Business Owners Tell All

In this episode of Business Owners Tell All: What It Takes, Victor Huynh, cofounder and CEO of Ready Artwork, shares what more than 22 years in business have taught him about learning, adapting, and staying relevant through constant change.

Victor and his cofounder Emily started Ready Artwork almost accidentally. Both had full time jobs when freelance design projects began piling up. Eventually, they decided they were young enough to take the risk, make mistakes, and go back to traditional employment if the business failed. Pasted text

Their original business centered on graphic design, packaging, branding, and print. When the financial crisis brought business nearly to zero, they were forced to reinvent themselves. They recognized an opportunity between technology focused web companies that lacked design expertise and designers who lacked technical expertise. That became Ready Artwork’s next evolution. Over time, the company continued adding and removing services as the market changed until it found another sweet spot serving technical B2B and industrial companies. Pasted text

That pattern of reinvention became one of the central themes of the conversation. Victor describes Ready Artwork’s 22 year journey in one word: pivoting. Rather than viewing change as an interruption to business, he sees the ability to change as fundamental to surviving in business. Pasted text

Victor also discusses the latest major disruption facing his industry: AI. He compares the current transition from traditional search to AI driven answers with the earlier transition from search engines such as Yahoo and AOL to Google. While the technology feels revolutionary, Victor believes businesses that have lived through previous digital shifts recognize a familiar pattern. The platform changes, customer behavior changes, and companies have to learn how to become relevant within the new environment. Pasted text

The conversation also explores how AI is changing talent and development inside agencies. Work that was previously outsourced can increasingly be completed with AI, which means Victor believes agencies must move toward higher level strategy and become even more human centered. Technology can handle more execution, but he sees human relationships, judgment, guidance, and communication as increasingly important differentiators. Pasted text

Victor shares another important learning point from his partnership with Emily. Early in the company, they were both doing essentially the same creative work. Victor eventually made the difficult decision to step away from the creative work he loved and focus on sales and client relationships while Emily concentrated on creative and production. That division allowed each founder to develop a distinct role and helped accelerate the company's growth. Pasted text

Even after decades in business, Victor continues having to challenge his own preferences. One example was remote work. Although both founders prefer working in the office, Victor realized the company needed to become more flexible. After trying hybrid work and finding that managing it created additional complexity, Ready Artwork moved toward remote work while maintaining office space for employees who want it. Pasted text

Victor ultimately brings the conversation back to the lesson that has defined his entrepreneurial career: business owners have to embrace change. His answer to what it takes to be a business owner is simple: pivot, adapt, and recognize that refusing to change eventually means being left behind. Pasted text

Primary theme: Learning and Development

Strong secondary themes: Adaptability, continuous learning, AI, business evolution, cofounder dynamics, specialization, changing workforce expectations, remote work, human connection.

Victor’s business journey: Freelance graphic design → print and branding → financial crisis → websites → SEO → digital advertising → B2B industrial specialization → AI driven marketing evolution. Pasted text

Biggest Learning and Development takeaway: Learning is not presented as formal training. Victor’s story demonstrates organizational learning through continuous experimentation, recognizing when something no longer works, developing new capabilities, abandoning services that are not a fit, and changing individual roles as the company evolves.

Strongest founder lesson: Victor had to stop doing creative work he loved so that he and Emily could develop complementary roles. He moved toward sales, relationships, and company direction while Emily focused on creative, production, and strategy. Pasted text

Strongest current business insight: AI may make lower level execution easier and cheaper, but Victor believes that increases the importance of strategy and human connection rather than eliminating them. Pasted text

Signature answer: What does it take to be a business owner? Pivoting and embracing change. Victor says that is the essence of business because, “If you don’t change, you get left behind.” Pasted text

“If you don’t change, you get left behind.”

That is the cleanest connection between Victor’s entire 22 year story and the premise of Business Owners Tell All: What It Takes. His business has survived not because Ready Artwork found one model that worked, but because Victor and Emily repeatedly learned, changed, specialized, and rebuilt as the market changed around them.

Eddie DeAngelis’s story is ultimately about learning through experience and becoming a different kind of leader as the business grows. He began more than 30 years ago selling imitation perfume and cologne in Northeast Philadelphia, eventually building retail and wholesale operations, spending nearly two decades in screen printing and embroidery, and later transitioning into commercial finance. Pasted text

A major theme throughout the conversation was Eddie’s willingness to acknowledge what he did wrong for years. In his earlier businesses, he believed he needed to touch everything himself: every large sale, client relationship, order, and decision. Looking back, he believes his inability to delegate kept those companies from growing beyond roughly $2 million in revenue. Learning to build a team rather than remaining at the center of everything became one of his biggest leadership lessons. Pasted text

Hiring is part of development. Eddie said his earlier approach was essentially to find someone quickly, hire them, put them to work, and expect them to learn as they went. QualiFi now treats hiring as an actual process, using multiple interviews, multiple perspectives, prepared questions, assessments, and post interview feedback. His lesson is that investing more time before hiring dramatically improves what happens afterward. Pasted text

You cannot develop motivation into someone who does not have it. Eddie admitted that he used to retain underperformers for 12, 18, or even 24 months because he believed he could eventually motivate them. One of his biggest lessons was recognizing that motivation has to come from within. Leaders can train, support, coach, and create opportunity, but the employee has to want it. Pasted text

Development does not stop after onboarding. QualiFi now provides six to eight weeks of structured training. Eddie and his daughter created the training manual, and they use interactive tools such as Kahoot to keep people engaged. After formal training ends, employees continue receiving significant management support. Eddie described having three sales managers supporting 19 sales representatives and still feeling that additional support could be valuable. Pasted text

Listening is part of leadership development. Eddie contrasted his current leadership style with the traditional CEO who dictates how everything should be done. He now sees tremendous value in listening to employees who are closest to customers, partners, and day to day operations. QualiFi intentionally tries to create a culture where everyone has a seat at the table and can challenge something that is not working. Pasted text

Culture became real to him only after seeing a larger organization operate. Eddie said that five years earlier he would have considered culture little more than a buzzword. His experience after his prior brokerage was acquired exposed him to a larger corporate environment with departments, managers, systems, processes, and a deliberate focus on people. That experience heavily influenced how he later built QualiFi. Pasted text

Great people can materially change a small company. One of Eddie’s strongest observations was that just two excellent hires can change the trajectory of a small business. He has watched highly motivated employees and managers elevate not only performance but even his own energy and thinking as the owner. Conversely, two poor hires can pull the organization in the opposite direction. Pasted text

Eddie repeatedly connected people development to systems and processes. His philosophy today is to look at each component of the company almost as its own business. Hiring has a process. Onboarding has a process. Training has a process. The client journey has a process. He recommends mapping the customer's experience from the first point of contact through the final outcome and continuously improving each stage. Pasted text

He also emphasized client experience as a competitive advantage. One lesson he carried forward from former Nav Technologies CEO Greg Ott was to continually focus on the client experience. Eddie's takeaway was that when a company builds a great product, makes customers happy, improves its process, and gets incrementally better, financial results become a byproduct. Pasted text

Technology is another component of development and scale. QualiFi has used API integrations and other technology to turn processes that once required multiple people and 15 to 30 minutes into tasks that can now happen in roughly a minute. His point was not that technology replaces people, but that the right technology allows good people and good processes to perform significantly better. Pasted text

Eddie’s answer centered on resilience.

He connected his ability to navigate entrepreneurial chaos to his childhood experience growing up in a family affected by addiction. He believes those experiences unintentionally taught him how to function amid uncertainty and adversity, something that later became an asset in entrepreneurship. Pasted text

He illustrated it with a particularly personal period at QualiFi. During two difficult quarters, Eddie and his business partner Jason took themselves off payroll for several months. Eddie later discovered that his daughter had stopped cashing her own checks because she knew the company was struggling. Despite believing they were doing the right things operationally, Eddie said they questioned themselves nightly. They kept going. Pasted text

His ultimate message was simple: business owners have to learn to navigate stress, keep improving, and continue moving when things go wrong, including when the circumstances are outside their control.

These are the strongest Eddie quotes from the conversation:

“Those failures are really the successes that are teaching us every day.” Pasted text

“I held myself back... not knowing how to delegate.” Pasted text

“Everybody has a seat at the table.” Pasted text

“We’ve wanted it more for them than they wanted it for themselves.” Pasted text

“If you solve for the client experience, the money’s just a byproduct.” Pasted text

“We’re building the plane while we’re flying it, and we’re still learning every day.” Pasted text

“Two good hires can literally change your whole company.” Pasted text

“Failure’s not an option... Plan B is make Plan A work.” Pasted text

“Go to sleep, get a good night’s sleep, tomorrow’s a new day.” Pasted text

“It’s all about those experiences that got us here... that really matter the most and make the most impact.” Pasted text

One other memorable line Eddie used was “Hire slow and fire fast,” but he specifically said on the episode that the quote was not his and credited it to his Sandler Training trainer. That distinction is worth preserving if you use it in episode graphics or promotional content. Pasted text

Best pull quote for this episode:

“Two good hires can literally change your whole company.”

Best quote tied specifically to Learning & Development:

“We’ve wanted it more for them than they wanted it for themselves.”

Best quote for the overall What It Takes brand:

“Failure’s not an option. Plan B is make Plan A work.”

In this episode of Business Owners Tell All: What It Takes, Boris Zhukov, Co-Founder and CEO of LetYouKnow®, shares how his background in economics, statistics, and mathematics helped him build a marketplace designed to reverse the traditional buying process.

Boris explains that his vision goes beyond simply making car buying more convenient. His goal is to shift transactional power toward consumers, allowing them to research the market, determine what they are willing to pay, and instantly discover whether a seller will accept their offer. Convenience and eliminating negotiation are benefits, but Boris repeatedly emphasizes that they are byproducts of the larger objective: empowering consumers to take control of transactions and save money.

The conversation also explores the strategic challenge of getting dealerships to participate in a model that initially appears to compete with their existing sales. Boris explains that LetYouKnow was intentionally structured to provide incremental business rather than replace a dealer's normal sales channels. Dealers establish hidden pricing thresholds that operate automatically, allowing transactions to occur without manually reviewing individual bids. The platform also generates demand data from unsuccessful bids, which businesses can use to evaluate pricing and potential demand.

One of the larger strategic themes of the episode is building for expansion from the beginning. Boris says LetYouKnow intentionally started with automotive because of its complexity. By solving for a difficult industry first, the company could create infrastructure capable of expanding into restaurants, hotels, storage, services, and potentially virtually any other industry without continually rebuilding the underlying system.

Boris also discusses how the company's strategy has evolved since 2019. One significant lesson came from initially expecting dealerships to actively manage their pricing within the system. He eventually concluded that this was neither feasible nor desirable. Feedback from dealership owners, including some who became shareholders, pushed the company toward creating a hands-free, automated system instead.

That feedback also revealed an opportunity Boris had not originally anticipated: the value of unsuccessful bids as demand data. Rather than seeing only completed transactions, businesses could potentially understand transactions they could have had at different price points and use that information to improve pricing decisions.

The discussion ultimately moves from process management into leadership. Boris says one of the skills he had to develop was recognizing individual team members' strengths and weaknesses and positioning people accordingly. He credits much of LetYouKnow's evolution to surrounding himself with experienced business owners, shareholders, and advisors who could challenge assumptions and contribute practical expertise.

When asked what it really takes to be a business owner, Boris identifies optimism, perseverance, hard work, honest evaluation of progress, and the willingness to keep solving difficult problems. Rather than viewing obstacles as evidence that something is going wrong, he argues that genuinely difficult problems can be evidence that a company has reached the frontier where meaningful innovation happens.

Core theme: Process Management / Strategy

Major discussion points:

• Boris's economics, mathematics, and statistics background became foundational to building LetYouKnow's marketplace and matching methodology.
• His motivation is not simply eliminating an unpleasant dealership experience. He wants consumers to control transactions and get better deals instantly.
• LetYouKnow's model is designed so businesses establish hidden thresholds rather than manually accepting or rejecting individual bids.
• Boris views the platform as a source of incremental business, rather than a replacement for a company's existing sales process.
• Missed bids create valuable demand data by showing businesses transactions that potentially could have occurred at other prices.
• The long-term vision extends beyond automotive into restaurants, services, hospitality, storage, nonprofits, and other industries.
• Boris uses opportunity cost as a framework for strategic decision-making and expansion.
• Starting with automotive was intentional because solving for a complicated industry created infrastructure that could later support simpler industries.
• A major operational pivot was moving away from expecting dealerships to continually manage their own pricing toward creating a largely hands-free system.
• Dealer and shareholder feedback became an important source of product and process innovation.
• Boris learned that leadership requires understanding people's individual strengths and putting them in positions where those strengths can produce the best results.
• He believes meaningful progress should be measured over longer intervals rather than expecting visible results every day.
• Difficult problems aren't necessarily warning signs. Boris sees some of the hardest obstacles as evidence that a company is working on something genuinely innovative.

“Whenever you hit a wall, that's great. That's when you should persevere, that's when you should actually have that optimism that things will work out.”

That quote captures the What It Takes theme particularly well because it connects Boris's approach to strategy, innovation, perseverance, and business ownership in one thought.

Matt Kovacs, President of Blaze PR, joins Business Owners Tell All: What It Takes to discuss what happens behind the scenes of building and managing a successful PR agency. Drawing on more than two decades in public relations, Matt explains how Blaze has built processes that provide structure while allowing the team to remain nimble in an industry where the media landscape, technology, and client needs are constantly changing.

Matt’s approach to process management starts with communication rather than rigid systems. Blaze uses regular Monday and Thursday team touchpoints, client meetings, timelines, and software to keep campaigns moving, but Matt emphasizes that effective processes also require understanding what team members and clients are experiencing. The agency views itself as a partner and counselor to its clients rather than simply an order taker.

One of the central themes of the conversation is the balance between repeatability and adaptability. There are proven PR fundamentals, such as press releases, press kits, and media training, but Matt says those fundamentals must continually evolve. He points to AI as an example: rather than eliminating the need for PR, changes in AI and large language models are creating new considerations around how information is structured, distributed, and discovered. His team therefore has to continually learn while proactively creating new opportunities for clients.

Strategy at Blaze begins by understanding the client's actual business objective. Matt's team asks whether the client is seeking investment, preparing for an eventual sale, building its brand, increasing sales, or pursuing another goal. From there, they map PR activity around launches, trade shows, seasonal opportunities, retail initiatives, and other important business moments. The objective is to ensure they aren't simply "doing PR for PR's sake," but connecting PR activity to meaningful business outcomes.

Matt also discusses the importance of giving employees genuine ownership. Rather than requiring every idea or process improvement to originate with leadership, Blaze incorporates the experiences and perspectives of its team. Matt describes the company as "all our worlds," rather than his alone, and believes people should feel that their decisions matter.

That philosophy has also allowed Matt to move away from being the decision maker for everything. After working together for years, his core team has developed the judgment and confidence to make decisions independently. Instead of focusing only on completing PR tasks or securing individual pieces of coverage, Matt teaches employees to think about each client's business as though it were their own and ask how their work can contribute to the client's larger objectives.

The conversation closes with Matt's broader perspective on business ownership. For him, success isn't primarily about finding shortcuts or pursuing growth at all costs. It's built through "all the little things": remembering people's names, treating people well, being direct, doing the work, and investing in relationships. Those lessons trace back in part to his father, a third-grade teacher who emphasized the Golden Rule.

• Build structure without eliminating flexibility. Processes should create consistency while leaving room for teams to react to changing circumstances.
• Communication is part of the process. Blaze uses short, consistent team touchpoints to reset priorities and keep everyone connected.
• Start strategy with the business objective. Before deciding what tactics to use, understand what the client is actually trying to accomplish.
• Don't create processes simply because you can. Systems should support the strategy and ultimately affect the business.
• Create the newness. In a rapidly changing industry, waiting for the next opportunity isn't enough. Matt believes agencies have to continually generate fresh ideas.
• Give employees decision-making confidence. Matt doesn't believe everything should require his approval. Trust develops when people understand the business, clients, and reasoning behind decisions.
• Teach people the "why," not simply the task. Blaze encourages team members to understand why their work matters rather than simply completing a checklist.
• Think beyond transactions. A single PR placement may be useful, but Matt's focus is on long-term brand building, validation, and business impact.
• Relationships remain foundational. Even as technology changes PR, Matt believes knowing people, remembering details, and treating them well still creates lasting value.
• There are no sustainable shortcuts. Business ownership requires consistent work and attention to details that can easily be overlooked.

"Coverage is transactional."

This is probably the strongest pull quote from the episode because it captures Matt's larger philosophy in just three words. The conversation that follows explains the distinction: individual coverage is transactional, while effective PR strategy is about building the business, strengthening the brand, and creating longer-term value.

Jason Yormark shares how more than 30 years in marketing, including work with major organizations such as Microsoft, ultimately led him to entrepreneurship and the creation of Socialistics. For years, Jason felt like a “square peg in a round hole” professionally and wanted to build something of his own, but the perceived security of a traditional paycheck kept him from making the leap.

Rather than abruptly leaving his career, Jason intentionally built a runway. He developed momentum while still employed so that entrepreneurship would be a calculated transition rather than a blind leap. When his final traditional job ended, he committed fully to Socialistics. He credits overcoming fear and committing wholeheartedly as important pieces of eventually building a seven figure business and creating greater freedom in his life.

Build a runway before taking the leap.

Jason's approach to entrepreneurship centered on mitigating risk. He didn't believe starting a business had to mean immediately abandoning financial security. He built momentum first, creating a stronger foundation before committing full time.

Know what kind of business you actually want to build.

From the beginning, Jason wasn't interested in simply maximizing revenue. He wanted a business built around relationships, freedom, culture, and meaningful work. That meant accepting that Socialistics might grow more slowly or remain smaller than an agency focused purely on maximizing revenue.

Learn to say no.

One of Jason's biggest lessons as a business owner has been learning not to accept every opportunity simply because it generates revenue. Early businesses sometimes have to take work they might later decline, but the goal should be reaching a position where the company can deliberately choose the right clients and relationships.

Client retention can matter more than client acquisition.

Jason deliberately prioritizes long term client relationships instead of operating a “churn and burn” agency model. His philosophy is that choosing the right work and creating mutually beneficial relationships produces deeper partnerships, stronger culture, and a more fulfilling business.

Freedom is a business objective, not just a personal benefit.

Freedom is Socialistics' number one core value and central to Jason's definition of success. His team is evaluated on the quality of their work and their commitments rather than where, when, or exactly how long they work. Socialistics doesn't even use traditional time tracking, despite the additional challenges that creates when measuring profitability.

Build a company that doesn't depend entirely on the owner.

Jason was advised early that if he ever wanted the option of selling his company, the business couldn't depend on him. Finding Joanna, his Director of Operations, allowed him to intentionally remove himself from much of Socialistics' day to day operation.

Hire for what can't easily be taught.

Rather than concentrating primarily on technical skills, Jason looks for what he calls “untrainable traits,” including communication, emotional intelligence, authenticity, and genuine care for other people. Tools and technology can be taught. Those foundational characteristics are much harder to manufacture.

Make employees feel like they're building the company with you.

Jason wants team members to feel ownership in the business rather than simply seeing themselves as employees. Profit sharing, compensation, autonomy, and culture all support that philosophy.

Eliminate friction wherever possible.

Jason describes one of his core business philosophies as eliminating the things that interfere with winning and retaining great customers and great employees. That can mean reconsidering long term contracts, workload expectations, traditional agency practices, and anything else that makes it unnecessarily difficult for people to say yes or remain committed.

Don't optimize revenue at the expense of the business you wanted to create.

Jason acknowledges that Socialistics could potentially make more money with a higher volume, higher churn model. Instead, he deliberately protects capacity so his team has room to think creatively about existing clients. He's comfortable with a potential $3 million to $5 million ceiling if that allows him and his team to maintain the lives and culture they want.

Niche down, and sometimes sub niche even further.

Jason sees trying to be everything to everybody as one of today's biggest entrepreneurial mistakes. Socialistics eventually focused specifically on nonprofits, and he argues that newer service businesses may benefit from narrowing even further. Becoming highly specialized helps a company cut through competitive noise and establish itself as an authority.

Business planning requires commitment after the decision is made.

Choosing a niche or strategic direction isn't enough. Jason stresses that business owners need to stay the course rather than continually abandoning their strategy when something else appears attractive.

Jason's answer came down primarily to patience, appetite, and stamina.

Most entrepreneurs aren't going to immediately “hit a home run.” Businesses and ideas take time to develop, and goals frequently take longer than anticipated. Jason emphasized that patience shouldn't become analysis paralysis, but owners need the stamina to keep moving when results don't arrive according to their original timeline.

“I didn't want to chase dollars, I wanted to chase relationships.”

“Keeping clients, to me, is more important than winning new ones.”

“Ultimately, just learning to say no is one of the biggest things.”

“When you're chasing dollars, it just becomes a commoditized business, and it becomes just a grind.”

“That's my calling card, is freedom.”

“Just do awesome work, live life on your own terms.”

“Make sure that the business isn't reliant on you.”

“I always look for the untrainable traits.”

“I want them to feel like they're building this business together with me.”

“To me, it's about eliminating as much friction in business as possible.”

“Better to be a big fish in a small pond.”

“Sub-niching is the way to go.”

“You've got to have the appetite and the stamina to see things through.”

“Great things take time to build.”

Jason's approach to business planning isn't about creating the biggest company possible. It's about intentionally designing the business you actually want to own.

His decisions around client selection, employee autonomy, leadership, specialization, growth, and even revenue ceilings all come back to that objective. Growth is important, but growth that undermines the owner's original goals isn't necessarily success. The episode ultimately reinforces that effective business planning means knowing what you're building, why you're building it, what you're willing to say no to, and having the patience to stay the course.

In this episode of Business Owners Tell All: What It Takes, Jamie Seeker sits down with Glen Fields, CEO and Co-Founder of Big Deal Agency in Greenacres, Florida, to discuss how strategic business planning, accountability, and measurable results have fueled the growth of his agency.

Glen shares his unconventional path to entrepreneurship, beginning with his work at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and later transitioning into public relations during the early days of digital advertising. Recognizing that online advertising would become the future of marketing, he made the difficult decision to leave a traditional PR firm and launch Big Deal Agency after his vision for digital marketing wasn't shared.

The conversation explores how Glen built a results-driven agency focused on transparency and ROI instead of vague marketing promises. He explains why he abandoned the traditional retainer model in favor of a billable-hours approach, allowing his agency to eliminate scope creep, improve profitability, and better manage both client expectations and employee accountability.

Throughout the discussion, Glen emphasizes that business planning isn't just about creating goals, it's about building systems that support sustainable growth, measuring performance, adapting when necessary, and having the courage to make difficult operational changes.

The episode concludes with Glen's thoughts on what truly separates successful entrepreneurs: passion, resilience, patience, and the ability to learn from failure without allowing setbacks to define the future.

Glen recognized the potential of digital advertising long before it became mainstream. His willingness to act on that vision ultimately led to the creation of Big Deal Agency.

One of Glen's guiding principles is that marketing should never rely on hope or vague promises. Every client should understand exactly what they're paying for and the results they're receiving.

As the company expanded, Glen realized that his original retainer model no longer supported sustainable growth. Transitioning to a billable-hours model improved profitability, reduced burnout, and created clearer expectations for clients and employees.

Allowing unlimited client requests under a fixed retainer created operational challenges. Tracking billable hours provided an objective way to manage additional requests while maintaining healthy client relationships.

Glen believes founders should understand every major function of their company, especially during the early growth stages. Learning different aspects of the business allows leaders to better estimate workloads, coach employees, and make informed decisions.

Whether managing employees or clients, Glen believes accountability begins with measurable expectations and complete transparency.

For business owners hiring outside experts, Glen encourages asking questions until you fully understand where your money is going.

Business planning matters, but Glen believes successful entrepreneurs first need genuine passion for solving a real problem in a better way than what's currently available.

Entrepreneurs should expect setbacks and develop the resilience to move past them without allowing one failure to affect future opportunities.

In this episode of Business Owners Tell All: What It Takes, Jamie Seeker sits down with Nikita Khandheria, Founder and CEO of ERIA, to explore how thoughtful business planning has fueled her entrepreneurial journey from launching her first venture as a teenager to building one of Northern California's fastest-growing hospitality and experiential brands.

Nikita shares how she discovered entrepreneurship at a young age, the pivots that shaped her career, and why she believes successful founders should focus less on rigid plans and more on having a clear long-term vision with the flexibility to adapt along the way.

Throughout the conversation, she discusses evaluating opportunities, choosing mentors, budgeting during different stages of growth, and building a business around meaningful experiences rather than simply providing services. She also explains her personal "Compass Method," a planning framework that starts with defining the life she wants decades into the future and then working backward to make today's decisions.

Whether you're launching your first company or scaling an established business, this episode offers practical insights into strategic planning, decision-making, and building a business that aligns with your long-term vision.

• How Nikita's entrepreneurial journey began with nonprofit clinics before entering hospitality.
• Why she believes every successful entrepreneur should embrace pivots instead of fearing them.
• How buying out investors and reinventing her business ultimately led to the creation of ERIA.
• Why planning should provide direction without becoming restrictive.
• The importance of evaluating opportunities based on long-term goals instead of short-term excitement.
• How she determines which mentors and advice are worth following.
• The role of reinvestment during high-growth phases of a business.
• Why flexibility is one of the most valuable business planning skills.
• The "Compass Method" she uses to make major business decisions.
• Advice for entrepreneurs creating their first business plan.

• Business plans should evolve as the business evolves.
• A clear long-term vision makes short-term decisions easier.
• Great opportunities are measured by alignment, not excitement.
• Reinvestment priorities change as a company matures.
• Flexibility allows businesses to adapt without losing momentum.
• Experience design is ultimately about creating lasting emotional connections.

In this episode of Business Owners Tell All: What It Takes, Jaya Iyer shares her journey from growing up in India to building a purpose-driven fashion brand in the United States. With a Ph.D. in Fashion Merchandising and experience in both academia and the apparel industry, Jaya combined her knowledge, personal experiences, and motherhood to create Svaha USA—a brand designed to challenge gender norms and inspire learning through clothing.

What began as a simple frustration—being unable to find a space-themed shirt for her daughter—turned into a powerful business idea. Through smart business planning, including launching with a Kickstarter campaign, Jaya validated her concept with minimal risk and built a brand rooted in education, empowerment, and curiosity.

Throughout the conversation, Jaya emphasizes the importance of continuous learning, adaptability, and staying connected to customers. She highlights how failures, operational challenges, and unexpected events like COVID forced her to pivot, reinforcing that flexibility is one of the most critical skills a business owner can develop.

Her approach to business goes beyond profit—Svaha is designed to spark curiosity, build confidence, and create meaningful conversations through everyday products. Ultimately, Jaya’s story is a testament to the power of learning, resilience, and building something that truly matters.

• The idea for Svaha came from a real-life problem: lack of STEM-themed clothing for girls
• Started with just 5 t-shirts and ~$500 investment
• Used Kickstarter to validate demand before scaling
• Identified a clear market gap + emotional connection

📌 Lesson: Start small, validate early, and let the market guide you

• Academic background helped with:
• Consumer behavior understanding
• Product development knowledge
• Pricing and inventory strategy
• Strong emphasis on listening to customers

📌 Lesson: Knowledge reduces risk and increases decision quality

• Faced unexpected challenges (e.g., COVID, production issues)
• Learned the importance of:
• Pivoting quickly
• Double-checking execution
• Accepting and correcting mistakes

📌 Lesson: Experience doesn’t eliminate mistakes—adaptability does

• Clothing designed to:
• Spark curiosity
• Encourage conversations
• Reinforce identity and confidence
• Products act as “learning tools” in everyday life

📌 Lesson: Businesses can educate, not just sell

• Continuous learning through:
• Reading
• Podcasts
• Following thought leaders
• Strong focus on time management and boundaries

📌 Lesson: If you stop learning, your business starts declining

• Difficulty implementing change within teams
• Importance of:
• Communicating vision clearly
• Showing benefits of change
• Growth came from embracing new opportunities (e.g., adult clothing line)

📌 Lesson: Leaders must guide change—even when it’s uncomfortable

• Entrepreneurship can be lonely
• Importance of:
• Peer networks
• Learning from other founders
• Staying updated with trends (e.g., tech, platforms, AI)

📌 Lesson: Surround yourself with people who challenge and teach you

Here are standout, highly quotable moments from the episode:

“I couldn’t find anything for her in the girls’ department… and that’s what sparked this idea.”

“All my life experiences had prepared me to do this.”

“You have to always listen to your customer… if your customer is not happy, nothing else matters.”

“There is no dearth of things you can spend money on—you have to prioritize.”

“You have to learn to pivot, you have to learn to be flexible.”

“Clothing impacts how a child thinks.”

“One of the reasons a business is successful is when you are offering something nobody else is.”

“Nobody likes change—we’re all creatures of habit.”

“I don’t think there is ever an end to learning.”

“Being a business owner is a very lonely life.”

“Patience, determination, and perseverance—that’s what it takes.”

In this episode, Santosh Kaveti, Founder & CEO of ProArch, shares his journey of building a global technology company and the evolving mindset required to lead in times of rapid disruption.

From embracing uncertainty as a first-time entrepreneur to navigating today’s unprecedented AI-driven transformation, Santosh highlights that success in business isn’t just about strategy—it’s about learning how to think, decide, and adapt under pressure.

The conversation dives deep into decision-making as a learned skill, the importance of building aligned teams, and how leaders must continuously unlearn, relearn, and evolve to stay relevant.

Santosh also reveals how ProArch is shifting from a traditional IT services model into an AI-driven organization—demonstrating how businesses must act quickly or risk becoming obsolete.

• Founders aren’t born with great decision-making abilities
• It develops through experience, failure, and reflection
• Leaders must train themselves to handle ambiguity

• Teams cannot perform without clear direction
• A leader’s job is to synthesize complexity and articulate it simply
• Misalignment often comes from lack of clarity—not lack of effort

• You cannot scale alone
• Success comes from aligning:
• Individual passions
• Company purpose
• True growth happens when teams are emotionally connected to the mission

• Growth requires letting go of old ways of working
• Breaking down silos is essential for innovation
• Collaboration across functions creates stronger outcomes

• AI is changing business faster than any previous technology wave
• Companies must adapt quickly or risk becoming obsolete
• Leaders must embrace change instead of waiting to react

• Great mentors help sharpen thinking and communication
• Learning from others shortens the trial-and-error cycle
• Exposure to different perspectives strengthens decision-making

• Early-stage: vision-driven and experimental
• Growth stage: structured, strategic, and team-driven
• Today: requires constant iteration due to rapid change

Here are some strong pull quotes you can use for social, promos, or show notes:

In this episode of Business Owner Tell All: What It Takes, we sit down with Santosh Kaveti, Founder & CEO of ProArch, to explore what it really takes to lead and grow a business in today’s rapidly changing world.

Santosh shares how he built a global technology company without a traditional business background, and how learning, adaptability, and decision-making became his greatest tools along the way.

We dive into:

• The reality of scaling from startup to growth stage
• Why decision-making is a skill every founder must develop
• How to build and align high-performing teams
• The importance of clarity in leadership
• Navigating disruption in the age of AI
• Why companies must evolve—or risk becoming obsolete

If you're a business owner navigating uncertainty, this episode is packed with real insights on how to think, lead, and grow in today’s environment.

This episode dives into how Jesse Jackson built a fast-growing automotive repair business from zero to eight figures in just four years — without prior industry experience.

Her journey highlights a core truth: business growth is a direct reflection of personal growth.

Jesse shares how she leveraged:

• Continuous learning
• Strategic mentorship
• Acquisition-driven scaling
• Letting go of control

…to evolve from operator to enterprise-level leader.

She also gives a raw, unfiltered look at balancing seven kids + eight businesses, emphasizing that success isn’t about balance — it’s about embracing constant pressure and growth.

• Jesse didn’t come from automotive — and that helped her question outdated norms
• She saw opportunity where insiders saw “the way things have always been done”
• Identified a massive market shift: 60% of shop owners retiring → wealth transfer opportunity

👉 Insight:

Outsiders often innovate faster because they’re not conditioned by industry habits

• “You’re not ready for the goal — but you grow into it”
• Jesse describes herself evolving from “Jesse 6.0 to Jesse 8.3”
• Rapid scaling forces leadership development whether you’re ready or not

👉 Insight:

You don’t wait to become capable — you become capable by pursuing bigger goals

• Key turning point: learning from Roland Frasier (acquisition strategy)
• Mentors helped her compress years of learning into months
• Eventually turned mentor into investor

👉 Insight:

Proximity to the right people shortcuts trial-and-error

• Early stage: doing everything (HR, finance, marketing, payroll)
• Breaking point at 5 locations → forced to hire
• Biggest growth unlock = hiring people better than her

👉 Insight:

You are the bottleneck until you replace yourself

Jesse shares a powerful metaphor:

• Entrepreneurs either:
• ❌ Stand in the airport (paralyzed, miss opportunities)
• ❌ Jump on every plane (bad decisions, misalignment)
• Her evolution:
• From fast decisions → to intentional, strategic decisions with consequences in mind

👉 Insight:

Scaling requires upgrading your decision-making, not just making more decisions

• Yes: books, mentors, programs
• But most growth came from:
• Rapid scaling
• Real-world pressure
• Being forced to adapt

👉 Insight:

Execution is the fastest teacher

• Jesse is brutally honest about life:
• “No balance”
• “Constant struggle”
• “Sometimes collapse under pressure”
• But she reframes it:
• Struggle = growth
• Chaos = chosen lifestyle

👉 Insight:

High performance isn’t balanced — it’s intentional chaos

Jesse distills it into two essentials:

• Be willing to “eat glass” (handle constant problems)
• Set big, audacious goals

👉 Insight:

Endurance + vision = long-term success