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Tiffany Kinslow: Meeting Client’s Real Estate Needs Successfully.

Meet Tiffany Kinslow, Realtor at Main Street Realty, which serves to meet its clients’ needs in Smith, Simpson, and Rankin county areas. She graduated from Copiah Lincoln College in 2000 and attended the University of Southern MS and Ashford University, where she completed her studies in 2004. Before getting into the real estate profession, Tiffany was a school teacher for many years. However, she always loved real estate and knew beforehand that she would eventually pursue her career in real estate.

The area where Tiffany operates is very rural and has many unique challenges compared to larger cities. She says, “I was teased when I decided to niche down and serve my small community. Many thought I was making a bad decision for being a small town realtor, but I love my community.” Tiffany believes her love for the community keeps her going in the industry.

Last year, she was also recognized as a top agent by the Top Agent Magazine. For the past 8 years, she has maintained between 30-45 listings throughout the year and closed between 65-80 transactions. Currently, she has 48 listings.

Tiffany also serves as the VP of the Magee Chamber of Commerce, Board member of the Mendenhall Chamber of Commerce, Director of the Simpson County Developmental Foundation, and serves on Keep Magee Beautiful.

About the Realty Company

Main Street Realty represents over 3 decades of combined experience in meeting its client’s real estate needs. The firm’s established presence in its community enables it to provide clients with the needed knowledge of its market area, trends, and finance solutions. MSR serves all its clients with honesty, integrity, and dedicated professional representation as a realty company. The realty firm feels privileged to assist its clients in one of the most important decisions of their life. It brings the needed experience, integrity, hard work, and relationships with several buyers and sellers. MSR uses the latest technologies to dominate the market and make the necessary connections for its success.

As a real estate leader, Main Street Realty takes an active interest in supporting the local community’s children. Each year, it sponsors a local baseball field and teams.

“And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.”

The entire team of Main Street Realty is very actively involved in their community with their families. Family time is crucial for the realty company members, and they work very hard to enjoy their time off with their families. Every member of the realty company is associated with the National Association of Realtors, the Mississippi Association of Realtors, and others.

Tackling Challenges

Tiffany Kinslow feels that the lack of inventory is a big challenge nowadays. She is trying to overcome that by reaching out to her older clients and informing them about the current value of their homes, and she can help them sell those for the best market value.

She believes another challenge is realtors holding themselves to a professional standard, having the needed industry knowledge to represent their clients adequately, and operating with integrity throughout the transaction.

The Pandemic

Before the pandemic, Tiffany Kinslow had a robust social media presence. She is an avid lister and constantly listens to real-estate training courses. These courses pushed her to opt for video marketing from the very beginning. So, Tiffany started marketing her homes through videos over the internet even before the pandemic. As a result, the pandemic’s effect on her business was milder than it was on other companies. However, some of her deals did fall through as the banks were closed and halted their lending processes. She says, “It was a scary time. I approached it like I have every other challenge I have faced in my business. I knew I needed to pivot my business to accommodate my clients through Covid, and that’s what I did.”

Tiffany soon started encouraging her clients and reminded them how she could virtually market their homes and follow CDC guidelines in case of any physical meeting. She considers her clients an important part of her life, and they know it. If her clients were uncomfortable marketing their homes at the height of the pandemic, she refrained. However, she marketed like crazy when they were comfortable with the process. Tiffany closed 75 and 78 transactions during the two years of the pandemic.

Patrice Boenzi: Helping Clients to Reach their Real Estate Goals.

Meet Patrice Boenzi a Realtor at Fathom Realty, who is also a credentialed minister. Fathom Realty, provides her with all the tools she needs to be successful while keeping her splits almost non-existent. It was Patrice’s first business decision and one of the best ones she has made. Patrice pastored for 15 years and left the full-time ministry to pursue the ministry idea that she needed to fund.

After leaving pastoring, Patrice got her real estate license and started her career by flipping homes, purchasing rentals, and building her client base. Patrice has her Senior Real Estate Specialist designated and she loves to help her clients downsize.

The Problem Solver

As a business leader, Patrice loves solving problems, thinking out of the box, educating the consumer, and helping her clients reach their real estate goals. This “rush” keeps Patrice going. As an active real estate investor, she brings a different set of skills that help her clients prepare their homes for the market (to get top dollar); as well as, creative, out-of-the-box negotiation skills in this tough market.

When A Pandemic Shook the World

As opposed to other businesses, Patrice’s business thrived during the pandemic. She always leads with value and keeps in contact with her past clients and the pandemic allowed Patrice to check in and make sure everyone was okay. During the pandemic, Patrice learned to do things differently. She utilized Zoom for listing appointments and to meet new buyers. She witnessed people moving out of state, upsizing, and selling to take advantage of the low-interest rates. The pandemic affected the real estate industry as a whole in many ways. Patrice observed people having the freedom to work from anywhere which catapulted people to sell their properties for different options. Additionally, Patrice witnessed, second home prices soar as people had the opportunity to work from home. Historically low-interest rates encouraged people to make a housing change if they were on the fence.

Tackling Challenges

The main challenge for Patrice is low inventory and rising home prices. This combination is making it hard for some of Patrice’s first-time buyers to secure a home. In addition, in her experience, she is seeing buyers with FHA or VA loans having a harder time securing a property.

Patrice also tackles these problems by sending out postcards to potential sellers, networking with other agents, and making sure their lending options are solid. For her FHA and VA buyers, Patrice advocates for them with the listing agent and writes an offer that is solid and creative!

“In sales, no matter what industry, people buy from someone they know, love and trust; work your sphere!”

Patrice feels blessed with many accomplishments and achievements in her short time as a Realtor. She started her real estate journey full-time in January 2017. During her first year in real estate, she was Broker’s MVP and has been a top producer since she started. Patrice was on the cover of Top Agent Magazine, and in 2021 received two awards from her MLS board – Gold for top 3% Sales Volume and Diamond for Top 2% Transactions. In 2021, she was the top producing agent in her brokerage for the State of Illinois.

Suggestions for Younger Self

Patrice is a mentor for Fathom Realty and loves to train new agents to be successful. She feels, that entrepreneurs need to understand that no one is going to wake them up in the morning or hound them to do what they need to do; that must come from within. There are no shortcuts! The Millions are in the Follow-up. No Excuses! She says, “As entrepreneurs, we are responsible for running every aspect of our business and figure out what needs to be delegated.” Patrice feels many entre – preneurs want to be in control of every aspect of their business, but this mindset eventually slows them down. Entrepreneurs need to understand their value and how much their time costs. Shortly after Patrice launched her real estate career she hired a transaction coordinator, who took so much off Patrice’s plate that she was able to be in front of clients more which turned into more happy clients and more revenue.

Future Roadmap

In the next five years, Patrice Boenzi sees herself with several other types of income-producing proper – ties. She is making a shift to duplicate herself more, especially in this market. Patrice Boenzi is working on building a team of buyer’s agents, listing agents, and showing agents so she and her team, can service more clients and together.

Danielle Addante: Solving Client’s Real Estate Needs.

Andrew Carnegie once said, “The wise young man or wage earner of today invests his money in real estate.”

Meet Danielle Addante, Realtor at d’aprile properties, who is known as a well-respected, and innovative real-estate service provider throughout the Arlington Heights and Mount Prospect areas. She is deeply rooted in where she operates.

Danielle is involved in the local school systems, supporting local businesses, and she has spent years forging personal and professional relationships with the residents and vendors. She brings an unmatched level of expertise and enthusiasm to the industry, which needs both.

Danielle entered the business of real estate with a unique background. Before she started working as a realtor, Danielle was a licensed Speech-Language Pathologist, working in the therapy department of rehabilitation centers. Danielle pursued a Bachelor of Sciences degree from the University of Illinois in Communication Disorders. She later completed her Master’s Degree in Speech-Language Pathology from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Coming from a background known for breaking down communication barriers, Danielle’s strong sense of ethics and heartfelt desire to help people helped her advocate and guide clients through their most significant transaction of life.

Understanding the importance of an interdisciplinary team approach, she took the opportunity and started working with lenders and attorneys to achieve clients’ real estate goals.

Providing Unparalleled Service

Danielle is a full-service realtor, a consistent top producing agent, and she is a Certified Staging Consultant and Pricing Strategy Advisor. She supports her clients at every point of the buying and selling process. Danielle’s support team includes; brand managers, a full-time marketing team, a design team, a list of exclusive vendors, and a transaction coordinator.

“The meaning of life is to find your gift; the purpose of life is to give it away.”

With her constant market study, Danielle provides a very high level of information to prepare her clients for entering the market. With her strong communication skills and loyalty, Danielle delivers unparalleled service to assist her clients in their real estate buying or selling process. Her mastery of client/agent relationships has been a great asset for her firm. She has implemented a new multi-tier platform of various marketing tools and techniques, which have set a certain standard in her local market and beyond.

When Pandemic Bought Uncertainties

During the initial days of the coronavirus pandemic, many felt some uncertainties about the real estate industry. However, the pandemic opened up new opportunities to meet clients face to face. Apps like Zoom and Meet enabled clients to participate in consultation meetings or video tours of properties when physical visits were not permitted. Following the pandemic, Danielle has witnessed year over year growth, as it has solidified her goals in taking an individualized approach to how her clients wanted to be served and the ways d’aprile properties could make properties and information available to them.

Tackling the Challenges

Danielle feels the nationwide shortage of real estate became the biggest challenge of the last year. Additionally, the rising interest rates are also a cause of concern for the buyer. Danielle explains that tackling these issues will need another pivot.

She says, “Focusing on different ways to source properties for buyer clients and getting creative to help your sellers develop a plan, to sell their home to set them up for another purchase requires creativity, education on options, and a solid negotiator to help execute the best possible outcomes for the clients.

Awards and Accolades

Since she transitioned to brokerage in 2019, Danielle is recognized as a Top Producer in her firm year after year. She has also been recognized by providing her the Platinum and Black Key Awards from d’aprile properties, recognizing her high sales volume and the number of yearly transactions. Danielle earned the Daily Herald Readers’ Choice Best Realtor award in 2019 and 2020. Chicago Agent’s Magazine has featured her in Who’s Who in Residential Real Estate 2020 and 2021. Additionally, she has also been in the cover story of Top Agent Magazine 2021.

Preparing for the Future

In the future, Danielle Addante wants to see herself as a reputable industry leader and top choice for the suburban real estate market. She also plans to be a mentor and resource for the newer agents in the industry. Danielle Addante intends to become the person who can lift newer agents and help them grow their business to live a life worth living and careers they are proud of having.

Kul Nijjar: Helping to Discover a Place You can Call Home

It is a great feeling to help people move forward in their lives, which is the best part of being in the real estate industry. Buying or selling a home can be emotional, but often they are a part of a larger process, that is finding a home, where the next stage of life begins.

Meet, Kul Nijjar, founder of Kootenay BC Property Matchmakers. Kul’s beginnings in real estate came from needing employment, something where she could stay at home and raise her family in Kaslo. Her story started in Domeli, Punjab, India. Kul was only 5 years old when her family moved to Toronto. From there, Kul’s journey through life has brought her to Argenta, and later to Kaslo, BC. Community is something Kul values, and she always feels, her relationships with people have to be honest and caring.

When Kul became a real estate agent, becoming a real estate agent was primarily a means for her to make a living and remain in Kaslo, her home base and community. Then real estate business meant making hundreds of calls in the pursuit of making money, which Kul never felt right. Over time, Kul figured out how to do real estate differently, challenging the status quo simply by being herself and genuinely caring about people and her community. She focused on improving the quality of life for her clients through finding them the best possible homes, bringing her natural kindness along through every step of the process, from looking through listings to signing the final documents. During the past 12 years of working in the Kootenays, success for Kul has meant empowering people to live fulfilled and engaged lives in the communities where they belong. And doing things right, always.

In 2020, Kul founded her organization, KootenayBC as a bridge between the old way of doing real estate and what’s next. It’s a kinder, simpler, and more engaging experience that goes beyond a business transaction. The kind of service where clients feel supported, heard, and empowered to find their dream home and community.

The Steadfast Leader

Kul enjoys working and challenging herself. She feels, with every new listing or new client there’s a new journey. Not every property is the same and not every client is the same. Dreams and Resolutions – people buy or sell real estate usually for two reasons; because they have a dream to create and a goal to meet. Or it’s because an event has happened in their life and they have to make a tough decision, that usually has an impact on their life choices. So, to be able to assist someone in their exciting or challenging times is satisfying to me. Kul also likes to see how much she can grow and succeed. She says, “In this business, you have to not only keep up with all the changing industry regulations but also the available new technology. It’s not a mundane job that’s for sure.”

When Values are the Driving Forces

Under Kul’s leadership, KootenayBC provides service to its clients, community, team, and the belief that real estate done with heart can help change lives and neighborhoods everyone calls home.

Kul believes, the key to quality and efficiency is professionalism. Her firm offers proactive, engaged, and expert matchmaking services that put the client’s s best interests at the center of everything it does. Kootenay BC is adaptable to shifting circumstances while always being grounded in its values and principles. As a purpose-driven organization, Kootenay BC’s priority is making a positive difference in the lives of people. The firm fosters honest, consistent, and uncompromising principles that guide, its actions and relationships. It is entirely committed to building trusting relationships, being accountable, and staying open to improving at every level.

“Set your life on Fire, Seek those who fan the Flame”

Kul and her colleagues feel energized and inspired by the firm’s purpose and mission. Kootenay BC does not come from a place of lack but rather sees the world as a place full of opportunities that inspire Kul and others to think big. The firm is excited by the challenges ahead and is positive, grateful, and empowered partners for its clients and communities. Kul believes, her organization will choose joy over competition and it’ll readily share its knowledge with others while maintaining a beginner’s mind.

Tackling Primary Challenges

Kul Nijjar feels the biggest challenge is probably getting clients to realize, that although the area is very beautiful, people still have to live there. So, clients need to know how they are going to make money, as jobs are scarce. People also don’t always realize the size of the region and that each community is unique and diverse in its way. So, clients may think about moving to the Kootenays, but they do have to learn about the region and all the different communities within. The other challenge is not enough appraisers, home inspectors, lawyers, when it’s busy, everyone is very busy so clients need to accommodate for longer timelines to make sure that everything can be done, on time.

The Pandemic’s Affect

According to Kul Nijjar, the Covid-19 pandemic has certainly provided for a very busy marketplace, especially in the area where Kootenays BC provides its services. The firm is located in the SE interior of BC.

Kootenays has always been considered as a small, hippy, pot-growing, back to the land type of area. It has a ton of outdoor recreation, and as those sports have become more popular it has drawn more attraction from people outside of the area. When Covid hit, all the things that folks may have seen as negatives – ruralness, less populated, fewer amenities, all those things became very popular. All of a sudden folks wanted to be in areas that had less population. Where it’s easier to get to nature.

Advice for Upcoming Entrepreneurs

When we asked Kul Nijjar to provide some suggestions for new entrepreneurs, she says, “Consistency and sticking with it. Nothing happens overnight. There are so many things that are going to challenge your inspiration and your motivation. To just kind of put your head down and keep at it. Don’t pay too close attention to your competitors – know who they are but don’t get stuck paying more attention to their business than your own.”

She also adds, “Knowing your limits – once you know them you can decide to challenge them or to stay within them. Both are good and are dependent on what situations you are in.”

She also advises not to lie, tell the truth no matter how hard it is. “If you screw up don’t make excuses, own and figure out a solution. Ask for help when you need it. Don’t be loud about your accomplishments and how great your ideas are. Let your customers show that to you. Don’t be afraid to take risks. Take the risk and stay cautious at the same time.”-she says.

Picture of the Future

Kul Nijjar feels times are super interesting right now. She can see folks becoming more concerned with their pocketbooks, and the cost of everything. Her goal would be to grow, her business and her brand. Create working relationships with like-minded realtors – provide good honest services – and have more KootenayBC Property Matchmaker visibility in other areas. But if needed she is prepared to see what are the challenges, economy, and housing markets bring and change how she needs to.

Naveen Puttagunta: Helping Organizations with User Experience and Interface Designing

Meet Naveen Puttagunta, CEO of Divami Design Labs, started his career working with QA and product development teams. Later he served as a product manager in multiple large enterprise software firms, where he has been a vital part of the entire product lifecycle of software development. Thanks to his years of experience, Naveen has observed the evolution of UI and UX and quickly realized its incredible potential to transform digital products and experiences, which eventually led to the foundation of Divami.

As a UX and UI design and development agency Divami aims to create user experiences that add outstanding value to various digital products and platforms, one design at a time. The organization solves complex problems across verticals like; Data integration, FinTech, HealthTech, EduTech, HRMS, Transportation, Supply Chain, Logistics, DevOps, IoT, AR/VR, AI/ML, etc. The design firm impresses its clients by pushing itself beyond the finishing line with its strategic solutions, unique UX and UI designs, and efficient design-led development.

Divami’s tech stack is filled with recent technologies like Javascript, React, HTML 5, CSS3, SASS, LESS, Android Studio, Bootstrap, MySQL, iOS, Swift, etc. As India’s one of the first UX agencies in 13 years, Divami has specialized in domains like Data Integration & Analytics, Real-Time Monitoring, Voice User Interface, Content led Commerce, Crypto, MEL education, and more. The firm’s primary strength lies in Enterprise software, SaaS and Cloud Platforms, Digital Transformation, and Consumer and E-Commerce applications.

Innovative Solutions

Since Divami’s inception, Naveen’s eyes were set on the global stage. The leadership team wanted to deliver exceptional digital product experiences and become an aspirational global brand. With 80 team members, Divami is currently providing a cutting-edge digital experience to its international clientele.

The firm’s core service offerings include UX Strategy, UX & UI design, Design-led-Development Services for B2B SaaS platforms, User Research, Technology Software products, Enterprise Digital Transformation Projects, eCommerce marketplaces, and Consumer Applications. Till date, the company has worked with some of the biggest names in the tech and SaaS industry, including HCL, Collins Aerospace, Google, RightData, Zenoti, DarwinBox, etc.

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

Divami is the number 1 ranked UX and UI Design Agency in India on ‘Clutch.co.’ The firm has worked with more than 200 clients around the planet and touched over 50 million people. Recently, the firm was honored with the CII Design Excellence Award and Web Excellence Award for its platform designs.

Keeping it Going

The Divami team is continually motivated to achieve efficient excellence and perfection in every aspect of a project. Naveen says, “At the end of the day, we are only as successful as our work is. This is why most of our clients come back to us because our designs have made them and their products successful.”

With the leadership team providing a sense of ownership and belonging, the average employment period in Divami is somewhere between 3-5 years. Many of the team members have started their careers with the firm and have stayed with it for a long time.

With very high attrition rates, the entire leadership team is proud to treat employees as stakeholders rather than contributors. So, Naveen Puttagunta believes that as long as the employees are motivated to improve both professionally and personally, that allows them to face challenges, they will perform.

The Era of Uncertainty and Instability

The pandemic has brought many uncertainties and instabilities over the past two years. In order to combat those, Divami has adopted Adaptability and Risk-Taking as one of its core values. Although the firm’s core business model hasn’t changed during the pandemic, these core values helped it a lot. Since the team was already accustomed to remote work, there were very few changes in the execution model. However, it revamped the project management, design, and delivery process to run everything smoothly.

Tackling Challenges

Naveen Puttagunta feels that design firms primarily compete for promising talents instead of customers. However, that isn’t to suggest that there’s no competition; there is always competition.

There are instances of prospects comparing established design firms like Divami with freelancers and other small design companies; this is when the leadership team explains the upper hand clients will get after partnering with the company.

Picture of the Future

Divami is transforming with each passing day. Thanks to an influx of long-term clients and multiplying projects, the firm is looking to expand its team in the upcoming years. It has set aggressive targets to equip itself with the right resources, training, and team expansion, ensuring the delivery of efficient excellence to all of its clients.

In an attempt to stay future-proof, Divami has also started working on solutions in the emerging trends like; Metaverse, Web 3.0, AR/VR, IoT, and more to deliver on upcoming requirements.

Mr. Julio P. Gonzalez: One of the Most Innovative CEOs to Follow in 2022

Meet Mr. Julio P. Gonzalez, the Most Interesting Man in Tax, the founder and CEO of USA’s most prominent specialty tax engineering firm, Engineered Tax Services, Inc (ETS). The firm started its journey in 2001 with the hopes of bringing specialized tax credits and incentives to mainstream America, which were only available to the Fortune 500 and public companies through the Big 8 National Accounting firms. Recognizing Mr. Gonzalez’s selfless contribution to the American society, Tycoon Success magazine has awarded him as one of The 10 Most Innovative CEOs to follow in 2022.

Consistently named one of the Top 100 most influential people in Accounting by Accounting Today, Mr. Gonzalez acquired The Growth Partnership, The Rosenberg Survey and ABLE CRM to establish USA’s largest specialty tax and consultive firm to the accounting community.

Nation’s Forefather of Specialty Tax Services

As ETS CEO and Founder, Mr. Gonzalez’s main priority is to arm the accounting firms with needed resources, enabling them to provide tax credits and incentives to their clients, resulting in job growth.

He works closely with Congress on tax reform and is the go-to tax expert representing many national organizations and associations around the country as it relates to federal tax code and tax law. Additionally, he is a regular public speaker on the national level specializing in tax reform and tax sophistication for wealth preservation.

In 2021, Mr. Gonzalez founded Rockerbox to bring the accounting industry best in class resources in employment retention credits and work opportunity training credits. Also, at the end of 2021, he acquired Inside Public Accounting to strengthen his company’s ability to become a go-to resource for the accounting community.

Mr. Gonzalez is known as the nation’s forefather of specialty tax services. He and his companies have also been recognized multiple times for their assistance in preserving jobs in the United States. Presently Mr. Gonzalez and his company ETS are USA’s biggest licensed engineering tax resource to more than 1000 CPA and accounting firms.

Helping Organizations in R&D Credits

Engineered Tax Services focus entirely on federal, state, and local tax benefits as a licensed engineering firm. There are many federal tax incentives, for which the IRS requires professional engineers and scientists to determine the tax benefits in areas like real estate and manufacturing. The firm also uses its engineering, scientific, and tax teams to provide one of the most crucial federal and state tax credits available to businesses in the United States in the form of Research and Development tax credits. These tax credits are meant to incentivize manufacturing, innovation, technical design, and job creation in the country.

The R&D Tax Credit is a crucial federal incentive that helps U.S. companies remain globally competitive. In order to qualify for the R&D credit, companies may develop new techniques to improve their products.

Mr. Julio P Gonzalez’s vision was to first bring awareness to mainstream America by educating the accounting firms. Over the years, ETS has become an industry leader in these services, eventually increasing cash flow, job creation, and expansion.

Engineered Tax Services tax attorneys, engineers, and scientists are the experts who have performed millions of these tax services over the past decades. Through this service, Mr. Julio P Gonzalez and his team have generated billions of dollars in stimulus that has positively impacted millions of jobs across the country.

Picture of the Future

When it comes to the organization’s future, ETS will continue to influence excellent tax codes in the U.S. by working with the president’s administration and congress. Additionally, Mr. Julio P Gonzalez will continue to grow and support small businesses while educating them about the tax laws with their CPAs and accounting firms to assure their success.

4th Commonwealth Businesswomen’s Network Awards: celebrating women of excellence around the globe

Winners to be announced at a special event during Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in RwandaNominations are now open for the 4th Commonwealth Businesswomen’s Network Awards which will be announced at a special event during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) week in Kigali, Rwanda this June.In line with this year’s theme of Delivering a Common Future: Transforming for Gender Equality, the Awards recognises and celebrates the achievements and contributions of women in business who advance gender equality in their business across the Commonwealth.  More specifically, the Awards recognise women who, through their actions, have become role models especially for girls in school, women in higher education and in the early stage of their careers.  She is an extraordinary woman who leads by example and makes an impact in her community.“The Commonwealth’s billion plus women need to be celebrated and women’s economic empowerment and achievements prioritised, pushed and praised,” shares CBWN Chair, Freda Miriklis. “The awards are given solely on merit and are awarded to those most deserving for their hard work in spite of the many obstacles and challenges they have overcome to attain professional success and wider impact.”The Commonwealth Businesswomen’s Network Awards covers a range of categories with the following now open for nominations:Commonwealth Woman Entrepreneur of the Year (powered by EQUALS Global Partnership and with the Global Entrepreneurship Network)Nominees should be over the age of 30 and have demonstrated outstanding leadership and vision; and made significant contributions in advancing women in their sector, in spite of challenges, to make significant positive change. Commonwealth Young Woman Entrepreneur of the Year (powered by EQUALS Global Partnership and in collaboration with the Commonwealth Youth Council)Nominees should be emerging female entrepreneurs 16 – 30 years of age who exemplify innovation and displays great potential for future growth.Commonwealth Young Girl Entrepreneur of the Year (powered by Technovation and in collaboration with the Commonwealth Youth Council)Nominees should be girls under the age of 16, bright stars that have created opportunities to start and operate a successful business or project and who have made a positive impact within their community. Nominations for the 2022 4th CBWN Awards close on 8th of June 2022.  Entries will be judged by an advisory panel made up of senior people from CBWN and partners.  Winners will be announced and celebrated at a special event during CHOGM in Kigali.Winning a CBWN Award will allow the entrant multi-channel access to building their brand across the CBWN network and raise their profile to attract investors and key industry stakeholders.  CBWN is a platform to upskill, empower and uplift women and to enable and encourage trade for women in business across the 54 countries of the Commonwealth and harness the potential and power of women in order to drive economic growth.

Ajay Gupta: Helping Clients with Authentic Data

Growing up in a small town in India, Ajay Gupta, CEO of Stirista, lacked the luxury of a telephone at home as he lived too far out. As a result, since his childhood, Ajay has always been fascinated by how modern technology can help find information and connect people efficiently. This fascination eventually fuelled his dream of developing products that could make communication easier. His first foray into the digital world happened when he was 14. At that time, he started up a pro-wrestling website that updated its users through a newsletter. Quickly it garnered more than 5000 readers, which helped Ajay understand how attentive his audience base was to his emails.

The Beginning

Fast forward … Ajay and his wife founded Stirista in 2010 with a simple mission; to help marketers and brands remove the roadblocks to reaching their audience efficiently, ethically and effectively with the industry’s best data, technology and solutions.

Stirista understands that one size does not fit all, and decayed or outdated data doesn’t work every time. So, it has built a modular and real-time OMNA identity graph from its infancy to arm its clients with marketing data that works.

The organization’s primary goal is to solve complex data and media challenges for mid-tier brands who are looking to use solutions and platforms only available to Fortune 500 companies. Ajay believes these companies can handle things like their Facebook buys independently, but while using their client’s data to place a tailored ad, they need help.

The firm’s three main product areas include; data as a service, email marketing, Adstir, its media buying and activation platform.

Stirista’s client services team, combined with their software-as-a-service platform, can help a brand manage, activate, and execute campaigns from email to display to CCTV. Stirista can seamlessly run omnichannel campaigns across CTV, OTT, Email, etc., with the identity graph.          

The Steadfast Leader

Knowing Stirista’s data makes a difference for its clients keeps Ajay moving forward. He feels that the marketers buy and rely on inadequate and insufficient data, so Stirista must help them utilize better data for targeting decisions.

Ajay began his education at St. Lawrence University, where he received his dual Bachelor’s Degrees in Financial Economics and English. However, he wanted to further his education, so he started a Master’s Program in Creative Writing the same year he graduated. After graduating, he decided to work on political campaigns, which eventually showed Ajay how data interacts with messaging.

It was later that year, in 2010, two years after receiving his Master’s Degree from Texas University, Ajay and his wife founded Stirista.

Realigning the Business

When Covid19 hit our beloved planet, one pivot that Ajay put in motion was to redirect Stirista’s marketing focus from brick and mortar retailers to telecommunication and e-commerce companies. This change in direction has helped the organization achieve its revenue goals even after the economic disruption.

It took some time for the team to organize themselves out of the office, as it was hard dealing with the pandemic, however, Ajay feels proud that Stirista has not only successfully retained all of its employees during the pandemic but has actually grown its workforce. The organization also grew by more than 2x in revenue and helped everyone adopt the new working culture.

During this time, Ajay and his team at Stirista also launched a Marketing Stir Podcast to replace physical conferences and summits.

Challenges of a Leader

Ajay understands that he has to make tough decisions that everyone might not like or enjoy. Stirista witnessed a considerable increase in employee numbers with its expansion, limiting Ajay from interacting with everyone as he used to when Stirista was a start-up. Although he still focuses on instilling Stirista’s core values into the executive team, allowing them to lead and interact with people the same way Ajay would. He says,

“We all have reasons not to do something challenging. We can rationalize things we don’t succeed at, but to build a high growth mindset, whether as a company or an individual, you have to love what you do and not count the hours that you are working. If you love what you do and excel at what you do, nothing can stop you.” 

As the founder and CEO of the firm, Ajay Gupta understands his employees’ role in making Stirista the growing company that it is. From employee team building to training and planning, Stirista offers much more than a job. Whether it is a virtual event, Spurs games or a Chemical Romance concert, Stirista tries to do something that caters to a wide variety of people. As Ajay Gupta believes, happy employees are more productive than unhappy employees. The firm has recently added a full time Event Coordinator, entirely dedicated to improving the employees’ experience.

Future Roadmap

Ajay Gupta always wanted one-word associations with Stirista to get to a point where the words “Identity” and “CTV” are synonymous with Stirista. The firm seeks to become the spine of every significant ad tech platform and the audience behind every influential brand’s CTV buying decision.

He adds, “We have grown from 2 to over 100 people over the last ten plus years. When you truly believe in your product, your purpose, and your approach and hire people who feel the same way, success comes naturally.”

Bibhakar Pandey: Simplifying the Entire Customer Experience

Meet Bibhakar Pandey, the Co-founder and CEO of CX Studios, a full-service Customer Experience organization. It focuses entirely on simplifying customer experience implementations and driving clear business outcomes by directly influencing buying behavior across their entire Engagement Lifecycle.

Bibhakar is an industry pioneer with more than 25 years of experience leading global and multi-cultural experience teams across North America, Europe, and APAC. His professional career started almost three decades ago with an entrepreneurial stint right out of college. Although the venture was initially successful, it tanked miserably when he decided to scale. Looking back at his initial leadership experience, Bibhakar often says, “Perhaps we didn’t have the maturity and rigor back then. But it was a good life lesson very early on  in my career about learning to Fail Fast.”

Later he joined the IT boom through a multi-national company. Bibhakar was fortunate to work with some demanding and challenging clients across the globe. The experience taught him things that he still cherishes.

Generating High Yield

CX Studios realizes its clients’ vision by generating high yield from every customer touchpoint. The firm’s approach toward CX is entirely data-driven and led by insights and intelligence. When it comes to building a seamless customer experience engagement model, the firm uses industry-leading tools, platforms, holistic strategies, and services to deliver complete solutions in industries like, Healthcare, Pharma, Insurance, and Financial Services.

With a significant focus on continued learning within the organization, CX Studio has also founded CX Studios University. The university trains every associate for more than 1000 hours before they get deployed in small PODs for client engagements.

Punching Above its Weight

The entire team of CX Studios motivates Bibhakar every day. He feels working with the new generation is quite refreshing and full of learning experiences. Additionally, the firm’s focus on solving its client’s problems and identifying new opportunities to drive growth in their business is a big motivating factor for him.

After working for MNCs for most of his career, Bibhakar feels surprised to witness, that clients are more transparent about sharing their opportunity areas with a comparatively small start-up like CX Studios. For him, it is an attestation of the company’s goals and the capability of its team.

As famously said in a movie, “With great power comes great responsibility”– Bibhakar feels it’s his responsibility toward the team of CX Studios and its clients which keeps him, and the entire leadership team motivated to be consistently proficient.

Delivering Business Outcome

Bibhakar believes currently, the most significant challenge hampering the industry is talent gap and the Great Resignation, which together are now having a compounding effect on delivering customer experience solutions. Adding to the complexities, customer experience and customers’ expectations around their experience are evolving faster than anyone could have imagined before.

He feels the pandemic pushed the digital customer experience evolution by 5-6 years. It has made it challenging for clients to keep pace with best-in-class technologies. Since Covid, few of the CX Studios’ clients are looking to change their business models and go directly to consumers. However, at the same time they are struggling to identify their buyers, as the pandemic has changed buying patterns and engagement expectations. With all these going on, CX Studios launched its CX solutions for its clients to help with their direct business outcomes is becoming paramount.

With the core leadership bringing more than 150 years of combined experience in this space, Bibhakar and his team realize that the company is at an influx point in the industry where old will not be able to hold.

A Constant Evolution

Due to the constant changes in clients’ and the team’s expectations, Bibhakar feels that leaders need to be more agile, patient, and adaptive post-pandemic. He says, “There’s no right or wrong approach – what’s right today may not work tomorrow. We need to be patient with the ongoing changes, with our teams, and with our approach, knowing that our solution is only as good as yesterday. We are in a constant state of evolution and live in a very uncertain world where continuous change is the only certainty.”

Bibhakar also added, “Companies and leaders who would succeed in this decade are the ones who are nimble in their approach, can adapt and take accountability for the outcomes to ever-changing market demand.”

Tackling Challenges

Leading an organization like CX Studios in uncertain times is not easy. Bibhakar Pandey believes that while everything has been laid out as organizational goals and vision, the firm will still have to execute and meet its revenue goals. However, he feels if the firm only focusses on the goal of revenue growth, then it might not be able to achieve its core purpose. So, it’s more important to focus on the journey and the process rather than the destination. As an organization, CX Studios focuses on making its process and approach stronger without thinking about the final result. As per Bibhakar Pandey, the final result is the simple derivative of a strong process that continues to evolve based on the learning and is executed through a disciplined approach. According to him, the CX Studios Team is also fortunate to have an Investor team who have wealth of leadership experience in this space and beyond, who also share similar values and goals for the growth of the organization.

Picture of the Future

CX Studios was established to drive its client’s business outcomes in the CX space by leveraging its multi solutionist talent and capability. In the future, the firm will continue to pursue its core purpose to scale and create a niche for itself in the Digital Customer Experience industry space.

The firm continues to grow its client base by creating next-generation capabilities and talent in the CX space and consistently strengthening the execution for driving Client’s Business outcomes.

Company Name: CX Studios

Management: Bibhakar Pandey, the Co-founder, and CEO

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