TONIKA BRUCE

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TONIKA BRUCE

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These Outdated Leadership Practices Are Crippling Your Business

Outdated Leadership: The face of the business and workplace environment has changed drastically over the past decade, thanks to aggressive tech advances. Even more of these transitions have happened during and post the pandemic period.

Despite the changing world around us, we all are vulnerable to blind spots in how we work or run our affairs. Those of us in business have to be wary. Blind spots can easily lead to stagnation, even as we work tirelessly with the best intentions. As a leadership and business coach, it is my job to help you identify areas of improvement.

So, today I have a list of outdated leadership practices that may be stifling your business growth.

Here is what to shake up if you still rely upon these practices in 2023.

Rigid Hierarchies

Hierarchical leadership once worked with a clearly defined chain of command, but as the workforce changes, so do the behavior and perceptions.

Organizations with highly structured environments and clear differences between low-level and high-level employees kill innovation. There is less collaboration in departments and across status levels. As a result, the business can’t utilize the employees’ full potential to innovate and problem-solve.

Some companies may invite opportunities for employees to share ideas and ditch the chains of command but still hold on to status symbols. These can just as easily alienate different employees. Think dress code, office layouts, and even titles.

One way to deal with this is to provide greater responsibilities to lower-level employees occasionally- for instance, as team leaders on projects. Relaxing the dress code and reorganizing office layouts are also shake-ups to consider.

Traditional Work Hours

Remote or in-office work. After the pandemic, the discussion heated on whether businesses should continue to allow employees to work from home and log work hours as tradition demanded.

Work has already changed, and companies that embrace a hybrid approach benefit more from the modern practices of flexible work hours.

With this, a new business doesn’t have to only rely on someone local for a job. That means faster delivery timelines and competitive prices.

Traditional Company Career Ladder

Traditional leadership prioritizes tenure or time with the company as a factor for promotion.
Yet the growing new workforce of generation Z and millennials prioritize new experiences over time in one organization or field.

A business that continues to operate under the old loyalty and tenure contract risks losing talent and creativity- the workforce moves toward a new social contract where security and benefits are less of incentives. Instead the current workforce is eager for roles with new experiences and flexibility.

(Relying on) Annual Reviews for Performance Evaluation

The old leadership relies on end-of-year reviews and monetary bonus rewards. While these worked, they only focused on competency and stacked ranking at the expense of the employees’ impact and growth in the company.

The military-style evaluation leaves employees with low scores demotivated and looking for opportunities elsewhere.

Companies have shifted away from hours and in-person presence as productivity measures, instead focusing on task completion. It has changed the way success is evaluated and opened up opportunities for previously untenable flexible working arrangements that prioritize output over attendance times.

Not to mention more employees prefer regular feedback from their leaders. 85% of millennials would feel more confident in their positions if they had more frequent performance reviews with their employers, according to research by TriNet.

Today many aspects of the business are fast-paced; reviews and feedback should also be ongoing. Regular evaluation of work brings in the concept of coaching and not managing.

Pressure to Deliver Short-Term Results

Working to meet deadlines is a must, especially with clients. But frequent time-intensive deadlines are a creativity killer.

An overemphasis on immediate objectives can blur employees’ view of the company’s long-term strategy and big picture. In such environments, employees prioritize quick solutions and completing tasks while leaving untapped potential in its wake.

It is up to management teams and HR departments alike to ensure that everyone understands the importance of optimizing overall performance instead of merely seeking short term gains.

Fixing Problems Instead of Coaching

Managers focus on process and structure, ensuring a standardized way of doing things.

Coaching, on the other hand, is about building on employees strengths to help them perform at their peak. Taking charge of everything and jumping in to fix problems are outdated leadership style aspects that cripple teams.

To flourish and grow, it takes more than just being structured with your team members – true success comes from recognizing the place of coaching by enabling the team members to identify solutions for the challenges.

Modern leadership is about coaching and mentoring those you lead. That means you will spend at least 35-40% of time in this process.

The Bottom Line

Times have changed, and so has what effective leaders do to get results from their teams. Your business may stagnate if you are using these outdated leadership practices.
Keeping your eyes open to the changing world is essential for continued growth and success.

Join other motivated leaders and entrepreneurs for the new Call-to Action coaching program cohort and access business management resources for FREE.

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leadership women leadership skills

Non-Fiction Book ‘Relentless Pursuit’ Takes Readers On A Unique Path to Success

Non-Fiction Book 'Relentless Pursuit'

Nurse leader, serial entrepreneur, and author from Tampa, Florida, Tonika Bruce, in her non-fiction book titled “Relentless Pursuit: Proven Tips for Unlocking Your Potentials,” gives readers a new way to look at and pursue success.

The goal is to show the uniqueness of every person’s success and the path that leads them there. The book begs to answer the three questions that plague the human mind. What is success? Why does it matter? How do I find it?
Professionals and entrepreneurs all seek to answer these questions.

Drawing from her personal experiences and lessons learned, Tonika provides an insightful roadmap for anyone willing to pursue their passions relentlessly.

While tackling the misconception that success means the same thing for all people, Tonika shows why unlocking our potentials is central to what this will look like for us. The book concludes with a dive into the core components of building a successful life whether you are a stay-at-home parent, a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, or an office clerk.

Relentless Pursuit is not a run-of-the-mill motivational book but insights gathered over 20 years as a working professional and entrepreneur who has failed and started from scratch. It is, therefore, a culmination of proven tips for unlocking the individual potential for success

About the Author

Tonika Bruce is an author, nurse, serial entrepreneur, and business coach who helps professionals and entrepreneurs achieve their goals and dreams.

She is the founder of Lead Nicely, a digital marketing company, and Tonika Bruce coaching, which provides professional development training and business coaching services.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in Nursing from Nova Southeastern University and 2 Masters degrees: A Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA).

Bruce built her first successful business in her very early 20’s, a network marketing company with a sales team of more than 300.

Over the course of her professional life, she has started multiple businesses in marketing, sales, healthcare, and hospitality niches. Her other venture, The Network Nurse, is a platform where she uses her experience as a nurse educator to mentor other nurses who wish to start or expand their own businesses.

Relentless Pursuit is Tonika’s second published book borne out of her own bad break in business and personal life and the lessons she had to learn to rise to success. It answers the three most important questions every working professional and business owner wakes up daily to try and answer.

Order your copy today!

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business ideas

Scale Your Business with a Strong Team

Building a Strong Team

Building a Strong Team: If you want your organization to reach its full potential, you need to build a strong team that can help your company scale successfully. Whether you’re just beginning or you’ve been operational for several years, this article is for you. However first, you need to understand high-performing teams.

What Makes a Team Strong?

Building a strong team in a company requires more than simply working with the right people, setting clear objectives, and having excellent communication. A high-performing group is one that works as a single unit, with all members working together to achieve common goals.

This involves creating an environment of trust and shared regard among team members, managing conflicts with compassion and understanding, motivating collaboration through open dialogue, and commemorating successes together.

Similarly,  being able to learn from current inadequacies to prevent making the same mistakes in future. All of these components are essential for any business to prosper in today’s competitive environment.

6 Steps to Building a Strong Team

As a leader, it’s your job to combine the right people and provide them with the tools they require to be successful. The following steps will help you succeed in this role.

1. Specify Your Business Goals

Setting long-term and short-term objectives for your company is vital for success, as it offers a structure for tracking development and measuring success. When specifying your objectives, consider what metrics you need to track with time to measure the impact of your choices.

For example, you can track performance versus development goals utilizing metrics like:

  • Sales and orders
  • Customer retention rate
  • Conversion rate
  • Cost per acquisition
  • Earnings per user/customer
  • Lifetime value of a client
  • Staff member turnover rate
  • Net promoter score.
  • Profit margin and operating margin.
  • Market share.

Keeping short-term goals achievable, reasonable, and measurable will ensure you’re setting yourself up for success along with keeping your team encouraged and focused. Short-term wins encourage teammates, inspire creativity, and offer everybody in the business a sense of function towards attaining their long-term objective.

That said, do not forget the big picture by setting ambitious yet achievable long-lasting objectives– due to the fact that those are the ones that will form the future of your company!

2. Examine Team Member Skills and Strengths

Examining staff member skills and strengths is a necessary procedure for any organization. It enables training to be tailored to specific needs and spending plans to be utilized most effectively. Start by identifying each team member’s specific ability and strengths; from there, training goals can be established that concentrate on filling inany skill gaps.

Additionally, this assessment procedure makes it easier to identify which teams would gain from cross-training– sharing their knowledge and experience with associates in various departments or functions. Taken together, this kind of planning makes sure that training financial investments develop a confident and capable group that drives productivity and helps the business scale.

3. Develop a Cohesive Team through Effective Communication

Efficient communication is necessary for a team to work cohesively. It includes internal communication– setting expectations amongst members and comprehending one another’s roles– along with external interaction with clients, customers, or suppliers outside the company.

In order for reliable cooperation to occur within a team, internal interactions ought to be regular, clear, prompt, and transparent. Tools Google Drive, Dropbox, Zoom, Basecamp and Google Meet are excellent options that will help enhance internal communications in an efficient way.

External interaction is just as crucial to make sure everybody involved understands expectations properly. Investing in the right tools for external and internal communications can help departments remain linked, build trust among team members, and make organizations more successful in the long run.

4. Team Conflict Resolution 

Managing team conflict with respect and empathy is important to a team’s success. Dispute between team members can become dissentious and disruptive, leading to decreased performance and spirits, along with long-lasting negative influence on jobs and relationships.

Thankfully, there are ways to manage conflict resolution processes. Start by identifying the problem and leading negotiations in between team members to find commonalities.

Taking proactive steps to attend to any prospective locations of conflict guarantees positive results and stronger group connections going forward.

5. Encouraging Team Collaboration 

An environment of trust and shared regard is important for effective team building. By holding members liable for satisfying deliverables and timelines, setting clear milestones, and defining roles and obligations, expectations can be set up-front and everybody can concentrate on tasks more effectively.

Likewise, it’s essential to recognize any prospective obstacles that could obstruct development, which can hinder success even with a merged synergy. When team members take ownership, guarantee their responsibility, regard others’ viewpoints, and build each other up through cooperation, success will follow.

6. Celebrate Team Successes and Learn from Failures

Celebrating team successes is essential in producing a strong team spirit. 

It’s vital that nobody tries to finger point and pass blame when things don’t go according to plan, as this only works against group performance. In addition, take time each day or week to appreciate and acknowledge big and little wins attained by the group. Doing so motivates collaboration between team members, which is necessary for a team to attain its goals.

Key Takeaways

It’s up to you to build a high performing team if you want to scale your business. That implies hiring the right people and setting clear goals and objectives. However it also means being versatile and seizing chances as they arise. Communication is crucial!

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business ideas financial strategies

Five Ways Entrepreneurs Can Build Resilience for Tough Times

Entrepreneurs Can Build Resilience: Tough economic times lead to dwindled customer confidence and diminished sales. Although all businesses suffer during economic recess, entrepreneurs are specifically vulnerable. Entrepreneurs encounter numerous obstacles like market uncertainties and financial insecurities that threaten their existence.

The current economic climate looks bleak with market insecurities, recessions, war, and the pandemic. Previously, entrepreneurs focused internally on their business, but now they must pay attention to world markets.

Entrepreneurs who continuously build their resilience have a better chance to excel. Here are five ways entrepreneurs can develop adaptability for tough times.

1. Adapt to Change

Adapting to change as an entrepreneur means that you view adversities as opportunities. Changes allow entrepreneurs to grow and expand their perceptions, philosophies, and performance.

The journey of entrepreneurship is that of constant change where companies experience challenges from inception to maturity.

For instance, the number of employees will change, management strategies will change, technology will advance, and even the globe is transforming. Currently, tough economic times are amplifying these challenges. Clever entrepreneurs do not resist changes, but they embrace them.

Resilience is the capacity to bounce back from setbacks and embrace unanticipated circumstances. Resilient entrepreneurs have made adapting to changes more accessible, preparing them for unforeseen situations.

Resilient entrepreneurs who embrace changes and view adversities as growth opportunities are likely to succeed even in a harsh economic climate. At the height of the pandemic more businesses came into existence than before.

starting an online business at home

Start a Home-Based Business

2. Focus on Core Proficiencies and Business

As an entrepreneur and business leader, there is a huge temptation to spend business funds on multiple unbudgeted needs or business expansions.

During tough economic times, some entrepreneurs try to add other products and services to their offerings in the name of diversification. Often, these random reactions end up wasting funds and time.

Worse, they can destroy the main business by removing the necessary focus and resources from the core proficiencies. Resilient entrepreneurs focus on their principal competencies even during tough economic times.

Tough economic times demand that entrepreneurs reduce their unnecessary expenditures. Unnecessary expenditures include luxurious company dinners, extravagant retreats, and profligate trips.

During turbulent times, the business will incur financial losses if they continue spending money on unnecessary outflows. Resilient enterprises must focus on the fundamental purpose.

Similarly, entrepreneurs ought to be driven by well-defined business plans to overcome the challenges of a harsh economic climate.

3. Keep the Business and Marketing Campaigns Running Even Through Credit 

During economic recessions, most entrepreneurs shy from investing in their businesses.

Some entrepreneurs slash off the marketing budget or even abolish it entirely. However, the company needs all the support it can get during these tough economic times. Resilient entrepreneurs take huge risks by inputting more funds into their businesses and marketing campaigns.

Investing in your business and marketing operations can help your enterprise grow exponentially during an economic downturn. Despite tough economic times, clients seek opportunities to acquire new products or services. Therefore, entrepreneurs who borrow funds to finance their businesses and marketing campaigns make enormous profits despite the harsh economic climate.

Download the Free Brand-Building and Market Hub Checklist

4. Invest in Personal Well-being 

Diminished sales, unavailability of credit, pay cuts, dwindled profits, and other financial struggles of recession can lead to stress and depression.

Although stress is a personal issue, it can affect your business negatively. Stressed entrepreneurs tend to lose their business-friendly traits. For example, often-depressed leaders are rude to clients, lack the zeal to offer quality customer service, are always late to work and make numerous mistakes.

At this point, stress becomes a business issue, as the entrepreneur is highly inefficient, and the business can easily make huge losses under the leadership of a depressed businessperson. Hence, despite tough economic times, entrepreneurs must prioritize their well-being.

Business owners and leaders must find healthy ways to cope with stress.
Examples of methods that businesspeople can employ to cope with stress include; eating healthy meals, getting plenty of sleep, avoiding alcohol, and exercising regularly.

5. Optimize on Current Customers and Entice the Competitor’s Customers

Resilient entrepreneurs are clever enough to make the most of current customers because they know the struggle of getting clients during tough economic times.

Making the most of current clients means selling more products without spending on marketing and advertising. The secret here is having excellent customer service that ensures all clients are satisfied (more on adopting a customer-centric approach). Identifying customer needs and fulfilling them retains and draws clients from your competitors.

Summary

Although there is no prescribed method to build resilience or insure your business against financial struggles associated with recessions, employing the above techniques will ensure that your business survives through a harsh economic climate.

Furthermore, implementing these strategies can help you make profits even during a tough economic time. The techniques focus on analyzing the current work plan and finding methods to enhance it.

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financial strategies

Top Five Books That Can Make You a Millionaire

Top Five Books That Can Make You a Millionaire

Affiliate Disclosure: This content contains affiliate links. If you purchase the products through our affiliate link, we will receive a commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support.

Sometimes the dream of becoming a millionaire may seem like an unachievable goal, despite working with blood, tears, and sweat. Many people are ignorant of the necessary tools to use to propel them to prosperity. 

 

The secret tools can be certain books that help build your mindset, enthusiasm, and knowledge of becoming a wealthy and successful individual. These books will inform you about the available possibilities and opportunities for amassing wealth. Here are five helpful books to orient your financial journey in the right direction.

1. Power for All

Power for all by Julie Battilana and Tiziana Casciaro is an authoritative book that elaborates clearly on demonstrated strategies for agitating, innovating, and engineering change. 

 

The book explains how individuals with less power can challenge established systems to make them balance or work in their favor. The book illustrates how to power-map a workplace and work with individuals that can influence real change at the place of work. 

 

The advice is that you must stay in power, as when you are away from power, you are giving it to someone else who might not have your interest. This book can help individuals who want to grow their careers by manipulating power dynamics.

2. Think and Grow Rich

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is another must-read book for anyone aspiring to be a millionaire. The title illustrates that you must develop a particular mindset to achieve tremendous wealth. 

 

This book centers on the thirteen steps to riches, which the author learned from interviewing famous and wealthy individuals.

The thirteen principles include: 

  • Having a burning desire to achieve success and wealth
  • Exhibiting faith to manifest your desires
  • The concept of auto-suggestion through visualizing success
  • The technique of acquiring specialized knowledge in a particular field
  • The power of imagination as a catalyst for achievement
  • Creating concrete plans to achieve success
  • Prompt decision-making; persistence despite numerous failures
  • The power of mastermind; converting desire into creative energy
  • The subconscious mind
  • The brain
  • The sixth sense

Implementing the above principles in your work routine will see you grow exponentially and acquire great success.

3. The Checklist Manifesto

In The Checklist Manifesto, Atul Gawande investigates why even highly skilled and experienced individuals often make avoidable mistakes despite their extensive knowledge. 

Atul discovered that a checklist is a simple and potent solution to doing things correctly. 

The author details the learning path and crucial insights into utilizing and developing checklists. Many fail to succeed because they underestimate checklists as ticking boxes and mindlessly following protocol. 


In contrast, successful and wealthy individuals view checklists as facilitators of teamwork and disciplined working culture. Checklists unequivocally outline the critical steps in a task, develop a verification process to protect against human fallibility, and enforce discipline to uphold performance standards. A checklist can resolve decentralized decision-making, teamwork, and communications challenges. Additionally, using a checklist helps in minimizing errors and improves performance.

4. How to Win Friends and Influence People

When writing “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, Dale Carnegie understood that it is difficult to make friends as an adult, yet it is vital to make friends and build connections to succeed. 


The book outlines some classical ideologies that serve as universal techniques that one can use to make small talk a bit easier. These ideologies are building blocks of social intelligence that promote good social skills and enhance your social life.

 The author teaches people handling techniques like not being a critic, giving honest and sincere appreciation, and arouses in the other person an eager want. 


Additionally, the book illustrates ways to make people like you. For example, having a genuine interest in people, smiling, listening, and acknowledging the interests of others can make you a likeable person. Hence, this book is a must-read for people aspiring to grow their network and success.

5. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

Tim Ferriss wrote this book out of frustration and documented how he left his company to pursue what he loves. The 4-Hour Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich holds many valuable lessons that individuals today can implement for growth outside the workplace. 


First, the author teaches how to be effective, not efficient.  He uses the Pareto principle of 80/20, that clever people should utilize 20% of their time to accomplish 80% of their success. Time spent working should not measure productivity because you can waste time at work. 


The second piece of advice by Tim is that you should always validate your business ideas. 

Before investing heavily in producing a specific service or product, ensure that people are willing to purchase it. Lastly, the book teaches about charging a premium to need fewer clients and to make your life easier. After validating your business idea, invest in producing quality products that fetch high market prices. This book can guide any entrepreneur to accomplish business success.


In a nutshell, one of the goals for every professional or entrepreneur must be to read at least a book each month. The books do not have to be nonfiction or business-oriented. Reading is one of the top habits for success.

What is your current read? Here are more options:

Related articles:
7 Books to Read Before Enrolling in an MBA Program
Book Recommendation for Entrepreneurship Success
The Leaders Path to Personal Growth

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financial strategies

How Technology Can Help Your Business Scale

How Technology Can Help Your Business Scale

Running a business is never easy, but luckily, software advancements have opened the door to innovative solutions.

We will explore in this article how modern digital capabilities can help smooth out the bumps in any organization’s journey from concept to completion. Get ready for increased collaboration between teams and improved project management – with modern-day technology, anything seems possible; you only need to get the right tool.

Contrary to some skeptics’ belief, technology is not here to replace humans in the workplace but rather to enhance roles.

Below are ways technology can help your business grow (even if you are a small business).

Business Communication Enhancement

One of the biggest challenges facing medium and small-sized businesses is communication. The heart of satisfactory customer service is how and when the company communicates with its customers throughout the journey.

However, in this digital age, there are numerous channels and bases to cover when it comes to customer inquiries.

How does a small business owner maintain high standards with consistent and fast feedback to your clients? After all, in this hyper-connected, tech-savvy world, customer experience matters a lot for long-term success.

Automating some customer service operations will help with consistent quality communication between your business and customers or potential customers.

Chatbots are gaining popularity in quick customer inquiries and improving customer experiences. Using a Chatbot is a great way to enhance customer service. It allows customers to ask questions or provide feedback quickly and easily without having to wait on hold or send an email that may take days or weeks for a response.

According to the MIT Technology Review report (Humans+Bots), 90% of businesses that used chatbots registered enhanced complaint resolution.

3 Effective Ways to Increase Customer Trust

Sales and Marketing

Now more than ever, sales and marketing are crucial elements for success in any organization. As the digital era progresses, these departments have started working collaboratively to emphasize user experience (UX) as an integral part of their strategy-building process.

These are innovative automation methods a business should take advantage of for better sales and marketing processes to scale:

  • automated lead generation & tracking technology
  • social media scheduling & data analysis tools
  • automated email marketing 
  • AI-driven sales assistants 
  • machine learning A/B testing tools

Sales and marketing departments can also benefit from technology advances by leveraging social media platforms and running campaigns tailored specifically to their target audience.

Business Ideas That You Can Start with Little Investment

Task Automation

Various automation tools can help streamline day-to-day operations, such as CRM tools for customer follow-ups or information and data organization.

Today, there are tools for enhancing and cutting back on time spent on most administrative tasks, from sending payment invoices to scheduling appointments.

Not to mention, tools that can help all software or apps a business uses to automate all the related functions. An excellent example is Automate.io which can help update information between a CRM and Google spreadsheet.

Other than automating tasks, an all-in-one CRM can help with Business Intelligence (BI), especially small businesses that cannot afford business intelligence tools by helping to gather customer intel and creating an effective customer-centered strategy.

How to Use Your CRM tool for Business Strategy

Remote Collaboration

Running a business has become much easier with remote collaboration. Companies can afford to outsource labor by engaging temporary contractors and freelancers cost-effectively.

Finally, cloud storage systems like Google Docs or Dropbox allow teams to collaborate remotely in real-time on projects without needing to be physically together.

Google Docs allows people to collaborate remotely on content and edit documents. Dropbox takes it further with cloud platforms which allow massive files like 4K videos to be edited simultaneously across vast distances.

Efficient Projects Management

Technology has undoubtedly made it easier for businesses to scale. With the advent of project management software and tools like Asana, Trello, and Jira, organizations and ventures can manage projects with greater efficiency and clarity. That not only saves time and money but also allows businesses to grow at a much faster pace.

For example, a business can easily track the progress of a project by creating tasks, assigning them to team members, specifying due dates, and adding comments or attachments as needed.

Comments and media attachments can help clarify instructions or provide updates on the project’s status. And if there are any questions or concerns, team members can easily communicate with each other through the software’s messaging system.

Project management software helps businesses stay on track with work progress, especially when working with remote teams.

Conclusion

The possibilities of what technology can do for businesses are endless!

By leveraging the power of tech tools and software applications, startups can scale up efficiently while maintaining productivity levels regardless of geographical location. So if you are looking for ways to improve your business operations, look no further than modern technology. It may be what you need.

Try Phalera CRM for your small business – Watch Demo

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leadership

How a Florida Nurse Got Her Life Back After Enduring Workplace Injury to Lead Successful Start-Up Ventures

Tonika Bruce lives in Tampa, Florida, and runs an innovative digital marketing agency with a global workforce.

Tonika Bruce is a nurse, business owner, and entrepreneur who overcame a workplace injury to build a thriving digital marketing agency.

She now shares how she went from being injured and unemployed to starting her company and leading start-up ventures in an inspiring story of resilience.

Fresh out of college at age 21, Tonika Bruce was an ambitious, talented and competitive visionary. It was this drive that has always fueled her success from the start. She had a successful basketball career and was ready to take on the business world.

Then one timely day, seeing an Ad for a $20/hour job marked the beginning of a successful journey for her in business. She applied for the position and got an invitation for an interview. That was the first time she came across the network marketing business model.

‘That day, I felt I’d seen what success looks like – wrapped in an expensive suit, with conviction in his voice, Alan could make people feel what he felt.’

The way Alan, the presenter at the interview, commanded the room and easily connected with the 50 people present became the inspiration she needed.
With conviction, she left the interview and purchased the required kit using her rent money to start her first sales job.

Even with zero sales background, she was committed to be the best. She modeled Alan and did a ton of research. Soon enough, she received an invitation to work with the company owner in Ft. Lauderdale.

In a few months of working in Ft. Lauderdale, Bruce had grown and was ready to move out and open her location in Dallas. She did, and expanded to eight more in just six months. At 23, she was generating a six figure income monthly.

The success here went down the drain after the economy took a hit during the 9/11 incident. Broke and broken, she had to start from scratch. She applied for jobs and worked in various industries to make a living, with coaching seemingly being the passion, but not necessarily what paid the bills.

After the passing of her grandmother, her path took a totally different direction into nursing. By this time, she had been in sales, coaching, public speaking and hospitality management.

During her time in nursing she thought she couldn’t rise up again. Shortly into the profession she encountered a severe injury that left her with a neuro deficit in the leg and foot. She couldn’t walk, bend, or sit down-that meant she couldn’t work.

Unable to work meant-reliance on workers’ compensation to make ends meet. For the next two years, Bruce struggled with the physical and emotional aftermath of her injury.

Her income dropped from six figures to less than the average household income. Although she faced loss before, the difference this time, she did not have the capacity to go out and take action.

Sometimes we just need to be shown what success looks like.

‘I had a patient who’d had surgery in both eyes and couldn’t see my face. She asked for my name. When I told her, she smiled, called me Dr. Bruce, then said I wouldn’t be a nurse for long. I was going to lead people and head a successful business that would grow internationally.’ – Tonika Bruce.

Between the injury, enduring workers compensation processes, and more than enough time in her hands, this became a blessing in disguise.

Bruce now leads several ventures and client portfolios worth greater than 3M+.

She was approached with another opportunity involving network marketing and went for it. From this, she began fine tuning and expanding her digital marketing agency, Lead Nicely, Inc, which has grown since to integrate people from across the globe.

The agency offers a full range of digital marketing services, including web design, logo design, email marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, and pay-per-click advertising.

Not always encountering seamless transitions, Bruce witnessed firsthand the complexity of running on many automation tools as a digital marketer.
Some proved too complex to work with, and others didn’t integrate well. Most of all, some were too expensive for any small business.

With so many tools, products, and opinions out there, Bruce went through a lot of headache and frustrations, so instead of trying to add another organizational or productivity tool, she added a CRM Software that ties these operational services into a single automation solution.

For startup companies like the ones she serves, that cost snowballs rather quickly, hitting the roof in months.

Therefore, solving this became a requirement. That meant getting in the trenches and testing a combination of software that would work. The following few years this became her goal. She tried many tools that failed to meet the demands of her business cost-effectively. That’s until Phalera.

This is not just another CRM in the market; it is an innovative marketing solution designed with entrepreneurs in mind.

Like Tonika, many entrepreneurs would prefer not to have to log on to several tools to accomplish tasks daily. Phalera offers this reprieve-and she has already started rolling out the system with her clients.

Watch a demo of Phalera CRM in action.

Lead Nicely, Inc., is on a mission to help the often overlooked business markets build an online presence- professionals with start-up projects, non profits, small businesses, and companies that help or educate others.

In addition to running the agency, Bruce is also a best-selling author, nurse leader, business coach, mentor and serial entrepreneur. Her other ventures span coaching, fitness, and healthcare industries.

Bruce believes everyone has a specific purpose or mission to live up to; hers is to help people solve their problems, and this is the goal of Lead Nicely Inc.

Sign-up now: Get strategic about your career and business with Tonika Bruce’s exclusive coaching.

Sign-up now: Get strategic about your career and business with Tonika Bruce’s exclusive coaching.

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financial strategies leadership

How Business Leaders Can Leverage Digital Transformation for Better ROI

How Business Leaders Can Leverage Digital Transformation for Better ROI

How Business Leaders Can Leverage Digital Transformation for Better ROI

What comes to mind when you think of digital transformation? Is it automation or some realm of metaverse project management?

 

So what’s all the fuss about digital transformation, and why are all the companies, including SMBs, embracing such a revolution? You will understand the objective of digital transformation for businesses and how you can begin implementing it immediately in this post.

A Few Things to Consider

1. Consumer behavior is changing rapidly. Staying competitive requires knowing the ever-changing consumer dynamics and responding accordingly to satisfy customer needs. Knowing the ever-changing consumer needs accurately requires digital analytics and even predictive analytics. 

 

2. The most productive companies in terms of operations and revenue are the ones with the best communication. Efficient communication depends on having teams that communicate within a collaborative network, getting real-time feedback rather than working in a silo.

 

3. The most successful organizations in terms of ROI are the ones with products that address customer needs and pain points instead of creating products and then looking for the customers that need them. In other words, they look for unique problems in the market and then create products that solve these problems. 

 

4. Organizations that embrace an agile mindset succeed faster, and grow exponentially than organizations that fail to embrace it.

 

5. Regardless of size, and level of experience, the most successful firms are organizations that keep the best data and make the best use of these data in their decision-making.

Simple Ways To Adopt Digital Transformation

Simple Ways To Adopt Digital Transformation

1. Digitalize Customer Experience

It is needless to say that customers are always looking for improvements on products and services. Meeting these demands requires you to closely monitor them, know what they truly want, and understand them even much better. Simple ways you can digitize customer experience involve the use of Live Chats to facilitate real-time communication and also promote customer retention through relationship building. 

 

That’s not all, tracking the way clients interact with your business and how you manage the information associated with them is a great way to digitize customer service.

 

This is achievable with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. There’s no need to reinvent the wheels by hiring software developers. Tools like Hubspot and many more are great for managing customer data and even your sales pipeline.

2. Drive Performance Based On Data

What is not monitored can never be measured. When you don’t measure, you can’t tell how well you’re doing and you really cannot also tell which of your business activities are driving the best ROI. Business data analytics give you insight into which of your business activities to improve on and which ones lack the potential for profitability so you can focus resources on key business concerns.

3. Build Resilience Into Your Business Processes

Everything that happens within the scope of digital transformation is an opportunity for better performance. No surprise, the pandemic was even a big game-changer for some organizations regardless of their size. Building resilience involves leveraging technology that will enable you to continuously improve. This will also help you deploy regardless of your financial position and even when unprecedented circumstances such as during a pandemic hit.

How to Adopt Digital Transformation for Improved Efficiency & Profits in Your Business

To successfully adopt digital transformation, it must first be integrated into your business culture, and the ultimate goal should be towards creating a better customer experience and satisfying customer needs.

 

Doing this successfully starts with the mindset, and then this should be communicated to everyone in your organization. Digital transformation is not reserved for CEOs and top executives alone. It is for everyone contributing to the organization one way or the other regardless of what they’re doing. Importantly, it is common for organizations looking to adopt digital transformation to assume that digital transformation is only for engineering firms. 

 

But that’s not the case. Here are a few myths about digital transformation.

 

Myth 1: You need a large team of software engineers before you can start adopting digital transformation.

 

Myth 2: You need a large cloud infrastructure to start digitizing your business.

 

Myth 3: Digital transformation requires a fat budget.

 

The fact is that digital transformation involves majorly the inclusion of internet-based and digital-based tools to achieve operational efficiency, and ultimately business results. More importantly, most of these tools are cost-effective compared to the task they perform. For instance, if you need a solution to collaborate with your team members, set deadlines, organize projects, and set goals, tools like Teamwork, ClickUp, etc., have features that can achieve all that and you can start using them for free. 

 

Additionally, if you need analytics solutions to start monitoring behaviors on your website to get customer insights, tools like Google Analytics and many other web analytics tools can get that done for you. And you can get started for free. 

 

But there’s something to note, gaining access to these digital transformation tools requires that you position your business digitally. This means that your business must have an online presence, it must be integrated on the web and your customers too must have their online signature. That is, the series of events that take place from clients purchasing your business should easily happen online from the moment they found themselves on your website till the moment they eventually purchased from you. 

 

This positions you to be able to control the type of interaction they get when they engage with your brand online and how you react with them. You can categorize and personalize your prospects as well as their interactions with your website. With these, you can easily solve their problems and stay ahead of the competition. At the heart of the pandemic at the start of 2021, some businesses that embraced digital transformation reported record-high profits. 

 

Both small and large business owners, regardless of their niche, from restaurants, to service-based businesses experienced improved sales and became even more profitable. On the other hand, businesses that refused to adopt that transformation faced losses and some even went out of business. 

 

The essential point is that digital transformation can shield your business from unforeseen circumstances, enhance your speed, and efficiency, and ultimately enable you to engage in borderless business transactions and operational management.

Categories
leadership women leadership skills

The 10 Crucial Leadership Skills Today for Executives to Boost Their Career

crucial leadership skills

The 10 Crucial Leadership Skills Today for Executives to Boost Their Career

With the race to become the best and high-performing businesses in the marketplace intensifies, recruiters are looking for qualified candidates who possess excellent leadership skills. It’s no wonder the need to hire MBA graduates for executive positions is rising among top companies.

Leadership skills is a topic widely covered by experts and amateurs alike- discussing the core competencies that differentiate leadership capacity, yet most continue to rely on familiar skills. 

Although it is critical to have a strong foundation in what you do best, leaders, even the most experienced, intentionally find ways to evolve by learning new skills and strategies to manage their people.

While leadership skills have been pretty standard over the years, the changing and fast-paced business world demands a fresh look at which skills are most valuable today.

  • What areas of development should new executives be working on to meet the demand of the modern marketplace?
  • How can these skills help aspiring leaders succeed in leadership positions?
  • What are the practical ways to develop or implement these skills in the workplace?

We explore these and more helpful insights in this article.

What Leadership Skills Mean for Business

They say that leadership is integral to success in any field or endeavor. It couldn’t be truer than in the realm of business. On point leadership skills are essential for generating successful outcomes in companies of all sizes.

Leaders set the tone for their organizations; they establish the culture and values that guide their employees’ behavior and decision-making.

Therefore, they play a central role in creating an organization that produces desired results.

Leadership plays a huge role in the growth and ensuring business thrive. At the heart of any venture is the human capital- the employees’ productivity directly impacts the profits realized.

Here are some recent statistics from Zippia that back up this: 

  • 79% of employees will quit due to a lack of appreciation from the leaders
  • 83% of organizations believe it is important to develop leadership at all company levels, but only 5% have implemented leadership development at all levels.
  • Only 10% of people are natural leaders
  • 69% of employees would work harder if they felt their efforts were appreciated.
  • Companies with employee engagement are 22% more profitable.

The statistics indicate the necessity of having solid leadership to drive change, team engagement and results. Leaders are in charge of creating cohesiveness in the different groups working in a company- when this is lacking, it gives rise to disengagement and high turnover of otherwise excellent talent. 

It is true that performance metrics vary among different work groups, such as baby boomers, 

Millennials, and Gen Zers, due to the inconsistency in people management skills. 69% of the largest group in the workforce currently, the millennials (people born between 1980 and 2000), say there is a lack of leadership development. 

This matters because of the critical connection between employee engagement in business and the KPIs- productivity, customer metrics, profitability, quality product, less absenteeism, and misappropriation of company resources. 

Leadership boosts employee performance, which makes everything better across all levels in the business.

On the sunny side, there is opportunity and strengths to build on. With more than 83% of businesses and recruiters realizing the need and benefit of building leaders, there is room for more leadership positions to take up. 

While only 10% are natural leaders, 20% have inherent abilities that need refining, and the rest can build capacity to lead through training and leadership programs to direct to the appropriate channels.

The Global Leadership Forecast 2018 found companies that take an inclusive approach to leadership training have 4.2 times more success than those that left this reserve only for the management groups.

That said, these are the most popular ways leaders want to learn:

  • External coaching 48%
  • Developmental assignments 48%
  • Assignments to diagnose leadership strengths 42%
  • Formal-in person training 39%

Source: DDI Leadership Forecast Survey

People who undertake leadership training that teaches practical leadership in addition to theory show a 25% increase in learning and 25% in performance. 

In-Demand Leadership Skills for Today's Executives

The key to success lies in understanding human nature. The need for divergent needs can be met with various means, from motivating and clarifying individuals down to managing them well to reach their full potential as members of your team or organization.

The performance of any group is strongly influenced by how each member feels and engages in the group. It takes refined skills in people management and adaptability to maximize these human desires for business performance.

1. Networking and Relationship Building

Based on the research by Gallup and others above, employee engagement is a top priority for the current workforce. Whether a leader is people-oriented or not, they will need this skill at least for the sole reason of creating good working relations.

The other reason why this skill ranks high is the modern workplace is increasingly getting complex and interconnected. They are expected to navigate these complex systems and build relationships with the people within them. 

Business management has become more about collaboration and consensus-building than it was in the past; to get things done, they must bring people together and build relationships of trust. 

Not to mention, the global economy has made the competition more intense than ever before. 

Today, leaders need to be able to develop strong relationships with allies and partners to create a competitive advantage. That means proactively networking online and offline.

Practical Ways to Cultivate Relationships

  • Be present and approachable. Employees and partners alike appreciate feeling like they can talk to you, confide in you, and come to you with questions or concerns. When you are regularly present and open to hearing what others have to say, it helps build trust and foster a more supportive working environment.
  • Make time for one-on-one interactions. Even if it is just for a quick catch-up chat or lunch meeting once in a while, taking the time to engage the team members on work progress and challenges.
  • Attend company events. It shows that you are interested in connecting with your employees and helps create a more enjoyable work environment. It also shows that you value their time outside of work hours.
  • Get involved in community outreach and industry initiatives. Industry events are a great way to connect with local leaders and organizations.
  • Team Building activities. Team building has always been a big part of most company cultures, but with mental illnesses on the rise and burnout, this has become just more urgent. As the leader, you get brownie points that strengthen your relationships. 

Related: 5 Questions to Assess Your Leadership Skills

2. Negotiation

The ability to negotiate is a plus that hiring managers and companies look for in executives in this competitive, globalized, and interconnected modern marketplace. 

Why? First, the globalization of markets has created new opportunities for companies to expand their operations overseas. However, these expansionary efforts often entail complex negotiations with local partners, government officials, and other stakeholders. Without solid negotiation skills, business leaders will find it tough to navigate these interactions.

Second, the accelerating pace of change in many industries means that businesses must constantly renegotiate agreements with suppliers, customers, and employees. Those who are adept at negotiating will be better able to protect their company.

Practical Ways to Negotiate Better

  • Model Trust. No matter the outcome in negotiations, trust makes the process smoother if the leader has a reputation for reliability. Trust also creates room for future possibilities of doing business.
  • Take the democracy approach. Offer options. When negotiating with employees or external groups giving choices shows a level of respect.

Related: 3 Ways to Increase Customer Trust

3. Ability to Train Others

83% of organizations believe it is important to develop leadership at all business unit levels. 

Modern organizations are looking for leaders who can also build more leaders to take charge and responsibility even in the small operational units. Training is an essential management skill that requires the leader to teach those under them, give constructive feedback, and motivate.

Practical ways to incorporate training in leadership

Encourage Them to Take on Responsibilities. One of the best ways to train someone in leadership skills is to encourage them to take on more responsibilities within the team. Give them small tasks or assignments at first and then gradually increase the scope and complexity of what they are responsible for. Handling more responsibility, they will naturally start to develop leadership qualities.

Provide Opportunities for Mentorship and Skill-Building. Another practical way to train someone for leadership is to provide opportunities. Offer challenges and contests.

4. Self-Awareness

One element of leadership excellence is having leaders who understand their strengths and weaknesses. Leaders need to know themselves before they can effectively lead others, so part of a core skill for executives should involve introspection and identifying areas where they need to improve.. 

Anthony Tjan sums self-awareness into three parts which everyone can borrow from-“know thyself, improve thyself and complement thyself.”

Practical Ways to Build Self-Awareness

  • Conduct an evaluation. While leaders carry out 360 performance evaluations on employees, the same can work wonders in helping them identify their strengths and weaknesses.
  • Take notes. Journaling is a loved practice among mindfulness groups, but it can also be an easy way to track your growth and increase self-awareness. The founder of WP Beginner, Balkhi, suggests using an app such as Roam Research to take notes.

5. Agility

In business, agility is incredibly beneficial because it allows organizations to adapt fast to changes in the market. For example, if a competitor introduces a new product, an agile organization will be able to quickly develop a similar product and release it to the market. 

The pandemic proved the necessity of agility as a skill. The modern business executive needs to be this sharp.

Practical Ways to Be Agile

  • Try Out Ideas. One way is to be open to change and experiment with new ideas. 
  • Be organized. Another way is to stay organized and efficient so that the leader can make changes quickly without causing disruptions. 
  • Anticipate. Lastly, be proactive and anticipate changes in the market to adjustments well before they are needed.

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6. Innovation

The need for creativity and innovation is increasing, meaning corporate leaders will have a greater responsibility in these areas. They must use their leadership skills to harness the power of innovation, or they will be left behind when other companies catch up with them.

Apple has been able to stay in business for a long time despite newer and cheaper gadget inventions because of innovation.

By making innovations to their products with users in mind, the company provides more user-friendly gadgets with functionality and security, features customers are willing to pay for despite the price. 

Practical Ways to Develop Creativity and Innovation Skills

  • Read widely. This is a no-brainer. Innovators are diligent researchers. Read leadership books to gather insights and thought processes of skilled leaders and innovators in the business world.
  • Create time to be alone with your thoughts. Innovators are also think tanks. Schedule time daily to reflect and organize your thoughts, ideas, and goals for projects.
  • Listen to your team. Creative ideas do not always come from leaders. Apart from getting feedback on your performance and improvement areas as a leader, employee feedback is a hub of innovative ideas.

Related: 7 Recommended Books on Entrepreneurship.

7. Adaptability

Adapting to new situations allows organizations to succeed in an ever-changing landscape.

Adaptability is the ability to change and adjust to new circumstances. But when it comes to leadership, it goes deeper than that. Adaptable leaders can change their behavior and approach, while inspiring and motivating others to do the same. They can see opportunities in change and are adept at driving organizational transformations.

Practical Ways to Be a Change Agent

  • Stay Up to Date With What is New. New tools and techniques are always coming out, but you cannot keep up if your skills do not evolve. Research anything that makes you feel uncomfortable or unsure of its impact on the company.

8. Diversity Management

The global economy is a considerable part of today’s business world, and as such, diversity management and cultural intelligence have become even more relevant to employers. 

Remote and hybrid work environments are now the norm leaders have to operate. With the constant need for collaboration with peers from all over the globe – this managerial skill will be crucial in helping business executives succeed at their job!

Practical Ways to Manage Diversity

  • Learn. Make a point to learn about other cultures represented on your team. Understand these cultures instead of making assumptions about what they are like based on your own experiences.
  • Be open-minded and respectful of different cultures. When interacting with people from other cultures, be respectful of their traditions and values, even if they differ from your own. 
  • Acknowledge personal cultural biases and assumptions.

9. Delegation

Efficient leaders know that delegation is an essential part of their job.

It does not mean offloading work so they can have less stress as a leader-it means building skills for those who might one day become future leaders in the company! It’s also assigning tasks to people who are best suited for them. That builds their skills and potential to become future leaders! 

Delegation is a core competency for leaders because it means distributing work to maximize efficiency while focusing on other pressing issues.

Practical Ways to Delegate Well

  • Ask for volunteers. From time to time, add tasks and have members pick what they want to work on- they are more likely to select according to their strengths.
  • Review. After completion, take time to review and give feedback.
  • Assign. Assign tasks based on skills and set concise instructions on requirements, KPIs, and deadlines.

10. Result-Driven

Top executive positions require leaders that can multitask and still produce results. With this in mind, the modern-day executive needs focus and prioritization to know the activities with the most impact on the organization to direct efforts on and make sure they are strategies that will lead towards success.

Practical Activities That Increase Output

  • Time management. Envision goals to prioritize the order of accomplishment.
  • Organization. Cut back on time and increase output with savvy organization skills. Use apps and software to automate most of the administrative tasks.

In Conclusion

The skills that made someone a great leader in the past may not be as relevant now.

To thrive in this new business landscape, executives need to assess their skills and adopt relevant ones to take their executive game up a notch.

Here are our favorite takeaways that you should note if you want to boost your career.

1) Continuous Learning – The modern business world is constantly changing for leaders to stay ahead of the curve by learning new things consistently. It could mean reading industry journals, taking online courses, or attending conferences.

2) Adaptability – As the saying goes, “the only constant is change.” Every business has to transform through innovative ideas. Being adaptable will be the most valuable skill to take the team and business to higher levels.

Are there any other skills or areas of leadership you find most challenging to master? Let us know in the comments below.

Categories
leadership

Business Leadership Watch

business leadership watch: Sara Valderrama

Business Leadership Watch

The Business Leadership Watch is a series that features leaders from different industries, their journeys, insights, and advice for our professional community.

In this edition of the Business Leadership Watch, we interviewed Ms. Sara Valderrama, the head of Talent Acquisition Operations at CITY Furniture. Ms. Valderrama’s journey is one of resilience in the face of adversity, and her insights provide valuable lessons to young professionals on finding and scaling their careers.

Sara Valderrama

Sara Valderrama

Talent Acquisition Operations Manager

Sara Valderrama was born and raised in Ecuador. She attended the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, where she graduated with a Medical Laboratory Technology degree. After which, she moved to Houston, TX, and then in 1999 to Ft. Lauderdale, FL, where she has been living ever since. Ms. Valderrama started her career at CITY Furniture 15 years ago, where she has seen her professional career grow steadily with hard work and dedication. She has held different positions during her long tenure, from Instructional Designer to Learning & Development Manager, to Recruiting Manager, and now as the Talent Acquisition Operations Manager. 

One of the most prominent company cultures at CITY Furniture is family- a value honed through the keen development of talent. As one employee that has benefited from immense growth at the company, Valderrama shares her lifelong habit of learning and personal development through mentoring the team under her wing.

Sara is passionate about helping others achieve their highest potential, either through pairing them up with the right job or coaching them to thrive in their existing roles. An avid learner, Sara enjoys reading and staying on top of current trends in her line of work and is always willing to jump on new challenges. 

1. Evolution is a central part of any successful business or leader- they must adapt and change to survive and thrive in the ever-changing marketplace. How have you seen your business evolve in time? What informed these changes and growth?

One of the most important skills anyone can have is adaptability to different circumstances. You can plan every detail of how you want something to play out, and life throws you a curveball, and your plans will mean nothing. 

So, what do you do then? You breathe, rest, analyze, and change the method, never the goal.

That has been my process- keeping the eye on the prize while finding new strategies.

We just saw it when a pandemic hit us, and we all had to modify our lives, work, activities, lifestyles, etc. 

The hiring market changed drastically in a matter of weeks. We went from millions unemployed to a battle for talent, forcing businesses to step up to provide better salaries, benefits, perks, work/life balance to attract candidates. It became a candidate’s market. I don’t remember seeing that in my almost 30 years of living in the US. 

CITY Furniture started a transformation journey 15 years ago, creating a solid foundation with standardized processes, teamwork, problem solving mentality, and great leadership that was key to grow and expand our business despite the circumstances. 

2. How has your leadership style evolved?

I think the first leadership role I had was the hardest. 

The transition from a peer to a leader can be very challenging. I wanted to solve everyone’s problems to show I was a good leader. In time, I realized that the best I could do for my team was teach them to solve problems. 

Encouraging continuous learning is the only way to create a strong team. 

I want to create a team so strong that no one knows who the leader is- I read this somewhere, and it resonated so much with me that I am applying it with my own team.

3. What are the biggest challenges, as a Latina businesswoman, you’ve faced running or starting your business, and how did you overcome them?

Generally, as an immigrant, the biggest challenge was adapting to a new culture, new job, new way of living away from family and friends. I had to learn a new language, a new system, and a new career. 

I had previously owned and managed my own businesses, but they were in a completely different field and country. However, the core values stayed the same: keep learning, better yourself, find a mentor, be open to feedback, and remember your why!

My children have been my biggest motivation and cheerleaders. I had no other choice but to do well on whatever I was doing because they were watching, they still are.

4. What lessons have you learned that you can share with other entrepreneurs and business leaders?

  • Sometimes not getting what you want is the best thing that can happen to you. 
  • Remind yourself every day why you do what you do.
  • You are responsible for your own development.
  • Find the lesson on everything and use that knowledge to move forward.
  • Whatever you do, do it with passion- you never know who’s watching and can offer you an opportunity
  • Success is different for everyone; define what it means to you and work towards that, not anyone else’s image of it

5. In what ways do you think your company culture contributes to success?

Having a culture where your opinions and suggestions are not only valued but are also encouraged definitely helps teams to be stronger. A thousand minds are smarter than one. 

A safe, collaborative, and respectful environment is what makes a team successful.

6.What automation tool or software do you use that has immensely improved your productivity and operations?

Technology is imperative in this ever-changing market to speed up processes and save time. We have been using AI for a while now to communicate with candidates 24/7, pre-screen them, provide information, and even schedule interviews. Candidates can either access it through our web page or through text messages. Our virtual Recruiting assistant has been trained to answer many questions regarding open positions, hiring processes, benefits, and other general inquiries candidates may have. 

7. Today running a business has shifted almost completely digital, and more digital changes are underway with the metaverse talk. Do you think metaverse marketing will give companies an edge in the current market?

Yes- and in employee management, hiring, training, and running teams remotely will be very beneficial in solving the trend of more employees preferring to work remotely or in hybrid work environments.

8. How do you see your industry unfolding in the future? Trends for businesses in this niche to brace for?

The Talent Acquisition industry has evolved and totally transformed in the past two years. It was eye opening for some, a surprise for many, and still for others, a confirmation of what we knew needed to happen. 

Companies realized HR is crucial for every organization, that candidates now have options, that many will not go back to traditional jobs because they were forced to become entrepreneurs and realized they liked it. That work/life balance is more important than ever, and remote work is here for the foreseeable future. 

Organizations will have to adapt to these new demands and treat candidates as they would their customers, finding ways to make the hiring process easier, faster, and more efficient. Talent Acquisition teams now need to evaluate their sourcing strategies, application processes and approach, etc. We no longer have the luxury of choosing from hundreds of applicants; we have to go after them. We have to “sell” our positions. 

Support from hiring managers, Associates, and the company leaders is necessary. Everyone should become a Recruiter for their companies. 

9. What impact do you hope to make in your industry or community?

I don’t have a strategy to become rich overnight, nor a step by step plan on how to become a CEO or own a multimillion company. However, I have experience overcoming obstacles, resilience, rebuilding myself after every challenge, and finding purpose in everything I do. 

It may not be very business-like, but I want to be an example of continuous improvement for my children and those around me. I want to be better than I was the day before; and inspire other women to follow their dreams, be themselves, be bold, and support each other.

10. How have you managed fundamental growth while maintaining a quality product or service offering? What advice would you give other entrepreneurs looking to achieve similar success, especially online?

Set clear expectations and measure the right performance indicators. Setting standards to ensure everyone follows processes the same way to minimize or eliminate mistakes; establishing checks and balances throughout the process to catch defects early and ensure quality of the final product. 

It may seem like it takes too much time, but it really is an investment to maintain and even improve the quality of your processes. 

11. What informs your discipline in business? Take the readers through behind-the-scenes on your typical workday.

  • My day usually starts at 7am. I am not a morning person, so that is already a challenge.
  • By 7:30am, I am drinking coffee and having breakfast- that is the most important meal for me. 
  • By 7:45am, I am already checking my calendar for the day and reading emails.
  • Usually end my work day by 5:30pm. Take a break to eat something, go for a walk, catch up on social media and then get back to work on my future business adventure for a couple more hours. I am educating myself, learning new things, and working on my retirement plan. 

I am extremely punctual and try to be as efficient as possible with my time, but flexible enough to welcome some necessary interruptions to assist anyone in need. 

12. What advice do you wish you had before or during the early stages of your business?

Your college degree is not a life sentence. You do not have to do what you thought you would for the rest of your life. Don’t be afraid to change your path.

13. Do you feel the Latin culture is better prepared for business innovation? Why or why not?

Definitely. The minorities have seen great advancements in the past few years. More and more Latinos are getting access to higher education and opportunities. 

We are introducing our culture in different areas: music, art, business, fashion, etc. We are networking; we are on social media, movies, sports. This is a movement now, but it will be an everyday thing very soon. 

14. What quote or lesson resonates most with your work ethic or personality that you wish others would also live by?

  • Do what you have to do until you can do what you want to do. 
  • Do the best you can with what you have, and then do better. 

15. If you were to write a book about your life, what would it be titled or subtitled?

  • Chronicles of a single Latin mom’s life. A survival guide.

16. Lastly, let’s have some fun. Everyone would be so much calmer in life if they just ate more Bolones (mashed plantain with chicharron). This will definitely keep me happy, maybe not that healthy, but definitely happy. 😊