By Jane Pollard
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The podcast currently has 13 episodes available.
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Briana Stuart moved from the US to Brussels almost a year ago. She felt so much at home and connected when she visited the country while traveling across Europe and Asia months prior, she decided to move and live here. She established an arts consultancy organization called STU Arts, that provides broad high quality arts-related services and consultancy. STU Arts focuses on performance, teaching, choreography and arts administration for independent dance artists, dance companies, and cultural arts organizations.
She grew up in Detroit, Michigan and studied Dance and Sociology. After her studies, she didn't feel like moving to New York like many dancers do, but rather try out opportunities in Washington DC. She worked as a performer and teacher at a dance company for two years.
However, she felt a calling to travel the world. As she explains, something told her: "Briana go travel". She wanted to discover dance and arts in different places, discover God's art abroad. She decided to finish her season with the dance company in Washington DC, and sell all her belongings, that included a car and small apartment. Everything moved very quickly from there. She bought a plane ticket and was on a her way to Ireland only weeks after. She traveled to 12 countries and 14 cities in Europe and Asia over a span of 6 months. In that period, she discovered Belgium as well.
When she returned to the US, she initially continued doing independent dance work, choreography, teaching and performing, but she missed traveling the world! She asked herself, "where was the one place you felt the happiest, and where did you find yourself the most connected?" Crazy enough, that was Belgium!
Why Belgium, I asked. She tells me that she met so many amazing people during her world trip and when she visited Brussels, she loved the energy of the city. From the melting pot of cultures and languages, to the eclectic cuisine and amazing arts scene. The people were so welcoming, open and interested.
She applied for a work visa called Professional Card in Belgium. It was granted because of her professionalism and artistic value. She was allowed to establish herself as a self-employed dance artist. In a short period, she developed a network, which is growing and growing.
Briana enjoys learning how different cultures have so many different ways to do things. Brussels has a productivity vibe, but is still very laid back. In Brussels, on a beautiful day, everyone is outside and enjoying themselves. She also feels that in the states, you have a more 'go go go' mentality.
When she came to Brussels, she noticed that dancing here is more performative. More focused on what you want your audience to feel. In Brussels you never know what to expect when you go to a dance show. And she likes that element of surprise. In the states, there is more focus on technique and how far you can stretch your body, and you more or less know what you can expect.
She was trained in Ballet and Contemporary, and she added on Jazz and hiphop to her repertoire. Stepping Arts is her specialty, an African-American form of body percussion. Stepping is more strict. Contemporary modern is freer. She loves teaching both of them.
She creates opportunities for herself and she sees that options are endless. There is space to join other companies and contribute to other people's work. And there is space to create her own. She participates in workshops, classes and festivals, across Europe, in various art forms.
One of her collaborations is with a children's art company where she sings, dances and acts in Ghent, Belgium. She enjoys the combination. Singing reminds her of the years she sang with her father while growing up. She also likes that in this show, she can sing and perform in Hawaiian. She plans to join a project based company to do more contemporary modern performances.
One of her initiatives at STU arts, was starting her own dance classes and workshops in Brussels called Everyone Can Dance. It's a combination of Stepping Workshops as well as general moving classes. She gives Social Dance Class on Wednesdays (people figuring out how to move their body at parties, specifically targeted at adult beginners) and on Fridays, she teaches a rotating themed class, such as 'Everyone can dance like Beyonce or Bruno Mars, 'It's the sixties! Let's dance', etc.
Her goal is to make movement digestible. Create moving classes, curricula or activities that take the fear out of moving your body. We loose that sense of moving when we get older. She has a strong interest in continuously connecting with organizations and people that she meets and trying to give them options in how they can engage in movement: from team building for small businesses, Everyone Can Dance classes to kids classes, and much more! She likes sharing her art form with others. Teaching is her passion.
I think Briana encourages all of us with her view on Creative Living. A concept she learned from a book "The Big Magic" by Elizabeth Gilbert.
The book talks about ways to make your life work. It taught her to stay focused on her goals and not be discouraged by fear and dissapointments. Every decision that you make involves creativity. You force yourself to think about who you are as a person, and what you are willing to do and compromise in order to make things work for you. When Briana returned to the US after her 6-months travel, she was determined to go back to Europe. She had to become creative to safe money. And by living creatively, she discovered new pieces of herself. It made her realize what was really important to her. She now nourishes the different parts of herself. She stays active, she reads a lot, and she is always connected to someone. She makes her life continuously flow, always trying to find new ways to make things happen.
And that means overcoming challenges. The first stepping classes she organized in Brussels didn't go so smoothly. Many people seemed interested. But on the evening of her first class nobody showed up. She could have easily thought 'what did I do wrong?'. But instead she said to herself: "Briana you just arrived, and you are introducing a new art form. You have to continue to get it out there, and eventually it will come." Timing was not right at that moment. And that's totally OK. She took on other work and initiated other classes.
Another favorite book is The Alchemist by Paul Coelho. It's relevant to one's life all the time. She explains that while the main character was facing very difficult challenges, he never got discouraged. You either look at what's happening as a negative occurrence or look at is as an adventure. She is very excited about her move to Brussels, but taking things as they come. She keeps close to her family and friends and enjoys meeting new people and learning new things.
I asked her if she thinks about writing down her story. She does plans to write a book, with a focus on her spiritual journey and how she changed internally. How some life decision changes link into the person she is today.
What would her advise be to someone who would like to change their situation, but doesn't know how? "Just start!", she says. "Even if you don't know what to do, just start. Do the first thing that comes up into your head. The rest will become clearer. And find different ways to help you grow, through your network. Take a step can be anything, e.g. sending an email or talking to someone. And ask a lot of questions. You will get a whirlwind of information that builds upon each other. Don't be discouraged when you get a no or feel like walking against a wall. There is always a possibility."
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This podcast episode is part of a new series, "Talking To Jane", in partnership with Start it @KBC, (Facebook) a Startup Incubator with the largest Startup Community in Belgium.
In this series, Jane interviews entrepreneurs of Tech Startups, put forward by Start it@KBC. You will hear their inspiring journey's and the role of incubators to start and grow their business.
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The interview:
Marleen is owner of Enfleur Pure Natural. She started her company using her experience as a scientist, her passion for nature, and concerns about ingredients in cosmetics, to develop and produce her own brand of natural skin care products.
She has a Ph.D. in Biotechnology and she was (and still is) a scientist and an account manager in the Life Science field for years, before she ventured into entrepreneurship and started her own business.
As a child, Marleen was always interested in plants and animals. Around the age of twelve, she knew she wanted to be a biologist. After finishing her Bachelors in Biology, she did a Masters in Biotechnology and to obtain her Ph.D, she worked at the research institute, Vlaams Instituut door Biotechnologie (VIB), doing research projects in different domains. One of the projects she did was about ecotoxicology and she saw the impact some chemical components of consumer products had on our environment, causing pollution and affecting wildlife. These compounds can even end up in the fats of Polar Bears on the North pole. She believes with good efforts and good will we can help our environment and the generations to come.
Over the years, she got more and more inspired to develop her own skin care products. She experienced some skin problems from creams, other creams lost their effect, and she got concerned about the fact that we don't always get the correct information about all ingredients in commercial products. She then started developing creams with natural ingredients in her lab. Marleen would do research on the ingredients to determine which ones would work and be safe and which ones were toxic and even cancerous. Even though it was more a hobby doing it on a small scale, she decided to start the process of commercializing her products.
Education is key to Marleen, as cosmetic labels are not easy to understand and we are often not familiar with the ingredients. She consults specific databases on websites she trusts. But even information on good websites can be conflicting and contradictory. Also, a negative review or two is not enough to have assumptions about a product. She therefore always verifies specific information and doesn't rely on one source. She sees a role for herself to give her audience simple guidance and clear information.
One of her favourite sites is cosmeticanalysis.com, a quite reliable source. The site provides detailed information on ingredients, as well as scientific references of cosmetic products. To take advantage of some of their detailed information, you do need to become a member. Other cosmetic database websites to check out are EWG and CIR (links at the top). She also reads comments and blogs from e.g. Jetske Ultee and Perry Romanovski. These dermatologist provide good information as well.
Marleen collects needed information from all different sources, before she draws conclusions. She also relies on her own tests and feedback from clients.
It took Marleen three years before she mastered making and testing her first cosmetic products. It took a while because she was new to the industry, and there were many challenges to overcome, like doing tests, providing safety reports and finding good providers. She also mostly invested her own money. It was a long and at times, dissapointing process, and she felt like giving up sometimes. But now, she can proudly say that after 3 years of development and getting through the paperwork, her creams are not only safe and well tested, she gets very positive feedback from clients on its use.
She offers about 15 skin care products, from day creams to night creams to body creams. As mentioned, many compounds end up in the environment and stay there permanently. Her products are 100% biodegradable, easily broken down in nature rather than adding to the number of used products polluting it more.
While ingredients for cosmetic products are easy the find, good providers are not. As time went on, she learned which ingredients were good, and which providers were reliable. Also she is thankful for expert formulators and scientists she met who helped her on this journey.
She applied to become part of the Start it @KBC startup community and get proper guidance on her business, so that she could grow with her products. She first heared about Start it@KBC during an interview on the radio with new business owners who had had good experience with them. Marleen was hesitant at first, not confident she had a good business idea. But she did apply at the last minute and to her surprise she got selected. She now works closely with Stefan Schippers, who is her mentor.
Marleen was also invited by THINK with People, and was offered mentoring and advice from them as well. She says that these start up incubators helped understanding the business side of things.
One of the first advices she got was to take a good look at her costs and revenue, know the exact numbers, make her calculations in much more details. Even though it sounded logical, it made her see that her she had made mistakes in her price setting. She had to change that mind-set! What she also learned is that you have to speak to many people in business, in the industry, and be in as many conversations as possible. It helps to see which next steps you need to take in your business.
This year is very crucial in terms of growing her business. Knowing she has a good product, Marleen now needs to focus on the marketing. But as she is a developer at heart, doing marketing and sales is just hard. That's why she is looking for a Marketing and Sales Partner to promote and substantially grow this year.
As for her future plans, Marleen believes success is all about making good decisions and learning what to prioritize first. The stakes are high! If within the next two years, she won't make a good profit, she will have to stop. Keep investing and putting her own money in improving her products and market them, will be too costly.
Currently she runs a webshop, but she also partners with a growing number of physical shops. She is also planning on improving the packaging for her brand, as the look currently doesn't stand out. Marleen will also be using social media sites such as Facebook for promotion. And she believes that product reviews and testimonials from her clients are key as well. She listens closely to them, as she improves and further develops her products.
Marleen has always had a great support system. Especially her husband is her biggest fan, advising her, making decisions with her. It was needed. She experienced that the cosmetics world is a complicated world and it may be confusing for people who want to start their own cosmetics business, but they will get the hang of it eventually. Her advice is to do a lot of research to avoid a lot of mistakes. There really are no courses when it comes to producing cosmetic products so starting entrepreneurs need to talk more to people that are active in the field of cosmetics. The longer you are in the field, the easier it becomes, and the bigger your support and partner network will become.
When I asked her if she felt like a role model to women, she says that she is happy to share her lessons and knowledge. Fortunately, she did not have difficulties during her career as a scientist, being a woman. But she does recognize that Professors are usually men and promotions are mostly given to men. That of course should be improved. To Marleen, a woman can be anything she wants to be as long as she works for it. Sometimes women are not as ambitious as men, because they take on more tasks in the household. At the same time she strongly believes man should take on more tasks at home, so that in the end we get an equal partnership.
As a woman in her fifties, Marleen proves that age does not matter when it comes to starting a business. She has a very optimistic spirit. Purpose and passion do the trick! Seeing her business as something that is still developing, she hopes to continue even after she retires in 15 years time!
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Sarah is the founder of Lemon Squeeze Productions, in the UK, and all-round in her speaking business: comedian, actress, play writer, copy writer, author, keynote speaker, speaking coach and employee engagement specialist. She helps leaders and professionals on their quest to becoming high impact communicators, especially during change and transformation, combining her business and coaching background with her comedy experience.
Sarah is a qualified Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) practitioner, integrating a specific communication approach with personal development and psychotherapy.
She hosts the podcast: The Speaking Club Podcast, in which she brings hacks, tips and inspiring interviews and stories on public speaking. I recommend it as a great source, and it is very entertaining.
Sarah has been performing stand up comedy since 2003 all over the UK and in 2015 she took her first play 'Dearly Beloved' on tour. In 2016, her performance and business background led to writing her first book Cracking Speech Mate! - 'How to use humour to make you an amazing speaker'. Followed by her book Straight to the Top - 'How to create and deliver a killer elevator pitch'.
This year, 2018, she plans to come out with an online course.
She loves being in front of a large audience and being in control of their attention. She's actually more comfortable in front of a large crowd than doing networking. But whatever the audience size and difference in energy, she treats her speeches like a conversation.
She has always been interested in entertaining people, since a little child. There was a reward for her in making people smile. People give you their attention. Even in job interviews she tried to be cheeky. Not overstepping the line, knowing how far to go. Using humour, as well as self deprecation! Making fun of yourself. Nelson Mandela was a master at that, she says, and made people feel at ease.
She wanted to go to drama school, but didn’t get in at the time. She then took a job in the corporate world in IT, starting off in the UK and then Germany.
In Germany, she started to see the power of speaking, when she got elected at the age of 22 as a Works Council chair. Could she do the job at her age? She was asked to give a speech at the annual company event in front of the whole company. One of the things that worked was humour and stories. It was a powerful tool. Her speech removed any doubt whether she was fit for the job or not. When she moved back to UK, she switched to HR and Consulting in the corporate world. But she also started stand up comedy and writing. Recently, she channeled her expericiences into writing plays for theatre.
Sarah left the corporate world in 2010 for the first time, as she wanted to make a career out of teaching people on how to use humor and do standup comedy. But she didn’t treat it as a business, and ended up going back to corporate.
Then about a year ago, she decided she really wanted to make a success out of speaking. The calling was too strong; her love and passion to challenge, entertain and teach people, make them surprise themselves. Her business was still there, but now she would treat it as such, and it made all the difference!
For her very first speeches, she used stories from an after-dinner speaking book. She integrated them in her talks and it worked! People resonated with the stories. It's a technique anyone can learn. That and bringing in your personality to stand out!
There are different types of speakers:
But speaking is also part of any job and role that needs to sell change, needs to engage or make an impact. If you want to grow (a business), you need to be a good storyteller. Her key clients are therefore corporate leaders and entrepreneurs.
Humor and storytelling are important to communication and are the secret to business success. And with the advent of Ted Talks, you see how important stories have become in business. There are very good examples of gifted speakers out there now, which has raised the bar. You can't rely on your PowerPoint slides as protective armor, as all it does is undermine you, Sarah says. These days you cannot get to the top of a company and not be a good speaker.
She gives an 2 examples of brands that grew enormously, because of storytelling and humour.
In general, the main steps to approach a talk are:
Stand up comedy can be a huge help to become a better speaker, as well. She teaches those techniques to many business people. And at the end of her course her students have to perform 5 minute standup comedy that is self written. She also teaches to no be afraid to have an attitude and a clear opinion, because it can transform a speech. You might not connect to everyone. You don't want that either. But, you have to connect to your 'tribe'.
When it comes to failure, something she learned from Neuro Linguistic Programming, is that there is no such thing as failure, only feedback. And everyone in the world is worried about what other people think of them. Very few people are born without worry. She therefore tries to focus on her goals and not give up when things get tough. What makes someone successful in business and life are your will and drive, having a strong mindset.
As a female speaker, she says that having worked in HR for so long, she’s seen women not applying for jobs if they are not ticking all the box. The same thing goes for speaking. In general, men are quicker to promote themselves. Women could be encouraged more, for sure. However, woman themselves should become less worried, be more light. Bring in humour to counteract.
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Episode SHOWNOTES and interview summary on: http://behindthestory.be/podcast/episode10
This podcast episode is part of a new series, "Talking To Jane", in partnership with Start it @KBC, a Startup Incubator with the largest Startup Community in Belgium.
In this series, Jane interviews entrepreneurs of Tech Startups, put forward by Start it@KBC. You will hear their inspiring journey's and the role of incubators to start and grow their business.
Here is what is shared and discussed in this episode:
Links and Resources:
For more:
The interview:
Tim Buckinx is Founder and CEO Epihunter.
He previously was Product Manager with Joyn and Digital Technology Marketing Manager with BOSE.
At 44 years old, he has just started his own company, Epihunter, to pursue his life’s goal: Developing technology that will improve the lives of patients with epilepsy. And he has a big vision.
He doesn’t come from an entrepreneurial family. His parents were in education. But during his career he was fortunate to do very interesting activities and he had some big opportunities. It all prepared him for his current big entrepreneurial journey.
Tim himself has a chronic blood disease, and needed to be very resourceful with his work schedule and job choices, often needing to find time for medical appointments. But he always had a mindset that everything is achievable, privately and professionally.
While every year, hundreds of students go into the job market in Belgium, he wanted to stand out in the crowd early on. So he was attentive and alert, always looking for opportunities, observing the needs of his environment. His goal has always been to make an impact.
Marketing is an enabler for impact, he believes, because you can see results from it immediately. And Tim is interested in bringing the message.
He started in B2B Marketing, selling cardboard boxes through catalog. He learned that things didn’t have to be beautiful to sell. Don’t look for perfection, look for what is needed.
Then the internet came, which really triggered him. He got to work for a clothing manufacturer. It was inspiring, because it was an old fashioned brand that used internet to bring clothes to all parts of the world. Then he moved on to other companies. Until he got a job at BOSE. He was the 4th member of BOSE at that time, and in no-time, he helped grow that team to 60 people.
Sales and Marketing, making the bridge between the technical side of things and the needs of the organization, became his specialty. With his team, he also noticed they needed to change the structure of the team, when more countries were added. So he started to adopt Agile working, before people even had heard of Agile. Because of their successful work, they were invited by corporate to roll-out the concept company-wide, for a new platform for BOSE globally. Tim was in his element. During the 3 years that followed, working with new cultures, his career sky-rocketed. He made it to management positions.
Then suddenly his life changed. His son got epilepsy at the age of six (his son today is 13). His wife immediately saw it was serious when their son started to tremble one morning at the kitchen table.
Various neurological tests were done. It was a roller-coaster period to find the right medication. Tim started to do all kinds of researches himself and looked for solutions with experts and specialists, because not all epilepsies are the same.
There are convulsive seizures (gros mals) and non-convulsive seizures (petit mals or absence seizures).
His son, Daan, started with convulsive seizures, but thanks to medication, they stopped. But his seizures themselves didn’t go away. Daan now suffers from absence seizures. It looks like he is absent. It’s silent.
An estimated 65 million people in the world are living with epilepsy today. 30% can’t even be helped through medication. And 15% suffer from absence seizures.
His son goes to a Special Needs school. And there isn’t a system or service to bring your kid to that school. He and his wife had to arrange all that themselves with supportive friends.
Therefore it is not easy having his own business, because you don’t have access to affordable health insurance, e.g. And getting paid while he is starting his company is not easy. Especially with a special needs child, this is a big worry. And there is his own disease. Tim has a Blood disease and needs to really work around hospital appointments and rest periods after some hours of work. Often he’s spending half a day on his laptop working for his company, in the hospital’s waiting room.
It is difficult to find peers who have the same experiences. But there are Social Media groups that are very supportive, like some closed Facebook groups. Tim joins those groups.
It’s an added value, because you get supportive advice when you have a real question or situation. Secondly, you can openly talk about medication, and how parents support themselves. And thirdly, you share the same difficult situation and challenges. People in your environment often don’t believe you. Schools face many challenges, because of more and more neurological issues, like ADHD and autism.
The main issue with absence seizures is that it’s difficult to notice. Teachers have many children in the classroom with their own specific ‘issues’. But when his son, Daan, noticed that his teachers got irritated because they hadn’t noticed his seizures, and were tired of re-explaining things, he often felt misunderstood.
One evening his son asked him: “Daddy, you work in digital. Can’t you invent a light that turns on when my brain switches off?”
It was painful for Tim to his son struggle like that. A couple of weeks later, he saw a YouTube video on EEG headsets.
That was a turning point and moment of epiphany. He saw it could be possible to realize what his son had asked him!
Since then, Tim doesn’t believe in coincidencec anymore! He started his company not by coincidence!
For the last 2 years he has worked on his solution, deep diving into EEG technology, speaking to parents, medical specialists, and organizations.
After that YouTube video, he got inspired, using the same technology as basis for his solution, to turn on a light when a patient has his seizure. And the data that is captured from seizures, can be used to improve our knowledge, and make better solutions.
The solution itself provides added value. A child knows the teachers are not angry anymore. Teachers now can immediately be triggered to respond adequately. And once it is known to the larger public, people on the streets will recognize a patient and offer help when needed.
The technology is built on a cloud platform, using a smartphone app. The program runs algorithms that trigger a flash light on a headset to turn on on the exact moment. And these are modern looking headsets! Kind of cool, even!
The solution can help patients feel more integrated, their environment becomes more understanding. Having a few seizures could even become OK and acceptable!
He believes you have to create opportunities in order to create new opportunities. Like he said, coincidences don’t exist, because soon after his discovery, he participated in a Hackaton about epilepsy. He did not win, but UCB was interested in helping with the idea.
He got support from UCB and Accenture Digital at the start to see how he could build a company out of this, looking at it from a user, business, and technology perspective. Not easy, but possible, they said.
From that moment, he got triggered to surround him with good people. And in that mindset, the first thing you have to do in Belgium, is pitch at Startit @KBC, the biggest Startup Incubator and startup community in Belgium. He went from doing his programming and research in his own home, to having proper meeting rooms and office facilities, where he received more coaching, services and got in touch with potential co-founders.
In may 2017, he founded the company, with Niki Driessen, who was Lead Architect at BOSE. Dirk Loeckx, joined as the Chief Science Officer.
End of summer 2017, he pitched in front of Imec.istart, and he got the first funding to pay the first freelancers, purchased headsets, and do testing. They built the platform and features with a team for a proof of concept. And they started testing the solution with the first 9 families.
And currently (February 2017), Epihunter runs it’s Indigogo campaign, that started on 12 February 2018, on International Day Of Epilepsy. This will run for 40 days. During this campaign, Epihunter sells the yearly subscription and headsets. The participants need only to have a cheep smartphone. The headset costs €300,- The yearly subscription is €399,-
€25,000 is the minimum to raise in this campaign. More is well possible and it will speed up things. Epihunter will also make funds available to families who cannot afford the solution. Allocation of the funds will be done via the International League Against Epilepsy in the various countries.
Also on 12 February, the Win Winner campaign, will be launched too, where individuals/Angel investors can help invest as well. All this including the capital round should raise the required €500,000,-
On 1st April, Epihunter will ship the first versions. Features will be improved as they go.
He talks to many hospitals, universities an companies. He gets much interest already internationally. His solution will go global!
We live in the era where digital technology can do for people what glasses did for people with poor eyesight in 13th century, is what Tim believes. What he does is all related to helping people with epilepsy lead a better life, and support their environment.
On failure, he says that he tries to make as many mistakes as possible. It makes sure he doesn’t overthink things. Thinking holistically about something and move on it. Situations change constantly, you always have to adapt. If you don’t act immediately, you miss out on the learning and the growing. If you start in the unknown, the unknown becomes known and then you can make and finish your plans.
And on his entrepreneurship, he says he will never go back to the feeling of an employee. And to the feeling that your current job is the best you can do. His mantra is: Do it now and not later! Later, it will get more difficult and more complicated. It is almost like having a baby. There is no perfect moment for it, and that makes every moment a perfect moment!
He has a pile of books to read still, because he hasn’t got time these days. Instead he watches inspiring YouTube video’s and Ted talks, and he reads presentations and reports. When his pile diminishes, then he knows, he’s got a bit more free time!
His son Daan couldn’t be more proud of his father!
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Read the full shownotes for this episode on my website: http://behindthestory.be/podcast/episode9/
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Mark Flood is Founder and CTO of Origin.GG, a new eSports platform that takes the pain out of the hands of eSports organizations and -teams. Taking care of all technical and functional things building and running these businesses, so that they can focus on their core activities like practicing and competitions.
Origin.GG provides the platform as a SAAS model, offers Consulting, Software tools, and is a marketplace. Mark would like this to become the eSports version of Salesforce.
Before Origin.GG, Mark owned Gamerwall, a tournaments hosting platform, that he sold after two years. Mark is a Brand Strategist and Software Developer. He loves the early stages of product fit to market and working in an extreme agile mode to adapt his offer to client needs.
Jane met Mark on Twitter. Mark is an absolute fan of Twitter. He filters through the negativity, and he says that out of 1000 people he interacts with, he will meet one person he continues to have good (business) relations with. Twitter is also the medium that is used a lot in the gaming industry.
Mark has always been an entrepreneur. He always found something to do to earn money, like doing business as a child, watering his neighbours' plants or selling t-shirts in High School. He got his entrepreneurial spirit partly from his father, a real-estate agent. That in itself is entrepreneurial, because you do not have a set salary.
Mark moved towards extreme accountability early on, in whatever he does. He believes that “every human being needs to own its destiny!” “You cannot control your situation, but you can control how you handle it.”
He loves owning his own thing, working on his own dreams. A piece of his soul is taken away when working for somebody else, he feels.
He has been involved as an active business participant in the competitive gaming scene for about two years now, with his former company, Gamerwall, an event hosting platform. He was drawn to the eSports Industry. He loved gaming as a child. His brother used to beat him at gaming, but it has always been a fantastic creative outlet. He was also always interested in internet technology startup. Then he noticed how this could intersect and from his passion and hobby, he could make a business.
eSports is competitive gaming. It is not yet as big as traditional sports, but very fast growing and trending in the right direction. Mark thinks eSports itself is more indicative of things that are more than competitive gaming. Many games are involved in eSports, but only a few have large enough competitive scenes to justify large prize pools.
Team games like Dota 2, League of legends, Overwatch are some of the top tier games where the prize money is very high and where you find the elite players who can live from competitive gaming. Behind these, you have 10-15 competitive games with much lower prize pools. However, eSports is all about professionalism and prize pools.
The current growth of eSports is due to the fact that more people start watching the games as audience and become fans of teams. That’s why the industry is becoming so massive. Mark explains, a huge audience means lots of sponsors and media rights, just like traditional sports. 10-15 years ago, the only revenue source came from people buying and playing the game.
eSports demographics are young people between 18-24 yrs, and relatively high income earners. It’s a fantastic demographic. Whether you are in eSports or not, anyone would like to target this demographic, and hence the enormous business around it. And for that reason, Marks loves this space especially, because he sees a lot of value in this demographic.
In 2017, the total audience audience for eSports reached 194 million people and this is expected to reach 303 million people by 2020.
When it comes to revenue, in 2017, $696 million was earned, including media rights, advertising, game publisher fees, tickets, and merchandising. This was already up 41% compared to 2016. It is expected that the revenue for eSports will reach around $1.5 billion by 2020. Extremely fast growing industry!
eSports audiences are currently mostly in Asia Pacific-51%, then Europe-18%, followed by North America- 13%, and the rest spread over the rest of the world. Mark’s sees opportunities for Origin.GG in South America, because of the fact that eSports has not yet come off the ground in that region. He is currently building his foundation and proving value, but he believes Origin.GG is ready to start scaling up in the next 6 weeks to 2 months. So by spring time he might be trying to focus on markets like South America, as well.
Big gaming companies to consider are Electronics Arts that owns FIFA and the Madden franchise, and a company that is more involved in the eSports field specifically, Activision Blizzard that owns some of the massive games, like Overwatch, HeartStone, Heroes of the Storm, and Destiny.
Origin.GG offers a platform that is a crossover between Shopify and Linkedin, as an entry point. To help eSports teams create their web platform, with an easy and beautiful design, and get them started. He also wants players to use the platform as a gaming CV, compared to Linkedin. Individual players sign up, and links with teams are made. Through his platform, it should be easy to link players with teams and vice versa.
Being a hub to help teams succeed with all services and products they require as they get more successful. Really be a place where teams come to start their eSports business and overtime help them grow and actually become involved in many aspects of their business. He has set his goal high: have 5 teams acquired for 5 million dollars or more, as a minimum. However, he is setting a challenge for himself to have 50 teams even, meaning 250 million dollars of acquisitions of teams that Origin.GG will have helped grow and made successful. Big goals, but he sees so many options to make that happen.
He embraces a very agile work method. Discovering along the way what to focus on, since this space is so new, and then immediately pushing resources towards what is needed at the time required. Scrapping what it not working immediately, taking decisions even when something is unclear, but making sure no time is wasted building something no-one needs. With Mark's business, wasting time is not an option!
His short term goal is to get revenue and sustain power, while keeping his eye on his long term goals and his vision as a big infrastructure hub with a multitude of services.
When starting a business, he believes in focusing on making his product known by connecting directly to his audience. He doesn’t believe in advertisements in this stage. You need to connect personally with your potential clients. Going out there, reaching out 1-on-1. Paying for advertising is only the next step. So he uses social media, like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Direct outreach is the most effective way to market materials.
When asked how he deals with failure, Mark loves how Gary Vaynerchuk brings the message, saying: “Who cares!” It is better to move forward and use that failure as a lesson. And you cannot dwell on people who respond negatively to that.
About five or six years ago, F1 came to Austin, Texas and Mark - seeing the event as an opportunity to make money - he decided to throw a high-end party. Without any cash in hand, he used credit cards for the $40,000 expense of the event. When the party started, he did not realize that the building where the party took place was not up to the fire codes. The police came and they said: “you are not allowed to have more than 25 people in the facility.” He had to stop everything, and he found himself in a $40,000,- debt in a matter of 30 minutes.
That taught him some big lessons. Mark believes even the smallest details matter when it comes to big money, especially. But even more, you cannot let anything take you down. You will find a way out and succeed again with the right mindset.
To become a professional gamer, you should focus on one game and put your heart into it. Practise, practise, practise to get to the top. Because only then you will be able to be a true professional, be on good teams and make a good living. It is no different from a person who aims to become professional at playing football.
About 50% of gamers as a whole are female but professionally, the top tier players are males. However, many woman make money from streaming services. That is a whole market in itself. When you look at twitch.tv, female gamers are very successful there.
You will love Mark's vibrant character!
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This interview is published in two parts. This is part 2.
For more:If you like my podcast and our stories, please subscribe on iTunes or Android. That would help get more people find the podcast and benefit from the stories. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
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If you like my podcast and our stories, please subscribe on iTunes or Android. That would help get more people find the podcast and benefit from the stories. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Cheryl D. Miller is Founder and Executive Director of Digital Leadership Institute, located in Brussels, Belgium.
DLI has the unique mission to promote inclusive digital transformation by increasing participation of girls and women in ESTEAM studies, careers and leadership around the world. ESTEAM stands for Entrepreneurship, Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics.
DLI is a dynamic and growing organization. They reach girls in elementary schools, students, and women in the workforce, from all ranges. Truly inclusive. Their work is recognized by the United Nations, European Parliament and private organizations.
A few of the activities are: recognizing outstanding girls and women in digital studies and careers, promoting women-led digitally-driven startups, organizing learning events for school girls, and providing training and career placement for women with work experience.
It is a fact that there is a severe underrepresentation of girls and women in STEM area's!
If she would not be out there doing this, there would be so much lack of awareness and unconscious bias. It's part of her job to be out there beating the drum, to hopefully, eventually, impact people, make them aware, get them advocating, changing behavior, and bring about a social change.
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Can one man with a smile and a passion bring together nations? Gama Putra is a gem! Arrived in Belgium 8 years ago, he combined his LOVE for people with his skills to set our cities on fire with his I LOVE Network 'By Locals For Locals'. A great Business Model too! True inspiration!
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Ief Winckelmans is Founder and President of Ocean Impact Alliance, since November 2014, an alliance of experts, entrepreneurs and investors that actively contribute to ocean-friendly entrepreneurship and sustainable investing. This month, December 2017, he launched a new initiative, 3Q Impact, to help more people with sustainable ideas.
He has a big admiration of China and its culture. His story with China started more or less when he got an opportunity at Huawei (big global Telecoms company) and was invited to set up their European Sales Organization in 2004. A very interesting period learning how Chinese do business, and it allowed him to build a strong network in China. In 2008, he went on to found his own company in China.
He has been extremely successful. But he also lost it all. We get a glimpse into his unbreakable mindset and how what he learned from doing business in China and spending time with the most successful people in the world, made him see his failures as a lesson, to become better and thrive. Now focusing on his passion for eco-friendly entrepreneurship, helping to make a transition from the parasitic species that humanity is today to a more symbiotic species, where we live in harmony with the eco-system around us and keep it sustainable. A big and purposeful goal!
Ief Winckelmans takes us on his exceptional business journey!
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Ingrid Nouwens is a Creative Connector. She was a very successful Manager in HR within a big multinational, doing what she liked for years. But she could not be her true self, which led her to search for her own path and direction. She found her direction combining her passions, talent and skills at a perfect intersection! And taking the opportunities presented to her. You don't wanna miss this episode. Inspiring journey!
The podcast currently has 13 episodes available.