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Kevin Steer: Helping Companies in their Growth with One Two One Advisor

One Two One Advisor, a visionary technology solution and consulting services company, was built and nurtured by Kevin Steer, has pioneered various revolutionary business solutions in digital technology, internet, and mobile platforms, social media channels as well as regulatory-compliant cloud solutions for multinational and domestic clients.

The renowned professional and thought leader, Kevin Steer took the foundation of the firm in 2010 in association with a team of talented professionals with a track record of success in serving clients across the Financial, Insurance, Takaful & Services sectors in the Asia region for the past 20 years. 121Advisor has grown significantly, over the past 10 years, and grown to 20+ companies with a focus on creating disruptive solutions and building more solutions.

Graduated from Cambridge University (Downing College) in 1978 with an engineering degree, Kevin Steer went over to Brunei to train with Schlumberger for four months. After that, he was assigned to Australia for 18 months, transferred to Indonesia for three years, and then to China for six months.

Observing the advances of mobile computers, Kevin Steer decided to do a Master’s at Imperial College (London, UK)—where he studied Artificial Intelligence—and joined an Artificial Intelligence company in the UK. Thereafter, he moved to Malaysia in 1990 to set up an entrepreneurial company focused on insurance and banking solutions and established 121Advisor in 1990.

Unique Service Portfolio

They are delivering the marketing automation results in personalized content delivery, targeted campaigns, and engagement format.

Some of their services include:

  • Predictive Analytics with Machine Learning: Using this for predicting new products to buy, churns & lapsation, underwriting, etc.
  • Multilingual Chatbot for Financial, Insurance & Takaful (FITbot): Multi-lingual Robo Advisor and a chatbot utilize hybrid trees and natural language processing (NLP) to engage with customers to offer a more personalized customer experience and generate more referrals.
  • Web Portal Solution for Sales & Servicing (WebPoS): Multilingual mobile responsive website and portal solutions enable clients to experience a unified, personalized digital experience where content, sales, marketing, and work management are consolidated instead of siloed.
  • Referral Management & Marketing Automation (ReMMA): Used for banks to effectively and efficiently auto-assign leads, track, and manage lead referrals and conversions based on user-defined workflows. Marketing automation results in personalized content delivery targeted campaigns and engagement.
  • Sales Activity Mobile App (SAMA): Allows agents to effectively plan and manage sales activity to ensure all leads and prospects are addressed. Managers can monitor real-time to render assistance where necessary.
  • Choices Online Sales (COS): Allows customers to purchase sales online. The Choices Online Store (COS) allows insurer and takaful operators to leverage a mix of technological innovations from the Enterprise Digital Framework. The Choices Online Store allows carriers to configure their online products through the Enterprise Product Configurator (EPC) and offer directly to consumers via WebPortal Solution (WebPoS).
  • Web Portal Solution for Sales & Servicing (WebPoS): Multilingual mobile responsive website and portal solutions enable clients to experience a unified, personalized digital experience where content, sales, marketing, and work management are consolidated instead of siloed.
  • Referral Management & Marketing Automation (ReMMA): Used for banks to effectively and efficiently auto-assign leads, track, and manage lead referrals and conversions based on user-defined workflows. Marketing automation results in personalized content delivery targeted campaigns and engagement.
  • Sales Activity Mobile App (SAMA): Allows agents to effectively plan and manage sales activity to ensure all leads and prospect Sales Activity Mobile App (SAMA) cts are addressed. Managers can monitor real-time to render assistance where necessary.
  • Community & E-worksite Marketing & Distribution (CeMD): Community portal solution allows organizations to engage with community members to nurture trust and create advocates, thereby improving customer retention. Recently launched u12know knowledge portal.
  • Enterprise Product Configurator (EPC): Reduce the time to market for insurance and takaful products. Built to rapidly set up product rates, illustrations, validation engine, and an automated testing module allows quick product deployment.
  • Multi-channel Distribution Management Solution (McDMS): For general agencies, IFAs, brokers, Agency Leaders Corporations ALCs to simplify operations by consolidating their diverse requirements. With built-in performance management and compensation computation, our clients have seen improved sales with reduced administration costs.
  • Community & E-worksite Marketing & Distribution (CeMD): Community portal solution allows organizations to engage with community members to nurture trust and create advocates, thereby improving customer retention. Recently launched u12know knowledge portal.
  • Enterprise Product Configurator (EPC): Reduce the time to market for insurance and takaful products. Built to rapidly set up product rates, illustrations, validation engine, and an automated testing module allows quick product deployment.
  • Takaful & Insurance Mobility Made Simple (TIMMS): Takaful and Insurance Mobility Made Simple (TIMMS) is a mobile straight-through solution designed specifically to cater to the need for mobility on Point-of-Sales for Insurance, Takaful and Financial services. It is uniquely designed to support cross-platform such as iOS, Android, and Windows platforms (desktop and tablet).
  • Multi-channel Distribution Management Solution (McDMS): For general agencies, IFAs, brokers, Agency Leader Corporations (ALCs) to simplify operations by consolidating their diverse requirements. With built-in performance management and compensation computation, our clients have seen improved sales with reduced administration costs.
  • Customer Self Service Portal (CSSP): The Customer Self Service Portal is an on-demand access point enabling customers to view their insurance/takaful account, anywhere and anytime. This enables the policyholders to view their policies and certificate details via a simple internet connection.

From the Founder’s Desk

  • Secret Sauce: As a ‘techie’ I am looking at designing disruptive solutions for the team. I design data models and share them with the team, I get feedback from them.
  • The Biggest Failure: My biggest failure was to design AI Predictive Analytics. Plus we are planning to launch our multilingual chatbot.
  • New Ideas in the Pipeline: 121Advisor is looking to expand u12know to Singapore & Indonesia as well as expanding to Europe & the USA.
  • The Leadership Style: My leadership style is to design new disruptive solutions for 121Advisor. Plus, we have grown our solutions much more.
  • One characteristic of Every Leader: As I leader, I motivate the team to create disruptive solutions.

Kevin Steer’s Vision, Mission & Motto

“Our motto is “We don’t follow trends, we Pioneer them”, our mission is to continue to develop new InsurTech solutions, and our core value is to build new solutions. Our vision is to develop u12know in Singapore, Indonesia, and other countries. We plan to expand to Europe & the USA”, the visionary proudly shared.

Future Roadmap
They are planning to expand to Singapore & Indonesia as well as Europe & the USA. As most millennials in the Asia Pacific do not understand financial planning and often max out their credit cards and get into debt, they need to help educate them on their lifestyle financial goals and recommend products that they can buy online.

With the launch of their platform, they see that this will become a disruptive knowledge portal offering advice on lifestyle financial & (in future) health goals. This will help them understand their needs and create a plan to help them build their lifestyle & business financial plans. For each country, this will be translated into the local language. They have created Health Calculators, and plan to launch a “Total Health Score” where customers can get the Score on whether they are healthy, sick, or unhealthy.

Leah Kay: An Woman Entrepreneur striking a chord to the Millennial

Let us hear an inspiring tale of this young talented girl who transformed herself into a leading businesswoman by setting a real-time example and inspiring other women along the way. Meet Leah Kay- Founder and CEO of Soulvation, who discovered the business world and stumbled into entrepreneurship in college.

While pursuing her master’s and running around the campus in a messy bun like most other girls, Leah wanted to find a way for her hair to look composed yet chic. The generic headbands during that time were unattractive, uncomfortable, and too sporty. Leah wanted a headband that made her look cute and feel comfortable.

However, she was not able to find any headbands that she wanted. So, she decided to take this matter into her hands and find an ideal solution. She borrowed her mom’s sewing machine, went to the local fabric store, and started hand-sewing her headbands. Leah soon started wearing her headbands that grabbed the attention of her friends, who asked her for the same. This hobby led her to start a side hustle during college. After finishing college, she worked full-time into her side-hustle and built her brand.

The Journey to the Forefront

With zero experience in business and entrepreneurship, Leah decided to put in the work and learn everything with her action-driven approach. In January 2019, she quit her education to follow her dreams. She started hand-sewing headbands around the clock, created her website, started posting on social platforms, and shipped orders alone.

Initially, she started with $300 and dreamt of establishing a multi-million dollar brand. As the profits started swinging in, she rolled it over into buying more inventory. With her go-getter mindset, she built a 6-figure brand in the first year of her business. In 2020, it grew to over $1,800,000 in sales, and in 2021, she envisions closing the year with $5-6 million in sales and project $15 million in sales in 2022.

Today, Soulvation has expanded beyond headbands into other hair accessories and new apparel this year. The brand won the Top 50 Colorado Companies to Watch in 2021 award.

Meeting the Customer Standards

Most hair accessory brands provide mass-produced products that compromise quality for quantity by using sportswear-type fabric and a worn-out design. On the contrary, Soulvation provides high-quality hair accessories for everyday wear, not just at the gym.

It uses butter-soft fabric for products made up of bamboo fibers. This fabric has natural benefits like it is stretchy, super soft, hypoallergenic, moisture absorbing, antibacterial, UV protectant, insulating, and doesn’t absorb stink as cotton-based material does.

Instead of marketing towards a specific target audience like the fitness industry, she developed the brand to pivot into more of a hair and lifestyle brand that is stylish and comfortable for everyday wear. The hair ties are also a game-changer. “We improved the basic black elastic to look like more of a bracelet design. They look like bracelets but work just like an elastic hair tie! These are so popular that we have trouble keeping them in stock. We are always developing new, limited edition colors for all of our hair accessories”, states Leah. 

Acing the Challenges with Ease

Every day monotonous work gets in the way and becomes a measure of losing interest in our passion. By working at an organization, one can grow in so many ways. Leah loves building a brand because every day is a new challenge to learn from and grow. These challenges are the growth drivers of a successful future. The challenging scenarios make you think outside the box and adapt to change. Few days like these will be hard, however, taking risks and overcoming challenges is the way forward.

Times of Setbacks

Mistakes are bound to happen as an entrepreneur. However, these mistakes are a way to learn new lessons. Leah’s biggest mistake in building a brand from the beginning was trusting others to take tasks off her plate. Being a perfectionist, she wanted to do it all. However, she changed her mindset and delegated the roles to the right person.

Triumphs to Cherish

Leah’s greatest achievement is creating opportunities and providing jobs to women on the team. The Soulvation employees are hard-working and motivated women; who are growing personally and professionally in all kinds. It has been an exciting experience showing them the ropes and behind-the-scenes action when building a brand.

Leah’s secret passion is teaching; she loves teaching others the power and rewards of entrepreneurship. She loves to invest her time and knowledge into those that want to learn and progress in their lives.

Some of our employees are working on getting their brands off the ground and following in my footsteps or even one day outgrow me. I want them to do big things and to follow their dreams. It’s one of the perks of working on our team – I’ll push you outside your comfort zone if you want to grow.

Leadership Principles the lead the Pack

Every leader is known for their unique leadership style and skill. Here’s how Leah walks her talks:

  • She recognizes the team members’ strengthens and helps them grow to their maximum potential. The team is skilled in setting goals and creating a positive, empowering, impactful, and motivating work environment. She provides them with regular feedback on challenging projects to promote holistic development.
  • Keep the team lean and let them reap the rewards for going above and beyond. The employees get rewarded for their performance and hard work with gifts and bonuses for accomplishing their goals.
  • Cut the cancerous employees who are not able to meet the company standards. On the contrary to hard-working employees, the opposite type of employee inevitably presents themselves on the team. One should hire and fire accordingly. Positivity, hard work ethic, and willingness to grow personally and professionally are must-haves for a team.
  • Make time for team bonding and always have an open door. Celebrate special days and occasions with the team and enjoy the fun times.

The Enlightening Success Mantra

As an entrepreneur, once you reach the top of the mountain- it becomes easy to make money, and most people define that as success. On the contrary, providing an opportunity and experience to those willing to grow is how Leah defines her success.

Her mantra in life is to keep growing and vouching towards personal growth. She will continue to pursue things out of her comfort zone and help people follow their dreams and turn them into realities.

A Sheer-Leader

Leah is a holistic leader; who aims towards the utmost growth of her team. She works with an easy-going approach, where she assigns and teaches employees the task and gives them their space to work on it. She refuses to micromanage and let the employees learn on their own.

She has got their back at all times; however, if an issue arises, Leah is confident that the employees should figure out a solution before coming to her. This way, the employees feel a sense of independence and courage.

The Next Steps

Soulvation is a 100% women-owned and operated brand completely bootstrapped with zero investors and zero debt. It encourages all women to look and feel their best without sacrificing comfort.

Earlier this year, we donated thousands of our headbands to Sanford Health nurses as a thank-you for all their hard work during the pandemic. The organization has also donated headbands to cancer unit patients and staff. Soulvation aims to give back to many industries and continue supporting female founders to build their empires. Changing people’s lives for the better – that is true success to me. 

Robert Niichel: An Innovator in the Digital Pharma Industry / A Tycoon revolutionising the Digital Pharma Industry / Working with really Great People

Robert Niichel: An Innovator in the Digital Pharma Industry / A Tycoon revolutionising the Digital Pharma Industry / Working with really Great People

With a passion for creativity and enthusiasm for innovation, Robert Niichel is the Founder and CEO of SmartTab, an advanced drug delivery technology startup. Initially, Robert pursued a bachelor’s degree in finance and economics from Iowa State. After graduation, he worked in investment banking for five years. Then decided to go back to graduate school and study biotechnology. He was fascinated by the industry and started burning the midnight oil to achieve a degree in Biochemistry from the University of Colorado.

Robert found the pharmaceutical industry captivating and saw an opportunity to improve people’s health. After more than a decade of experience in researching, developing, and project management, Robert was thrilled to build a startup—Nano Pharma Labs, Brand name as zümXR. As he continued exploring this field and leading his team of scientists to success, his depth of knowledge and passion for discovery grew further. His passion to look for what’s next for people and the community to lead a healthy life was constantly driving him inside out.

Then, one fine day when he was sitting on his bike high on Vail mountain pass, staring out at the Rocky Mountains, and traversing the path ahead, he was triggered by a life-changing idea for medical technology. What if we could tie medicine and drug delivery to our iPhones, iWatches,,??

Let’s Learn about SmartTab

SmartTab is a leading-edge product differentiated technology driven by patient-centered demand. Presently, Robert has marked his presence in the pharma industry as the “Grandfather of wireless drug delivery”. He launched SmartTab in 2016, designed to meet the patients’ needs. From the beginning, the foundation behind wireless, targeted drug delivery platforms has been focused around patients and user experiences.

SmartTab has two products that are a game-changer for millions of patients: TargetTab™—a battery-free pill that you can tell when and where it will release medication in your body and InjectTab™—a pill that can painlessly give you a shot without a visit to the doctor.

SmartTab is a revolution in drug delivery. The platform will be considered a pioneer in the healthcare management system. The size of the potential market for SmartTab is staggering. Last year 50 billion injections were deployed to humans on a global scale. With the expansion of Biologics for active ingredients, the market for injections will continue to expand. The industry is ready for a revolution in how biologics, large proteins, insulin, etc. are delivered to humans. There is a significant patient demand to move from daily or weekly self-injections to an oral delivery capsule platform.

Achievements to Cherish Forever

Robert is a dynamic and successful industry leader- who discovered his path to success with sheer hard work and excellence. Today, he is a titan of the pharma industry with his brainchild- SmartTab. He defines his best professional achievements as founding his four successful companies from scratch right out of thin air.

Also, Robert is a family man who has been married for more than three decades now and has two great kids.

Overcoming the Hurdles Effectively

Robert approaches challenges with a plan of action. He believes that being systematic is one of the best ways to face difficult situations. Furthermore, set a path and stay focused on the goals. Be stable and have a clear vision of the next steps. When the path is decided, it’s time to get the team on board and confidently tackle the challenges at hand.

Words of wisdom from Robert on leadership principles, “Everything is people-driven. Even more so today a people skills have dissipated. Research your strategy, Set your goals. Execute your strategy. Achieve your goals. Get what you want. Just make sure that everyone else gets what they want first.” 

The Genesis of the A-Team – It is All About People

When Robert established his company, he wanted to build his team. Hence, he looked for people working in startups; who have the mindset that he has and who can figure things out. He wanted people who have a hands-on attitude and are willing to take initiative to grow the company on a large scale. He believes that having such a team when your company is founding is critical because they will attract similar people. Hence, he hired people like him; who lived up to the mission and vision of the company.

One of Robert’s professional failures has been hiring the wrong people. He has learned from his mistakes and keeps a check on who he hires; and how they contribute to the success of other people and the company. Robert defines true success as being surrounded by good people; who are passionate and thriving in the workspace environment.

Some of the ideas he wishes to incorporate into the company are more flexibility, more ownership of projects, and more leverage on bonuses. He also envisions conducting challenging activities worth people’s time, dollar amounts for success, large enough dollars that will move the needle.

Robert’s Exceptional Leadership Style

Robert is an extraordinary leader known for his leadership style and pattern. Here is a sneak-peek into it:

  • Great with people, genuine, visionary, respectful, ability to bring the best out of people.
  • The “Pull” style of leadership: compliment people, help people, pull people along, lead by example, and they will follow. Everybody wants to follow the Ferrari or fly on the jet.
  • On the contrary, the “Push” style of leadership: ride people, degrade people, control, shove people around, yell, scream, nobody wants to be pushed around by a Mack Truck.
  • Compassion is one characteristic that every leader should possess.

A Word on the Current Digital Health Landscape: From Robert’s Desk

If we are looking at the digital healthcare space there are a lot of apps that track data (how you take your medicine or your weight) but right there these apps stop. And I believe a solution needs to do something for the patient – like, deliver the drug, collect data, or send a signal that is valuable.

The big gap is that there are a lot of software people creating a lot of cool apps collecting a lot of data, but at the end of the day what is actually accomplished with this data. In the USA we have many apps to help people be healthier, be more fit and lose weight. Yet, in the last 10 years, people are getting bigger, lazier, and less healthy. So, there is a huge disconnect. What we are trying to do is deliver drugs and make people’s lives better by improving the actual physical implementation system.

The Future Insights

SmartTab aims to expand its horizons on a global scale. The company wants to offer its medicine delivery products in every country, in every house, to every person on the planet. The company is doing a series of funding rounds to raise capital and continue with human clinical studies. The next step will be an FDA submission, approval, and clearance for its medical device.

“With that, we can reach out to a Pharmaceutical company to have one of their drugs integrated with the SmartTab. Having done that the next step is to do another clinical study with this drug inside the SmartTab to show that the solution is working perfectly, after approval, we will be ready to go to the market. The whole process might take three or four years or even quicker. Meanwhile, we might be bought by a larger Pharmaceutical company before some of the above happens, yet we do have a very clear strategy on how to get our solution to the market.”

Robert’s ultimate vision is to stay healthy, wealthy, and wise and be surrounded by good company.

Shahab Elmi: A Man with the Midas Touch / An Epitome of Success

Living a good life is an amalgamation of two primary aspects- one is good health, and the other is peace of mind. Today, the pace of our lives is chaotic, toiling long hours at work, spending the weekends glued to our screens, and running 24*7 to do everything out of the to-do list. Such a lifestyle is a mere representation of how people survive in a default setting. On the contrary, they can live a better life and choose to make the most of their significant time.

With this, the wellness industry comes into the picture. It has seen exponential growth in the last decade as more people are considering wellness retreats. The wellness brands are reinventing with innovative products and services to keep updated with the ongoing global pandemic. It is slowly gaining momentum of changing demographics and meeting the consumers’ needs of the hour.

One such wellness brand, Cymbiotika is an innovative wellness and lifestyle brand based in San Diego. It is determined by the higher purpose of inspiring everyday people to achieve their optimal health.

A charismatic personality and an adept leader, Shahab Elmi is the Co-Founder and CEO of Cymbiotika. He started his professional journey with AT&T working as a Director of Sales further got promoted to Executive Director. More than a decade-long experience at AT&T led to exceptional future opportunities and exposures. Furthermore, he is grateful to work along with some of the top leaders on the planet – Ralph De La Vega, Glen Lurie, and Andy Shibley to name a few. This experience was pivotal for his upcoming entrepreneurial endeavours.

About Cymbiotika

Cymbiotika is a health supplement company, designing sophisticated organic formulations that are scientifically proven to increase vitality and longevity by filling nutritional gaps that result from the modern-day diet.

With the mantra of Your mind and body deserve the best, Cymbiotika aims to change the world by empowering people to reclaim their health and unlock their fullest potential. We all know health is our true wealth, and the company focuses on helping people live longer, happier, and healthier lives.

The company steers with passion, intentional design, and creation, not margins. It advocates holistic health rooted in both Eastern and Western medicine. Cymbiotika sources only the highest quality plant-based nutrients, combined with advanced bioavailable absorption technology to resolve specific nutritional deficiencies and support healthy aging, detoxification, and longevity. It never uses synthetics, GMOs, fillers, chemicals, preservatives, additives, or sugars.

Cymbiotika is a customer-centric organization that always puts its customers first and foremost. It works towards enriching people’s lives in a defining manner. Offerings them best-in-class products and setting a goal of becoming a role model in the marketplace.

A Sneak Peek into Shahab Brief Journey

Shahab is a serial entrepreneur who has founded four companies: Cymbiotika (nutritional supplements), DASH Radio / DASH International (online radio), KNK Group (Cricket Wireless stores), and Day Group (customizable phone cases). Shahab sold Day Group to Duckie Accessories for an 8-figure sum after 26 months of its foundation.

More recently, Shahab led Cymbiotika to achieve $3 million in sales within 90 days of launch. At DASH Radio, in 29 months, the company has 10 million monthly listeners and has raised substantial investments at a 9-figure valuation. Finally, under Shahab’s leadership, KNK Group has been awarded the title of “Cricket Wireless National Dealer of the Year“. This award comes well earned – in 3 years, KNK Group has opened 172 stores in 6 states. Additionally, Shahab is a member of the Board of Advisors at Bomani Cold Buzz and the Board of Directors at Massiv Clothing.

Backed with a Power-Packed Team

Cymbiotika’s success is an amalgamation of the work put in by its co-founders and team. The team plays a vital role; each member contributes to their maximum potential and works adhering to the mission and vision of the company. The brand has marked its presence in the global market with the help of its dedicated team members. The company has the best leaders in the business; it never feels like working in the office. The team at Cymbiotika is passionate and excellent at what they do; they put their heart and soul into everything. The organization is grateful for having such an exceptional team.

Shahab is a key person in this environment. He is a leader; who faces challenges every day and successfully tackles the hurdles effectively. “We are ready. I emphasize WE because, with the right leaders, no obstacles are incrementable”. 

He also believes that the key to diversification is the internal team. A diverse team produces different and unique ideas. This results in diverse offerings that appeal to the broader target audience (which in our case is EVERYONE).

Company Culture is the Difference Maker

Shahab reckons that company culture is what fuels the engine of success. Be it product-based or service-based business- quality is paramount. There may come a day where a competitor will provide products/services identical in quality and scope. However, Company Culture cannot be replaced. Everyone wants to be appreciated and work in a pleasant/happy environment.

Everyone wants to look forward to coming to work. As a CEO, YOU have control over the kind of environment your organization cultivates. Spend time and resources constantly working on this. NEVER EVER take your team for granted.

Leading the Way with Exemplary Leadership Principles

Leadership is unique. Many entrepreneurs fall victim to copycat leadership. With so many gurus selling their propaganda with the how-to books and overnight success formulas, this trap leads to inevitable failure. Replicating a leader’s successful strategy is a short-term gain, however, in the long run, it never works.

Here are the few Shahab’s leadership qualities:

    • Passion
    • Hardest worker in the room
    • TEAM always before “I”
    • Focus on the controllable
    • Humility

He aims at incorporating these new ideas as a leader. He believes in investing in the right people and staying focused with them. The profits will roll in, and revenue will come.

Shahab also believes in empowering talented people. He bestows them with an opportunity and allows them to create their vision. Many times, leaders force their styles on their employees. When that happens, creativity gets lost and disregarded. Hence, let the creative minds get nurtured to experience blooming results.

Failures are the Greatest Teachers

In earlier entrepreneurial endeavors, Shahab would shy away from risk. He learned through the years that to win- one has to take calculated risks. Make tough decisions and lead the path with zeal and zest. Playing too close to the vest, especially for a startup; could have devastating consequences.

Failures will happen. It sounds terrible and disheartening, but success as an entrepreneur is not linear. At some point, things will not go as planned. Expecting and planning for these misses is critical. Building redundancies may be the most important strategic initiative in any organization.

The Two Disciplines of Success

  • Life success: Family first. Time is irreplaceable, so spend every second you can with your kids. My wife, parents, and daughters inspire him daily.
  • Business success: Build an ethical and morally sound organization, which emphasizes diversity. Growth will happen organically.

Shahab is a visionary leader; who envisions helping people live longer, healthier, and happier lives. We start and end each meeting with Quality and Quality control discussions. This laser focus became the foundation of everything we do at Cymbiotika: to create the best health products in the world.

Adding Glory to the Victory

Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) announced that Shahab Elmi of Cymbiotika was named an Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2021 Pacific Southwest – San Diego Award finalist. Now in its 35th year, the Entrepreneur Of The Year program honors unstoppable business leaders whose ambition, ingenuity, and courage in the face of adversity help catapult us from the now to next and beyond. Shahab Elmi got selected by a panel of independent judges. The award winners got announced during a special virtual celebration on August 5, 2021. They become lifetime members of an esteemed community of Entrepreneur Of The Year alumni from across the glo

“There is nothing more important than our health and we have an incredible team devoted to helping people live longer, healthier, and happier lives. Since inception, we focused on delivering high-quality products and offering an amazing customer experience; success will follow. I am proud of our unwavering commitment to these standards and the strong corporate culture that makes it all possible. Thank you for this recognition, I am honored to be named a finalist“, adds Shahab.

The Journey Continues

The best advice Shahab has received is “Shoot for the moon; even if you miss, you will hit the stars”. 

Inspired by this thought-provoking advice, Cymbiotika continues to round out its product offerings in 2022 (9 additional SKUs in lab testing with more on the way). Additionally, it will accelerate international expansion: Currently: USA/Canada; in 2022 and add Australia, UK, EU, and AUE(Gulf states).

Cymbiotika has grown over 7000% over the past three years and is positioned to grow for years to come.

Gene Saunders & Project Lifesaver International: Helping Bring Loved Ones Home with Advanced Locating Techniques

The leading man, Gene Saunders, an alumnus of Southern Police Institute with rich professional experience, formed a non-profit corporation, Project Lifesaver International to develop a program for locating missing persons with dementia, Epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, autism, Down syndrome, and other related illnesses.

Gene Saunders took the foundation of Lifesaver International in October 1998 in association with the Chesapeake, Virginia Sheriff’s Office. And under his well-guided supervision, the organization has successfully provided law enforcement, fire/rescue, other first responders, and caregivers with equipment and training to quickly locate and rescue individuals with cognitive disorders. The story that was scripted 23 years back as a small initiative, has grown to over 1,600 agencies in 50 states and 9 provinces in Canada with over 3,500 successful rescues today.

Recognized internationally as an expert and the father of radio-tracking recovery of persons at risk, Gene Saunders has been spearheading LSI to serve on the broader range in his role as Founder and CEO. He is a passionate social entrepreneur, Gene, is keen on making vital contributions towards the welfare of the society that would create a difference in the lives of the people with his organization.

He served with the Chesapeake, VA Police Dept for 33 years. During that time, he had collateral duty commanding the SWAT and SAR Unit. During that period, they had a number of search missions for Alzheimer’s patients that did not turn out well. In 1992 the leader took over the Sheriff’s Search and rescue Unit as commander and they had the same experiences. He learned of wildlife tracking and decided to try that technology with their searches for Special Needs persons. It worked and has now grown to over 1,658 member agencies participating in the Project Lifesaver program, accounting for over 3,800 rescues.

The Project Lifesaver

This public safety-based community has conducted over 3,174 successful rescues. Most who wander are found within a few miles from home, and search times have been reduced from hours and days to minutes. Recovery times for Project Lifesaver clients average 30 minutes — 95% less time than standard operations. Project Lifesaver is in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and six provinces throughout Canada and in Australia with over 1,526 agencies

Project Lifesaver is also a subject matter expert and adviser on the wandering issue for:

  •         Leaders Engaged in Alzheimer’s disease (LEAD)
  •         National Center for Missing & Exploited Children,
  •         International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP)
  •         Alzheimer’s Foundation of America
  •         National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA)
  •         National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners
  •         International Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners

The Project Lifesaver Program is run at a municipality level by public safety agencies. When an agency decides to implement the program, Project Lifesaver International will equip them with the necessary technologies and provide training to those involved. The training includes the use of the equipment, the implementation of the strategic methods specifically designed for the program, and also community policing courses that provide a basic understanding of cognitive conditions to better comprehend the behaviors of an individual with said condition. Also included during training is the use of the PLS Database, which is a useful resource provided to member agencies at no cost. Completion of training is required for certification. Once an agency has become certified, it may begin acquiring clients for its local program. The method relies on proven radio technology and specially trained search and rescue teams.

Citizens enrolled in Project Lifesaver wear a small transmitter on the wrist or ankle that emits an individualized frequency signal. If an enrolled client goes missing, the caregiver notifies their local Project Lifesaver agency, and a trained emergency team responds to the wanderer’s area. The first responders will then use the client’s individualized frequency to locate the position of the individual. The knowledge given from the community policing courses is best applied in this situation because the first responders will know how to best approach the client once found, and allow them to be brought back to safety.

From the CEO’s Desk

Diversify your organization’s offerings: By offering different designs of locating bracelets appealing to adults and/or kids.

Future Perspectives: To expand our program line and develop varied technologies to cover many lost person scenarios.

The greatest accomplishment: Founding and developing the Project Lifesaver program.

Prepared for the challenges: You respond to a situation after careful thought and developing opinions from trusted staff. Once you address the situation be ready to alter as necessary.

 Secret sauce: NEVER QUIT!

 Leadership principles: There is always one more thing you can do, you are only as good as your last operation.

Biggest failure & learning from it: Trusting the wrong people and moving too quickly on some projects.

Define Success: When all special needs people can be located through technology quickly and safely.

 New Ideas in the Pipeline: Development of Bluetooth technology in this field and offering more unique avenues for people to enrol their loved ones in.

 Leadership Skills: Tenacity, Fairness, Vision, Integrity.

The Driving Force: To continually move forward and adapt.

One characteristic that every leader should Have: Tenacity!!!!

Words of Wisdom: Just because everyone else thinks it’s crazy doesn’t mean it is.

4 Tips To Make Your Business Stand Out On Social Media

Social media is hugely important in promoting your business. Right now social media is a multi-purpose tool. It’s a promotional tool, but it’s also a tool for engaging with your customers, and giving them immediate access to you, and your business. As social media is so important, pretty much every business is using it, which means that you really need to make sure that your business stands out from the crowd. 

1. Upgrade All Your Profiles

Make sure that your business is active on the same platforms that your customers are. If they’re on LinkedIn, make sure that you are too. You also need to be sure that your profile bios have all the information that you need to get across, but that they’re engaging, and relatable. 

Another tip is to set up a Google My Business account to make sure that anyone who is looking for you can find you easily. 

You’ll also need to make sure that all your social media profiles, across all platforms are consistent with your brand. All your profiles need to have a high-quality profile picture. It’s a good idea to use the same image on all your profiles, and it’s a better idea to make your profile picture your logo. 

As well as sharing posts, and posting directly on your social media, you should consider creating social media groups for your clients. Social media groups will help create a community of clients, and give you a different way of communicating with them. You can use the group to give your existing clients first looks of new products, news, updates, and you could even offer them specific discounts or rewards. 

2. Find New Ways To Engage

Another way to make your business memorable is to find new ways to engage with your customers, and potential customers. 

Live Streaming

Live streaming is a fantastic way of connecting with your audience, and attracting a new audience as well. Live streaming gives people a chance to see you in real-time, and interact with you in a way that posting doesn’t allow for. 

You could start with a Question and Answer stream, and give potential customers a chance to ask questions, and really show them what your business can do for them. Other live content ideas could be sneak peeks of new products, upcoming news or developments, or even a masterclass in using your products. 

Consultations

Depending on your product, it could be an idea to offer online consultations to your customers. Many social media platforms offer video calling, or voice calling. If your product, and your schedule allows, make a call to action on your social media profiles offering your potential customers a one to one consultation. 

3. Keep Your Blog Up To Date

If you already have a blog, you should make sure that it’s kept up to date. If you don’t have one, you should consider starting one. 

A blog has several benefits for your website. Firstly, it gives search engines something else to crawl through, and this can help your place higher in the search engine rankings. It needs to be well written, and contain keywords, but it’s definitely a big plus as far as search engines are concerned. 

Secondly, it shows your customers that you have something of value for them. When you share your knowledge, you’re telling your customers that you have expertise that can help them solve their problems. 

Thirdly, it gives you something to share on your social media profiles. Social media users can begin to ignore your posts if you post more or less the same thing all the time. Sharing your blog posts is another way to keep their attention. 

4. A Mailing List

A mailing list means that you can engage with your audience from their own email inbox. One of the benefits of this is that it’s a direct connection with your clients. Make sure that your mailing list sign-up is on your social media profiles, and make sure that clients have a reason to sign up. It could be that you offer more specific advice, more detailed content, or a specific discount for people who sign up.

Accelerating Pace Of The Digital Financial Solutions With Next Gen – Products At Spherium Finance

“Opportunities avail but wait for ready hands to grab them.”- Sash Jeetun

A leading fintech platform in the Decentralised Financial sector, Spherium Finance is synonymous with a dignified pioneer in unifying the current scattered DeFi landscape by creating a suite of financial services for a global audience. It is the brainchild of Sash Jeetun, who is known to be a highly ambitious, tenacious and solutions-focused individual, striving to build an eccentric platform, spearheading the cause of decentralization and DeFi. 

Mr Sash Jeetun, Co-founder, Spherium Finance is an Anglia Ruskin University Alumni, an industry expert and serial entrepreneur. The leader has been involved in blockchain since 2014 and is a big believer in the power of blockchain technology to solve the current financial imparity. With qualifications in Business Management, International Business and other fields, supported by a vast background in research, advisory, fundraising and assisting bootstrap crypto projects, Mr Sash is already an established entity in the industry. He is an instinctively proactive personality with a positive and innovative approach to challenges. And so far, he has been privileged to lead several entrepreneurial projects in different capacities and roles.  

Offering a Complete Suite of Financial Services

Spherium Finance is a DeFi platform that offers a complete suite of financial services comprising a universal wallet, token swap platform, money markets, and inter-blockchain liquidity transfer. This platform will function as a global decentralized financial service provider, extending fundamental financial services to the unbanked.

At the moment, they have four different products which they are rolling out. These are HyperSwap, Spherium Bridge, HyperLend and Spherium wallet:

HyperSwap: HyperSwap is a fully decentralized interoperable platform for swapping tokens using cutting-edge Automated Market Maker (AMM) algorithms that allow liquidity providers to capture profits by reducing the price skew (for an asset in a pool) and bringing the asset price back to the market price. This infrastructure, built on the Ethereum Blockchain and Binance Smart Chain, creates different liquidity pools and will incentivise liquidity miners. Users can add liquidity for any asset pair on HyperSwap liquidity protocols. Additionally, liquidity providers can earn $SPHRI tokens for approved asset pairs. As another advantage, liquidity providers will earn the pool’s trading fees paid by HyperSwap users for swapping tokens. When liquidity is supplied to the pool, the provider will receive special LP tokens which will be proportional to the liquidity they add to the pool. HyperSwap, as a solution, aims to solve four major issues in DeFi. These challenges include impermanent loss, interoperability, high transaction fees and complex user interfaces.

Spherium Bridge: The Spherium Bridge is a dynamic multi-chain bridge addressing the real bottlenecks between different chains and their ecosystems. Currently their bridge resides between the Ethereum blockchain and the Binance Smart Chain such that ERC-20 tokens and BEP20 tokens can be easily transferred across either chain. Moving ahead, the bridge will also integrate Polygon and Avalanche to create more multi-chain indulgence and will eventually transform the really fragmented DeFi space as a whole. 

HyperLend: HyperLend is a decentralized lending protocol built to connect lenders and borrowers. The HyperLend money market is a pool of particular assets that algorithmically derive interest rates based on the supply and demand for the asset. Lenders and Borrowers of the asset will interact with the protocol directly in order to earn and pay, respectively, a floating interest rate, without having to negotiate any kind of terms such as maturity, interest rate, or collateral.

Spherium wallet: Spherium Wallet is a non-custodial, secure mobile-first wallet for ERC20 tokens, which will enable our customers to use all the services provided by the Spherium ecosystem at all times from their mobile device. The Spherium team will ensure the safety and security of users’ assets by adopting best practices in the cybersecurity space. Initially, the wallet will be launched on Android devices and later, on IOS devices. The wallet will also have integrations with payment gateways and crypto-to-fiat payment offboarding facilities.

For their outstanding solutions, Spherium Finance has been recognized by many publications. Recently, they were mentioned by beststartup.asia as one of the “31 Top Singapore Financial Exchange Companies and Startups”.

Spherium has an extended use-case and massive DeFi prospects for the future financial solutions. In less than a year, Spherium’s native token, $SPHRI, got listed on several exchanges and coin trackers including Gate.io Uniswap, CoinMarketCap, CoinGecko and several others. They have also introduced their native Incubation and Grant Program to build the biggest cross-chain community out there. Several projects have already been announced and more are to follow with the onset of their cross-chain DEX HyperSwap Mainnet. 

Clientele & the Corporate Ethos

The clientele cut across different sectors of the global economy, especially finance and other companies that render blockchain-backed services.

Clients are very vital for the viability of every business. For this reason, they are keen on developing products and solutions that align with customer values. In recent years, the DeFi space has grown invariably and there still exists a lot of complications in terms of sustained interoperability, complex user interface and high transaction fees. Spherium being largely customer-centric, their solutions are built to solve each of these problems strategically and skillfully. 

Major Hurdle & The Driving Force 

Sash’s primary challenge was bringing growth to a highly competitive industry where everyone is trying to build the next big thing. In the blockchain space, innovations happen really quick and if you miss an opportunity, you might find yourself far behind.

“Getting to the point where I am today taking a lot of hard work and determination. My family was my greatest support when I felt like throwing in the towel. I also drew inspiration from Elon Musk and a few others, especially those who failed and never gave up”, shared the visionary. 

Creating a more Balanced and Equal Industry

To contribute to a more balanced industry, The leader advises companies to stay on top of their game and always brainstorm on innovations. This is because the blockchain and DeFi ecosystem is fast-paced. It’s also necessary to hire the best team.

Sash Jeetun’s Daily Routine & Hobbies

Sash Jeetun’s daily schedule is usually very tight. He wakes up at 6:30 am daily, meditates and gets engaged in a series of business meetings. He also finds time to study, he reads lots of books and catches-up on podcasts while executing the day’s work. Coming from a varied field of roles, Sash also manages to touch base with the Developer, Marketing and BD team in Spherium, taking charge of day-to-day activities. At last, he ends his day with a quick call with the founding partners to discuss the progress, vision and the next action plans in the pipeline.  The visionary also enjoys watching Formula 1, Badminton, and playing golf in his leisure time.          

Words of Wisdom for Female Entrepreneurs

Female entrepreneurs shouldn’t let issues of gender imbalance common in many nations, especially developing countries get to them. They should learn to be decisive and diligent in accomplishing set goals, as well as remember that the sky is wide enough for everyone.

Favourite Book & Quote 

One of Sash’s favourite books is “The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time” and “The Big Short”. He loves these books because they give an insight into how the biggest business names, they know of today made decisions that made them prominent.

Three Altcoins to Keep an Eye On in 2022

Cryptocurrency had a challenging month in November.

Bitcoin hit an all-time high according to Time in November but then tumbled by 20%. Ethereum, the crypto behind many NFTs, has entered December in good shape, with the New York Times suggesting that it has shed its reliance on Bitcoin. Traditionally, smaller altcoins have piggy-backed on Bitcoin’s success; when it goes up, they go up. When it flounders, they’ve often struggled, but the market is changing rapidly.

This is partly down to NFTs adding validity to altcoins without the reliance on bitcoin. For a long while, Bitcoin was as synonymous with crypto as Hoover was with vacuum; they were erroneously classed as the same thing. Now, altcoins are moving out of the shadow of the headline act and making a name for themselves, which is great news for the investor. No longer are people reliant on Bitcoin doing well for their crypto wallets; Ethereum is proof that altcoins have a value of their own.

With that in mind, here are three altcoins that you need to watch in the early part of 2022.

Enjin (ENJ)

Enjin is creating a lot of buzz in the crypto world right now, and rightly so. It’s a metaverse token, and we’ve seen rises in both Sandbox (SAND) and Decentraland (MANA) since October, as much as 500%. Enjin is also on the rise, but only 170% over the same period, and the buzz suggests it could be next to shoot up quickly. In the world of crypto, hype is often unfounded, but with ENJ, there’s an element of security in that it is an interesting long-term metaverse project that allows users to create NFTs. NFTs do appear to be a key future driver of crypto, which bodes well for ENJ.

Chiliz (CHZ)

Sports fans will already know what Chiliz are; they’re the blockchain that backs Socios fan tokens. Fan tokens are a method of investing in the influence of your sports team and are prevalent around soccer teams. Until recently, they’ve been very much restricted to Europe, but Socios are moving into the US market now, which means massive growth opportunities. Sports will always be popular, and with CHZ straddling crypto and sport, it is well-positioned for significant growth. With fan tokens showing no signs of slowing in terms of popularity, there appears to be huge scope for investment in CHZ.

Livepeer (LPT)

Livepeer is a decentralized video streaming network, a Web3 project that seeks to change how information is shared, stored and monetized. Web3 is an umbrella term for what many see as the next generation of the internet, and in that respect, LPT is on the edge of something new and exciting. People earn LPT tokens by contributing their processing power to reformat videos for different devices. It might not make you rich right now, but if Web3 takes off, LPT could be a very important altcoin indeed.

For more articles on industry and finance, as well as a range of other interesting pieces, check out our Tycoon Success homepage on a regular basis.

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