Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey.
Speaker 2: We're back.
Speaker 1: We're black, We're brown, amh and ambition, ambition, ambition, ambition, Mandra,
Speaker 1: how are you curls?
Speaker 2: Oh? You know, you know when you don't have time
Speaker 2: for a full shower, so you so you just get
Speaker 2: the girls in front, and we're not going to turn
Speaker 2: to the side, all right, We're.
Speaker 1: Just gonna thank you. We are extra brown in the
Speaker 1: studio today, Mandra.
Speaker 2: We have some company, be a family. We got to
Speaker 2: pull out the good china, the good silver because we
Speaker 2: have a powerhouse. We have a unic and and can
Speaker 2: I just say the light is giving Unicorn CEO. I
Speaker 2: need to know exactly what this whole setup is because
Speaker 2: if I can move away from reading rainbow like the
Speaker 2: PBS Kids specialists behind me, I'm more into like that vibe.
Speaker 2: I can already feel like a Unicorn CEO. But ba, fam,
Speaker 2: I can't wait to tell you. But our guest today
Speaker 2: her name is Sunira Madonni and Trailblazer is I don't know.
Speaker 2: It feels like too simple of a way to describe
Speaker 2: her career, but just get prepared to be inspired, because
Speaker 2: not only does she found a unicorn of her own,
Speaker 2: and to be clear, Unicorn is when you sell your
Speaker 2: company for more than a billion dollars. Right, we're evaluated
Speaker 2: to that. Did I get it right? Okay? Oh my god,
Speaker 2: look at me. She reads Robin Hood's tacks. So Snira
Speaker 2: not only built and founded Stax Payments, which was one
Speaker 2: of America's top growing, fastest growing fintech companies, she's also
Speaker 2: not done. I mean what that took about like a
Speaker 2: decade of her time, and now she is onto building
Speaker 2: her second unicorn, which we're going to talk talk about
Speaker 2: called Worth. She's a first female CEO to lead a
Speaker 2: unicorn out of Florida. Right, well, unicorns do exist and
Speaker 2: it's not just gators in Florida. Okay, now you have
Speaker 2: a unicorn coming out of it. She's also been recognized
Speaker 2: as Fortunes forty under forty, Ey's Entrepreneur of the Year,
Speaker 2: Entrepreneur Magazine's one hundred most Influential Women, Not to mention
Speaker 2: Ink one hundred Inks one hundred female founders, and our
Speaker 2: podcast earlies. While you're listening to Brown Ambition Police, go
Speaker 2: and follow Senior's podcast CEO School, Yeah, which is I mean,
Speaker 2: honestly the most That's how I came to know Snira.
Speaker 2: So We're going to talk about all of those good
Speaker 2: things about Snira, but we also want to get to
Speaker 2: know you better because there's one thing on Brown Ambition
Speaker 2: that we love to do is take off this like
Speaker 2: facade of business baddie and kind of like kick our
Speaker 2: feet up and like take your shoes off and get
Speaker 2: comfy on the couch and just kind of like open
Speaker 2: up about what life in what these accolades really looks like,
Speaker 2: and how do you get there and what's it like
Speaker 2: at the top.
Speaker 1: Want to say, Mandy, this is my first Unicorn, So
Speaker 1: as you know, I'm very close friend now and I'm
Speaker 1: a close friends like I just I've met her a
Speaker 1: few times. She's really nice. Of a love the unicorn.
Speaker 1: Jamie Lynn Kern. She she had founded cosmetics and she
Speaker 1: told this the Lorio for like, I don't know, over
Speaker 1: a billion dollars. So I was like, not me meeting
Speaker 1: another Unicorn. I mean, in a minute, I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: a whole handful of Unicorn friends.
Speaker 3: So I'm about twenty that's crazy.
Speaker 2: Wow, I know twenty period or twenty women.
Speaker 4: Twenty women that I know of I've heard and I
Speaker 4: want to say hi everyone Hello.
Speaker 3: I mean to interrupt you there, but I'll know. I
Speaker 3: think Scott has shared this.
Speaker 4: I think it's like twenty ish women that have built
Speaker 4: billion dollar businesses, and I think it's just a handful
Speaker 4: even maybe a little bit less, not just from evaluation,
Speaker 4: that have actually exited. So we can kind of talk
Speaker 4: and we can talk details of what that looks like.
Speaker 4: But yeah, it's uh, that's why the all.
Speaker 3: Them unicorns and uh it's rare. My daughters really love that,
Speaker 3: by the.
Speaker 2: Way, So well, do welcome? Well, what do you want
Speaker 2: people to know about you as a person scenario?
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, that's a loaded question.
Speaker 4: I know, I just want to at first, I want
Speaker 4: to say hi. By the way, I just I loved
Speaker 4: your intro, like the singing. I mean, why I have
Speaker 4: like this is the coolest thing ever. Can I just
Speaker 4: also hang out?
Speaker 3: And I love that you said I could just like
Speaker 3: take my business batty off.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, please, girl.
Speaker 4: It is exhausting and I am a business batty. So
Speaker 4: that is like one thing I do want people to know,
Speaker 4: and I think they do know. And it's also definitely
Speaker 4: like now we're going to probably get into like inner
Speaker 4: child shit right away, but it's definitely in my like
Speaker 4: in my psych I'm an immigrant, like daughter of immigrants,
Speaker 4: so it's like never enough, but it comes intrinsically like
Speaker 4: it just have like so much ambition. This is like
Speaker 4: what this podcast is about. And I want people to
Speaker 4: know that I'm just fueled with purpose and fun and
Speaker 4: life and I feel so grateful to be in the
Speaker 4: position that I am today, and I wake up every
Speaker 4: day understanding my privilege and even though I worked hard
Speaker 4: for it, even though I wasn't luck and even though
Speaker 4: like all of this, I'm going to share all of
Speaker 4: the scars that I carry because I want other women
Speaker 4: to not have to go through that, and I.
Speaker 3: Want to pave the way in that way.
Speaker 4: But I do also understand that it took a little
Speaker 4: bit of like, you know, what do I want to get?
Speaker 3: But like the Universe's you know, grace and.
Speaker 4: You know, I think my parents' good intentions and all
Speaker 4: of like all of these things that it took for
Speaker 4: me to be in the position that I am today.
Speaker 4: And I don't take that privilege lightly. I wake up
Speaker 4: every day with how can I like I'm put on
Speaker 4: this earth for a reason, and I'm finding that purpose.
Speaker 4: I'm like evolving and growing in that purpose. But I
Speaker 4: do want to live a life of purpose, and I
Speaker 4: do understand the privilege that I have today even as
Speaker 4: somebody who didn't have any privilege, but where I am today,
Speaker 4: I do know that what that is. And I hope
Speaker 4: to make a really big impact in this world and
Speaker 4: to really change lives and to really change the trajectory
Speaker 4: of what business looks like for my daughters and their
Speaker 4: daughters and for women everywhere. And so I carry that
Speaker 4: really deep in my heart, and that's what fuels me
Speaker 4: and guys me. So I think that's like something that
Speaker 4: I do want now that like the guards are down,
Speaker 4: Like ambition is a big piece of it, and I
Speaker 4: don't need it for success or for another accolade or
Speaker 4: for more money or for success.
Speaker 3: In that way.
Speaker 4: I'm just really fueled with ambition in a different in
Speaker 4: a different way, and I work really hard every day
Speaker 4: to live in to live and fill.
Speaker 3: Those shoes when I could.
Speaker 4: Honestly, sometimes I'm like, I'm absolutely batshit crazy for starting
Speaker 4: another business again that I don't need to, but.
Speaker 2: Right because aren't you supposed to be on a yacht somewhere.
Speaker 2: I definitely a busy, like on speed direly like senior
Speaker 2: or girl, where are you another one?
Speaker 1: Come on?
Speaker 2: That's cute? Off here, like what do your kids think
Speaker 2: that you do? Because I feel like, how old are
Speaker 2: your children?
Speaker 4: My daughters are eight and five, so they're in this
Speaker 4: really fun age.
Speaker 2: Yes, so you recognize my environment. I don't know, but.
Speaker 3: I think all mom's on the show right now.
Speaker 1: Well my stepdaughter is seventeen, but I taught preschool for
Speaker 1: ten years, so I'm like, I love that three to
Speaker 1: five to six age.
Speaker 2: It's just like it's just it's.
Speaker 3: Cool, it's fun.
Speaker 4: I just feel really happy that I have one drop
Speaker 4: off and one pick up because y'all, mom, life is
Speaker 4: really hard.
Speaker 3: I mean, all life is crazy.
Speaker 4: And even with like it takes a village, I have
Speaker 4: a village, but I still want to be the one,
Speaker 4: like they're still like, there's my best title.
Speaker 3: The greatest title that.
Speaker 4: I wear is mom and I really and wife am
Speaker 4: a great wife too. Those families really important and I
Speaker 4: want to be I want. I want to be the one.
Speaker 2: So you really can't outsore. I mean you can outsource
Speaker 2: like the whole village thing, but I get it because
Speaker 2: at the cords, like, yeah, but who's going to sit
Speaker 2: on the floor and be mama playing, you know, playing
Speaker 2: for me, it's monster trucks. For you may be different.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't want to assume, but like,
Speaker 2: can it be mama?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 2: Who who else is going to be that person? I
Speaker 2: think someone asked us recently, like from one of our listeners, Mandy, like,
Speaker 2: how do you juggle the business in being a mom?
Speaker 2: And how do you like deal with mom guilt? And
Speaker 2: I was like, honestly, I deal with more business guilt
Speaker 2: because I can. The kids are the best excuse to
Speaker 2: just turn it all off. And and for me, it's
Speaker 2: like I'm like saying it, but I'm like, it's not
Speaker 2: the best.
Speaker 3: Look.
Speaker 2: I ain't got a unicorn yet. Maybe the secret to
Speaker 2: having a unicorn is like I didn't get num kidding, So,
Speaker 2: at what stage were you building this billion dollar business?
Speaker 2: I mean you have a five and eight year old,
Speaker 2: so that's about as old as stax is, right, ah,
Speaker 2: talk about how did you balance it? Or what was
Speaker 2: your version of what I'm going through?
Speaker 3: It's super crazy, It's still it's still super crazy. There's
Speaker 3: no perfect there's no such thing as balance.
Speaker 4: I think we've like all now come to understand that
Speaker 4: that was a bullshit that we were fed like ten
Speaker 4: Like now we're like in this next decade of like
Speaker 4: now we're like, yeah, balance is bullshit, and everybody understands
Speaker 4: that we're on that page. Work life integration is like
Speaker 4: what the term is, and that is truly how I
Speaker 4: live my life.
Speaker 3: But it's a series.
Speaker 4: Of NonStop decisions, series of NonStop decisions that you make,
Speaker 4: and you're just constantly prioritizing, Like that's what you have
Speaker 4: to get really good at as a working parent, as
Speaker 4: an entrepreneur, in your business, in your life, in your
Speaker 4: day to day is.
Speaker 3: Everything is coming at you in a million miles.
Speaker 4: There's one thousand things to juggle, and we live in
Speaker 4: a society today that is wildly different than it was
Speaker 4: for you know, businesses ten years ago, let alone for
Speaker 4: families ten years ago, and ten years before that and
Speaker 4: ten years before that. We have like there's just so
Speaker 4: much activity. Like even look at the speed at which
Speaker 4: I'm talking right now, to slow.
Speaker 2: Down right me in therapy, I'm like I can hear myself.
Speaker 4: They're so much coming at us. It's not our fault,
Speaker 4: Like we are not designed to be this level of species.
Speaker 3: We're not.
Speaker 4: I mean, we're we literally are turning into robots at
Speaker 4: this point, and we have now robots that do everything.
Speaker 3: But it's a lot coming at you.
Speaker 4: You have to slow down, you have to prioritize, and
Speaker 4: it's a series of prioritizations. So that's how I've been
Speaker 4: able to make the best decisions I can every day.
Speaker 3: Like that's the truth of it.
Speaker 4: It's just like you're constantly making the best decisions that
Speaker 4: you can with the resources that you have. And that
Speaker 4: includes time and money too, right, So resources are you know,
Speaker 4: we only have a finite number of resources, so how
Speaker 4: you manage that? And time is the most precious resource
Speaker 4: that we have. So I have become a master at
Speaker 4: like crazy amount of productivity how to like really maximize
Speaker 4: my time almost like so much so to the point
Speaker 4: where I'm now having to like, you know, remove those
Speaker 4: systems and give my self some free space because I
Speaker 4: became such a machine through my process. Long story short,
Speaker 4: I pitched this idea to my bosses of launching a
Speaker 4: subscription based credit card processing system, and it was seems
Speaker 4: so simple now, but most like big big ideas are
Speaker 4: very very simple, and like how was nobody doing it?
Speaker 3: So I had zero desire to be an entrepreneur. I zero.
Speaker 4: All I wanted to do was to be successful in
Speaker 4: my company. And I was like, look at me being
Speaker 4: ambitious and putting this whole business land together. I was
Speaker 4: pretty much laughed out of the boardroom. I was like,
Speaker 4: it was like a little girl, little girl, we love
Speaker 4: your ideas, love your ideas. We just you know, we
Speaker 4: don't have the resources, the dollars, and this is just
Speaker 4: not going to this is not going to work. And
Speaker 4: so I came back home and I like flew back
Speaker 4: from headquarters to where my.
Speaker 3: Family was, and we always have dinner every Sunday.
Speaker 4: We always have dinner, like every day, but that just
Speaker 4: happened to be Sunday dinner. And my brother was in
Speaker 4: town from he was working out in California, so he
Speaker 4: had also graduated from UF.
Speaker 3: He had a degree also in five nance.
Speaker 4: He was working for Deloitte and another startup, like he's
Speaker 4: also in like the tech world. And I'm sharing what
Speaker 4: I presented back and my dad looks at me and
Speaker 4: he goes, Sonny, which is my my nickname. He goes, well,
Speaker 4: why don't you just go start the company? And I go, Dad,
Speaker 4: where do I go? Find mister Visa, Like, where do
Speaker 4: I even start, Like it's not like I'm opening a
Speaker 4: restaurant or you know, I don't know like a physical
Speaker 4: and I don't even think Instagram like has was just
Speaker 4: getting started, So it was in like a digital business,
Speaker 4: Like how do I even go find the card networks
Speaker 4: to go build a payment network?
Speaker 3: And all he said to me.
Speaker 4: He goes, he goes, you'll figure it out or you'll fail,
Speaker 4: and if you fail, you can always go back to
Speaker 4: school and go get your MBA, Like you can always
Speaker 4: go get a job, right.
Speaker 2: Shout out to dad. I know sometimes you have an
Speaker 2: immigrant family. I'm just like speaking from hearing Tiffany and
Speaker 2: so many others in my life, Like that's not always
Speaker 2: the reaction you get from mom and dad, like you'll
Speaker 2: figure it out.
Speaker 4: I do feel like I had a very special upbringing
Speaker 4: of like that could be a whole other episode. And
Speaker 4: I'm trying to raise my kids in the same exact
Speaker 4: way I My dad would pick me up from school.
Speaker 3: So we had small businesses.
Speaker 4: We had one in like Dublin's, Texas, Like I can't
Speaker 4: even tell you where that is on a map. We'd
Speaker 4: convenience stores like literally I'm like the cliche seven to
Speaker 4: eleven kid like as a brown girl, like it's a problem.
Speaker 3: By the way, those that can't see.
Speaker 4: Me, I'm Pakistani, but they're the sweetest, so hard working.
Speaker 3: And he would literally pick me up.
Speaker 4: And he owned this, like with this store in middle
Speaker 4: of nowhere, Texas and he'd have to go there once
Speaker 4: a month.
Speaker 3: And that's like one of my favorite memories. And that's
Speaker 3: where the home.
Speaker 4: Of Doctor Pepper like is, and Dr Pepper is like
Speaker 4: a really big deal in Texas.
Speaker 3: And he would like putting out of school.
Speaker 4: And my mom wouldn't know, and we had a secret
Speaker 4: and we wouldn't maybe she knew, and I just thought
Speaker 4: like she didn't know. And we'd drive down to Dublin, Texas,
Speaker 4: and the first thing that we'd do is go get
Speaker 4: a Doctor Pepper float and then I'd go to work
Speaker 4: with him and he'd.
Speaker 3: Go, like meet everybody, go pick up the paperwork.
Speaker 4: This is like physical like or you had to like
Speaker 4: pick up like checks. And I don't even know, like
Speaker 4: but I just watched. I just I've watched my parents work.
Speaker 4: Both my parents my father passed away in twenty twenty
Speaker 4: during COVID, but my family mom literally lives across the
Speaker 4: street from me still right now, and my parents and
Speaker 4: my family are like and I work with my brother.
Speaker 4: So that Unicorn company that I was telling you about,
Speaker 4: that idea, sal.
Speaker 3: Ended up leaving his job. We ended up going out.
Speaker 4: This together and we put one foot in front of
Speaker 4: the other and we made it happen. That first year
Speaker 4: of starting the business, we did five million in payments
Speaker 4: on our network, which had even build it.
Speaker 3: God, I can't even tell you. And it was by
Speaker 3: like truly.
Speaker 4: Networking right, like figuring out we weren't the tech experts,
Speaker 4: but I like went to a tech accelerator which didn't
Speaker 4: exist in Orlandos. That's not like I was in Silicon
Speaker 4: Valley where there was like a bunch of tech stuff happening.
Speaker 3: Like we found our way into every room and so.
Speaker 4: And that was the skill sets, the child stuff of
Speaker 4: Like we moved around a ton. I had to go
Speaker 4: to all these different schools, so if I wasn't cool
Speaker 4: or charming, or I'd be like the nerdy kid, or
Speaker 4: I'd like be that uh like that year, and so
Speaker 4: I always had to find my way into like whatever
Speaker 4: my systems were for school.
Speaker 2: Every year we did a bunch of different schools too,
Speaker 2: And I always think of that now as a superpower
Speaker 2: that you can sort of And I'm not surprised at
Speaker 2: all that you want to study abroad too, because like,
Speaker 2: what's a different country. I've been to a different middle
Speaker 2: school half to do the school year. I'll tell you
Speaker 2: what that's. That's I mean, middle school is a different country.
Speaker 2: Let's be all the way around, yes.
Speaker 3: To middle school.
Speaker 1: In building this, is there something that like, Okay, is
Speaker 1: there something that you're like I wish I would have
Speaker 1: known this, or if somebody is building now just you know,
Speaker 1: I my business is eight figures and I'm just like,
Speaker 1: I don't even know.
Speaker 2: Part of me struggles with.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I want to do the work
Speaker 1: for Baker, you know, like because this was already so hard,
Speaker 1: you know, and so like so I always said, there's
Speaker 1: like a mindset shift to go from the next level
Speaker 1: to the next level. So if you could go back
Speaker 1: and say, oh, that was the shift that had to
Speaker 1: make mentally to from you know, seven to eight to
Speaker 1: nine and eight and beyond, like what was that mindset
Speaker 1: shift to? You're like, here's a different way of thinking
Speaker 1: about it. Because I've heard a lot of women kind
Speaker 1: of hold themselves back, like, oh, I'm making three hundred thousand,
Speaker 1: it's enough, it's enough, which certainly it might be enough financially,
Speaker 1: but maybe there's more good that you can do. Like
Speaker 1: what is that mindset shift that we should be thinking about?
Speaker 4: You're so smart? I love this question, and I really
Speaker 4: do they y'all are so awesome. I don't get to
Speaker 4: usually be on shows like this with two round women,
Speaker 4: so this is like really special for me as well. Okay,
Speaker 4: so the mindset shift, it's huge. I didn't know I
Speaker 4: could go build a.
Speaker 3: Million dollar business, let alone a billion dollar business.
Speaker 4: So one, it's just uncapping that, Like it's really uncapping
Speaker 4: that this guy is the limit.
Speaker 3: You can't even dream of what the limit is right now.
Speaker 4: That's what's so cool about what's happening in our world today.
Speaker 4: We're the most connected we've ever been. We have access
Speaker 4: to like just business can look different. It's even how
Speaker 4: the global and is shaping and changing. Like maybe billion
Speaker 4: might not be in enough. It's not about the dollars.
Speaker 4: It's about the scale that you can have with your company.
Speaker 4: And I would say that most women, like I support
Speaker 4: female entrepreneurs, like day in and day out. This is
Speaker 4: like what I love to do is mentor and coach
Speaker 4: and support women in business. And the number one thing
Speaker 4: that I will tell you, I never meet a woman
Speaker 4: who is like, oh, I'm just starting a business for like,
Speaker 4: can I swear here yes?
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 4: I never meet a woman who's like starting a business
Speaker 4: for like, fuck's sake of starting a business, right, Every
Speaker 4: woman that starts a business is like I was so
Speaker 4: exhausted from like not being hurt. I was so exhausted
Speaker 4: from this problem not being solved for my kids' school.
Speaker 3: I was so exhausted from.
Speaker 4: This industry thing like that, you know, we didn't have
Speaker 4: the customer level experience that we wanted to do in
Speaker 4: our industry. I was so exhausted from blank, blank and blank,
Speaker 4: Like we're so exhausted from a problem that no one
Speaker 4: else is solving.
Speaker 3: So we're like, fine, fuck it, I'll do it.
Speaker 4: Like that's the like we we don't go in with like,
Speaker 4: oh we're going to go do the thing. We're like
Speaker 4: in this like okay, fine, no one's doing it, I'll
Speaker 4: be the one to go do it because we're the
Speaker 4: last of bet on ourselves. So that's number one that
Speaker 4: was my first going back to even my story, I
Speaker 4: had no idea that I would even go start this
Speaker 4: thing until for the first time and I had supportive
Speaker 4: people around me. But if I didn't, maybe I wouldn't
Speaker 4: have never like have ever gotten it started, because my
Speaker 4: mindset definitely wasn't there, right, And so the first mindset
Speaker 4: is to like, there's risk taking, Like we've got to
Speaker 4: be okay with failure, like that is a huge part
Speaker 4: of doing anything big and scary.
Speaker 3: If it doesn't scare you, it's not big enough. And
Speaker 3: what is the point of life? Like, honestly, I think
Speaker 3: that that's.
Speaker 4: What I think about every day, is like do I
Speaker 4: want to live a life every day of like the
Speaker 4: boring and pressing the button for somebody else or for
Speaker 4: even if you're working for somebody else, or doing something
Speaker 4: that I don't believe in, or like spending my time
Speaker 4: into something that I don't believe in just to make
Speaker 4: the paycheck.
Speaker 3: Like that's not the life that I want to live.
Speaker 3: And so I've got to be the one to.
Speaker 4: Go take the risk, to go try it and being
Speaker 4: comfortable with that it might fail. And that's what men
Speaker 4: are so comfortable doing, Like they don't even have the chops,
Speaker 4: they don't even have the experience, they don't have the resumes.
Speaker 3: Whatever, they're going for it, right, they're going for it,
Speaker 3: and they're like.
Speaker 4: Whatever, if it doesn't work out, we'll do it again,
Speaker 4: or we'll try the next thing. And I think that
Speaker 4: we as women have to get comfortable around trying and
Speaker 4: also get comfortable with failure. And failure does not necessarily
Speaker 4: mean that it's at everything.
Speaker 3: Failure.
Speaker 4: That just means that that portion didn't work, and then
Speaker 4: we get to pivot and try another version of it,
Speaker 4: and we get our mindset. What happens with the first
Speaker 4: little failure or the first little setback is.
Speaker 3: Then then we're like, oh, I'm failing, I'm the problem.
Speaker 4: It's me, right, I can't do this, and then we
Speaker 4: don't even try to course correct or pivot. So the
Speaker 4: first mindset shift is getting comfortable knowing that there's going
Speaker 4: to be a million mountains that you have to cross,
Speaker 4: like a million, that's it. And getting comfortable and knowing
Speaker 4: that even when you're.
Speaker 3: Going to get to the top.
Speaker 4: And this is entrepreneurship, right, So every time you're climbing,
Speaker 4: and then the question you asked me on the advice.
Speaker 4: The best piece of advice, Like the thing that I
Speaker 4: wish I knew is that it doesn't get easier, you
Speaker 4: get better.
Speaker 1: A millionaire.
Speaker 2: At our lives, at our live chat. I'm about to
Speaker 2: be a billionaire. Look at me.
Speaker 1: Sounded like a billionaire.
Speaker 2: How do they talk to you different now than I'm curious?
Speaker 1: I've had this.
Speaker 2: Like hello, I could come sit here, Sny's coming, somebody's coming.
Speaker 2: How's that?
Speaker 3: How it's wildly different? It's wildly different.
Speaker 4: I mean especially like we're back in our industry, so
Speaker 4: people know who we are, they know that we've been successful.
Speaker 4: They I don't have to prove my credibility anymore or
Speaker 4: am I worth anymore? Or my my track record?
Speaker 3: Right? And so I can pick up the phone.
Speaker 4: And I can actually get the meeting like it took
Speaker 4: me seven years to go get meetings like the ones
Speaker 4: that I'm having now, Like I can pick up the
Speaker 4: phone and go directly to partners like you know, to
Speaker 4: Stripe and to Equifax and to like all of these
Speaker 4: major players, to quick Books, to the I R s.
Speaker 4: We have a direct integration with the irs, Like how
Speaker 4: did I don't even know how I would have been
Speaker 4: able to do that if I, like, you got to.
Speaker 3: Have your network is your net worth? That is it?
Speaker 3: So you've got to keep expanding your network.
Speaker 4: And that was a big lesson for me, Like I
Speaker 4: wish I had, I like found my way. I think
Speaker 4: that's the superpower that Mandy and I were talking about,
Speaker 4: like into every room. And I think for women, that's
Speaker 4: the thing that I'm really focused on. Like you know,
Speaker 4: is if you really want to scale your business, you've
Speaker 4: got to expand your network.
Speaker 3: We've got to get out of our screens.
Speaker 4: We've got to get in the room, we've got to
Speaker 4: get in person, we've got to do the deals.
Speaker 3: We've got to invest in.
Speaker 2: Relationship enough human connection, even for a company that's built
Speaker 2: on data, right, but like humans, there's just something about
Speaker 2: us what is It's.
Speaker 4: So important and we're so entitled in this world of
Speaker 4: like transactions, like everything is so quick, so fast.
Speaker 3: Not our faults.
Speaker 4: The world's crazy, right, not our faults. We were like
Speaker 4: training our brains for all of that.
Speaker 3: But we have to.
Speaker 4: Invest in key relationship, like just investing in people and
Speaker 4: getting to know people.
Speaker 3: And not needing anything.
Speaker 4: And then every single piece of the company that I
Speaker 4: sold to I met years before like the investors that
Speaker 4: haven't invested at the later stages I had met years before.
Speaker 4: The people that are on my table today I've had
Speaker 4: relationship with over the last decade, and so investing in
Speaker 4: relationships is just so critical, just the big part of it.
Speaker 2: When you were coming up, I know you mentioned you
Speaker 2: and your brother Sal, you didn't have those connections. So
Speaker 2: what are some like tips or what what are some
Speaker 2: I always think about Brandis Daniels Tiffany. She has such
Speaker 2: clever ways of networking, Like why them a Starbucks gift card,
Speaker 2: you know, or send them cupcakes? Like what were some
Speaker 2: of the strategies that you used to make those connections
Speaker 2: early on?
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's such a good question for like think
Speaker 3: about the early days. I think it was just one
Speaker 3: just being.
Speaker 4: Kind, like truly, like I think that it goes a
Speaker 4: long way, and I would always be the one.
Speaker 3: To follow up with like a really.
Speaker 4: Nice thank you after a meeting, Like those little things
Speaker 4: just go a long way, and you'd be surprised on
Speaker 4: how like we just don't do them anymore and it
Speaker 4: doesn't have to be like even if it's not the
Speaker 4: handwritten card, but it's like the personalization even with an
Speaker 4: email right, Like it's you can tell when somebody Actually
Speaker 4: you connect with somebody and then you remember something about
Speaker 4: your meeting or you think them later, or you're you
Speaker 4: know you've thought about them after you Like there's so
Speaker 4: many things that are constantly going on in our brain,
Speaker 4: but it's like, oh, hey, you know, Mandy, I thought.
Speaker 3: Of you today because I was I just wanted to
Speaker 3: say hi.
Speaker 4: And check in and just like you came up today
Speaker 4: and like just something as simple as like just connecting
Speaker 4: even when we don't need anything and finding ways to connect.
Speaker 4: I think those things were something that I don't know
Speaker 4: I did or came naturally. And I think that's like
Speaker 4: the that's like the Blakistani hospitality in me, Like I'm
Speaker 4: always hosting, like my house is always full. I want
Speaker 4: my guests to always feel like their like guests are
Speaker 4: like next to God in our home, like you like.
Speaker 3: You want people to feel someone.
Speaker 4: People would come to our office, our offices for it,
Speaker 4: we'd always invite everyone in and that's like natural of
Speaker 4: what I would do. I'd invite their teams in and
Speaker 4: it would be like food, like I definitely like we
Speaker 4: always have like them fed the whole day and like
Speaker 4: really cool food experiences. No, like really like not the
Speaker 4: boring steak dinner, right, like getting to know like who's
Speaker 4: on the other side. And we had such great restaurants
Speaker 4: here in like our community. I know all the local
Speaker 4: chefs as we'd curate these like super special when they
Speaker 4: like would sit down and it's like with there when
Speaker 4: they would walk into the office, something as simple as
Speaker 4: like our partner's logo with our logo.
Speaker 3: Right, and then they just see like people want to feel.
Speaker 3: It's the human tendencies.
Speaker 4: What is it liked like luck, liked, valued and loved
Speaker 4: or heard, seen and loved.
Speaker 3: Like even in business, people want to feel that way.
Speaker 1: What like when you first first first or did you
Speaker 1: like join incubators? Did you go to networking events?
Speaker 4: I did. I did all conference to the events I was.
Speaker 4: I was showing up everywhere. I was getting out of
Speaker 4: my I wasn't at home, I wasn't behind a computer screen.
Speaker 3: I was showing up to the meetup.
Speaker 4: I would I did like the like everything that I
Speaker 4: could share my company, and I would wear It's kind
Speaker 4: of similar to like Sarah Blakeley's like where she would
Speaker 4: wear this Bangs T shirt. I would literally wear my
Speaker 4: The original name of the company.
Speaker 3: Was called Fat Merchant. Long other story. We can we
Speaker 3: can literally off, we.
Speaker 4: Can have like a day of this podcast talk about
Speaker 4: But I would wear like the sticker, like I would
Speaker 4: literally wear like you would know that that's me walking
Speaker 4: into a room.
Speaker 3: I would do like.
Speaker 4: The you know, like the the tech meetup, Like even
Speaker 4: though there was like four people at this tech coffee
Speaker 4: morning thing and you like give you a little pitch
Speaker 4: about your company. I think we like need it to
Speaker 4: be good enough, or we need it to be like
Speaker 4: full are we like need the It's like.
Speaker 3: What's happening in social right now.
Speaker 4: It's so disgusting, Like it's so frustrating of like if
Speaker 4: I post something and I don't get the amount of
Speaker 4: attention that I want, then it needs to come down
Speaker 4: or I don't feel validated enough, Like we.
Speaker 3: Need to stop with that.
Speaker 4: We just need to show up, even if it's one
Speaker 4: person that's like in that coffee shop, and that was
Speaker 4: that mentality, Like I showed up and I was grateful
Speaker 4: for four people being there that like one of that
Speaker 4: more like that were there together and everyone's building a
Speaker 4: startup and they heard my little startup pitch and that
Speaker 4: network then grew into the next event that I went
Speaker 4: to and then startup weekend and then going to the
Speaker 4: Ink conference and going and I remember, I'm actually going
Speaker 4: to go to ooh fun like fun Circle here.
Speaker 3: I love this story. For today, I'm heading to Money
Speaker 3: twenty twenty.
Speaker 4: It's I don't know when this podcast is going to
Speaker 4: be released, but right now it's like it's like the
Speaker 4: key industry conference for US in financial services. The first
Speaker 4: year I went to Money twenty twenty, sell myself and
Speaker 4: Jaquad to share a badge because the badge price was like.
Speaker 2: Oh I love I love that.
Speaker 3: What did you do that? Oh my god? First, smart kids,
Speaker 3: like come on, you never stuck into it. We're in Orlando,
Speaker 3: we're playing parks all the time. Were already know one ticket.
Speaker 3: That's like yeah, we just.
Speaker 2: Like sit on each other's shoulders, like with a big
Speaker 2: trench coat, like.
Speaker 1: You go first and then you go to the bathroom
Speaker 1: like you were all you see me. I'm coming right back, ma'am.
Speaker 1: And then god man to get with it.
Speaker 4: Yes I did so we so we did wet the badge.
Speaker 3: The first conference.
Speaker 4: We can't even afford the conference ticket, but we knew
Speaker 4: it was always ROI based.
Speaker 3: So we spent twenty five hundred dollars on that badge.
Speaker 4: We probably had like we had one hotel room, you know,
Speaker 4: maybe a grand in tickets, like to get to Vegas.
Speaker 3: Whatever it was. We knew we had to go get.
Speaker 4: Back our five k like out, like we needed a
Speaker 4: customer out of that conference where we needed certain things.
Speaker 3: So we went in with that mindset.
Speaker 4: And now a decade later and I've been on. I've
Speaker 4: been the speaker for Money twenty twenty. I've hosted so
Speaker 4: many things for Money twenty twenty. But I'm coming back
Speaker 4: for Worth this year at Money twenty twenty. We're like
Speaker 4: making our big debut.
Speaker 3: We're back.
Speaker 2: How does Bran Ambition get a Worth School.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So we're building the business credit Score itself and
Speaker 4: we're just trying to empower small businesses.
Speaker 3: They should know their worth. You should know your worth
Speaker 3: for like for your business.
Speaker 4: It just the transparency doesn't exist, and you should have
Speaker 4: all your business.
Speaker 3: Financials and one consolidated tool.
Speaker 4: And so I encourage you to go to worthscore dot
Speaker 4: com and just sign up for the waitlist. The score
Speaker 4: is launching middle of next year. We're already in market
Speaker 4: sell like we're selling our like the Vancy solution to
Speaker 4: all the enterprise companies that I was mentioning, and if
Speaker 4: we change enterprise, it'll trickle down. So I'm going to
Speaker 4: the large ones first. So it's the one to many.
Speaker 3: That's the lesson that I learned. I went one to
Speaker 3: one last night last time. I feel like that's the enterprise.
Speaker 4: So revenue can look differently, right, like, let's think about
Speaker 4: the one to many, and so going straight to the
Speaker 4: big the big dogs and like in all the banking
Speaker 4: and like financial services or whatever, and so they're utilizing
Speaker 4: our platform to underwritet onboard customers.
Speaker 3: So that's the enterprise tool.
Speaker 4: But I just want the small businesses to have their worth,
Speaker 4: to have that transparency, for it to be in your hands.
Speaker 4: And so go to wordscore dot com and sign up
Speaker 4: for the waitlist and just follow me, follow us on social.
Speaker 4: So if you follow Sanera Madonni, it'll link to word Score,
Speaker 4: it'll link to the podcast, it'll link to all the things,
Speaker 4: and just show us some love.
Speaker 1: Like that's all We're going to link you all in
Speaker 1: the show notes were starting.
Speaker 2: I already sign.
Speaker 4: So just so just just send us some love, even
Speaker 4: like the little things as like just the engagement and
Speaker 4: the likes and the shares and the just the hearts
Speaker 4: do make a difference for small like small start or
Speaker 4: we're not a small startup, but for startups.
Speaker 3: And so that's all.
Speaker 4: That's all I ask, And follow the show if you
Speaker 4: like loved today's conversation, which I just cannot wait to
Speaker 4: have you two on. It's a lot of heartfelt, real
Speaker 4: conversation about business and about life.
Speaker 3: So I'd love for you to listen to CEO School.
Speaker 1: Yes, and we're going to tag like all if you're
Speaker 1: listening and you're like, wait, all of we're gonna just
Speaker 1: at worth score. Everything will be in our show notes
Speaker 1: where you can follow her on social you know, you
Speaker 1: can listen to our podcast as well as get your
Speaker 1: worth score.
Speaker 2: So yes, all of that will be there.
Speaker 1: And I love that final lesson that you learn because
Speaker 1: I'm just now learning that one to one one to
Speaker 1: one to one to manny like girl, this one contract
Speaker 1: is like so much easier than trying to convince thirty
Speaker 1: thousand people to say yes. So I love that final
Speaker 1: little little piece of advice. Anything else, Mandy before we let.
Speaker 2: I I'm gonna keep talking, but I know you guys
Speaker 2: gotta go. Bye. I don't want to, but bye.
Speaker 1: Yes, Benificit follow us every week we are here Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
Speaker 1: and please go down to wherever you listen to podcasts,
Speaker 1: but especially if it's on Apple, and leave us a
Speaker 1: review because we get to see, be seen, heard, and
Speaker 1: loved even more when you leave us up. Bye, starting you,
Speaker 1: and until next next time, I'm not sure this is
Speaker 1: gonna air.
Speaker 2: Bye y'all, Thank you, good bye, Thank you so much,