Open School Of Business

After growing up in Crimea, Dilyara Daminova became a successful entrepreneur in Uzbekistan while still in her early 20s. She got a green card to the U.S., and moved to the DMV area at 26.
Dilyara was confident in herself but met big obstacles in the US. Her English was to be improved and she didn’t have a local degree yet, which she got later in 2010. Early on, she struggled to land the most basic of jobs.
However, Dilyara found her way into real estate and it was her calling. She was recognized as a NOVA Real Producers Rising Star in early 2020, and her business has continued to grow.
Dilyara closed 79 transactions for $33 million in 2020 and 102 transactions for over $47 million in 2021. She is a DMV star and also a girl next door to any immigrant and entrepreneur like myself. I admire her grit and personal qualities like humility, positivity, and readiness to help! We will talk about her team expansion in 2023 and hacks and tips to invest in real estate, doing an effective digital marketing and succeed in selling homes and services! 

Dan Roberge is a results-driven President and CEO of multi-million-dollar international corporation with a key focus on sales, marketing and product development.  His extensive experience in building a company from the ground-up including establishing budgets, marketing image and strategy, business culture, sales processes, support protocols and development of a product tailored to industry needs, makes him a great resource for startups. 

As a co-founder of Gnxcor Inc., Dan helped build a facility management software company from the ground-up.  Including conceptualizing the software offering and all its upgrades, creating a company brand, initializing sales and support procedures, hiring staff and creating roles & responsibilities for a productive growing enterprise.  Initially, Dan designed all the marketing efforts including web presence, maximizing SEO, communication automation, customer retention, social marketing and press releases.  He developed requirements for product upgrades and worked directly with development team to manage timelines and budgets.  He also helped build a finance department to create a reliable and accountable financial model for maintaining a profitable balance sheet, cash flow and effective A/R and A/P including the successful multi-year application for SR&ED credits.  Dan learned everything about the business world with hands-on experience including providing daily sales presentations to thousands of potential customers via web or in person with business owners and C-Level executives among others. 

We talked about: how to find your niche, how to outsmart your competition, scaling the company internationally, finding the stakeholders' pain points and addressing them in order to close sales, how to structure and finance the startup.

Dinara Zhumabek is a principal co-founder of a wellness startup, connecting world class personal trainers with people like you and I. She has come up with this idea after solving her own problem of finding a great personal trainer and not go broke, while doing it. She is a private equity professional with transaction and turnaround experiencing in MENA, Central Asia & Turkey and Sub-Sahara Africa. Her professional experience includes - management consulting in top global consulting firms like McKenzie. She studied in the US, Japan and France and has a well rounded view of the world. She shared her experience being a female professional in a heavily male dominated world of private equity and her advice on how to be successful. 

Kanat Bektemirov is a tech entrepreneur, who graduated from University of Arkansas with 4.0 GPA and started his career at Amazon and Google. He has done a couple of his own startups and now works as a CTO for a company, connecting suppliers with big retail, helping CPG brands increase revenue, improve margins, and overall be happier by seamlessly introducing teams to modern digital thinking.

In this episode, you will learn:

1. How to get into competitive tech internships

2. How to use "failure" to build a better product

3. How he manages his team to achieve better results at Supplypike

0:40 Could you please share a little story about how you started and what kind of business do you have in your protfolio?

4:21 -4:31

What kind of job was it , when you left the house what was the first thing you did, did you go in New York and pursued your music?

6:54-7:18

How did you evolve to the second business and become eventually profitable, what was your story there ?

12:09 :12-27

What do you think has really chained together in your partnership for celebrity style catering , what else did you compliment in terms of skills to each other ?

15:51-16:07

Tell us more about that how you decide to start cooking , what does it give you today that idea of that you cook for your own company ?

26:14-26:26

As a black entrepreneur what kind of specific challenges you’ve met that was specific for the black community and that nobody else usually faces and how do you deal with them what is your advice for the black entrepreneurial community?

34:12- 34:17

As an entrepreneur are there any books you would recommend to our audience and that you personally love?

With 20 years corporate leadership and 10 years into lifestyle change and rural business. Howard is a highly adaptable executive leader and manager having held a wide range of management roles during my career, including Finance, Sales, Marketing, Coach, Project & Programme Management, Strategy and Business Transformation.  Director and Managing Partner of a highly successful diversified rural business (Bowhayes Farm) including a specialist tree nursery (Bowhayes Trees).  Bowhayes Trees - is a well regarded UK grower of native and ornamental trees and hedging. With online, telephone and retail sales of trees and accessories across the UK and EU.  Additionally, within the 'Bowhayes Farm' business Howard have initiated a set of programmes to further the growth and evolution of a diversified rural business including, accommodation, cider production, orchard husbandry, rural business consultancy and performance coaching.

In this episode, you will learn: 

1. Purchasing process of a new business 

2. Managing staff in a farming environment 

3. Working as a team with a spouse 

4. Serving diverse clients and using government programs to grow your business

This is our Christmas special! Interview full of depth with an authentic human being, activist, an artist, philanthropist and entrepreneur. Andy Shallal the CEO and founder of Busboys and Poets, restaurant that unites and educates communities.

Andy moved to the United States from Iraq with his family in 1966. He graduated from Catholic University of America and later enrolled in Howard University medical school. Shallal earned his MBA from the University of Maryland. Shallal worked as researcher in medical immunology at the National Institute of Health. 

In this episode, you will learn:

1. What early experiences shaped the way Andy approaches entrepreneurship and life in general

2. What Andy learned from his sherpa on the way to his climb of Everest

3. Impact he made by running for Washington DC mayor position in 2014 and lessons learned

4. What were the early day challenges of Busboys and Poets

5. How he invests and what criteria are used for his portfolio

6. Andy's decision about involving family members in his business 

7. Who Andy finds inspiring and what plans he has for the future

As a leadership coach and Director of Executive Education and Coaching at George Washington University's Center for Excellence in Public Leadership, Ina Gjikondi is a change agent. Her passion is creating experiences for people around the world to awaken and enhance their leadership abilities and creative capacities. The goal: Bring the whole self — mind, body, soul, and spirit — into one’s life and work.   Life often involves transitions, and hers includes civil society activist, political organizer and lawyer in her native Albania, executive coach for an array of leaders in U.S. government, teacher, wife, and mother. The sum of those experiences has enriched her abilities to help people step into their creative realm and become the whole, present, and practical leaders they desire to be. Dream the work — and manifest it.  

In this episode, you will learn: 

1. How to champion and develop a completely new venture within the walls of an established organization 

2. When are the best times to pursue a new degree or seek new knowledge 

3. How e-Co Leadership Coaching differs from other types of coaching  

e-Co Leadership Coaching is a new vision for leadership and coaching in the world, providing the next generation of leaders, practitioners and organizations with a whole person and whole systems framework to deepen and expand consciousness in the world towards a flourishing One Humanity.  The e-Co framework is about expanding and contracting, an iterative, emergent process of discovery that supports the development of the inner and outer coherence in complex adaptive systems.  In this ICF Accredited Coach Training Program, participants work to develop an integrated worldview of coaching in systems while practicing with real-world clients, in organizations that are deeply committed to the Sustainable Development Goals, and who care to make a positive difference in the world.

Christina is an analytical marketer with creativity on the brain. She works exclusively with small businesses in the creative and cultural sectors, including creative retail brands, nonprofits, restaurants, and more. She has a passion for taking time to deeply understand a brand’s voice, mission, and goals, and helping them to uncover new strategies and increase engagement. Christina specializes in growing brand presence and driving sales through executing customized social media, email, and blog development strategies.  As a digital expert with a BA in English from Columbia University, MBA in marketing from Emory University, and over a decade of experience working as a museum curator and in other roles at cultural and creative corporations, she is uniquely positioned to understand and address the digital marketing challenges and goals of creatives and creative businesses  

In this episode, you will learn: 

1. Our guest's journey from a museum curator to a corporate marketing strategist to a business owner 

2. Strategies used to figure out your target customer and ways to work in your niche 

3. Special tips to recent immigrants on how to integrate into business communities and create your own in your business field 

4. Local events and organizations that will be helpful, if you are a local business in Greater Washington DC area

Vladimir Chen is a dad, a husband, a life and leadership coach, an Ironman and a long-distance swimmer. After almost twenty years of working in the IT industry, Vladimir decided to dedicate his life to inspiring collective growth and elevating human consciousness in the world. Having once felt stuck and unclear of his direction in life, he is now devoted to supporting others in their journeys of transformation. Vladimir enjoys facilitating people’s insights and personal growth via coaching, speaking and conducting workshops. When he is not writing or working with his clients, he likes to read a good book, swim indoors or outdoors and spend time with his family. He is a young parent and sees his kids as his greatest teachers in life.

In this episode, you will learn: