Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur | Start and Grow Your Own Business

Ever wonder why a sales pitch felt "off," a follow-up email sounded desperate, or a high-stakes meeting didn't go as planned? In this special "on-the-go" Solo Sunday episode, Brian Lofrumento breaks down one of the most fundamental truths of entrepreneurship using a simple analogy: you can only get lemon juice from a lemon. He explains that whatever is truly inside of you—gratitude, confidence, fear, or desperation—is exactly what will come out when you’re put under pressure. This isn't just a mindset chat; it's a deep dive into how your internal state directly leaks into your emails, proposals, and client interactions, ultimately determining your success.

✨ Why This Matters for You

Understanding your inner state is a non-negotiable for entrepreneurial success:

• It’s the invisible force in your sales process. Prospects can sense your underlying desperation or fear, which repels them faster than any flawed pitch.
• It separates you from employees. Unlike a 9-to-5, your paycheck isn't guaranteed. Your internal state directly impacts your ability to generate revenue.
• It’s the source of genuine connection. When you're filled with gratitude and excitement, it becomes contagious and draws opportunities and clients to you.
• It’s your foundation under pressure. You don't rise to your ideal self in tough moments; you fall back on what's truly inside you.

📝 Key Takeaways

• What's Inside Is What Comes Out. Just like squeezing a lemon only yields lemon juice, the pressure of entrepreneurship will only reveal what's genuinely inside you—be it confidence or fear.
• Feelings Are Contagious. Your inner mood, thoughts, and feelings leak into everything you do. Your clients, team, and prospects will pick up on your energy, good or bad.
• Desperation Repels Opportunity. If you're operating from a place of needing a deal to close, that desperation will show up in your communication and push potential clients away.
• You Can't Fake True Confidence. Hoping to be confident isn't enough. If genuine belief isn't inside you, it won't manifest when you need it most.
• Audit Your Inner Ingredients. Success starts with a conscious and honest inventory of your internal state. You must be as careful about what you let into your mind as you are about your business strategy.

🚀 Put It Into Action

This week, conduct an honest internal audit before a high-stakes task:

• Identify one upcoming pressure moment: a sales call, a difficult email, or a big presentation.
• Ask yourself honestly: "What's inside of me right now regarding this situation?" Name the feelings—excitement, anxiety, desperation, confidence, fear.
• Before you act, do one thing to cultivate a better internal state. If you feel fear, review a past success. If you feel desperation, practice gratitude for the clients you already have. Notice how this shift changes the outcome.

🔗 Stay Connected

• Subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode
• Connect with Brian on Instagram @imetbrian
• Share this episode with a fellow entrepreneur who needs a reminder that their inner game dictates their outer results

Ever feel like you’re crushing it in your business but struggling to find the same success in your personal life? You're not alone. In this episode, entrepreneurial psychiatrist Dr. Laura Dabney reveals how the subconscious emotional patterns we developed in childhood can directly impact our decisions, relationships, and ultimate success as entrepreneurs. This isn't just a therapy session; it's a strategic look at the human element behind every business. Dr. Dabney bridges the gap between clinical psychology and entrepreneurship, offering a powerful framework for high-achievers to stop compartmentalizing and start applying their greatest business strengths to their personal lives. Tune in to uncover the blind spots holding you back and learn how to reclaim the energy tied up in destructive patterns.

💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business

• 🚀 How to identify and break the destructive emotional patterns from your past that are secretly sabotaging your business decisions and leadership style.
• 🧠 Why high-achievers often struggle in their personal lives and how to extrapolate your business acumen to build healthier, more successful relationships.
• 📊 The power of "taking inventory" of your personal life—just like you do for your business—to objectively identify what's working, what isn't, and where you need to pivot.
• 💪 How to normalize and process difficult emotions (like anger and guilt) so they don’t lead to burnout, poor investments, or team conflicts.
• 📈 Why taking 100% ownership (your "locus of control") is critical for entrepreneurs and how to apply it to every challenge, both personal and professional.
• 💡 A masterclass in turning client roadblocks and feedback into innovative services and marketing opportunities that build deep trust.

📝 About Dr. Laura Dabney

Dr. Laura Dabney is an entrepreneurial psychiatrist with over 25 years of experience helping high-achieving professionals and couples thrive. She is the founder of RelationshipRX, a modern therapy and coaching brand designed to help successful people break free from the emotional patterns holding them back in their personal lives. Dr. Dabney is an innovator in her field, moving beyond the traditional therapy model to offer flexible and effective online programs, coaching, and resources. Her unique perspective as both a seasoned clinician and a fellow entrepreneur makes her the perfect guide for anyone looking to align their personal fulfillment with their professional ambition.

🎯 Dr. Laura’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs

"Get help. You don't have to walk any path alone... we all have a blind spot... why not have somebody help you discover what that blind spot is so you don't have to be dragged down by it or held back by it."

📢 Memorable Quotes

• "There's no such thing as a right or wrong thought or feeling." – Dr. Laura Dabney
• "You can't change anybody else. You can change yourself." – Dr. Laura Dabney
• "How can we turn this roadblock into help? Where are we missing an opportunity to express our interest and therefore our interest... in helping them find a solution that works better for them." – Dr. Laura Dabney

🔗 Links & Resources

• Visit RelationshipRX’s website
• Visit Dr. Laura Dabney’s website
• Connect with Laura on LinkedIn
• Follow RelationshipRX on LinkedIn

Are you wrestling with the question of whether to build your personal brand or your company brand? According to Collin Rutherford, CEO of FounderBrands, the answer is clear: your personal brand is 100 times easier and 100 times more effective. In this masterclass episode, Collin breaks down the exact strategies he used to grow his own audience and now uses to help B2B founders drive hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue. He reveals why focusing on "distribution" is the secret of seasoned entrepreneurs and provides a step-by-step playbook for building trust, authority, and a powerful lead-generation engine through your own social media presence. This episode is a must-listen for any founder who wants to stop posting into the abyss and start creating a brand that actually moves the needle on relationships, revenue, and recruiting.

💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business

• 🚀 Why your personal brand is your most powerful asset for driving the "Three R's": Relationships, Revenue, and Recruiting.
• 📈 A phased growth strategy to take your social media presence from 0 to 10,000+ followers, including when to focus on posting versus engaging.
• 🧠 The four essential content pillars every founder must use to build authority, showcase personality, attract new eyeballs, and provide social proof.
• 💰 A proven DM strategy that gets a 30-50% response rate by warming up leads through genuine engagement before you reach out.
• 🤝 Why second-time entrepreneurs prioritize distribution over product and how you can apply this mindset to make your next launch a massive success.
• ⏰ The honest timeline for seeing tangible results (inbound leads!) from your personal brand and why consistency is the only shortcut.
• 💡 How to escape the "vanity metrics" trap and focus on the numbers that actually translate to business growth.

📝 About Collin Rutherford 

Collin Rutherford is the CEO of FounderBrands, a done-for-you agency that helps entrepreneurs grow their businesses through their personal brand. A graduate of Dartmouth College where he played D1 hockey, Collin cut his teeth in entrepreneurship by launching a successful moving and storage business to solve a problem he saw on campus. This first venture taught him a critical lesson: distribution is everything. Now, he applies this philosophy to help B2B founders build powerful personal brands on X and LinkedIn, turning their expertise into a predictable stream of high-quality leads and opportunities.

🎯 Collin’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs 

"You must have a never-ending pursuit for personal growth... When you stop learning, that's how you plateau personally and professionally."

📢 Memorable Quotes

• “First-time entrepreneurs work on product, second-time entrepreneurs focus on distribution.” – Collin Rutherford
• “Building a personal brand on social media is both 100 times easier and 100 times more effective than building a company brand.” – Collin Rutherford
• “If you're posting in the early stage [0-1000 followers], you're basically just posting into the abyss... It's way more important to comment and engage on the outbound side than actually post content yourself.” – Collin Rutherford

🔗 Links & Resources

• Visit FounderBrands' website
• Follow Collin on X
• Connect with Collin on LinkedIn

In this powerful episode, Brian sits down with Brandon Pankey, a board-certified master arborist who transformed his lifelong passion for trees into Blue Pine Works, a thriving, mission-driven business. Brandon shares his raw and authentic journey from "glorified self-employment" to becoming a true CEO who leads a team, lands major city contracts, and builds a legacy. This episode is a masterclass in scaling a service-based business with integrity. You'll learn how to identify and solve problems to win clients, create a culture of purpose that motivates your team, and why simply "caring" is the most powerful growth strategy you can implement.

💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business

• How to proactively identify problems and present solutions to land major clients, including city and municipal contracts.
• The critical mindset shift required to move from a hands-on practitioner to a strategic business owner.
• A powerful leadership framework for instilling purpose and intrinsic motivation in your team, turning employees into future leaders.
• How to build a business that thrives on repeat customers and referrals by going above and beyond and owning your mistakes.
• The strategy behind turning a service business into a scalable enterprise with a registered apprenticeship and franchise potential.
• Why embracing your background and values is a superpower in building an authentic and resilient business.

📝 About Brandon Pankey 

Brandon Pankey is a Board Certified Master Arborist, a Tree Risk Assessment Qualified arborist, and the founder of Blue Pine Works. Having grown up on a family forestry in Eastern Washington, Brandon has dedicated his life to the ethical stewardship of trees. He and his wife, Kay, lead their company in East Central Minnesota with a mission to serve rural communities and preserve urban forests. Brandon’s unique perspective combines deep, hands-on industry expertise with a powerful entrepreneurial drive to create opportunities, build leaders, and make a lasting positive impact on the world.

🎯 Brandon’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs 

"Care. As long as you're caring about what you're doing... if you genuinely give a hoot about what you're producing and how you're producing it and what the end product is for your consumer, it's going to work."

📢 Memorable Quotes

•  “I need to provide for myself by providing for other people.” – Brandon Pankey
• “Even if you're not making the progress that you want to do, you're still beating the person on the couch. You can't get anywhere if you don't start.” – Brandon Pankey
• “Half the thing is just showing up.” – Brandon Pankey

🔗 Links & Resources

• Visit Blue Pine Works’ Website
• Connect with Brandon on LinkedIn
• Follow Blue Pine Works LLC on LinkedIn
• Follow Blue Pine Works on Facebook
• Follow Blue Pine Works on Instagram

In a world obsessed with complex marketing funnels and expensive ad campaigns, Adam Aldred proves that winning in business often comes down to mastering the fundamentals. He breaks down how he built his own growth marketing agency, Orsin, to $40K/month in recurring revenue entirely through referrals and organic content. This episode is a masterclass in practical, data-driven growth for any entrepreneur feeling overwhelmed in a competitive market. Adam reveals the surprisingly low bar for success in many industries and provides a clear roadmap to stand out by simply showing up, building trust, and over-delivering for your clients.

💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business

• 🚀 How to turn referrals into your primary growth engine (and land 15+ clients from word-of-mouth alone).
• 💻 The simple website tweaks that can 3-4x your conversion rate by focusing on trust over tech.
• 📞 Why answering the phone is your most underrated marketing tool (and the shocking stats that prove it).
• 🤖 A practical framework for using AI to reclaim 5-8 hours per week on admin tasks without sacrificing quality.
• 📈 The art of "neighbor marketing" to turn one paid customer into three free ones and slash your acquisition costs.
• 🤝 How to build powerful trust signals that make customers choose you over the competition, even in a crowded market.
• 💰 Why understanding your capacity "breaking point" is the key to scaling without running out of cash.

📝 About Adam Aldred

Adam Aldred is the founder of Orsin, a growth marketing firm that helps home service companies scale their revenue. After a decade in the traditional agency world, Adam saw an opportunity to do things better. He started Orsin as a side project, grew it through pure referrals to replace his wife's corporate salary, and then took the leap into full-time entrepreneurship. Adam's expertise lies in blending data-driven strategies like SEO and Google Ads with the fundamental principles of trust and brand building to deliver measurable results for his clients.

🎯 Adam’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs

"Establish momentum as quick as you can, and then don't let it die out."

📢 Memorable Quotes

• "The average non-answer rate on phone calls is about 20 to 25%... The close rate on an unanswered phone call, like you have to call them back, is closer to 10%. So you have a huge delta in conversion rate or lead to close rate." – Adam Aldred
• "If you're starting a business, your main goal whenever you're servicing a client...should be over delivering on whatever you've promised to do, knowing that when you work that way, people will want to brag about you to their friends." – Adam Aldred
• "Websites that I've built where we're actually adding personalized individual branded photography...the conversion rate is usually three to four times higher across all traffic sources." – Adam Aldred

🔗 Links & Resources

• Visit Orsin’s Website
• Connect with Adam on LinkedIn
• Follow Orsin on LinkedIn
• Follow Adam on TikTok
• Follow Adam on Instagram

In this episode, Brian sits down with Zakhar Azatian, the founder and CEO of BeHard, an app that has transformed the lives of over one million users. Zakhar shares his journey from software engineer to a two-time founder, detailing how he built B2C products that generate millions in revenue and create genuine impact. This episode is a masterclass for any wantrepreneur or entrepreneur looking to scale a product in a crowded market. You’ll learn the difference between simply “trying” marketing and building a systematic “factory of experiments,” how to leverage revenue as fuel for a growth flywheel, and why the most successful companies often start by serving a tiny, niche audience.

💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business

• The Growth Flywheel: Understand how to reinvest early revenue back into your business to create a self-sustaining cycle of growth.
• Build an "Experiment Factory": Learn why one-off marketing efforts fail and how to create a structured system for continuous experimentation in your product and marketing.
• The B2C Marketing Playbook: Get a breakdown of the key marketing channels for consumer apps, including organic, SEO/ASO, influencer, and performance marketing.
• The Power of Starting Niche: Discover why trying to build a product for everyone is a recipe for failure and how focusing on a small, specific audience can be your biggest strategic advantage.
• From MVP to Polished Product: Hear how Be Hard started as a simple "black and white" app and evolved through hundreds of experiments into the polished product it is today.
• Find Your Motivation in Metrics: Learn how seeing the real-world impact of your work through user feedback and revenue can become an "addicting" source of motivation.

📝 About Zakhar Azatian 

Zakhar Azatian is the founder and CEO of Be Hard, a San Francisco-based platform that helps people transform their lifestyles through challenges. As a two-time founder with a successful exit, Zakhar has over six years of experience building B2C products that empower users. With a background as a software engineer, he brings a unique and powerful combination of technical expertise and a product-driven mindset to his ventures, which have positively impacted over a million users.

🎯 Zakhar’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs 

"It's really hard to build a product for someone when you build it for everybody... so the idea that I would say is to sometimes start with something niche."

📢 Memorable Quotes

• "When you see the value, it's actually addicting... you and your team did something to achieve these results. And that's actually how I got hooked."
• "You don't just try, you basically build the flow of experimentation."
• "Growth usually means more growth. And revenue means usually more growth. And the idea is that it's like a cycle."

🔗 Links & Resources

• Visit BeHard’s Website
• Connect with Zakhar on LinkedIn
• Follow BeHard on LinkedIn

In a world buzzing with fear and hype about AI, Joyce Shin offers a refreshingly optimistic and strategic roadmap for the future of work. This episode dives into how entrepreneurs can move beyond using AI for simple productivity gains and instead leverage it to unlock the core of what makes us human: connection, innovation, and creativity. Joyce explains how to thoughtfully redesign roles, workflows, and entire organizational systems to create a powerful harmony between machine efficiency and human potential. For any wantrepreneur or entrepreneur looking to build a resilient, adaptable, and deeply human business in the age of AI, this conversation is your essential playbook for turning technological change into your greatest opportunity.

💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business

• 🚀 How to Redesign Roles for a New Era: Learn why AI isn't about replacement, but about freeing up your team's time for high-value activities like customer connection, relationship building, and innovation.
• 🧠 The Neuroscience of Business Systems: Discover how to apply principles of neuroscience and systems thinking to build a more adaptable, creative, and resilient organization.
• 🛡️ Ethical AI Guardrails That Empower, Not Restrict: Understand how to implement simple policies (like protecting customer data) that build trust and enhance your team's ability to use AI responsibly.
• 💡 Fostering a True Culture of Innovation: Hear why creating a culture where "scrappy ideas" can come from anywhere is the ultimate key to thriving in a fast-changing market, regardless of your company's size.
• 🎲 How to Find Opportunity in Ambiguity: Learn the philosophy behind "Stochastic Potential" and how embracing randomness and uncertainty can uncover hidden pathways to growth.
• 🤝 The Future of Team Building is Connection: Explore practical strategies for fostering genuine human connection and empathy within your team, whether you're in-person or remote.

📝 About Joyce Shin

Joyce Shin is a strategist, operator, and founder who blends neuroscience, business, and systems thinking to build the future of work. With a background in neuroscience from Emory and an MBA from Duke, she has led high-stakes strategy and operations at giants like Dropbox and CNN, driving multi-million dollar growth and scaling complex organizations. Today, she is the founder of Stochastic Potential, a creativity intelligence think tank dedicated to reimagining how businesses operate in the age of AI. Her unique, human-centered approach is shaped by a profound personal experience, driving her mission to help organizations unlock collective human potential in an AI-powered world.

🎯 Joyce’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs

“Listen to your gut and stay true to yourself. The worst that could happen is that you fail, but that you learn and you grow from that.”

📢 Memorable Quotes

• “Instead of being afraid of ambiguity, I think that we should embrace that and we should design for that. Because underneath the ambiguity, there lies hidden opportunity and hidden growth.” – Joyce Shin
• “Once machines go from being able to do 25% of someone's job to 50% to 99% of someone's job, ultimately we're going to have to fundamentally rethink what roles are the fundamentals of work and how teams and organizations are built.” – Joyce Shin

🔗 Links & Resources

• Visit Stochastic Potential’s Website
• Connect with Joyce on LinkedIn
• Follow Stochastic Potential on LinkedIn
• Follow Joyce on Instagram

As the year winds down, the pressure to find answers and set massive goals ramps up. But what if the key to a successful new year isn't about finding answers right now, but about asking the right questions? In this special Solo Sunday episode, Brian Lofrumento pulls back the curtain on his personal end-of-year process. He shares a powerful list of reflective questions—sparked by his own conversations with his AI assistant—designed to help you pause, look inward, and gain the clarity you need to make your next year the best one yet. This isn't about planning; it's about percolating. Get ready to uncover the hidden lessons, overlooked opportunities, and mindset shifts from the past year that will fuel your future.

✨ Why This Matters for You

This reflective practice is the foundation for intentional growth:

• It’s a break from the constant hustle and firefighting, creating space for strategic thought.
• It helps you identify the limiting beliefs you need to retire and the powerful new ones you need to adopt.
• It reveals the "invisible wins" and low-hanging fruit you've been overlooking in your business.
• It provides deep clarity on what truly drained you versus what energized you, so you can build better systems.
• It ensures your goals for the new year are aligned with who you are becoming, not just who you were.

🦃 Thanksgiving Week Reflection Questions

1. What did this year really ask of me, and how did I respond?
2. What part of my business felt heavy this year, and why?
3. What surprised me — in a good way or a bad way?
4. What am I thankful that I learned the hard way this year?
5. Who helped carry something for me this year, even if it was small?
6. Who am I right now that I wasn’t one year ago?
7. What’s one belief I’m ready to retire going into the new year?
8. What’s one belief I’m finally ready to pick up?
9. What consistently broke this year, and what does that reveal about my systems?
10. What worked so well that I barely noticed it?
11. If I had to run my business next year with 50% less effort, what would I automate and/or eliminate?
12. What’s the biggest opportunity I’m sitting on that I didn’t take seriously enough this year?
13. What would a bold version of next year look like (not necessarily bigger — but bolder)?
14. What am I willing to disrupt in my own world to step into that version?
15. What did life remind me of this year that business sometimes makes me forget?
16. What would make next year feel rich — not just financially, but experientially?
17. If next year was guaranteed to be successful, what would I stop worrying about today?

🚀 Put It Into Action

This week, instead of chasing answers, give yourself the gift of a great question.

• Scroll down and review the full list of questions Brian shares in this episode.
• Choose just ONE question that resonates with you the most.
• Spend some quiet time this week—on a walk, with a coffee, or during your travels—and just let your mind wander on that single question. Don't force an answer; just explore the thought.

🔗 Stay Connected

• Subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode
• Connect with Brian on Instagram @imetbrian
• Share this episode with a fellow entrepreneur who could use a moment of powerful reflection before the new year rush.

Tired of back-to-back virtual meetings that drain your energy and feel disconnected? This episode is your solution. We're joined by Robert Glenn, a software consultant turned entrepreneur who is tackling the universal problem of "Zoom fatigue" head-on. Robert shares the journey behind building Kopa AI, an enterprise software that acts as a real-time personal coach during video calls to boost your productivity, awareness, and even your mental health. This conversation goes far beyond basic AI tools, exploring how technology can enhance the human touch instead of replacing it, making every virtual interaction more meaningful and effective. For any entrepreneur tired of inefficient meetings, this is a look into the future of work.

💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business

• How to identify a massive business opportunity in everyday frustrations (like bad meetings) and build a tech-driven solution.
• Why the next frontier of AI is real-time feedback that enhances human performance, not just post-meeting summaries and transcriptions.
• The strategic advantage of using smaller, fit-for-purpose AI models to improve efficiency, speed, and data privacy.
• How to design a tech product that learns from user behavior to deliver a truly personalized experience.
• A framework for thinking about AI as a tool to fill human connection gaps in a remote-first world.
• How the discipline of "No Zero Days" can help you build unstoppable momentum, even when you lack motivation.
• Future applications for real-time AI in high-stakes industries like telehealth and education.

📝 About Robert Glenn

Robert Glenn is a software consultant turned entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Kopacetic. With over a decade of experience specializing in automated infrastructure, software lifecycle management, and cloud-native architecture, he possesses a deep understanding of building scalable tech solutions. Robert channeled his expertise and personal experience with burnout from endless virtual meetings into creating Kopa AI—an innovative platform designed to make online interactions more productive and human-centric. He is a forward-thinker who sees AI not as a replacement for people, but as a powerful tool to enhance our capabilities and well-being.

🎯 Robert’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs

"Burn the boats." Once you fully commit to the entrepreneurial journey, eliminate the possibility of retreat. There will be countless days you want to look back or give up, but success requires seeing it all the way through without a safety net.

📢 Memorable Quotes

• “I think AI is a great way to enhance the human touch rather than replacing it.” – Robert Glenn
• “A lot of it came out of early mornings and late nights burning out and realizing that there has got to be a better way.” – Robert Glenn
• “There's this concept of... you get to shore and you burn the boats... you just don't look back. There's really no going back once you've set on that journey, you just have to see it all the way through.” – Robert Glenn

🔗 Links & Resources

• Visit Kopacetic’s Website
• Connect with Robert on LinkedIn
• Follow Kopacetic on LinkedIn

In this powerful episode, Elke Wong, founder and CEO of TomorrowToday, shares her inspiring journey from pre-med to becoming a serial tech entrepreneur who is now transforming the education landscape. Elke unpacks how a single conversation with a friend revealed a massive operational inefficiency in schools, sparking the idea for a platform that empowers students and educators. This episode is a masterclass in how to build a mission-driven company by focusing on real-world problems. For any entrepreneur struggling to find their niche or innovate in a traditional industry, Elke provides a brilliant roadmap for empathetic product development, strategic growth, and creating a business that solves today’s problems to build a better tomorrow.

💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business

• How to Find a Billion-Dollar Problem: Discover how Elke identified a critical market gap not through complex analysis, but by listening to a friend's everyday professional struggles—and how you can do the same.
• The "Crawl, Walk, Run" Innovation Strategy: Learn how to introduce groundbreaking technology into slow-moving industries by meeting your customers where they are, rather than overwhelming them with change.
• Mastering the Customer vs. Consumer Dynamic: Unpack Elke’s strategic approach to serving multiple stakeholders (students, educators, parents, schools) by identifying a core user and expanding organically from there.
• The Antidote to "Shiny Object Syndrome": Hear why focusing on solving today's urgent problems is non-negotiable for survival and the key to earning the right to build for the future.
• Empathetic Product Development: Learn how to design solutions that enhance human capability and save time, rather than trying to replace the essential human element in your industry.
• Leveraging Your Entire Career Path: Understand how every pivot and experience, even from seemingly unrelated industries, can be a unique asset in your entrepreneurial toolkit.

📝 About Elke Wong

Elke Wong is the founder and CEO of TomorrowToday, a groundbreaking EdTech platform transforming career readiness for students. The daughter of immigrant parents, Elke's own winding career path—from pre-med to co-founding major ad tech and B2B marketing companies like Madison Logic—inspired her mission. With a deep background in customer success and operational excellence, Elke brings a powerful, human-centric approach to technology. She is an expert at identifying and solving complex operational inefficiencies, building empathetic solutions that empower users and drive real-world impact.

🎯 Elke’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs

"Don't just say that you're your student-centric or your customer-centric. I think you need to put it into practice... Be adaptable, be resilient, and try to have a growth mindset."

📢 Memorable Quotes

• “If I don't help solve [today's problems], then I'm not going to have a tomorrow.” – Elke Wong
• “It's not fair to say that educators are not innovative. They want to be innovative. They don't have the time... It's our responsibility as EdTech entrepreneurs to think about how to be those change agents.” – Elke Wong
• “It's not about a specific path. It's about growth and adaptability, and when obstacles come, it's about navigating around them to reach that next milestone.” – Elke Wong

🔗 Links & Resources

• Visit TomorrowToday’s Website
• Connect with Elke on LinkedIn
• Follow TomorrowToday on LinkedIn