"Prepared for the highs and the lows" with Lindsey Wander

Lindsey Wander, who initially enrolled in Cal State Fresno to become a Biomedical Engineer, earned a Bachelor’s in Biology, a Bachelor’s in Chemistry, and a Minor in Mathematics all in just four years. After several domestic and international internships, she discovered her passion for education and went on to be a middle school math, biology, and STEM teacher in low-income neighborhoods of California. Lindsey moved to Chicago 9 years ago and founded WorldWise Tutoring with the mission of empowering our youth with the tools to succeed in school, work, and life. Lindsey and her team of instructors deliver personalized instruction to help students of all abilities to improve their grades and scores, as well as to learn the skills to become confident and independent lifelong learners and grow into competent and conscious leaders.

Can you tell our readers about your background? 

As Valedictorian of my high school, I earned a full scholarship at Cal State Fresno. I originally wanted to pursue a career in Biomedical Engineering, but the genetics labwork bored me. I switch my major and graduated with Honors with a Bachelor’s in Biology, a Bachelor’s in Chemistry, and a Minor in Mathematics – all in just four years (and with zero debt). I completed several domestic and international internships to test out potential careers ranging from field research to grant writing. An internship as an Environmental Educator in Pennsylvania revealed my passion for teaching. So I went back to acquire a Secondary Teaching Credential and started teaching middle school biology, math, and STEM.

What inspired you to start your business? 

I am a former middle school math and science teacher. I taught in the low-income neighborhoods of California, making it my mission to create a learning environment that was so engaging that it motivated my students to come to school. We explored, questioned, investigated, learned, laughed, and loved - all within my classroom walls. For sake of a better word, it was “magical.” I knew I found my calling and I knew I was making a difference. My students became my kids whom I worried about even when I wasn’t working and whom I am still in touch to this day. However, there was a part of me that remained unfulfilled. While I truly loved my job, I was limited. Time and financial restraints, added to endless bureaucratic red tape, prevented me from being able to dedicate the 1-on-1 time to my students who needed it. Thus, many of “my kids” fell through the cracks - and there was nothing I could do about it. So, when I moved to Chicago at the ripe age of 30, I decided to start my own tutoring business. My mission was to help students of all abilities not only improve their grades and scores but to also learn the skills to grow into confident and independent learners. I sought to empower our youth with the tools to succeed in school, work, and life.

Where is your business based?

I started the business with in-person services in Chicago, but have since expanded it throughout Illinois and into Texas as well.  We have also been providing online services to students all over the world since its inception. 

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

I was unhappy in my job and knew I could do more. With my years of life, learning, and teaching experience, I decided to take the leap from a secure job to the unstable life of being my own boss. In the beginning, I took every opportunity I could.  If I did not know the subject the student was asking for help with, I would learn it.  If the student was a 1-hour commute away, I would still accept him/her. The first couple of years I was working non-stop – but I took it all as a huge learning experience, knowing it would pay off eventually.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business? 

I work with families and their children, so word-of-mouth has been the best way to spread awareness of WorldWise Tutoring’s services in a genuine way. Because of the stigma around tutoring and because many parents are worried about their tutor not having enough availability, the most frequent situation that word-of-mouth occurs is once the family has finished with our services. Since our goal is always to get our students to a point where they do not need a tutor, this sharing of info with others could take place even just a couple of months after a family starts with us. It seems counterintuitive: try to get your client NOT to need you. But in doing so, that client goes out and tells everyone how effective our services are, and for the one client who moves on, we gain many more new clients. Plus, the original client often returns once as new challenges arise, such as AP classes, ACT/SAT prep, college planning, internship applications, GMAT prep, etc.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them? 

Of late, my biggest challenge has been managing my business on my own. I alone have been handling the hiring, new clients, payroll, marketing, etc. I recently brought on three new contractors to help me: one for SEO and general website concerns, one for marketing, and one as an assistant. Though the onboarding and training initially added more work for me, the long-term payoffs have been immense. Now I have more time to focus on what I am an expert at, without getting bogged down with the daily issues in areas I am not as proficient in.

How do you stay focused?

Because I am doing something I love and feel passionately about, the focus has never really been an issue. I wake up each morning eager to work and go to bed each night feeling like I made a difference. I think that if your actions align with your goals and desires, then focus comes naturally.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition? 

There are many other tutoring companies out there. WorldWise Tutoring is unique in that we do not solely focus on test scores and grades. Yes, our students improve their marks - but they also become better students, employees, leaders, and members of society. We interweave into our content instruction lessons on metacognition, executive functions, and interpersonal skills. Our goal is to help our students become confident and independent lifelong learners who grow into competent and conscious leaders. It is one thing to have the knowledge; it is quite another to also have the correct skills and mindset to apply that knowledge in a way that actually improves the world. 

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business? 

I credit clients who refer other families with free tutoring. I also give bonuses to tutors whose work resulted in those referrals. While many referrals would likely occur organically, offering these incentives gives an extra push for families to spread the word and to tutors to give exceptional services.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs? 

My best advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs is to be prepared for the highs and the lows – because EVERY business experiences them. No’s do not mean your service or product is undesirable, business failures do not mean you are a failure as a person. Take every up and every down as a learning experience to grow from. You certainly need to be resilient and determined in order to succeed as an entrepreneur, but you also need to be reflective and realistic. 

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

I’m an undercover nerd who sits on the ledge between science and spirituality. So I love anything that invites me to look at the world differently. My favorite thing to do is to listen to podcasts while I exercise. There is something about having my body occupied that allows my mind to truly focus on the words I am hearing.  My favorite podcasts are This American Life, Hidden Brain, Science Vs, and Positive Head.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

I love Content Studio for social media. I have the most basic package and use it to post on all my social media accounts at once.  I know there are many tools like this – and I probably tried them all! But this is the easiest to use right from the beginning and its customer service is amazing. I will eventually add more features once my budget allows, but for now, I am quite pleased with how much time (and money) Content Studio saves me. 

Who is your business role model? Why? 

I am a scientist turned teacher turned business owner. I took a long and windy road that lead me to entrepreneurship in my 30s. Though I now have many friends and connections who are business owners, I really did not have anyone to look to as I built my own business. Even so, I have always surrounded myself with people who are supportive and genuinely invested in my happiness. And while these amazing people are not all “business people,” they have certainly been my role models in motivating me to follow my intuition, pursue my passions, and always look for ways to improve.

How do you balance work and life? 

I am an extremely extroverted outdoorsy type who loves to travel. So sitting alone at a desk inside my home goes against everything that I am. However, I recognize that there are times when I need to do just that – and I do. Thankfully, because of advances in technology, there are other times when I can work on the go. Whether I am working or socializing or traveling or spending time outdoors, I make it a point to do it fully, giving it my entire focus and gratitude.

What’s your favorite way to decompress? 

For me, I can quickly decompress if I get moving, go outdoors, or laugh with loved ones. Those are three guaranteed ways for me to re-set. Traveling with the intention of exploring and relaxing also provides a nice break after an especially demanding few months with work.  

What do you have planned for the next six months? 

A major concern on everyone’s minds is what education will look like as COVID continues to spread. I anticipate that the next six months will be full of me and my team devising new ideas and plans so that we can better help families, students, and schools in need. I, too, am worried about the long-term impacts of this disruption in learning, especially for younger kids, children with Learning Difficulties, and families in low-income neighborhoods. However, I also see this disruption as an opportunity to reimagine the education system so that it better serves all students. I am ready to take on the challenge of being a part of that change, using my years of experience and my resources to improve the quality of education for our youth. 

How can our readers connect with you?

You can visit our website www.WorldWiseTutoring.com and also find us on all social media outlets including Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.

"Keep it simple. Often, I see entrepreneurs over-complicate an idea," with Neal Taparia

I founded Imagine Easy Solutions, an educational technology company with popular brands like EasyBib.com which reached 30M students annually. We helped students with citations, grammar, note-taking, and plagiarism. I grew that business to $20M in revenue without investment and sold it to a public company called Chegg, where I was an executive there for three years.

Today, I’m working on a new initiative called Solitaired. While on the outside you might see solitaire games like Spider and Freecell, we’re working on technology that ties in brain training exercises.

What inspired you to start your business?

I started EasyBib, the first product of Imagine Easy Solutions, as a high school student. We really disliked the process of creating bibliographies. It required you to understand all these formatting rules and was very time-consuming. A friend and I thought there had to be a better way to do it. We created software that would find all the bibliographic information and format it for you, and we called it EasyBib.

Where is your business based?

All my businesses have been based in NYC. It’s a great place to find diverse talent and people with different skill sets.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

With EasyBib, we wanted to solve a problem we had ourselves as students. Once we conceived the idea, my friend and I sketched out what the product would look like. Then we spent the next two months working after school and on the weekends on the first version of EasyBib. 

As a software business, time was really our biggest investment. 

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

We knew little about marketing. We just knew that we wanted to tell as many people as possible about EasyBib. We placed flyers throughout our whole school about EasyBib, and then we would find educator email addresses on the internet, and email them about our service. Anything we could think of to tell people about it, we would do. 

One weekend, I emailed all the newspapers in the Chicago area where we were in high school and told them that we were students building software for other students. Soon after the Chicago Tribune came to our house, took pictures of us, and a few days later we saw ourselves on the front page of the business section. This drove a ton of traffic to our fledgling site, and it continued to grow organically from there. 

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them? 

When we sold our business to Chegg, a much larger public company, many of our employees did not expect this. Shortly after the acquisition, we received our first resignation and more started trickling. 

Those that were leaving, were good people and had friendships with the rest of the team. Needless to say, it was disheartening and made a negative impact on our culture.

We presented our team with a clear plan on how we’d move forward under Chegg, had tough conversations with those who clearly did not want to be on the team anymore, and quickly hired new people employees who were brought into the mission of Chegg. 

Slowly, we turned our workplace around. After a year, through our employee engagement survey, we found that our NYC office was one the happiest and most engaged among Chegg. 

How do you stay focused?

I always ask myself if what I’m working on is big enough to matter. It’s easy to go down a hole that doesn't move the needle on your business. You have to stay disciplined and always focus on what’s most important. That’s how you move a business forward.

On a day to day level, that translates to a prioritized task list that I work through. Every day, I add more tasks and re-prioritize. 

I also like to take small breaks every hour. This keeps me mentally fresh to focus on the next task. 

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

With EasyBib, we built software that was student first. We were trying to solve our own problem and didn’t want to build software meant for educators.

As a result, we really focused on ease of use, which drove a ton of word of mouth growth for us. 

With Solitaired, which is what I’m working on today, we differentiate ourselves from other brain training platforms by connecting them to popular and ubiquitous classic games.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

With EasyBib, we began to create educational resources around writing that complemented the suite of writing tools we were building. For example, we created infographics on how to properly evaluate credible websites and hosted webinars with notable teachers on relevant topics.

Teachers would learn about EasyBib this way and would tell their classroom to use the product. More importantly, this would drive natural backlinks to our site, helping improve our SEO and free organic traffic acquisition.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

Keep it simple. Often, I see entrepreneurs over-complicate an idea. Start by building the one feature that solves the problem you’re addressing. It’s easy to overthink and overanalyze, convincing yourself that you need to do more with your initial product. Get a product in your customer’s hands, and start learning from there.

Entrepreneurship is a never-ending learning process. Only your customers can tell you if your idea is worthwhile, so start learning from them ASAP.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

I like Blinkist. It provides summaries of great business books. It’s hard for me to find time to read a full book, and I’m able to attain so much knowledge by reading their summaries.

I like Andrew Chen’s blogs. He has good insights that help you think about new opportunities often through the lens of business frameworks.

My favorite book is Predictably Irrational. It’s a behavioral economics book that gives you fascinating insights into how consumers think. After reading it, you’ll have a ton of ideas on how to price and position your product. 

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

I can’t live without Boomerang. It’s an email app that reminds me when to follow up on emails I send. It helps me keep track of important conversations.

Who is your business role model? Why? 

My business role model was my cousin Hans, who had also started his own business. He convinced me to take a risk to leave my investment banking job and jump into entrepreneurship.

How do you balance work and life?

I do this by working smart. You can work on so many things that don’t move the needle. Every day, I ask myself what really matters. If you focus on the right things, you have plenty of time for your personal life.

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

I love to play tennis. It’s a great work out, and it’s a good chance of pace in my day.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

We will be layering on brain training exercises onto Solitaired, and expanding games outside of solitaire. 

How can our readers connect with you?

Feel free to connect with me on Linkedin!

"Give more than you take" with Dr. Ruth Gotian

Dr. Ruth Gotian is a leadership coach, keynote speaker, chief learning officer, and former assistant dean for mentoring at an ivy league medical center. She studies, teaches, and writes about optimizing success, leadership, and networking based on her work and interviews with the most successful people of our generation including Nobel laureates, Olympians, and astronauts. She has a doctorate in adult learning and leadership from Columbia University and has been hailed as a leadership expert by Nature and Columbia University.  Dr. Ruth Gotian Coaching & Keynotes www.ruthgotian.com 

Can you tell our readers about your background?

I started my career in finance and pivoted to higher and medical education. I have a doctorate in adult learning and leadership. My interests are in the habits and practices of high achievers and how we can emulate some of their mindsets and disciplines to optimize our own success.

What inspired you to start your business?

I’ve always felt comfortable teaching from the stage and pride myself in never being tethered to a podium. I’ve received feedback that my keynotes get people thinking long after the talk is over. I’ve also been coaching people for three decades and people marveled at the transformative changes they were able to make. I decided to spend more time doing the things that I was passionate about and was told I am good at. 

Where is your business based?

My business is virtual and is not defined by place or time. 

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

I built a website and contacted my network which I have cultivated over three decades. People knew what I delivered and referred people to me.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

It is a referral business. Good work brings in more work. The more I give keynotes, the more I am asked to come to other people’s organizations.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

The pandemic has been challenging as travel came to a grinding halt yet those who were working from home still craved professional development. I had to pivot and consider how to use virtual mediums in a way that didn’t seem one dimensional. For coaching, the issues remain the same but some underlying issues are now coming to the forefront.

How do you stay focused?

I get to see immediate results in my work which fuel my passion and help me stay focused.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

Having a doctorate in adult learning and leadership and being a contributor to Forbes and Psychology Today in addition to my day job offers me the social proof to stand out. 

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

My practice is referral based, so doing good work is my best marketing strategy.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

Grow your network and develop relationships over time. Give more than you take. Offer what you can for free, it will help establish your credibility.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

I am a voracious reader and read 70-100 books a year. My favorite books are A Higher Standard by General Ann Dunwoody, the first female four-star general in the U.S. and From Willard Straight to Wall Street, the memoir of Thomas W. Jones, a Wall Street executive who led the 1969 Cornell University armed takeover. His lessons on success are some of the best I’ve ever read. I had the opportunity to host him for a talk and he is a genuinely nice, authentic, and grounded individual. 

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

I would be lost without my phone. I use it to connect with people and ideas all day long.

Who is your business role model? Why?

I don’t have one role model I have multiple ones. I like how Dorie Clark shares her content creation, Marshall Goldsmith’s coaching ideas, and Grant Baldwin’s ideas of how to generate speaking leads.

How do you balance work and life?

I know when I am productive and focus 100% during that time. The rest of the time, I prefer to spend with family, friends or a good book. 

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

Read, of course! 

What do you have planned for the next six months?

Speak, coach, and read! 

How can our readers connect with you?

Dr. Ruth Gotian Coaching & Keynotes

www.twitter.com/ruthgotian

www.instagram.com/ruthgotian

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rgotian/ 

I am a volunteer mentor with The Mentor Project and host a weekly show every Monday at 8 PM EST called “Optimizing Success”. People can watch and ask their questions via Facebook Live at www.facebook.com/thementorproject

"Starting a new business can be all consuming and it's hard to find the balance so that you don’t burn yourself out" with Vicky Lowell

Victoria “Vicky” Lowell is a financial educator dedicated to empowering women with the knowledge to become active participants in the planning of their financial future and well-being. Born and raised in Florida, She majored in organization management and human resources at Florida International University. In 2012, she narrowed her focus to finance at UBS Financial Services Inc.

(UBS) where she began as a client service associate. She made the natural transition to a financial advisor where she implemented a comprehensive and holistic approach to financial planning. She left UBS to follow her passion of helping women assert themselves fiscally and founded Empowered Worth, a resource for financial coaching geared toward educating women to not only meet their immediate economic needs but attain long-term goals.

Can you tell our readers about your background?

I grew in South Florida and got my bachelor’s degree in Business from Florida International University. After taking some years off from working to raise my daughters, I re-entered the workforce working at UBS Financial Services – Wealth Management as a client service associate. I grew in that position to become a full-time financial advisor and a certified divorce financial analyst. I left that position to start my business Empowered Worth.

What inspired you to start your business?

I was inspired to start my business by all the women that I encountered as a financial advisor. I saw a need to empower these amazing ladies. Ladies who were abdicating or had abdicated their financial power to others because they felt they lack the knowledge to be part of the decision-making process. I wanted to create an environment that would foster a spirit of empowerment to change this narrative for women.

Where is your business based?

Empowered Worth is based in South Florida and we offer educational workshops and coaching to women in our area. In addition, we offer an online education course that can be accessed from anywhere.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

The first step I took was reaching out to women I knew who owned a successful business. I ask them to mentor me through this process. They guided me to a great lawyer and accountant who helped me set up my legal structure.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

Social Media!  It has been a great way to reach my target client. We are on all forms of social media.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?  

The biggest challenge is work life balance. Starting a new business can be all-consuming and it’s hard to find the balance so that you don’t burn yourself out.

How do you stay focused?

Block scheduling has been key to staying focused.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

One thing is that we focus on providing personal finance education targeted for women. In addition, in 2020 we will be launching our online course and workshops in Spanish.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

As I stated before, social media has been key to our marketing. In addition, writing my first book Empower Your Worth will also play a crucial role in our marketing. It will be available August 2019.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

Don’t second guess yourself, take the leap and start your own business. There will never be a perfect time so start today.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

I love Femcity blog and podcast for female entrepreneurs. I have found it to be incredibly informative.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

Upwork has been a great tool for finding affordable freelancers for my business.

Who is your business role model? Why?

My father who started his own business in my teens. His determination and grit were instilled in me when I worked in the family business.

What is your beauty routine? What are some of your favorite products?

 I would love to say I have one but aside from Botox, I don’t do much for my skin.

How do you balance work and life?

I made a commitment to step away from work on Friday at 4 PM and I don’t touch it again till Sunday evening when I prep for Monday. No email or text during that time.

Social Media Handles

Instagram : @empoweredworth

Twitter : @empoweredworth

Facebook: @ empoweredworth

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

Reading or binge-watching historical dramas.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

The next six months are packed. We are launching our podcast next month and our online course will be opening for enrollment in September. Also, don’t forget my book will be available come August and I will be promoting and speaking about that.

How can our readers connect with you?

Please feel free to visit our website www.empoweredworth.com or email us at info@empoweredworth.com

Q&A with Entrepreneur & Education Expert, Ruth Wilson

In 1999, Ruth Wilson, MA, founded Brightmont Academy (formerly EA2), an accredited private school for students in grades 6-12 that uses an innovative one-to-one instructional approach exclusively. Ruth replicated the program to three locations within Washington State, serving as Executive Director until 2010, when she sold her company to a digital curriculum publishing corporation.

Brightmont continued to expand into other geographic areas and currently operates a total of 11 school campuses, located in Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, and Washington, with Ruth serving as Director of Development. She is a certified principal and a board-certified educational therapist, an experienced team leader, engaging public speaker, and a board member for several non-profit organizations.

Can you tell our readers about your background?           

I have a master’s degree in education and am a certified principal and board-certified educational therapist. Before founding my school, I had worked as a teacher and administrator in private schools and had extensive tutoring experience.

What inspired you to start your business? 

So many of the students I was tutoring really needed a different school environment because some were bored while others were so far behind and putting in hours of effort on homework, and still earned low grades. I was just finishing up my principal certification and instead of entering a traditional school where some students would always be left in the wrong environment, I decided to open a school that would be customized for each individual student.

I wanted students to get credit for all of the effort they were putting into their studies and if they needed more time, I wanted to be able to give them more time. The results have been astounding and now, 18 years later, I’ve had the honor of signing many diplomas and seeing firsthand how well the one-to-one instruction model works for any student who needs something a little different from the norm.

Where is your business based?

The original school started in Seattle, WA, USA. The model has been very successful and the organization has grown over the past 18 years. We now have a total of 11 campuses, located in Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, and Washington.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

The initial steps were very perfunctory – it’s almost like the state advised me on exactly what to do by dictating very specific steps in the application to operate as a private school. I quickly became busy writing the application, finding an office space to lease, selecting curriculum, and my own essential item, establishing a pricing model to ensure we could stay open at least two years while building up enough students to sustain the program.

These were very exciting times and I got lots of encouragement from everyone I talked to. But all quickly shifted from an idea to a real business when I signed the first lease and put my house up as collateral on the loan. Then I knew that my most important task would be enrolling students and serving them well.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business? 

Word-of-mouth is by far my most effective marketing channel. When someone has experienced my school’s services with their own child or seen the results in one of their patients, then I’m likely to get referrals and the families are more likely to act on that referral. However, building a business organically through word-of-mouth takes a lot of time, and so to speed up that process, Google AdWords has been an effective way for us to connect with families who might otherwise never have heard of our offerings.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them? 

Just like most entrepreneurs, I initially struggled with the seasonality of my business. Sometimes I would work seven days a week just to respond to all the interest. Other times, business was slow and I had to keep myself motivated and engaged in making calls and meeting with people who might refer. It’s particularly discouraging to be working your longest hours when revenue is the tightest, but that’s the tradeoff for having no cap on what you can achieve.

How do you stay focused?

Even when I’m tired and distracted, I know that the fatigue I feel is often nothing compared to the students and parents that I’ve made a commitment to help. Seeing them succeed and knowing I’ve played a part in that energizes me.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition? 

Educators often use the term “one-to-one instruction” when talking about technology, and they refer to one student to one computer screen. It’s true that digital curriculum can be personalized for each student, but it is nothing like the one-to-one format used at Brightmont Academy where one teacher instructs one student throughout the entire session. There’s just no substitute for having the undivided attention of the teacher.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business? 

Transparency and authenticity. We’ve built our marketing strategy around a brand identity based on honesty, consistency, and results. Our messaging needs to align, and then we want to share as much information about our school and the one-to-one model as possible through our website and open houses where we invite prospective families in to see our campus, meet staff, and observe for themselves how attending a one-to-one school might work for them.

Our directors work as consultants to help parents understand the options available. While we hope they will choose Brightmont, in the end, it needs to be the choice that’s right for their family. We’re building a long-term relationship with everyone who visits, and even those who haven’t enrolled often refer someone else or return at a later date when we are the right solution for them.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs? 

You need to love your product and believe wholeheartedly in your service because you will become the company’s primary spokesperson and cheerleader in addition to any other function you provide. Others will depend on you for energy, commitment, inspiration, risk-taking, engagement, and even time management. When you are truly excited about the results your organization is achieving, it’s much easier to prop up yourself as well as your team.

A close second is to develop good systems. It doesn’t matter how great your service is when your client gets sent the wrong invoice.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

An app I love is Greenshot. It allows you quickly capture screenshots so I use it for note-taking, preparing slides for presentations, and social media posts. I read a wide variety of blogs with education and business themes, but I have to say I enjoy Travis Bradberry’s writings the most. As the author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0, his posts resonate with me and always push me to reflect on how to improve my own communication and leadership abilities.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

Hubspot is a great resource that I use for tracking my referral sources and to differentiate who should receive different email messages. They also publish informative blogs and training videos that are very helpful since I had no formal training in marketing.      

Who is your business role model? Why? 

I’m fortunate to have had local mentors who were also small business owners, so in addition to coaching me on education decisions and adolescent development, I also observed firsthand the importance of solid hiring and training processes, taking time out for strategic planning, and analyzing financial and other performance data. I enjoy reading about different business models and the creative minds behind them.

What do you have planned for the next six months? 

I recently started writing a blog, which is a new experience for me. I have to write for a broad audience since I’m so used to working one-to-one with parents and staff. Through my blog, I’m trading the approach of finding creative solutions for one person to a role that allows me to ask broader questions, provide general information, and initiate the conversation with a far larger audience than I’d ever imagined.  I’ve learned a lot and am having fun!

How can our readers connect with you? 

I’m on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthwilson/.  Readers are also welcome to visit the Brightmont Academy webpage and blog, or to email me directly at ruth.wilson@brightmontacademy.com.