Exclusive Interview Archives

Chelsea Simon: A Captivating Woman spearheading Advanced Pain Care with Exuberance and Excellence

A diligent and charismatic personality, Chelsea Simon is leading Advanced Pain Care with a top-notch skillset and compassionate being. With a vision to become the COO of a clinic or hospital before the age of 30, Chelsea worked with utmost dedication to turn her vision into reality. Living her dream and accomplishing many more along the way, Chelsea is successfully fulfilling her role and enjoying every minute. She has succeeded at implementing multiple specialties and managing operations for 13 clinic locations and three surgery centers.

About Advanced Pain Care

Founded in January 2003, Advanced Pain Care is a multidisciplinary practice that offers Pain Management, Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Rheumatology, Neurology, Addictionology, and Behavioural Health. The goal is to treat the patient and their pain as a whole. Advanced Pain Care and its Physicians have become the leaders in the industry for a minimally invasive procedure known as the spinal cord stimulator.

Spinal Cord Stimulation is similar to noise-cancelling headphones but for pain. It has experienced excellent outcomes and success stories from this procedure. Advanced Pain Care CEO/Founder, Dr. Mark Malone, was a pain patient himself with failed back surgery and has made a full recovery due to the Spinal Cord Stimulator. Advanced Pain Care performs surgeries and procedures at Ambulatory Surgery Centers, allowing the patients to feel comfortable with a quicker recovery at home.

A Sneak Peek into Early Days

Chelsea started in the healthcare industry when she was 15 years old. In the beginning, she could see where process improvements were needed and found herself going above and beyond to help. At the age of 17, she underwent eight surgeries in a year. Having been in the hospital and clinic system over that year, she recognized where the systems were failing the patients.

At this point, Chelsea made it her ambition to work her way up in the industry and help patients in pain. To reach the position she is now at, she had to work in many different positions within a clinic and received multiple certifications to expand her knowledge. She also went back to school and obtained a Master’s in Business Administration with a minor in Healthcare Administration.

A Home away from Home

At Advanced Pain Care, our goal is to make each patient feel as if they are family. The patients come from all walks of life. There is no stereotype for a pain patient.

Advanced Pain Care goes above and beyond to provide incomparable service to its patients from the initial phone call through their appointments in the clinic. It ensures the patient’s trust by providing appropriate patient care and spending time with each patient to discuss their needs.

Cherishing a Family-oriented Work Environment

Chelsea Simon states that Advanced Pain Care is an amazing team. It is an honor to work with a determined team; who is always supportive and motivated to do their best. She could not ask for a better group of people to work with. Everyone is so dedicated to the patient and their well-being. Advanced Pain Care’s culture is one of family.

“I want to hear about the staff members’ families, pets, children’s sports activities, etc. We have a lot of team-building activities from kickball tournaments to cornhole tournaments. The team is also heavily involved in giving back to the community and we incorporate that into every activity we do.”

To be surrounded by like-minded people and work every day is a win-win situation.

Overcoming Challenges Efficiently

There are many challenges in the pain management industry and the healthcare industry. As the company has grown, there have been challenges with protocols and processes. Advanced Pain Care has always strived to provide the best and safest patient care and continues to do so. Rapid growth was one of the challenges that Advanced Pain Care faced. The company had to quickly scale from 10 Physicians to 26 Physicians and staff appropriately.

Chelsea’s Support System

Chelsea Simon is a hard-working and dedicated professional. She made it to the top with her zealous nature and determined efforts. Moreover, Chelsea’s family has been her biggest strength. Her husband, Brad has been a support system throughout her career and has always encouraged her to go the extra mile and take risks when needed. Without his help at home and emotional support, it would have been difficult to reach where she is today.

Embrace a Close-Knit Approach

Healthcare is such a fast-paced environment, which is also demanding. Chelsea Simon thinks many companies forget that their staff members and patients are not just numbers. Her advice to everyone is to slow down and be involved with every team member. Also, make sure they feel supported as this ensures that they can slow down and be involved with every patient.

Chelsea pens a Day in her Life

My day starts fairly early. I typically wake at 5 am and my daughter, Jade, and I get ready for the day. Once on the road, I drop her off at school and head to work. Depending on the day of the week, I will be in administrative meetings or actively on the clinic floor with staff. I feel that as the COO, sitting behind the desk is not where I should be all day. I need to be front and center to understand the frustrations or needs of the clinic and patients. After the workday ends, I pick up Jade from afterschool. We then head to gymnastics where she practices with her team for two hours. While she is practicing, I typically head to the gym and work out for an hour. Once the activities are complete, we then get back on the road and head home. We are typically home by 8:30 pm, eat dinner, and then off to bed.

Notable Recognitions

Here are a few noteworthy titles won by Advanced Pain Care:

Made it to the top three for Best Company Culture by the Austin American Statesmen.
Advanced Orthopedics made the top five for Best Orthopedics group by the Austin American Statesmen.
Many of our Physicians have won the Top Doctor award by Austin Monthly Magazine: Dr. Glenn Harper (2020 & 2021, Neurosurgery), Dr. JM Paterno (2020, Pain Management) Dr. Mark Malone (Top Doctor of the Week, Pain Management)

A Compelling Insight for Female Entrepreneurs

Inspired by this Mahatma Gandhi quote, “A sign of a good leader is not how many followers you have, but how many leaders you create.” Chelsea Simon is abiding by it and encouraging female entrepreneurs to lead their journey.

Chelsea’s best advice is to work hard for everything, give 110%, and never expect anything to be handed to you. Female entrepreneurs are strong-willed and have to maintain their strength. There will be instances; where you think you want to give up but remind yourself who you are and where you came from.

Expand Horizons

Advanced Pain Care has exciting plans for 2022. It plans to expand its Killeen and Waco locations and open surgery centers. It has many satellite clinics in the works that will be opening in 2022. Also, it has two more pharmacies coming.

Janifer Wheeler: An Influential Womanpreneur, Creating A Success Path For Other Aspiring Entrepreneurs

The Proud Entrepreneur and Productivity & E-Learning Consultant, Janifer Wheeler, Founder, JOYFully BadAss Business Academy™ is an influential business figure. Apart from being a Time Management Junkie and Growth Mindset Enthusiast, Janifer is renowned as an International, Best-Selling Author, and Award-Winning Speaker.

She has a Masters in Education – Integrating Technology in Grades 3-12 from Walden University and a Bachelors in Education, Field Of Study Early Childhood Education from Georgia Southern University.

JOYFully BadAss and Its Unique Solutions

The JOYFully BadAss Business Academy™ provides training courses and consulting as follows:

Custom Curriculum and Workshop Design
Productivity Courses and Consulting
Keynote Speaker or Workshop Facilitator
E-Learning Consulting and Design

While searching for an innovative way to swizzle from in-person to completely online, she discovered an exciting new method for delivering courses and content via TEXT messages.

NO ZOOM!
No logging in!
No weekly calls!
Just short, easy to access, easy to implement e-learning delivered right to your phone!

The primary goal of the JOYFully BadAss Business Academy™ is to help other small business owners, coaches, consultants, and entrepreneurs’ burnout prove their business with JOYFull Productivity!

Janifer’s clientele includes busy, badass female business owners and entrepreneurs who are overwhelmed and overworked. They are struggling to stay organized and work efficiently. Their To-Do Lists are endless. They may be constantly stressed, exhausted, and irritable. Many are headed for burnout. Most don’t have employees or any assistance. Or, if they do, they aren’t utilizing them.

Janifer Wheeler works closely with Virtual Assistant Agencies. Although their clients may be delegating to a VA already, many are still underutilizing their contracted hours. New clients may not know where to start and feel overwhelmed by weeding through their task lists to figure out what to delegate.

The Source of Inspiration

In May 2011, Janifer Wheeler realized that after nearly 20 years of working for schools and small businesses, she was burned out…not just on work, but on the goals and expectations she was trying to achieve. She felt trapped by her own choices and decided to take a risk and quit teaching so she could get to know herself better and forge a new path. It wasn’t easy, but she learned so much about her work style, work attitude, the type of work she wanted to do, and her values. Her highest value is freedom … no wonder it was so hard to work for other people! All of this information helped her confirm that she was born to be an entrepreneur.

Major Hurdles on the Way & The Driving Force

Before Covid, Janifer Wheeler was presenting workshops, training, and consulting in person. Although she can do it, she is not a fan of teaching via Zoom and wanted to find another way to deliver her courses that did not include a lot of virtual presentations. This was a huge challenge and it took her several months to find a Learning Management System that would meet her needs. This led to a total rebranding and redesign of offers, programs, etc., so she has spent most of the last year reinventing herself.

This is Janifer’s confidence and her self-belief that keep her growing. Some of it she was born with but so much of it came from the amazing people who encouraged her, validated her, and gave her suggestions for growth over the years.

From the Founder’s Desk

When I’m not helping you crush your goals and level up your productivity, you can find me in my little RV… by the water, communing with nature. It’s what I do to drop my stress and re-focus. I’m also a super big reading nerd (yes, I’ve been known to read on the treadmill #likeaboss).

I’ve built my life on the idea that efficiency and productivity have the power to make life spacious enough to hold your dreams. If you snuck a peek at my resume, you’d see that I’m a Certified Teacher & Curriculum Designer, Certified Diversity Professional®, and I have over a decade of experience as both an adult educator and business operations expert. Did I mention I take getting things done seriously? I can’t give you more hours in the day, but I can help you get so much more juice and life out of the hours you have.

Have you ever found yourself thinking…?

…how in the heck can I do it all?

…oh snap – did I forget something seriously important?

…I’d accomplish so many goals if I just had a little more time.

…nobody understands how many plates I’m juggling right now.

…building my own business wasn’t supposed to feel this way.

YOU’RE AMBITIOUS, CONFIDENT, AND FULL OF VISION. BUT TIME KEEPS SLIPPING OUT OF YOUR HANDS.

I’ll come alongside you, create a clear path for success, and put my proven productivity and organization strategies to work for you. Because I know how much amazing stuff you can accomplish with the right systems and perspective—and I want to share my know-how with you.

A Day in Janifer’s Life

She does not have a strict daily schedule or routine. She generally begins her day with coffee and some journaling. Then, she does household chores and appointments in the morning when possible and works on business tasks throughout the afternoon. She tries to finish working by 4:30 or 5. From there, she has dinner, watches movies, or sees live music. Bedtime is usually around 10:30 and she ends her day with a book.

Favorite Books & Favourite Quote

STRONG and FREE! This collection features stories of women from around the globe who broke up with society’s expectations and lived life on their terms. The Values Factor by John DeMartini is the second favorite. This book showed her that freedom was her most important value.

“Beautiful girl, you can do hard things.” – Sloane Ketchum

This is a go-to quote for Janifer Wheeler. It reminds her to believe in herself and not let “what ifs” get in the way of what she wishes to achieve.

Future Roadmap

While talking about her future goals, the leading lady apprised, “I hired a new marketing agency in November. I am thrilled with our strategy for 2022 and SUPER excited about the launch of two new JOYFully BadAss Business Academy™ courses in January 2022, along with the paperback copy of STRONG and FREE.”

She continued, “Our strategy also includes adding an affiliate program, a membership model, and more speaking opportunities. I get ideas for new courses all the time so there will certainly be more learning offers in 2022. I am considering a JOYFully BadAss Business Academy App and/or another book!”

Jewels in the Crown

Here is the list of awards won by the business lady:

Certified Diversity Professional Designation 2020
2021 Brainz CREA Global Award
2019 Women’s Economic Forum Exceptional Woman of Excellence
2021 Netwomen.co Ambassador
2018-2021 Polka Dot Powerhouse Board Member
2021 Amazon Author: Strong and Free

A Piece of Advice for Female Entrepreneurs

Learn enough to make wise decisions, but don’t try to learn it all. Ask for help! And remember, if it’s not JOYFull, why do it?

Guiding and Transforming your Team with TyAnn “Ty” Osborn

It can be undoubtedly stated that women are changing the paradigm of business throughout various industries. Although gender discrimination still lurks in organizations, female business personalities are working to attain a successful stature in their respective stream. It has been witnessed that gender neutralization is a must in business as it allows an adaptation of cumulative approach for success as a team. To assist such entities, TyAnn Osborn offers authentic and innovative business coaching and training programs so that these companies can establish their employees to become a perfect blend of skilled individuals (a team) that then seamlessly help enterprises achieve their milestones.

Meet TyAnn “Ty” Osborn, an exemplary entrepreneur helping Fortune 500 companies through innovative reforms. She founded Osborn Consulting Group LLC in 2012, a transformational strengths-based coaching and training company that empowers employees to discover the value of their unique abilities so they can learn how to engage with their fellow team members, be more productive, build stronger relationships, and authentically show up in their daily lives. Ty has spent her career enabling business leaders, managers, and employees to improve their performance and effectiveness through innovative professional development and strategic talent solutions. Prior to launching the business, she served as the Global Director of Human Resources for the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, an organization with a $2 billion endowment dedicated to improving the lives of children in urban poverty. The foundation is the family philanthropic foundation started by the founder of Dell Technologies.

Being an entrepreneur, Ty has faced various obstacles while building a name in the industry. There were some difficult times which she refers to as a bottleneck and then the sticking point where her business stagnated instead of growing. “I had said yes to too many things and had too little help to make it happen,” she admits. “That was a recipe for burnout and I actually ended up with a health scare and a trip to the emergency room.” This gave her the urgency and drive to make drastic changes in the business. “Then I started asking for help, which was so hard! But that was a game changer,” she adds.

A peek in Osborn Consulting Group

Her venture can be defined as a speaking, training, and coaching company that focuses on strengths-based performance, leadership development, and organizational effectiveness. She was among one of the first groups of Gallup certified Strengths^© coaches and trainers in the world, and the strengths methodology forms the foundation of all of the work that she and her team do. Simply stated, this enables employees to understand their unique gifts and then apply those gifts to their roles. Research shows that people who know and use their strengths are more engaged at work, are more productive in their roles, and are happier and healthier. The global pandemic brought about unexpected benefits to her business. “I am delighted that we can offer our services in dynamic in-person events as well as engaging virtual formats,” she highlights.

Her clients range from small-scale non-profits to Fortune 500 companies. Her services span functions and industries, so they are useful regardless of what an organization’s industry definition is. “If they have employees and are interested in accelerating human potential, then they are a client for us,” Ty says. She feels fortunate to have been able to work with amazing companies over the years such as Dow Chemical, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, PayPal, EA Sports, Indeed, EY, Abbvie, Qualcomm, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Realtor.com, the University of Texas, and many more. Her company ensures continued business by delivering on its promises, being easy to work with, and customizing each solution. “There is no ‘one size fits all’ product in a box that we offer – each client deserves a solution tailor-made for their unique environment,” she highlights.

Osborn Consulting is also certified as a HUB – a Historically Underutilized Business- by the state of Texas. It is very important for Ty to provide growth and business opportunities to other women and minorities. She feels delighted that her team is comprised of amazingly talented people who are specialists in their fields, from administration to operations, social media to coaching. One of Ty’s Top 5 personal strengths is futuristic. People equipped with this gift often energize others with their visions of the future. Being a visionary, she is always planning to keep one step ahead by looking at future possibilities.

Advice from the Expert

Ty takes pride that in 2022 she is celebrating her tenth year in the business. “It has absolutely flown by! Each year has been more successful than the previous,” she asserts. She envisions continuing to impact clients by helping them discover their potential and shine at every point. She looks forward to expanding her business by recruiting more skilled professionals in her team.

Currently, among other clients, she and her team are working on an innovative full-scale strengths rollout with a large, distributed campus school district from the superintendent down to the students, and they are looking forward to the opening of many more possibilities in the future. “Clients often ask “what’s next” so I’m excited about building custom solutions for them,” she mentions.

She values bringing a tangible and meaningful difference in their lives through a speaking, training and coaching company. “What keeps me going is seeing my clients light up from within,” she says. Her clients have always been the inspiration for her continued success. She recommends that every individual be open and stay curious in learning new things about themselves through the Gallup CliftonStrengths Assessment. “If you want to be successful then study success. Hang out with successful people. Read about success. Be careful with what you ingest – if you only take in negative things then that is what you will become,” she offers.

Leian Harosky: Building Life-long Relationships

Every individual deserves to build wealth and financial freedom through real estate, either by investing in a house or buying a home to retire in. Many realtors in the industry offer to make this dream into reality, but few have earned a name in the market through remarkable strategies blended with kindness.

Leian Harosky—the principal broker and Owner of Harosky Homes LLC—is one such compassionate business leader who has remarkably contributed in bringing her decades of experience to the local real estate landscape. Through her venture, she and her team have dedicatedly worked to help current and prospective homeowners make their dreams come true. It is a full-service real estate office conducting various real estates seminars such as home buying, home selling, 1031 exchange, luxury transactions, shortfall and lender sale. Her team holds expertise in home buying and selling, 1031 exchanges, short sales, and Veterans Affairs (V.A.) home purchases.

Moreover, her company arranges buying seminars to talk about all the details involved with the process so prospective clients are ready when looking to buy and sell properties, as well as learn about rental property strategies, and Oahu market trends. It also assists a lot of military families stationed in Hawaii.

Into the Shoes of Leian

At the age of 28, Leian worked at a U.S. Embassy in an Islamic country where she had coveted security clearance and received vital training. This experience helped her to build relationships with multiple countries and an array of people, as she kept up with foreign affairs and helped employees of the embassy with housing needs. She recalls, “I grew up on a farm, so that helps me remain grounded and down to earth, we treat the business and our clients like a family. Through my business, I believe in giving back so I give to organisations and feel to promote goodness to others to create a better world.” She is one of the VA educators for veterans, active military and their dependents and teaches two times a month at VA centers and once a week inside a military base. As Harosky Homes LLC includes four retired military officers on its team, Leian explains the diversity within the company shines through as everyone can speak different languages. The staff can speak Tagalog, Mandarin, Malay, Indonesian, Spanish, Italian, Thai, and Korean to further assist clients.

Leian cherishes every day of her life; she feels blessed to have an exemplary team through which she can help many people to have their dream home. “The balance in work life is a big factor was the reason why I choose to pursue a career in real estate,” Leian adds. But the work is not as simple as it seems. She states that the primary challenge that she faces is establishing everything from scratch, and later finding good vendors to work together as a team, as it is crucial. There is a need for good vendors that work as hard for the company as the company works for their clients. Fortunately, Harosky’s Homes has a diverse group of realtors who vary in age, ethnicity, and culture but work together to create a promising experience for their clients.

Building lifelong Relationships

Leian has completed almost 18 years in the business, since then she has developed various abilities including being multilinguistic. Growing up with a diverse family and being exposed to various cultures helped her learn and adapt quickly, be respectful and think differently while helping people. Her diverse background also helped her in connecting with a distinctive range of people. Most of her clients whom she has assisted have been able to resell their properties and make money because of her strategies and brainstorming sessions. Firstly, she prefers to educate everyone on the significance of a true team effort, and later provide them with the crucial education to equip clients with achieving their real estate goals; be it a home to retire in or an investment. Her clients can benefit from the energy, creativity, and technology reach that Harosky Homes LLC brings to the industry. It has directed thier attention on building local relationships and immersing itself in the community by focusing on leveraging their professional sphere to expand the local network.

Leian has been awarded Hawaii Women Means Business 2019 along with the listing in AREAA A-list 2022; number 1 closed transaction in Hawaii; and number 3 in sales & volume. She has also earned the Soaring Eagle Award and Fallen Warrior Award. Moreover, Leian is also a real estate investor with experience working internationally, as well as with the U.S. State Department, US Embassy in Asia assigning houses for Military Diplomats and Foreign Service Officers. “So, with that government and corporate background, I learned how to be discreet and diplomatic,” she asserts.

A Glimpse into the Future

Leian Harosky is planning to establish a non-profit organization called Helping O’Hana and Untraffick. She envisions expanding to other branches to share their experience in helping others find a home and contribute to orphanages and their non-profit organizations. She looks forward to getting more involved in the local community and giving back. She believes that a woman should not fear and embrace their womanhood and not let themselves get pushed aside because they are female. “You can think like a man and act like a lady. You are more powerful than you think.” she states.

To conclude, we can state that Leian Harosky is instilled with the importance of homeownership, equity, and property maintenance, and believes in running an ethical and honest business. “If there is no space for you in whatever you intend to do, then create space and invite them to your space,” she adds.

From Special Education Teacher And Doctoral Level Professor To “Inspiring Coachpreneur”: Dr. Shellie Hipsky’s Journey Of Empowering & Inspiring Women Leaders

“I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.” – Maya Angelou

Dr. Shellie Hipsky, CEO, Inspiring Lives International personifies this quote which is also one of her favourites, as her motivational media company continues to bring the unique personality, voice, and presence into the media spotlight.

Dr. Shellie Hipsky a charismatic leader with a never to say die attitude, an excellent guide & mentor, an inspiring coach, a great author and an influential business leader who initiated a journey to reach her mission of uplifting other inspiring and empowering women so they can make their greatest dreams a reality and impact others around the world with their stories and knowledge. Known as the “Global Empowerment Coach”, Shellie’s other titles include CEO of Inspiring Lives International, Executive Director of the Global Sisterhood, and the Editor in Chief of Inspiring Lives Magazine. She is educating, entertaining, and inspiring globally.

Her career span includes teaching students from kindergarten to the doctoral level in the United States as well as in Rome, Italy. In academics, Shellie is alumnus of Duquesne University where she completed the IDPEL doctoral program in educational leadership and has presented at an international conference on educational leadership at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. The research methodology she created, called the “Pre-Conceptual Map,” was taught in a Harvard University Research Methodology course.

Inspiring Lives International

Inspiring Lives International is a motivational media and education company that has offered the television show Inspiring Lives with Dr. Shellie, Empowering Women Radio, and 13 books including the international bestseller Ball Gowns to Yoga Pants: Entrepreneurial Secrets to Success for Your Dream Business and Brand. Her coaching is highly sought after by women internationally.

Further the inspiring lady apprised, “My coaching includes my EmpowerU Master Class which is enrolling now which has a seven-week proven curriculum for women to garner inspiration, empowerment, balance, and abundance. Many women have learned through my Exert Level video series how to do branding and marketing. Select elite ladies who are leaders in their field and are ready to rise to the top of their game while maintaining life balance, have engaged in World Class VIP Coaching with me wherein we travel to a fabulous resort and spa to work one-on-one with me on making their business and life dreams a reality. Inspiring Lives International combines empowerment, entertainment, and empowerment for women’s ultimate success.”

The ILI’s clientele include women leaders who desire transformation in their lives and careers. She recently spoke at the Ultimate Wealth Camp in Vegas. When she looks at the clients who joined her there for that experience, more than half of them are women whom she has known for over a decade. They trust her because they can clearly see how she led them from a transitional tipping point in their lives to success and they are growing ever higher towards their biggest goals.

The Inspiration Behind The Initiation

Dr. Shellie was a tenured professor and the decision to become an entrepreneur was based on creating her highest quality of life with her two beautiful children and her passion for inspiring women internationally. She needed to go beyond the four walls of the classroom and make the world her classroom!

“During my 20+ years of teaching and mentoring, I realized that there are so many beautiful, intelligent, and amazing women out there with stories that the world needs to hear. But these women leaders don’t know how to get themselves in front of the crowd, or be noticed enough to get their voices to a higher platform. This is where my completely individualized mentoring methods came into the picture”, Dr. Shellie proudly shared. In fact, her method is so unique for teaching adult learners that she holds a U.S. Patent for her instructional style with Dr. Jeanine Blackburn, who personally benefited from the teachings as a doctoral student of Dr. Shellie Hipsky’s and she is also a proud EmpowerU Alumni.

Major Hurdles & The Driving Force On The Way

The primary challenge during pivots have been looking at the situation from a new perspective. When a shift happens (and it always does), leaders must regroup and remain flexible.

Dr. Shellie said that she has been blessed to have had amazing mentors throughout her life journey. Currently, she is leaning into America’s Small Business Expert Bill Walsh’s teachings and mentorship. Throughout the years, she has had reciprocal mentoring connections from other brilliant business coaches such as Anita Brattina, Wendy O’Brien Lydon, and Marta Sauret-Greca.

Creating A More Balanced And Equal Industry

Dr. Shellie deeply believes in an equitable and inclusive workforce that pays genders equally and respects all on the team while celebrating differences and diversity.

A Day In The Leading Lady’s Life & Hobbies

“If I am not traveling for international speaking engagements, I begin my day early with my morning routine including mediation and exercise, I get the kids to school after a healthy breakfast, and then it really depends on the day what I will be doing. Whether it entails editing Inspiring Lives Magazine or delivering content through multiple online or in-person speaking gigs, podcasts, or TV shows – my calendar is always full. Some of my greatest days include my coaching days when I can help the women, I lead get closer to their fulfilled destinies”, asserted Dr. Shellie.

She loves performing in musical theater productions, singing, (She has vocal singles out on Spotify and iTunes). She also loves exercises such as Pilates, Aerial Yoga, or other fun workouts and she was even certified to teach Kickboxing. She adores hanging out with her kids and doing family-based activities as well.

Favourite Book

Jack Canfield’s The Success Principles is a classic self-empowerment book that this business leader loves to read and highly recommends.

Expansion Goals For Inspiring Lives International

The future of Inspiring Lives International will include touching the hearts and lives of millions of women around the world. She is excited to fill the latest cohort of her EmpowerU Master Class. Her keynote speaking calendar is booking up quickly and she looks forward to connecting with more audiences with messages of inspiration. Her signature talk is currently available on Amazon Prime to Speak Up and it has the same title as her 13^th book Ball Gowns to Yoga Pants. She looks forward to releasing her first vocal album Dr. Shellie and All That Jazz. Now, she is eagerly waiting for her next big red carpet gala fundraiser for her non-profit the Global Sisterhood, because the women who attend and the performances are always amazing. Dr. Shellie’s goal is worldwide inspiration!

Jewels In The Crown

Dr Shellie has a number of accolades and awards, here is a list of the latest awards and recognition won by the leading lady:

2021 “One of the “Top 20 Business Coaches” worldwide – VIP Global Magazine
2021 “Top 10 Inspiring Women to Look out for in 2021” – New York Weekly
2021 “Outstanding Professional Character Award” from Media – The Creative Agency
2021 “Forbes Contributor and Official Member” from the Forbes Coaching Council
2021 “Featured Founding Cover Coach” from Six-Figure Women Coaches Magazine
2021 “Official Member & Founder” from the Global Sisterhood
2021 “Global Ambassador” from the World Heritage Cultural Center
2021 “Featured Selection in the World’s Best Business Book Club” from C-Suite Book Club
2021 “Executive Leader” from the C-Suite Network
2020 “The Author Zone Award in Business” from TAZ
2020 “Five Star Author & Official Selection” from Bedside Reading
2020 “Impact Maker” from Ruchi Singh Talks
2019 “Social Legend” award from Real Beauty Real Women
2019 “Business Choice” award for Inspiring Lives Magazine from The Pittsburgh Business Show
2017 “Women of Achievement” award from Cribs for Kids
2015 “Entrepreneur of the Year in Inspiration and Empowerment” from VIP Events Concierge
2015 “VIP Woman of the Year Circle” award from the National Association Professional Women
2015 “Tenured Associate Professor” from Robert Morris University
2014 “Exceptional Artist Award” Pittsburgh Fashion Week – Fashion Hall of Fame
2013 “Super Professor” from the Faculty Row
2013 “Best Business Woman in Pittsburgh” from the Women’s Small Business Association

Advice For Young Women

Dr. Shellie exclaimed, “Be your fabulous self and show the world who you truly are!”

Sailesh Sewpaul: Providing Frictionless Global Payment Experience With Pex

Sailesh Sewpaul, Founder & CEO, leads the 75-member team of professionals of PEX . A Mauritius-based brand established 13 years ago, provides comprehensive global digital payment solutions powered by market-leading SmartVista technology and an array of in-house developed solutions

Acknowledged globally for its award-winning digital payments services, PEX provides financial organizations with a fully scalable payments architecture for everything from issuing to acquiring and including the support of all back office operations ranging from proactive risk management, chargeback processing and settlement and reconciliation activities.

An innovative seed that was sown in 2008 germinated well and became the cornerstone and set new standards for the payments industry. “Think of us as a ‘bank in a box,’ able to take care of as much of your payments infrastructure as you need,” asserts Dr. Sailesh Sewpaul, an adaptable and highly experienced IT professional cum e-Banking and Retail Banking Business Strategist with expertise in electronic banking from both a technical and business perspective. He has been honored with the Africa ICT Leadership Awards 2014 because of his continuous efforts to steer his businesses through turbulent times, applying the best of business models to manage and keep his mission afloat. He also won the London-based Capital Finance International cfi.co 2015 Banking Awards as the Best Card Payment Services Provider Mauritius. Each year, CFI.co seeks out individuals and organizations that contribute significantly to the convergence of economies and truly add value for all stakeholders.

Its mission is to provide a world-class, efficient and cost-effective payment system infrastructure and to create value for its customers

The Beginning…

Prior to starting PEX Ltd, the leading man was working at the State Bank of Mauritius (SBM) where he served in numerous IT and international business roles. He also worked in the Retail Banking and Electronic Channels divisions at the bank. Sailesh is a seasoned professional with extensive experience in both technology and business. He also served as Business Adviser to the Visa International Board for the CEMEA (Central Europe, Middle East, and Africa) region covering 96 countries for seven-year (from September 1988 to January 2002). He has worked as the Group Chief Executive of Payment Express Limited for 13 years doing business in Asia and Africa.

In academics, Sailesh has done a DBA from Walden University, US and an MBA from Edinburgh Business School, Heriott-Watt University, UK, and was named the BCS IT Personality in 2014.

PEX: a new standard in the digital payment landscape

Clearing the clouds in the high-growing market, chaotic world of digital payments, and their unique set of payment challenges and opportunities, PEX has taken concrete strategic steps with a scientific approach to resolve tomorrow’s payment challenges today. The advanced technology at PEX powers end-to-end payments across the world’s fastest-growing markets and inspires confidence in the consumer experience.

After being fully interoperable with leading payment systems like Visa, MasterCard, and UnionPay, PEX’s payments architecture allows businesses to reach out to their end customers with their branded services. It links with a bank’s internal system and caters to their needs for the payment gateway and clearing services.

With its EMV compliant systems, PEX creates a smooth way where banks can offer their clients and partners world-class transaction security and data traceability. Recently, the company has collaborated with the ABC Banking Corporation and UnionPay International to launch a Diamond debit card, allowing high-end customers to enjoy secure and technically sophisticated banking experiences along with access to exclusive privileges.

PEX has achieved the feat of building its own payment gateway, leveraged by banks and payment service providers for e-commerce processing and to acquire merchants’ processing. It also lets banks do transactions from the ATMs, the Point-of-Sale, and e-commerce applications and provide end customers with an omnichannel experience. The firm has developed their own mobile POS solution which is VISA, Mastercard, and UPI-certified and features switching, transaction authorization, and fraud prevention. It supports both contact and contactless payments. . Furthermore, PEX provides mobile-based, card-control facilities, which allow a customer to switch on or switch off their EMV card based on the transaction he or she needs to do. . This facilitates a crucial security feature in case a card gets stolen as the client has full control of how the card is used for transactions. Apart from hand-holding their clients until they understand the whole process and explaining the best practices, the payment experts at PEX offer comprehensive support and training to the client’s technical teams.

The Driving Force

Dr. Sailesh attributes his success to the hard-working dedication of his team. It’s been a collaborative effort and all have worked tirelessly to build and maintain our industry reputation whilst simultaneously focusing on providing excellent customer service. Secondly, we thrive on feedback and a desire to improve. Staying ahead of the game means we must pay attention to the needs of our customers, meeting and discussing solutions and then following this up with strong communication, reliability, dedication and commitment.

PEX’s Mission & Vision

The vision of PEX is to be recognized as the key universal payment service provider in the region and beyond by providing tailor-made solutions to its customers.

PEX’s mission is to provide a world-class, efficient and cost-effective payment system infrastructure and to create value for its customers by:

Aggregating, leveraging, and sourcing a robust and resilient payments processing infrastructure
Analyzing clients’ operations and processes and thereafter recommending/implementing the finest and best-fitting payments model.
Pursuing excellence through innovative and quality-driven services.

Awards & Milestones

The Most Recommended Fintech Solution Providers 2020 by The Business Frame
Most Innovative ePayment Solutions Company 2020 by MEA
PEX Best End to End Payments Solutions Provider 2019 by the CV Magazine
Best Employer Brand Award 2019 by Best Employer Awards
50 Most Admired Companies of the year 2018
20 Most Promising Payment & Card Solution Providers
Best Payment Processor Africa
Africa ICT Leadership Awards
Global Banking and Finance Review Awards 2015
Best Payments Solution Provider Mauritius

Future Roadmap

Since inception, PEX has introduced many innovative and advanced solutions to simplify the payment process for people. Because of their continuous development, Dr. Sewpaul and his venture have won numerous accolades and launched some unique products in the last five years. They still have a long way to go in terms of achieving milestones on the way.

“To keep evolving in tandem with the fast-moving payment business, PEX is committed to innovate and incorporate disruptive technologies like data analytics and AI-powered chatbots”, the visionary further apprised.

Serge Martinod & Pharmabbie: Accelerating the Quality Life of Pets with Efficacious and Palatable Medications

While there are many inspiring success stories of business leaders and trailblazers, this article narrates the success story of Serge Martinod, who established Pharmabbie Inc.

A unique initiative that develops pharmaceuticals for dogs and other pets, prioritizing the quality of life for pets through efficacious and palatable medications. Their mission is to develop a top-quality product portfolio that serves the needs of pet owners and veterinarians alike. Established in the year 2020, Pharmabbie operates as a semi-virtual company with a network of consultants and contract organizations

Their patented innovation comes from the delivery systems. Their products are very palatable like a treat and pets love them. But they also meet the strict standards of the FDA for pharmaceuticals.

Dr.-Serge Martinod: The Man Behind the Brand

An innovative leader and an accomplished veterinarian with 35 years of expertise developing products for animal health, including more than 15 years with market leaders such as Pfizer, SmithKline Beecham, and Ciba Geigy.

He made significant contributions to the regulatory licensing of more than 20 products for companion animals and livestock in the U.S., Europe, and Japan – helping generate hundreds of million dollars in revenue.

His rich career is rooted in the creation and management of start-up companies including Smart Drug Systems, Arcanatura, TNG Pharmaceuticals, and Jaguar Animal Health (JAGX), Dr. Martinod is tapping into his experience and network to continue improving the lives of pets.

Clientele & Corporate Ethos

PharmAbbie has several tiers of clients: first tier, the animals and they keep them happy by providing drugs that taste and feel like treats. The second tier is the owners and their satisfaction come from changing the dreadful pill time into treat time, reinforcing the bond with their companion. In the third tier, the veterinarians for them, improving the success rate of therapies by guaranteeing compliance with the treatment schedule. Finally, the fourth tiers are the animal health companies selling pharmaceuticals, they provide them with ready-to-market high-quality products. Remember if your dog or cat do not bite your fingers when you give him or her a pill you are going to be a customer for life.

Major Hurdles & the Driving Force on the Way

Pharmabbie is the result of the spin-off from another company so we can focus our time and resources on one technology with application on many products

The primary challenges are (i) obtaining FDA approval and (ii) securing funding to support product development.

Hard work is the main driving force behind Serge’s successful journey. Other factors that lead him to grow include taking risks, learning from experience, trying to work smart.

Creating a Balanced & Equal Industry

Break paradigms, you cannot win if you do what all the others are doing. Focus on your strengths and hire people to handle your weaknesses. Innovate all the time but be realistic about what you can achieve. Never overpromise!

A Day in the Visionary’s Life & Hobbies

His day begins with breakfast watching the morning news with several cups of espresso, then checking the emails to see what came during the night either from Europe or Asia and answering those emails, showering, going to the office. There are usually several conference calls or Zoom with collaborators or investors, lunch at the desk with more emails, then later in the day working on a dossier and writing documents. Usually, late dinner and one last check at email, or researching databases. Going to bed late watching the late-night news. Pretty much the same routine every day 7 days a week.

Dr Martinod loves to do skiing, sailing, reading good books, and gastronomy but he has little time for hobbies with his current workload.

From the Founder’s Desk

The major reason behind choosing this career was to leave private practice where we treat one animal at a time to join the industry to find solutions that can help millions of animals. It is the possibility of making a big difference that influences my career.

First and foremost professionally I am a veterinarian and proud of it. Although I do not practice anymore I still consider myself as a clinician and a scientist finding solutions to help the pets and their owners. I work slow and steady but I am not afraid of taking risks or innovating.

Favourite Book

Growing up in France, Serge Martinod is inspired by French literature. “L’Étranger” ( the stranger) by Albert Camus. It is a book about the philosophy of the absurd, the complexity of human emotions and behaviours, and how some events out of our control can change our lives completely. Once you start reading the book you cannot stop!

Future Roadmap

Under the dynamic leadership of Serge Martinod has accomplished a lot. Now, it has a lot more to achieve- getting the first FDA approval, licensing products to larger companies for commercialisation, finding more efficient ways to develop new products. Their goal is to bring a portfolio of products to the market to make a difference in the health care of the animals and then enjoy life to the fullest.

Achievements & Milestones

The major milestones were to obtain Intellectual property, successfully scale up the manufacturing to a commercial level, obtain concurrence on the protocols for the 2 last pivotal studies from FDA, complete a Series A financing during the pandemic.

A Piece of Advice for Female Entrepreneurs

Female power is the future in business and certainly in the pharmaceutical industry. Never accept less than men, there could be some obstacles but you are already weaning. You work harder and smarter than most men and you make most of the buying decisions in most markets so you actually know better. Take risks and innovate.

Favourite Quote

Carpe diem. But it is easier said than done.

Michael Collura: A Visionary with a touch of Compassion

Meet Michael Collura, President and Chief Executive Officer of In Home Personal Services—an innovative and compassionate leader whose unique ideologies and methods have led him and his company in achieving many milestones paved in its pathway. He has proved by his company, that gone are the days when businesses where subjected to core industries or sector. His creative ideas and compassion towards helping people have been the backbone behind the company’s inception. He is an entrepreneur, leader who prefers integrity, a strong marketing personnel and innovation. Michael’s ways totally justifies the popular saying, “do what you love,” as he enjoys and feels privileged helping people in need.

“Making an impact in the lives of others so they too can be happy,” quotes Michael.

In this special issue entitled ‘The 10 Most Creative CEOs to Watch’, Tycoon Success appreciates and admires such creative leaders and takes pride in featuring Michael as a cover story.

A Story behind Michael’s Inception

Michael has always been passionate with his life. He started his first job working in the nursing home when he was just 15 years old. While working at the nursing home, he learned about work ethic, commitment to others, a passion to care for the elderly and he was also lucky enough to meet his future Wife. He feels grateful to his first job as it has developed the passion to care for others in him. He states that he feels quite fortunate to have had such experiences as it has brought him endless joy, prosperity and happiness to his life. “My Wife and I even celebrated our 25^th anniversary together in that same nursing home, it was that dear to us,” through quoting such statement he emphasizes over the importance of this experience in his life.

Solutions to Rely On

“We listen. We learn. We adapt to the needs of the client.” Michael highlights that he and his team involves themselves in the care, intimately so, in order to ensure that a truly compassionate and individualized experience is provided to each and every individual that the company are honored to have been chosen as a care provider for. It seeks out a problem and then overcome it by finding new and unique solutions. “You ever heard the saying “thinking outside of the box?” Well, we broke the box open threw it on the ground and breakdance on that thing every day,” Michael says. “Because innovation about challenging every perception and using imagination to create a new path forward that was never seen before. That is what we do here,” he continues.

In addition to that, he also emphasizes over the company’s possible expansion, new service models and increased innovation in what it takes to deliver senior care in a post pandemic world. He and his team are also aggressively involved in the development of a new technology that provides relief and reduced medication as well as visible reduction in the impacts of Parkinson’s disease.

When asked about his greatest accomplishment Michael responded with, ‘Marriage’. “Because I never deserved her, she is way too good for me. On a business level, it is in the impact we have made in the lives of so many countless seniors to have brought back a sense of safety, independence and quality of life. Seeing their joy rejuvenates us to face the challenges such as Covid. We will not surrender and will never stop fighting to ensure they are cared for. We are entrusted with those most vulnerable and we will fight when they cannot,” says Michael.

A Unique Approach

‘The flashlight and the lantern’. Michael states that whenever he proposes this ideology in their leadership training program, people might think him unorthodox. He explains that the premise is quite simple, and suggests “Go into a dark room (we do this in leadership training, and it is hysterical to experience their reactions). Have a flashlight and lantern ready. With the lights off, turn on the flashlight. A flashlight shines the light only in the direction it faces. It does not “see” the bigger picture. Now with the flashlight off, turn on only the lantern. The lantern will shine evenly across the room illuminating everywhere. You have a clearer picture without “blind spots”.” Through this lesson, Michael states that it is a perception and understanding there is always more hidden in the dark than can be among the light. This sort of ideology, Michael believes, is what we attribute to countless other lessons our leaders are a part of and a philosophy in leadership and business development that has been developed to make In Home Personal Services a creative and innovative brand.

Innovation is the Key

Innovation has always been a key factor for the growth of any business. Michael suggests that we all need to think more globally. He specifies over how his company as a non-medical senior care provider fit in the much larger machine that is healthcare in the world today. He addresses that there is always room for advancement, innovation and progress. “We are working to be a part of that frontier. The team around me is on board and we are well on our way to being one of those companies you hear that actually made an impact, if you have not heard so already that is!” says Michael. His first idea is to further innovate several key advantages In Home Personal Services as a company hold as a brand and all those are preparing for launch in 2021. These advancements in his business, that they provide for a higher quality of care to their seniors, will help company to move further ahead of the industry standards by standing out as a one of a kind provider.

Leadership Principles one must admire

Integrity. Michael believes that through integrity one can easily prevail in his or her journey. He express that we might have seen many leaders fail when it comes to facts and truth, where many such entities in power utilize that trust they were given, for their own gains and forget; they are there to serve others. Thus, he believes integrity should be a must possessed trait by every leader.

Meanwhile, Michael states that he has a different leadership style, which he admits is not understood by everyone. He understands that it’s quite impossible to make everyone happy, while he does care immensely about how he as a leader will perform, he often realize that he will care very little about how he is perceived. He states that he is unable to control the perceptions of others so rather he would focus on the control his own actions. He is aware that those decisions that he takes will have someone out there who will consider it as wrong in some way, but they have never seen the world through Michael’s eyes. He states that his style is to do the right thing, even if it means he will face the harsh criticism or feedback. “Give trust where it is earned and respect to everyone. In the end, integrity must prevail in everything that leaders do and guide every decision they make. I know, someone reading this right now is criticizing it. What they should understand is that while I do not care I will listen. While you may wish for my downfall, I will work every day to disappoint you. Those types of people will never understand the meaning behind that very message,” says Michael.

Being Visionary

He sees his company and the people around him not as peers in a company working to grow and expand but a talented group of dedicated professionals who could do anything else and choose to do this, not because it is easy but because they care. He feels fortunate enough to be part of something that matters. It is one of life’s greatest joys and it is a true privilege for him when In Home Personal Services is trusted to care for another. He enjoys such privilege quite often as it feels amazing to him. Moreover, Michael Collura is focusing on his business growth and feels heartfelt for other businesses as he understands not every business has coped up with COVID storm. And he suggests that every leader must necessarily take certain steps in order to be decisive and move forward in a pandemic world.

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.