Transcript
Our guest has landed herself on the list of Forbes richest self-made women, and she's sharing all her secrets to success. Plus, she's just a really awesome person. Liz Elving is here. Make sure to listen to this episode. Welcome to the exit interview with Kim Richburg, the Go-To resource that celebrates people who are working for themselves and crushing it while still having fun, or at least not being miserable. Each week, you'll get motivation, inspiration and action. Every Wednesday, I'll invite a self-employed, rock star, founder or business owner to share concrete tips. You can apply today across business development, revenue growth, finance, marketing, publicity sales and social media content creation. All the ingredients to grow your business. And a little bit about wellness, happiness and balance. Plus, you'll hear the ins and outs of how they built their own lucrative businesses and found success on their own terms. And every Friday, you'll get a solo snackable episode, basically a masterclass on brand building, video and podcasting from me, and it's free. I'm Kim Rickford. I had a high profile executive job in media, and I loved it. I worked at Netflix, US Weekly, Fox and more. But when I found myself in the hospital working during my son's birth, I thought, Is this success? So I quit corporate, but I had to fight through the fear and imposter syndrome to launch my own digital marketing business. But it's now racked up six awards. I've been featured in Fast Company and Business Insider, and I now have a national speaking career. I get to teach business owners like you how to grow their business through video, and it is so rewarding. All in all, it's been worth it. So if you're ambitious and self-employed, a founder, entrepreneur, coach, real estate agent, consultant or solo practitioner and you're looking to grow your business while achieving that elusive work life balance, it exists, I promise. This is your show. Don't forget to hit the Subscribe button. Super important favor, please tell two people, you know, to listen to the show and don't forget to hit the follow button. And as for me, I just spoke at Fast Company Innovation Festival. It was such a rush. I always love speaking, but I am a huge over preparer and people who attended the workshop said things like this. That was truly the most dynamic speaker at this conference. It feels so awesome to know people are learning so much from the workshop and of course, to hear me being called dynamic because I really give so much. I prepare so much and I give so much. Basically, I do drafts of what I'm going to say. I practice law even if it's something similar to what I've done in the past. I practice with the coach. I record myself a bunch. I just keep doing it. I ordered different outfits, usually from rent the runway. I picked my favorite. I take pictures of how I look in it because it's about the speech, but also you're capturing content from it, so you want to make sure it looks good leader and you're not like, Oh, whatever the color, it's an awful color. So this week went awesome. I taught secrets to making social video that gets noticed, and it was in New York City, my hometown, so my mom and my oldest brother came, which is incredibly fantastic and rare because I'm usually traveling for these speaking gigs, so my family can't really come, and they have been such a support system forever. Even before I was married with kids and now I have a different additional support system. It's just really awesome to have them join me. And I've also been asked Kim, How do you get these opportunities? How do you get speaking opportunities? How are you asked to be on all these podcasts? And the answer is a really strong content strategy. It is not a coincidence. I have a very specific strategy. I put my name and specifically my message that I've honed in all places podcasts, video, social media in the press. And I know how to do this because I was a TV news producer, a journalist for about 10 years. I shifted over time into more creative TV and then digital video social media. So I use all that. I put that all together. My experience of Inside Edition, Fox, Netflix, People magazine, all of these places. I put that together and now I apply it to myself and my clients. So if you are looking to become a thought leader through video and podcasts, make sure to reach out to me. And now you have such an amazing guest today. Liz l'T is truly a star of the business world. She co-founded Trans Perfect, the number one translation company in the world, and she started it from a dorm room. She's going to share her tips on how to grow your business, the reality of what you need to give up. She'll share the sexism she experienced in her very first job and how she balanced growing the business with being a parent. And she just came out with her book Dream Big. And When it is an incredible read, it's full of personal stories and also tangible concrete tips that you can apply. She got blurb by all these well-known names like Mike Bloomberg and Sheryl Sandberg and Arianna Huffington. Without further ado, let's get into it. All right. This is going to be an amazing interview. We have such a superstar on the show, Liz. Looking at the amount of awards that I'm about to read is basically going to blow your mind. She is the founder and CEO of the Elizabeth Altine Foundation. She's an entrepreneur, a business leader, a lingua file that philanthropist, feminist and mother after living, studying and working in five countries across the globe. Liz founded Trans Perfect out of an NYU dorm room in 1992. She served as its co-CEO until 2018, and Trans Perfect is the world's largest language solutions company, with over $1.1 billion in revenue and offices in more than 100 cities worldwide. That is unbelievable. Liz received the 2019 Charles Waldo Haskins Award for Business and Public Service from NYU Stern School of Business. The American Heart Association's 2020 Health Equity Leadership Award. Basically a million other awards. She's been recognized as a now woman of power and influence American Express and Entrepreneurs magazine Women of the Year and one of Forbes richest self-made women every single year since the list's inception. And guess what? She wrote a book. It's coming out. Dream big and win. Translating passion into purpose and creating a billion dollar business. Liz, I'm so excited to have you here. Kim, I'm so excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me. I mean, your bio is just like I was like, everything is more and more and more you've done. So you're so impressive and so amazing. I want to jump right into its 1992 and you started trends perfect. Like what made you start trans perfect? I know you were young, like you were right out of your business school. Tell me a little bit about what made you start your company. Well, I had always loved languages growing up. I had studied foreign languages by the time I graduated from high school, majored in languages in college, which was wonderful. And then I was fortunate to live in Portugal, in Canada and then during college in Spain and then after college in Venezuela. So loved languages and all that was international. Shortly after graduating from college, I got a job at a company which at the time was the largest translation company in the industry. Although it wasn't very big, it was about nine people. So I thought perfect a way to combine my passion for languages and my interest in business. So I did that job for three years. I was first in production and then in sales and thought, I absolutely love this industry and I see there's a there could be a big need for this industry going forward because this was the late 80s, it was really the beginning of globalization. So I thought, I love it, but I think it can be done better. I thought there was a real gap between what clients needed and what was available in the industry in terms of service quality and a real one-stop shop. So I ended up going shortly thereafter to get my MBA from NYU after working at this other company for three years and loved it. NYU I thought I should try majoring in finance because it was very practical and international business because I I loved all that was international and business. So right after getting this MBA, I thought, What do I want to do? And I was able to get a job in the proprietary trading division of a French bank. I thought, great. That's a way to try out finance, which is supposed to be so exciting and lucrative. And it's what 70 percent of the people I graduated with from Sterne did. Everyone wanted to be an investment banker back then, so I thought I will try this. Got the job and I arrived at the bank and the first thing I noticed is I was the only woman in my role. I was the only woman with a newly minted MBA in finance, and I got there and I thought, OK, well, I will learn this industry industry. I will deal with this. And the first thing that happened when I sat down and got to work was whenever the phone rang. My bosses and basically everyone around me would yell Liz phone, and I couldn't believe it. I thought, Wait, I have this job in equity arbitrage. I have my MBA in finance and international business. Why me? And clearly it was because I was the one wearing the skirt to work. I was the woman. So that was incredibly frustrating. But I worked hard. I came in at seven. I worked till midnight every day because I was ambitious and I thought, I'm going to prove myself in this job and I got my work done. And then I went back to my boss and said, I'm learning a lot. I'm getting a lot done. But is there any other work you have for me, anything else I can learn in any other way I can contribute? And he said, Well, you could go around to the guys and ask them if there are any supplies they need, anything we can. You can order for them and check out the supply closet while you're at it. And then you can place that order. I thought, Oh no, this is not what I signed on for. So in addition to that, I realized this was not the translation industry. I had loved the language industry for so many reasons. I loved languages combining languages and business solving clients problems, and I loved the family of people that we're at. At the company I was working with. I loved the culture of the company, so I thought, this is the time this is my aha moment. I can do this better. As I was saying, I had seen a gap between what was needed and what was available in the industry. So at that moment, after about four weeks, I went to my boss and said, I'm sorry, I made a huge mistake. How much time do you need? They said, Liz, two weeks is fine. So after six weeks, I quit and started. Trends perfect. I love so many things about the story. So I think people who are entrepreneurs, maybe it's just a lack of fear or just a lot of confidence. Like, did you feel as you started trends perfect? Like, I can do this. I know that I can build this business. Or were you questioning like, how confident were you when you started it? Like, this was going to work? Well, the answer is I was extremely scared, fearful that this may not work. I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm going to give it everything I have. You know, it's funny. I had no reason to think I was going to be able to create my dream company. The billion dollar company out of the NYU dorm room. Except I thought I will give it everything I have. And you know, I saw my my peers from business school. They were in finance. They were in marketing. And I thought, but I know I love the industry. I know there's a need to for it. I thought I will just outwork them because if I'm going to do this translation company thing, I want to do it better. I want to create the biggest and the best. And when we started, there were 10000 translation companies out there at the time, but they were started and run by translators who were extremely talented. But they were busy doing the translation work and building the company. And I thought, you can only be so big if you're busy translating all day. That's very high level, labor intensive work. So I thought this is a new idea going to be business people. Building the company with the talent of the linguists. But no, I was definitely nervous, definitely under confident. Absolutely. I know you started it when you were like kind of in this NYU college dorm room scenario. I love hearing, you know, the early, scrappy years of a business. Tell me about what those early years were like. I assume you know you didn't have an office, you didn't have business cards, you know? What are those early years look like? Oh, the early years were crazy. For example, there we were in that and white you business school dorm room. Tiny dorm room. Not not attractive at all. And working 14 hours a day. And I remember going to my coffee machine there thinking, Oh, I need a cup of coffee to keep me up. I got four hours sleep last night, five hours like I opened it up and a crazy number of c**kroaches just streamed out of it. I was just like, Oh gosh, oh gosh, this is. This is not the dream. This is not what I want. And it was really at that moment I thought, OK, got to get out of this dorm room. This is where girls come in. My goal is to sell enough to be able to pay for an office within six months. And that was really precisely the moment where I said, we need to be out of this dorm room in six months and I'm going to make sure we sell enough where we accomplish that goal or we're able to do that. I love that you just mentioned goal setting because I know it's an important part of your ethos. I think so many people think of the mythology of the founder and of building a business, and it seems very like interesting and glamorous. But a lot of it's really just about the work you do. Talk to me about goal setting and the importance of that. Sure. Well, I really think the key to building an incredible successful company or the key to being wildly successful is goals combined with deadlines. All right, Liz, I want to hear more about those dorm room stories. Great. Well, it was pretty crazy in those first six months. I remember when we first got a job, our very first project, and I was beyond thrilled. And this was back in the day where there wasn't email. So upon finishing the project, I remember calling the client up and saying it's ready. She said, Great. She said, I would love to stop by your office, check out the operation and meet you and pick up the job. I thought, Oh no. Why are you doing that? Don't do that. But I couldn't tell her. So I remember I gave her the address, which was to Washington Square Village Suite to you. It was technically apartment to you, but called it to suite up to you. And that's what we had printed on our word processor, black and white marketing material. Anyway, basically ran downstairs, intercepted her before she checked in with the dorm room with the doorman. Sorry to get to the dorm room. Just said hi, wonderful to meet you. And here is your project. So that was the first one. So she never did come upstairs. The second one, basically, and the second one, the first one was an English and two Slovak document for a law firm, a small law firm. The second one was for GMI, which actually was the owner of Penthouse Magazine. And at first we thought, Oh boy, a project for Penthouse magazine, that's crazy. It turned out being the holding company for Penthouse Magazine. But that second client came also to pick up his project back then. For some reason, everyone wanted to see the office of it. That doesn't happen now. People are working remotely now, but there was a knock on the door. I open the door. It was client number two and this is when we had a cat and the roaches, and it was just the last thing we wanted, he said. Hi. I'm here to pick up my project. So another crazy story. So these, along with the roaches, made it clear we had to move into that office ASAP. And fortunately, at the end of six months, we were able to move into our first office. Talk to me about you, go from starting this business, running this business, you're like just out of business school and then it's a $100 million company. Then it's a 600 million dollar company and that is a billion dollar company. Like what were the keys to scaling? What was the biggest key for you? The key to success to scaling the business really is actions driven by goals with deadlines. It's really that simple. It doesn't sound exciting or sexy, but is the most important thing because I think so many people have wonderful ideas. I want to build a world changing app, or I want to, you know, build a company that sells this problem or does this. But what they don't do is they don't say, OK, I am going to do what I need to do every day to make it happen. And in our case, it was making 300 phone calls a day, sending out 300 letters a day for many, many years, basically for an extended period of time. And that got us to a million, and I do believe in revenue. I believe your first million is by far the toughest. And then after that to five million and the first five million is the second toughest. And then it gets so much easier after that because you really have the infrastructure and it's much easier to get to the higher levels after that because building the team and the infrastructure to even start growing to millions, then you're saying, then you can kind of multiply that out once you have a strong infrastructure. But it's the really hardest. Building blocks are the beginning. Yes, it is. And to elaborate on that, there are a number of things I would say. So often entrepreneurs work in the business rather than on the business. You need to step back and think, OK, what is the company I want to create and what are the positions I need to fill? So certainly that's an important factor. The other thing that a lot of entrepreneurs do, who have wonderful ideas and they even have the back end production and the infrastructure, what they're missing is the sales team, and it's so important that the key salesperson for your company is not you. If you're the entrepreneur, you need to build that sales team and grow that sales team really as quickly as possible, because that's how you scale. And so that was a huge part of what differentiated us as compared to our competitors initially for the first few years. Yes, we were the salespeople. I was a sales person. I dealt with every client. I remember J.C. Penney, our first million dollar client. I dealt with 75 individuals and J.C. Penney. So really, I was the salesperson then and then we had many other clients, too. But as soon as possible, after you have that million or a couple million in revenue, building that sales team, bringing them in and training them, developing them and retaining them. So critical, and I love that you're saying that, because I think a lot of times when people build a company and it's their vision and they're so passionate about it and when they're selling, they feel like their passion comes out because they're the founder. But you have to hire people who will also be able to exude that passion. Also be really committed to the company because I know you're you're very passionate about hiring and keeping good people and treating them well, because I think to your point of scaling to scale properly, you need a really good team. But to have and keep a good team, they need to be invested. They need to feel appreciated. They need to feel heard, they need to feel seen. So saying you need a great sales team is obviously so true. You know it. You've built a billion dollar company. But I think it also goes into another thing you're passionate about, about nurturing those people and making them feel as dedicated as invested as the founder because a lot of people want to see the founder. But when you have a great sales team, they should be able to bring that passion and excitement as well. Oh, absolutely. And certainly, first of all, you want to hire people smarter than yourself, and obviously that was quite easy. I didn't have a problem with that. I found so many people who were so smart and so impressive. So I think that's one huge piece of it. Secondly, the way you set up their compensation system, I mean, to give you an example, early on, we would hire a person or hire a person in another city. And when we first wanted to open these satellite offices and we'd say, OK, you're going to start alone as we did, you know, on your own, when you sell $50000 dollars a month for three consecutive months, you can bring on a second person, an assistant, whatever you would call them, after the two of you sell $120000 a month for three consecutive months. You can bring on a third person and the three of you sell a hundred ninety thousand for three consecutive months. You can bring on a fourth person and so on. And that was how we scaled the company. That's how we grew it. And it was very important because we didn't have outside funding. And if you could do it with outside funding, it's so much better for so many reasons. And the way we could internally or organically fund the company was through the revenue that I just talked about, the revenue people at the revenue goal, they had to achieve it and then they could add people. And of course, that revenue slash profit would pay for those people. Another important point about how we scaled the company was, I said, what if I had a boss here? What would I need to deliver to my boss to let him or her know how I was going to grow this company? I said, OK, well, opening offices is a great way to accomplish our goal of being the world's largest, the premier company in the industry, a billion dollar company. So I said, OK, let's say we will open an office every quarter. And then literally put together a plan. San Francisco, April 1st and then went on each quarter throughout the year, a different office, you know, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Chicago every three months over an extended period of time. And then we did whatever we had to do to make sure we accomplish that objective. And that's really the the whole issue with the goals and deadlines and making sure you actually do what's necessary. And you know, I think you need to give up your give up some things, some hobbies for an extended period of time. But it really pays off. And you know, the last thing I'll say, because I think it's important people think, Well, you know, how long do I want to give up my life for? And I get it. It's it can be intense, can be grueling, and it is. But if you can create an environment where you have people who are as passionate as you are. And I talked about why are they that passionate? Because you hire them and you set them up to be entrepreneurs, too. As I was describing what the office is, you know, they get to hire additional people and after they're selling a million or five million or 10 million in their office, they have bigger and bigger teams and they're the entrepreneurs and they're making more than they would elsewhere. And they really are having super exciting, interesting careers and working with people who who work hard and play hard. And we certainly added that to our company as far as the culture as well. So that was very fun and exciting and interesting. And how long do you feel like an entrepreneur needs to sort of be tunnel vision? There's no hobbies. There's very little outside life. How long do you think that period needs to last? That is an amazing question because I was an entrepreneur for 26 years and it definitely got so much better. So much depends on the business, right? And and the situation for me personally, it was probably about eight years. I know that sounds like a very long time to people, but that first eight year period was crazy, crazy hours for all of us. And along the way we learned and we learned how to keep the hours in check. And importantly for the people we hire, keep their hours in check and still grow the company at first. Eight years were very tough as far as the hours and then. I would say the next eight years, you know, for maybe years, eight to 16, a lot more manageable. And then after 16 years, managed well beyond that. So I think it so much depends on the situation, and I think it also depends on how big you really want to make your company. But if you could do it in such a way where you love who you work with or you have a great culture where it's interesting and exciting work? I think that's great. I also believe in compartmentalizing. I'm such a fan in compartmentalizing where you go in in the morning, whatever time it is, say it's eight thirty eight to start the day. You work super intensely during the day and then it's six o'clock or whatever the end time is. You shut it down. You leave, you get off email, you go home, you be with your family because you need that time with your family. You know where it's quality time, where you're off your devices and you're it's really all about them. And then of course, you know, when the kids go to bed. 10:30 11:00 What? Actually, most kids go to bed earlier than that. My kids somehow didn't go to bed until 10:30 or 11 every night. So that was a bit crazy. But then you're back on it. And obviously that's important for your own emotional well-being, but also for anyone who works for you. They don't want to think they have to be on 24-7, so be intense during the day. And then you have a number of hours and then get back on email, whatever, 10 to 11:00 at night and that or whatever the time is for you. But I think that's so important because if they see you as the boss, if your employees see you as the boss doing it or their boss doing it or whatever they're thinking, I don't want to be here long term because this is not sustainable. So it's important for you and to scale your company and the people who work with you and talk to me about having your children during this basically rocket ship of growth that your company was having. Talk to me about becoming a parent at that time. Sure. And you know, that's why I think the first I say the first eight years because my first son was born literally eight years after I started my company. And it was hard. I mean, it was a different time. For me, it was particularly hard because I didn't get any maternity leave, not one day. And there were a number of reasons for that. And fortunately, people are not in that situation now. It's wrong. It can't be. I think it's super important for people joining a company that has the right family policies in place with good maternity or paternity leave or, you know, and paternity leave. But then as an entrepreneur, putting those policies in place at your own company? And then, of course, succession planning, you know, it's one of the things that gets neglected even at the biggest and best companies. And certainly in our case with our company, eight years into it, we didn't have that set up, right? That is obviously a super important piece of it. So that if you're off for maternity leave for three months or whatever time it be, you have someone who can step in and take over for you and, you know, doesn't miss a beat with the client. So that's so incredibly important. And of course, that's important in any business long term outside of maternity leave, you need that if someone do whatever gets hit by a bus, quit whatever it is. But I think related to the mom question, it was hard because I didn't go on proper maternity leave. I always felt guilty when I was working and not with my kids. I was just I longed to be with my kids. I wanted to be with my kids, even though I loved building the company and growing the company and working with really interesting, ambitious, fun people. And then when I was with my kids, I felt like, Oh my gosh, I should be at this event or I should be at this conference. So I think working mothers always feel, Yeah, it's right. You can't avoid it. But then when you look back, you think it was worth it. You know, I think kids so often appreciated and I I hear that from my kids. I also think it's wonderful if women during motherhood can keep at least a toe in or something so that they don't stop and then have trouble getting back. And I saw it. I saw it with women who stop working. Then when their kids went off to kindergarten or went off to middle school or went to high school, they had trouble getting back in. So I think keeping a foot in or at least a toe in is very valuable, and I think it makes women happier, if by chance they don't, though that's OK, too. There are so many people who are starting companies or doing what they've always dreamed of when they become empty nesters, and that's wonderful because sometimes those careers can be even better because they don't think, OK, I need to set something up where I'm making a certain amount of money because I need to make sure I can pay for college. I can pay the bills. I, you know that issue. So I, I pick the practical thing instead of where my passion is, or I need something where the hours are nine to three because my kids are at home and that can. You don't get in the way of someone pursuing their passion, no one or throwing themselves in all in so they can really build it into something huge. So I think there are advantages of waiting. I'm not waiting. But if by chance you are looking for something when your kids go off to college, that's an amazing time to do that. Second act and do what you've always dreamed of. Liz, you had mentioned that your kids do appreciate seeing you as a mom and working hard. Can you talk to me about that, about experiences of you've had realizing that your kids do appreciate it? Yes, I will. As guilty as we feel, as moms saying goodbye and going off to work. My younger son has said to me, and this is even recently, he said, Mom, remember all those years you would take me to school, drop me off at 8:15 and you'd be there in your dress or your suit and your heels and you were the only mom doing that. And all the other women were in their workout clothes. He said, Mom, I was so proud of you and I am so glad you did that. And hopefully I can marry someone who does the same thing that is so sweet. It's always so great when you have those moments where your kids really show up and sort of like, appreciate you, right in words and actions. It seems like you're nodding and you're nodding. What are the other things that have happened that you felt appreciated? Oh yes, my my kids are and were amazing, and they taught me so much along the way. But they they also were there to support me. And even though, you know, we talk about the challenge of working and having kids at the same time and young kids at the same time, I remember one time, boy, my my son really showed up for me. I had had this terrible situation at work and came home in tears, didn't know how to handle it, and my son saw me and he's like, Mom, what's wrong? Are you OK? And I said, sorry, just really bad day at work. And he said, OK, mom, I'm so sorry. And then he he said, I'll be back in a few minutes. I'll be right back. He disappeared for about 10 minutes, went in the other room and then he came back. He said, Mom, you know, check your emails. And I opened my emails and there was this beautiful note from him basically just saying, Mom, you know, I know some days are really hard and it looks like you had a tough one. But this is my advice for when you're having a bad day, this is what you can do to feel better. And then he finished it off by saying, And mom, just no. Above all, your family is here to support you and be here for you every step of the way, especially me. Love Jay, and I was just so wowed, so touched because his advice was great. And above all, his support was amazing. Oh my god, I just got such bumps. Thank you so much for sharing that beautiful story. I'd love to know from your perspective what are the qualities that makes a great entrepreneur the same ones, actually, that tend to make a great employee or a great leader, right? But I think it's being ambitious and willing to take risks, right? Of course, willing to take risks because you never know how it's going to work out. You give it everything you have. But most entrepreneurs ultimately don't make it, and that's OK because they learn. And then they'll they just get themselves back up and do it again. So the willingness to take risks, I think, is very important. I think the willingness to think big and look at what's being done wrong and how it can be done better and coming up with ideas, not just looking at the status quo, but thinking outside the box and then being ambitious and thinking big. I think that's super important. I think being curious is so important for all of us. I think critical, I think being innovative, proactive, which is obviously kind of alludes to thinking outside the box. And then I just think putting in the hours, the grit, the not quitting the outworking everybody else. I think that's so important because sure, we all want to create an incredibly successful company and still have all the other pieces of the pie that we love, but it's hard to do it all at the same time. So it's the willingness to put those aside for a period of time to build your dream, to dream big and win and then moving back to those. And you know, one of the things I've said is work today, like no one else will. So you can live and give tomorrow like no one else can. I think that's that's the hard work that's passing on some things that you can come back to later once you have the flexibility. And I do think that's very important in order to be a successful entrepreneur. So am I to assume when you were running trans perfect, you basically didn't have Work-Life Balance like that wasn't a thing when you're running a billion dollar company. You know, the truth is, I didn't. Have a good work life balance, I didn't I throw myself into the company for an extended period of time, but I do feel like that's what made the difference and I do feel like that's what makes the difference for so many entrepreneurs who who get to a billion dollars or even tens of millions of dollars. I think you've got to throw yourself in and you can't quit, certainly, but you can't. You have to sacrifice sacrifice time with family and friends for a period of time and hobbies. I think that's OK, and that's why I think a lot of people who've done it. I mean, in my case, it was twenty six years, but sometimes it's eight years or 10 years. And then they realize, Wow, I did it. I accomplished my dream, but I'm burnt out and I'm going to try something new. And that's wonderful, too. Was it as intense, though, for the all the 26 years? Did you feel like you didn't really have hobbies or you didn't have time to invest in your personal life? Or it was really those first eight years were super grueling and then the latter 18 still working hard, but not at that same one hundred and thirty percent. Yeah, it definitely got better over time the first eight years. Yes, no time for anything but the company. And then the final, yeah, 16 or 18 years. It was better, I would say, you know, part one, the first day was the worst one hundred hours a week. You know, the middle of time was, you know, something more reasonable. And then the third part was more reasonable than that. But I will say I had my kids during parts two and three. So if I wasn't working, I wanted to be with my kids every minute, of course, right? Because when you're working 60, 70 hours a week, if you're not working, you want to be with your kids. Yes, if I wasn't working, my hobbies were my kids. But of course, as we know, is moms, sometimes you can make the most wonderful friends through your kids when you have kids, right? And and that's what I did. So if I wasn't working, it was all about my kids. And then I had a social life through them, so it was much more palatable. It was. It was wonderful. And now I am so fortunate because of what I got to do for all those years because I work in marketing. I like to ask successful entrepreneurs about marketing what has been some of the best successes in terms of marketing for trans perfect or things that you would have done differently. Looking back. I am a big believer in marketing, and in the early days we didn't have money for marketing. It was just sales, sales, sales, you know, smiling and dialing, you know, as I said, cold calling and bringing in the client and then spoiling them with service, which was super important. And then one project would turn into multiple projects and multiple projects would turn into a relationship. So that was the sales piece of it. But what I used to say and what we used to do was whatever profit you have and basically whatever profits we made, we put virtually all of it back into the company and that's how we grew up. But you want to maximize the amount of profit you put into sales and marketing and then minimize your other costs as much as possible, because that's how you can really scale the company and get the word out. But we tried new things. It was a lot of trial and error like it was with pretty much everything we did, and I think that's another thing that's really important. You asked earlier if I thought I knew I was going to be successful if I had the confidence. No, absolutely not. If anything, I am the imperfect entrepreneur. I am the unlikely entrepreneur. What I thought of naming my book, those were alternate titles I thought of because absolutely not, because it was really just by trial and error I learned and the same with marketing and the same with hiring and retaining people. So, you know, that was kind of how it worked in terms of marketing. So what made you write dream big and win? What was the origin story of what made you want to write this book, which is awesome, by the way, listeners? It's fantastic. What made you want to write it? Thank you so much for asking Kim. When I started the company over 30 years ago, I really tried to read every business book I could get my hands on. I was so curious and I think, you know, as I said, I think it's great when people are curious. I think that's helpful. And I was and I tried to find whatever book I could and I did. I read a lot of books, but they were similar to one another. They were always written by men and they were very much just focused on the business and they were a little dry. And I thought, Wow, I wish I could find a book, which is more something that I can relate to, where I can relate to the author, where she's someone more like me, where I hear stories from when she was little, how she evolved when she was in her twenties. And then, of course, what she did write what she did wrong. And I really wanted something like that. And I thought, Boy, I worked for twenty six years and trans perfectly built it out of nothing to a billion dollar company. And I learned so much along the way, as I said, based on what I did right and what I did wrong, and I should be sharing this. And then, of course, you know, relating it back to the books I was reading, I wanted it to be entertaining and authentic. And fun. You know, it's more like a beach, read a beach, read business, read, and that's what I was trying to create. Hopefully I did that, but I certainly tried to share a lot of lessons that took us from the dorm room to a billion dollar company. Well, it's an awesome read at my very last question would be about the Elizabeth Melting Foundation. Tell us a little bit about what it does. Sure. Five years ago, when I sold my company, I thought, Wow, I've been so fortunate. And I was able to cash out for a lot of money, and I'm one of the lucky ones because I I'm in this situation where now I can do what I want. And along the way, I met a lot of people who weren't fortunate. I mean, whether it was women, whether marginalized populations, whether it was people inside my company, outside of my company. And I need to help make it so everybody has the same opportunities I did, and the world is a fairer, more equitable place. So as a result, I started my foundation, whose mission is to help support and empower women and marginalized populations. And through it, I support all different entrepreneurs through educational organizations and other organizations. I also and it have ended up supporting other organizations that I believe in, whether it's the American Heart Association, a number of cancer foundations or so gun safety, the two biggest gun safety organizations in the world, every town and Sandy Hook promise and then hunger. But it's all with the same goal, basically to create equality for all, to make it so we all can live long, healthy, healthy lives and really that it's a fair world because that's what it needs to be. Oh, I love I love hearing that about the give back. This been such a great conversation. I'm like, This is awesome. Thank you. I mean, I just think it's so important for people to just go and try things, and it's OK. If they don't work out, you'll learn from them and you move on to the next thing. And that was so much my story along the way. You know, I'm finding that, you know, people can be perfectionists. That's what I'm guilty of that. But I guess the biggest thing I learned is, you know, stop being such a perfectionist. Just let it go and try things and then you'll learn you'll get better. You'll figure out what not to do the next time, but just go for it because it's fun. And one question I ask people, especially very successful people like yourself, Are you happy? Yes, I am happy. Thank you for asking. I think what's wonderful now is I, you know, accomplished that dream. And then I went through some crazy litigation and I learned a tremendous amount about that. And I think learning is wonderful. Then I worked on my book and I've learned so much about that. I love that. So I keep doing new things and learning, which I think is very important. But as far as happiness, I think really the key for me is getting time to spend with your family and your friends. And I'm certainly so fortunate to get to do that and to pursue your passion. And ideally make it have a purpose. And I'm getting to do that and then finally getting to give back. And so so I'm lucky because yes, I am happy. I mean, believe me, there are things that go wrong every day and I think, Oh, how did I let that happen? I got to do it better. I got to fix it. But yes, I am happy. I am happy. Thank you for asking. And thank you for joining me. I love you. I just I love this book. I love learning more about you and your incredible life and the lessons that you have imparted both in the book and in this interview about pushing aside the perfectionism. And just if you want something, go for it and then not just go for it in your head, go for it in life. Put it on paper, then do the thing because I think there's so much of that that a set aside the perfectionism, but then be just go for it and be relentless and don't give up. And I just you're such an amazing role model for everyone, not for women, yes, but for everyone. And it's a really great testament to just like the power of a great idea, finding a solution to a problem and then just focusing on it and never stopping. Thank you so much, Liz and everybody. Make sure to grab Dream Big and when, and I'll put the link in the show notes and thank you so much. Thank you so much, Kim. Love talking to you. Do not forget to grab Dream Big and win by Liz Lighting, it is a great read and it'll be linked out in the show notes. Thank you for listening to the exit interview with Kim Richards, what tip will you use from the show? Or what stayed with you? Drop me a message at Kim Dotcom REIT BRC or on Instagram or LinkedIn. Matt Kim referred, I read every single note and I will even run it on our show. Please follow the show in Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen, and drop a five star rating and review and share it with anyone you think would find it useful. It is meant to be a resource, so please spread the word. And if you run a business and are thinking you are making all this content, all this video, I'm not seeing returns or you've hit that dreaded plateau. Maybe you just want to level up your public speaking skills. Drop me a line. I hope professionals become thought leaders and businesses become brands through video and podcasts. My newsletter Sign Up is linked in the show notes, and you can grab more info at my website. This is the exit interview with Kim Richburg, and I'm your host and executive producer Kim Richards. The show is produced by Henry Street Media and Gillian Grover is our editor. Exit the grind and enter life on your own terms.
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