“Business is really simple. We make it so complicated. If you just take care of people, if you just want what’s best for them and you treat them like human beings—it’s amazing what will happen to your business,” says Wayne Mullins, founder and CEO of Ugly Mug Marketing: a marketing, social media, web design, and graphic design agency.

Wayne says one key to success is thinking of clients as people rather than transactions and getting personal beyond the job at hand. It all comes down to two humans connecting, he says. 

In this week’s episode, you’ll hear how Wayne and his team prioritize human connection with clients. And then Carol and Wayne take a step back to dive into his journey from landscaper to founder of a marketing company. 

They discuss the company culture he’s created and an idea he lives by: Discomfort is necessary for growth. And he tells us how he implemented that concept among his employees. You’ll also hear how he chose his employees’ wellbeings over the expansion of his company and the tough decisions that came with that. 

Wayne speaks candidly about the marketing industry and what he believes many agencies are doing wrong: Measuring results based on “vanity metrics” rather than true leads.

Learn more about Wayne Mullins and Ugly Mug Marketing.

You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on Twitter @carolbschultz or on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolbschultz/.

Aneesh Dhawan’s journey in business started early. As a teenager, he worked with a team at MIT to install a desalinization device in Haiti. The following year he launched a marketing company and also helped set up a solar-powered device for a school in Haiti. And as a high school senior, he founded the company that would later become his current business: Knit. 

Knit helps brands understand the next generation of consumers by empowering Gen Z to share feedback over video. In other words, before brands launch marketing content, they hire Knit to make sure the content will appeal to the young generation; doing away with the archaic focus group method of gaining consumer feedback. 

“If you think about how brands are talking to their consumers today, it is definitely not built for this world,”  he tells Carol. 

Aneesh uses sports as an example: Data shows that Gen Z doesn’t broadcast games or go to watch in person as much as generations before them did. Instead, they stream games. So Knit helps sports-related brands figure out how to monetize streaming and how to enhance the in-person experience to fit Gen Z's interests. 

In this episode, Aneesh tells us about a high school program that shaped his business mindset. And he brings us on his journey of founding start-ups and dropping out of college to go all-in. 

Listen to hear how the pandemic actually helped him pivot his idea to solve an issue all-size companies were encountering. And how, as a young entrepreneur, he took on the hiring of a dozen employees. 

Learn more about Aneesh Dhawan and Knit.

You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on Twitter @carolbschultz or on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolbschultz/.

After over a decade of smooth sailing for Ted Lau, everything seemed to go wrong in his business at once: his partnership dissolved, a client filed a lawsuit, he underwent an audit, and he experienced high rates of turnover. The stress piled up and he had a mental breakdown. 

Ted sought help and his doctor advised him to take a few months off; but as a business owner, he knew that was a near-impossible task for him. So he took small breaks. Ted reflected and pivoted his business and in turn, his company found more success than ever before.  

In this episode, Ted tells us how empathy changed his life — and business— for the better. 

Ted owns Ballistic Arts, a high-touch lead-gen digital marketing agency focused on helping B2B companies get leads. Ted and others started the company in a room above his parents' garage not long after graduating. Using Ted’s cold-calling know-how the team got off the ground and slowly found more and more clients. 

Ted takes us into his childhood and how his upbringing in an immigrant Chinese family shaped his attributes as a leader. And they discuss how seeing his workplace as his home negatively affected his employee relationships.

You’ll also hear how Ted’s agency stands out from the rest, offering both creativity and data.

Learn more about Ted Lau and Ballistic Arts

You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on Twitter @carolbschultz , LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolbschultz/, and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/verticalelevationinc/

People are lonely and Derrick Morton co-founded FlowPlay to keep them entertained. FlowPlay is a virtual world technology and game developer. It’s a platform where people can play games and create avatars to chat online with others.

Derrick started on a completely different path: film school. He worked in the creative industry for a short period before realizing he had more to offer; so he got his MBA and three years later he created FlowPlay. With revenues at $42 million, he recently sold it to a casino group and took on the role of President in the company. 

In this episode, Carol and Derrick delve into a unique talent strategy Derrick uses: the “no asshole” policy. The policy must be enforced by him personally and has been successful, he says. Listen to the episode to hear more about it and how the company managed to differentiate itself from the over 100,000 competitors by selling luck rather than tokens.

They also discuss the challenges he faced as a first-time founder, like the pressure he felt knowing people now relied on him for their salary. 

“It was the first time I had been responsible for people’s lives and livelihoods,” he told Carol. 

Derrick opens up about the change in culture he needed to make when his team was agreeing with his ideas, leading to some failures. He implemented what Carol calls a “culture of feedback.”

Learn more about Derrick Morton and FlowPlay.

You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on Twitter @carolbschultz or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolbschultz/.

After being a doctor for years, Bobby Peddi decided he wanted to start his own company. But he ran into an issue: There was a scarcity of information on how to start one. So Bobby spent hours researching and eventually figured it out. However, knowing that other entrepreneurs would come across the same problem, he decided to create a free state-by-state guide on how to start a company. 

“It was going to be my sort of ‘good deed’ to help other entrepreneurs,” he told Carol. 

The Really Useful Information Company, aka TRUIC, has revenues north of $10 million and employs 37 people. And, to this day, everything on the website is free. 

So how does Bobby make money? Listen to the episode to learn how a business providing free information can earn a profit. 

Bobby started in the field of medicine in the U.K. and planned on continuing when he moved to the U.S. But a few months after moving, he got the bug to start his own business and did just that. He named it Saagra, a wellness services company. Shortly after, TRUIC came to be, and Bobby decided to put all of his efforts into it, with plans of one day using it to fund Saagra. 

In this episode, Carol and Bobby explore how his lack of humility and focus led to mistakes and how failure helped him change. They also discuss the structure Bobby built at TRUIC, having what he refers to as “mission commanders” and a culture of respect. 

Learn more about Bobby Peddi and TRUIC

You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on Twitter @carolbschultz or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolbschultz/.

At age 26, Jessica Gomez started a manufacturing company with her husband. She began with no money and no prior knowledge of how to run a business. Almost 20 years later, she has been named to the 2021 Women of Influence List by the Portland Business Journal and received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, among many other honors. 

Jessica’s business, Rogue Valley Microdevices, is a micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) foundry, in other words, a contract manufacturer. They fabricate physical devices for other companies. Jessica tells us about the very beginnings and how the recession gutted her company, forcing her to lay off the team she’d built. She and Carol also discuss the CHIPS Act and how it may benefit her industry. 

Jessica paints us a picture of what it’s like being a young woman in her industry.

“I go to a conference and it’s 500 men in suits, and me and the staff,” Jessica says. Someone asks her, “Are you guys going to bring more coffee down for us? I think it is empty.” She responds, “No, no I’m actually here for the conference.”

In this episode, you’ll learn about Jessica’s troubled upbringing which left her homeless at one point, and how she found success against all odds.

Learn more about Jessica Gomez and Rogue Valley Microdevices

You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on Twitter @carolbschultz or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolbschultz/.

Vimal Patel came from humble beginnings, working at a McDonald's and living with his cousin when he moved to America. A few years later he got a job in the hotel business, and currently, he manages 11 hotels. How did he get to where he’s at? A lot of mistakes and hard lessons, he says. 

As the President and CEO of QHotels, Vimal owns and operates several hotels; on top of that, he founded Innrly, a software that streamlines the day-to-day duties of hoteliers. 

It all started when he moved to America in 1991; he stayed with his cousin who owned a motel. He took a job working for his cousin and eventually formed his own hotel management company. 

As he expanded from three hotels to four hotels, he discovered errors in accounting and wanted to ensure they wouldn’t continue to happen. So he developed software to automate day-to-day processes. Now he sells the software to other hotels to utilize. 

In this episode, Vimal tells us about the company culture he’s built — one of empowerment and respect. He retains employees, the majority in housekeeping, by not micromanaging them and encouraging career growth within the hotels. For example, when he promotes someone, he provides time for the employee to make sure that they like the new role and can succeed before moving them permanently to the new position. 

Vimal discusses how he has time to manage an entire tech firm while leading QHotels. He also talks to Carol about current issues facing the hotel industry: a labor shortage and skyrocketing insurance prices that are causing hotels to also raise rates. 

Learn more about Vimal Patel and QHotels & Innrly.

You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on Twitter @carolbschultz or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolbschultz/.

Straight out of college, Joseph Landes landed a job at Microsoft and stayed for 23 years, growing into many roles and living in many countries throughout his time at the company. Upon meeting his current CEO, Vadim Vladimirskiy, he left Microsoft to start a very different journey. 

Joseph became the chief revenue officer of Nerdio, a technology firm that helps MSPs build cloud environments using Microsoft Azure. 

“Drop the dinosaur and get the goat!” he says, referring to when clients leave larger competitors for Nerdio because the company offers a better product at a lower cost. 

In this episode, we dive into what made Joseph stay with Microsoft for so long, and the adjustments he had to make moving from a massive organization to a startup. He talks about the even-keel mindset that one must have when running a startup and the importance of the entire company sharing that mindset.

Carol and Joseph also discuss a challenge facing Nerdio: competition with other technology companies for talent. Joseph likes to use the concept of drivers and passengers when deciding who to hire; “drivers” refer to talent who constantly strive to get work done and are proactive in nature, no matter their role, and “passengers” refer to those who clock in and clock out. They talk about how to identify drivers from the very first interview and look for something Joseph calls the generosity gene. 

Learn more about Joseph Landes and Nerdio.

You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on Twitter @carolbschultz or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolbschultz/.

Marco Torres and his co-founders worked in the travel business and needed to find a way to get their clients to leave video reviews. They came up with an incentive: Offering a three-day hotel stay in Orlando or Las Vegas for leaving a review. The idea worked and hundreds of clients started taking videos. This planted the seed for a new company.

Marco co-founded Marketing Boost, a B2B service that helps businesses improve their marketing strategy with incentive-based techniques. He tells us the driving thought behind it: Adding a bonus to whatever you’re selling instead of discounting it. For example, a company can offer a complimentary hotel stay or a restaurant voucher.

Marketing Boost’s ideal client is a business that is already killing the game but wants to add extra value for its customers, although some of its clients are in early stages.

Marco is based in Miami, but most of his employees are located outside of the United States. In this episode, Carol and Marco discuss what prompted him to look for workers abroad after hiring in the United States, and how Covid-19 affected a business highly based on travel.

If you’d like to learn more about affiliate marketing and how it works, this is a must-listen.

Learn more about Marco Torres and Marketing Boost.

You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on Twitter @carolbschultz or on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolbschultz/.

In the ever-growing space of digital marketing, Ken Braun, co-founder of Lounge Lizard Worldwide, has carved out a niche that holds strong almost 25 years later.

Ken found early success working in agencies, known for dreaming up the Ocean Spray slogan, “Crave The Wave”, and working with brands like Jose Cuervo. But 10 years in, Ken hatched the idea to start freelancing on the side. He created a website of his own and bought a spot with a niche offering: banner ads.

Soon after, he received a message from a brand in South Africa and began fulfilling requests on his daily commute to New York City. After being burnt out from the overload of work, his wife Sharon encouraged him to quit his job and commit fully to Lounge Lizard, so he did.

Ken’s agency became a million-dollar company in its first year.

He does the work and does it well. Lounge Lizard offers help to companies of all sizes: Either developing a brand’s voice from the ground up or rethinking their current strategy. Ken often opens his client’s eyes to the metrics they already have at hand and how to use them to create a better working website.

In this episode, Carol and Ken discuss a prominent issue facing Lounge Lizard: Large companies poaching his employees. Listen to hear more about Ken’s journey and his advice for anyone trying to break into the industry.

Learn more about Ken Braun and Lounge Lizard Worldwide.

You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on Twitter @carolbschultz or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolbschultz/.