This week on 5.6.7.EIGHT, Aleksandra speaks with Margeaux McCarthy, Owner of the Dance Xchange App, LLC. Margeaux is a former professional hip hop dancer with credits in commercials for some of the world’s biggest brands. After she retired from the stage, McCarthy became a real estate sales advisor by day and a dance instructor by night. With a love for resale apps such as eBay, McCarthy saw a need to create a platform like Dance Xchange — a resell app for dancewear, created for dancers by dancers. For driven individuals like Margeaux, a career pivot is a relatively common occurrence — always looking for the next new challenge. Being willing to take that risk, with the hope of reward — whether intrinsic, external, or both. But this doesn’t make a career pivot any less difficult. On the podcast, Margeaux discusses what drove her to take the plunge as a tech entrepreneur, shares advice she wishes she’d have known when she set out, gives some know-how on building an app and engaging with developers, and so much more.

Moving Quotes:

"If I could give my younger self advice, I'd say, 'Keep going.' You have that idea. Just keep going with it."

"[When starting a business,] you know that it's all going to pay off one day. You have your business plan. You have your structure. You just have to keep following through. And it will eventually pay off. It's just a matter of seeing that in the future."

"In my head I had always said, 'Somebody else is going to do [this idea] if you don't.' Everybody has an idea, so someone else is thinking this also. Whether or not you put your foot to the pedal — that's up to you."

"You learn better when you learn it yourself. You fall harder, but you get back up faster."

"It's so important to reach out to people who have gone before. Get a mentor. I personally did not have a mentor, and if I did, I feel like I would have been much better off."

"It's good to have [a mentor] who can remind you to do things locally and not on such a big scale... If you are good to your inner circle, they will be good to you."

 

Bullet Points (w/ timestamps) - Highlighting key topics discussed:

3:00 Margeaux describes her digital dancewear marketplace platform — Dance Xchange — and explains how she ended up pursuing this idea while in real estate.

8:39 Margeaux describes how Dance Xchange is going so far and discusses her ultimate vision for the platform.

10:05 McCarthy outlines her journey as an entrepreneur in the tech space, having no background in tech prior to this experience.

14:37 Margeaux discusses her biggest challenge and her biggest surprise throughout the entire process with Dance Xchange.

17:09 McCarthy explains the demographic that she’s generally targeting with Dance Xchange and discusses the nuances of marketing to these two distinct audiences.

20:29 McCarthy gives some important advice to her younger self.

23:54 Margeaux speaks to the importance of having a mentor, especially when navigating a new or unfamiliar space. 

26:41 McCarthy discusses the Dance Xchange Scholarship Fund — a nonprofit effort she’s launching in association with Dance Xchange.

29:05 Margeaux describes a second project she’s been recently working on that combines her love for dance with her experience in real estate.

 

Bullet List of Resources – 

Margeaux McCarthy

• Instagram

• YouTube

• LinkedIn

Dance Xchange

• Company Website

• Instagram

• Facebook