it for anything else.’”
🌴DENISE MUSSELWHITE – CEO & FOUNDER OF TECH & THRIVE
ON HOW TO STOP VIEWING REALITY AS A STRUGGLE BETWEEN YOUR WORK LIFE AND PERSONAL LIFE:
“… when you show up as yourself in your work, and that self comes with children, with spouses, with bad days and good, it’s not so hard when you acknowledge that they are part of who you are.”
Musselwhite believes that “when you find out how you work best and what about your work triggers your worst, you can work around it. And, then, it doesn’t feel so much like such a struggle…”
🌴CAROL HINDSMAN – CO-FOUNDER & CTO OF JOURNEYTRACK
I’LL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN:
“I think the answer is ‘why’ I wouldn’t do it again, right? Because the ‘why’ tells me, perhaps, there’s something I need to change before I get to go through something like that again. It could be that I learned something about myself in the process.”
🌴MIREN OCA – FOUNDER & DIRECTOR OF THE OCAQUATICS SWIM SCHOOL
HOW TO CELEBRATE - AND CELEBRATE OFTEN
“I think celebration is really important. We celebrate a lot. You know, we celebrate when we get 5-star reviews. We celebrate when… we hit certain milestones. We celebrate all the time.”
🌴INSPIRATION FOR THIS ISSUE:
I once dated a guy who loved it when I would share different parts of a book with him as I was reading the book.
On this particular day, we were in a park and he told me he wanted to re-live the feeling, the lessons and the inspiration that a particular book brought out for him.
This is actually good advice.
How many times have you read something that you found profound, really useful and, possibly, life-changing?
In one word, you were inspired.
And then you went right back to doing things like before.
It’s amazing how quickly we can feel exhilarated.
And then, just like that, we lose the momentum.
Is it information overload? Too many responsibilities? Or is it just hard to change habits?
I’ve talked about the importance of consistency before.
In this case, it’s almost as if we need to first reinforce the message to really retain its lesson.
You can find some great advice online.
I’m definitely inspired by the content the entrepreneurs featured in Generation Si! provide.
So that’s why I like to periodically publish The Favorites list and my Quick Bites list.
It’s a reminder to re-read favorite books to re-energize and re-inspire yourself.
In the end, there are a variety of reasons why certain people are successful.
I just try to share what’s worked and what hasn’t worked for the entrepreneurs I profile.
Take what resonates with you. Adapt some of the advice to your business. Leave the rest, if it doesn’t make sense to your particular situation.
Just remember: it’s worth revisiting tips to reignite your fire.
Why do I say this?
Well, to explain, I’m going to go back to the book that guy I dated wanted me to read to him on that particular day in the park.
It was Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money – That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!”
As it turns out, years later, that ex and his partners ended up selling their company for hundreds of millions of dollars.
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🌴 Life is about gratitude. Thank you for reading, sharing and subscribing to Generation Si! I’ll be back next week with another profile of an inspiring entrepreneur in our community. Until then, remember that #theskyisNOTthelimit. 😺
