welcome back to the daily mastermind george wright the third here with your daily dose of inspiration motivation and education and if you're a founder or an entrepreneur or a business owner you might be feeling some burnout you might be feeling overwhelmed but you also might be scaling and growing at a fast pace well we've got some really good stuff for you today i'm joined by an amazing guest. Onajira Rivas, how are you doing? Hi, very well. I'm so excited to be here. Yeah, it's interesting because I'm glad you're here. It's been a while for two busy entrepreneurs like ourselves to get together, but we're here and we're going to be talking about some amazing stuff, especially for business owners, entrepreneurs, high-level executives. So let me start by giving them a little bit of your background, just so they understand where you come from, because you have so much going on. You're the founder and CEO of Florida's Cotton Clouds, the first women-led factory for US-made cotton products, global business strategist. You've got a former corporate executive background in pharmaceuticals, but you're a Forbes Business Council member, winner of the Blox TV competition. You have 24 years of experience scaling brands and growing multi-million dollar ventures. So I think you've got a very, very amazing background, but I love for you to just take a few minutes and help our listeners to hear kind of where you came from. And then what we'll do is kind of bridge into what you're really kind of excited about right now, but your background, like what got you into this? How did you start your company? Give us a little bit of your backstory. Well, I'm going to start for the beginning because my story is just excited. I started my first, I mean, I was a born entrepreneur. I started my first business venture at nine years old, selling tiaras at the school, confiscating within a week. That was my first business failure. But, you know, that showed me a little of resilience. But, well, after that, I have the opportunity to live and do business and study across Asia, Europe, South America, United States. And I have the opportunity also to learn from different, not only, you know, cultures, but also I came from the corporate work where I learned a lot from corporations, how they structure systems, SOPs. You know, corporations are the ones that have legacy, that even if the CEO is fired today, the company stays there. Well, I hold also an educational background. I hold a bachelor degree in international studies, three master degrees in pharmaceutical business, also in foreign training, and the recently at theological studies. What I learned from my corporate side when I was in Europe, I was doing a lot of marketing campaigns, brand awareness, managing the complex of the regulatory side in Europe, but also in the pharmaceutical. I learned a lot of selling, marketing, and different products, for example, in the drug size. After that, I decided to quit the corporate side and I decided to start my own business. So that's when I decided to, for sure, be an entrepreneur. And that's when I started selling my products. I started with just five products and then I scaled them from five products to 1000 products. And then I introduced them to Walmart that it was a big achievement. I found I just got three Walmart agreements and it was really a big step for me as an entrepreneur. But I start working from zero day, I mean, from the day zero that I start to be an entrepreneur, I start using my corporate experience. So I did from my zero day, just to start with systems, structure, clarity, where I want to go, where I want to be. So that's what I did. And I was always scaling my own business. You know, it's interesting. I want to pause you for a second because most people, that's very much my background sales going to corporate you know entrepreneur and that's a really important point I want to note to our audience that gives you this kind of like viewpoint that is why I think you're so successful with what you're doing with business owners right now because most don't start with sales and marketing they go straight into business and then they forget because it gets so busy that sales and marketing is so important so I want to just point that out to individuals that sales and marketing was your foundation. You went into corporate, then you became an entrepreneur, did the work growing from five brands to, you know, or five products to a thousand, going to Walmart and dealing with that corporate structure. And I just want people to be thinking about that because we're going to circle back. So keep going. Yes. Thank you very much for that. No, yes. I think it was a great how, how I just apply when And I learned leading because I was leading a million dollars deals in the pharmaceutical industry. But from day zero, I just applied these systems and everything, SOPs. And I was trying my company, a small company, started with three or four people. And I just did everything with systems. And I need to have data, KPIs, because that's what is proving yourself. That is the way that I'm going to grow my business. And after selling, I introduced personal care products where I introduced cotton also, and I was selling a lot after three years of selling. I saw that there was a bigger opportunity. I was selling cotton products, but they didn't have any brand. It was generic brand, but they were selling like crazy, like bread. So I saw that there was a bigger opportunity because United States is a producer of cotton. So I decided to create my own brand and manufacture here in America. Because one of the things that I really was very conscious about was, for example, I traveled a lot to Europe. And I was thinking after COVID, I think it was a real wake up call for Americans because the shelves were empty. And I got very upset every time that I go to the stores and the shell is empty. But then I go into travel every year. I'm going to travel. I always go to Europe. And I always say, I always see everything even after COVID recently. I mean, I remember every shelf was full of their local products. And I say, why in America when we use, because I remember in the 80s, every tag, every clothes tag, it says made in USA. I remember, I was a child. And I say, what happened? What happened with the independence that we used to have Why were we so dependent on overseas products When I see in Europe everything in Spain in Italy even the toilet paper was from the Tuscany even they are more local. They are very local. And I say what happened in America? We have to produce in America. So if no one wants to sell something to us, we are going to rely on. So I think we have to rethink about that to where to produce and why do we have to produce. So I say I'm going to create my own brand and then I'm going to produce in America and not only for myself but I'm going to try to inspire the 31 million entrepreneurs to start manufacturing in America, to bring manufacturing back to America because we used to have that manufacturer here. So that's how florida's cotton cloud was born and now we are it's interesting though i want to i want to kind of make a comment here for the people that are listening um you saw an opportunity it was driven by your passion but you applied the the sales the marketing and the sops that you'd learn in the corporate world to go out and do something and and that's a big lift because i think a lot of people thinking in the manufacturing industry in the u.s cotton like that's just not something that's a an easy thing to start. And yet you started it and had some amazing success, which I think is kind of what led you to, you know, this, this passion you have now, right? Where you've started to bridge into helping more entrepreneurs. She had a passion for entrepreneurs doing things in the U S and now you're even continuing that passion into helping entrepreneurs themselves. Right? Exactly. Because when I developed the factory, I was thinking not only about myself or about my product because I was selling product. I was selling a bunch of product already, but I decided to stop them. And then I want to create a brand that have more meaning, that create jobs that only impact, not only impact my wallet, but impact the communities, the people, and the Americans because I receive a lot from Americans. So we're supposed to work also for the American people. So then I decide, well, I have to go further there. And my mission is like help entrepreneurs to build companies that have a legacy. Because I mean, corporations like Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, they're a corporation, as we talked before, that even though the CEO is fired today, the company is going to last. So that's what I want to help entrepreneurs with my experience from my corporate experience and also from my own experience as an entrepreneur that we can create for, I create the bold business framework with that in mind. Well, it's, I was going to say, it's interesting that you say that. And I love that your passion is for building a legacy company and going from being an entrepreneur to a legacy type company. But I think I want to also note, because you and I talked about this before the podcast, there's a lot of entrepreneurs, business owners out there that they have these pain points right now. They have things like the business totally depends on them. They're stuck in the day-to-day. They don't have clear plans. They're spending a lot of time and money, and they're not seeing an end in sight. And so that caused this shift that you had for how to go from being an overworked founder, right, to like a legacy CEO, untouchable CEO. And so you built what you just said, right, was the founder. Tell me about the framework that you created. Yes. I created the bold business framework to start with the six- and seven-figure business owners because they already have attraction. They already have proven their businesses. but sometimes many entrepreneurs just get so involved that they forget they they forgot totally why they start the business so and because they are in the daily operation and they don't even have more division the vision that is supposed to have because maybe if you start a company of natural products but where i'm i want to go with that company do i want to sell in five years in 10 years? Do I want to become the biggest brand in the United States? Do I want to manufacture them here? What is the main vision? So if you have a structure from the vision to the end, you will see and we create the roadmap to give you the opportunity to have that company and that legacy that will last. But you have to build, for example, with us, with the structure, with system. And this is not just because I have seen in the social media lately that, you know, the scan of overnight success. I'm not going to promise that tomorrow you will have millions already there because that's not true. That's just ploof off. That's it. That's not true. So I'm going to work. This is my program. I'm launching this today. I have been already worked with private clients already in different areas. We have a client, a dealership clients, a biotech company, a real estate, but we have been working for the last year with private clients. But we decided to launch the framework publicly today because we have a lot of great results for those other entrepreneurs. That's the issue that when you start a company and then you forget where you started the first time and it wasn't for you to be an employee because then you just transform into your own as an employee and that's it. And the most difficult part is not just to become an entrepreneur or start your business. That's the easy part. The difficult part is to transform your company, your entrepreneurial journey, until real enterprise. Yeah, I think you're right. I want to get into the framework in the little bit of time we have, but one of the things you just said was so important because I think that most entrepreneurs, business owners, idea makers, they start this journey and they follow something that, like you said, originally they have this reason, this why, this passion for, but then they start doing business and they get overworked and they get overloaded and they start to have to learn and then they forget what they're doing it for. and they get to a point that's usually when they're a six, seven figure business owner that they just hit a block and they forget why they're doing it. They don't have the systems to move forward. And so you're saying you're taking your background, your SOPs, your experience, and you put this framework together to help them push past that. So let's talk about that framework for a minute. What is the framework? When you say framework for a bold business, what do you mean by that? Okay, the World Business Framework is a four-month program for these entrepreneurs, these businesses, as you say, that they are surviving because they are doing a lot of stuff they don't want to get outside. And this program will transform your business into a machine that produces multiplies your profits and gives you the time that you need And we are focused in four major areas sales and marketing In that part we focus to bring to build brand authority and implement sales systems. In those same systems, we sharpen positioning and multiply revenues. That's the first area. Then we have operation and systems. In this part, we optimize your business model or the client business model by building a systems infrastructure that we allow the business runs without the dependence of the owners. Another area that we have is investor readiness. This investor readiness, we will help develop a strategic financial three and five years plan to make sure your business is fundable, is scalable, or is exit ready. Wherever you want to go. If you tell me in five years, I just want to sell this company, you will sell it, but we need to have a plan. And for that one, we have to tailor some different strategies in order to achieve these objectives, for example. Yeah, agreed. Exactly. Because that depends on what you want. But at the of the day you have to build a company that lasts even if it's for you or if you want to sell it. Yeah, exactly. That's the main point and the fourth major area I have is growth strategy. In this section we analyze which growth strategy will be the best option for the business, not for you, for the business. If we are going to expand vertically, horizontally or if we are going to, for example, to licensee, franchising, or export. That's also that we need to see how do you want to proceed. If we want to just increase our catalog here in the United States, or if we want to explore, or what do we want to do with the business. So, these are the main four major categories, but also we implement for all of this section, we implement AI integration, because AI integration now is a, I mean, it's fundamental to have in our companies as an entrepreneur. I love it. I love it. And I think that those, so let me see if I repeat this back to you just so that for anybody that's listening. So you've got these four major parts and areas of your framework. It starts with sales and marketing, which is going to help get the revenue and things moving in a bigger way. It goes to operational systems, right? Because you've got to be able to scale. So you need these operational systems. Then investor funding and game plan, right? Whether it's your three to five year exit strategy or, or, or rate or getting funds and then growth strategies so that you can identify you're right. Cause when you get to a point of six, seven figures, the growth strategies change. Exactly. All of these things you're saying you will work with, um, you know, the experience and the connections and contacts you have will help, you know, investors or entrepreneurs or founders to put these systems together and bring in automation, which I'm a big fan of, you know, because you can have these things. but if you're not leveraging AI automation right now, you're not getting the true benefits of it. And so that sounds like a pretty powerful framework. Let's talk about, because you have, you mentioned a couple of examples. Can you, in order for people to kind of get their head around this, maybe we take your car dealership example. Give me an idea of how you apply the framework to that particular person. Well, Mike is one of, for example, he's a great salesman. He could sell, you know to everyone a car but his dealership was completely disorganized and he all when he approached to us he told me on a hit my big problem is that i run out of cash always because time and money right they run out of their own time and their own money and also he have a lot of tight of money with the the inventory he have a lot of it was he have a lot in inventory there So I say, okay, let me check what you have. And on paper, it looked profitable, but in practice, it was completely chaos. So we implement for him, we implement the dealer stock is a CRM for his dealership to capture every lead and track every interaction that he has because he has like a note. he still have notes on paper so because he is from the old school he has great sales salesman okay me too i use the paper we do but you got to have the systems too right exactly because then your your mind is going to forget about whatever so and then we recommend an ai driven follow-up a system that send personalized texts and emails automatically on the financial side we implement And then in QuickBooks, advanced tool for cash flow. So he can check when was the time to purchase more inventory or when he have to go to the auction cars, for example. And the other thing that we have for him, I remember, I think I have here, is Cox Auto AI. We optimized that one. It was a system that introduced for truck inventory and pricing. So we'll check, he will check the pricing and also to track their inventory. So with 19 days of the program, his cash flow is stabilized and he says, of course, his sales team have the opportunity to sales to have more follow up. And he increased from 55% to 92% in the follow up rate. because he didn't have... Sometimes you think, no, I'm not going to do the SMS because people, that's very old. But that's not true. We're still people that have, that like the SMS. Well, not only that, but I want to hit out, you hit something really strange. And I believe to most people, they would feel that way. But I believe that most of the increase is found in the cracks of the business you already have. So he had all this opportunity. It's not like, of course, you help him to get more revenue and more leads, but he wasn't even really optimizing what he had. Right. And so that was a huge point. even follow-ups and interaction when someone came to the car maybe you can say okay i'm going to give you 30 percent less for the car yeah and then you have the opportunity to sell it and the other thing that improve for here was his cash flow and also the turner the he increased the he decreased for 22 days the inventory uh because the money was stopped there yeah in the cars so i think that was a great um a great great example for my for for mike and also he told me i i can barely sleep because i have the problem for the cash flow because he was he was he was seeing profit but the problem he he didn't know where the the money were so that's that's that's chaos and that's disorganized you know there a there a state in your bit so when you get and i seen this happened over and over and over and over i built you know i done over a billion dollars in sales with my clients um i seen the businesses grow and hit that point and what happens is it not just an overwhelm it's that like you just said where do you start there's systems there's funding needed there's sales and marketing needed and so when someone comes in that's why i always recommend And not so much consults or consulting, but experts like mentoring. You're talking about people that have done it, right? You've built and scaled businesses through like Walmart and some of these others. Because you don't know what you don't know. And you don't know where to start for a reason. Your business, your mind, your expertise can only take you as far as your expertise can take you. Exactly. And when you're a new entrepreneur, you can just experiment and you can do more. But when you get to six, seven figures, it's time you got to bring in people that have gotten it to eight, nine figures or else it's difficult, right? So I really like that. One of the things, and I wish we had a ton of time to go through a lot of examples, but one of the things I would love to ask you is you've got this powerful framework. And I think it's, by the way, it's a great name, the Bold Business Framework, meaning let's expand where you're at. and you've got a system and you've got a process and you've had a lot of experience and success with it, but maybe there's entrepreneurs and business owners out there right now that are, they just don't know where to start. And I know it probably takes a key mindset shift, but what recommendation would you have to someone that is a six, seven figure business owner, entrepreneur, founder of where to start? Like where do they start and what kind of a mindset that shift does it take for them to go say, hey, I need to get help and I need to make a change? Where do you- And the right help. The right help also. Okay. Well, I think for me, I think the main shift that we need to have in our mind is to change from Husser to real CEOs. Because many entrepreneurs, as you say, or six and seven figures are trapped in the grind. And to scale, you have to step back, take a time, review what you are doing, and remember the vision that you used to have. Because in the process, you forget about that. Or if you want to just pivot, or if you want to change, then you have to rethink what is the vision, where do you want to go with your business. And also another one is that I have is from passion to profit. I'm really a passion. I'm very passionate about what I'm doing. And passion is great as an entrepreneur, but passion, I mean, don't, don't sell the passion. Don't pay your salary of your team. And what move, what move investor, your team and the market is profit. profit. So you have to frame everything in profit, in ROI terms. You need to have data. You need to have key performance indicators. You have to have all of these available immediately. So that's what I always recommend systems and structure, because if you have all of these in place, you can make intelligent decisions. And even though if you need to pivot, if you need to change something, or if you want to go further, you need data. You need data. You don't have to be emotional about your business. That's not the way to do business. And from chaos to clarity, that is what I'm saying already is the structure and system. That way you will see not everything is going to be as planned, but at least you are going to have immediately information that will help you to take a smart decision and I think it's the most what I would like to say to everyone listening right now is there is a difference between grow and scale because you can grow grow can be harder but if you scale smarter you will have a company that that work for you and know you work for the company So I think the best way to do it is work with me. Yeah. Well, and here's the thing. I think that is the mind shift. I think that you go from growing a business and it's a different mindset to scale it. But I love what you said, and I want to point it out because success leaves clues. If you're listening to this, you might be writing down strategies and tactics that Onajira is talking about, but the detail is important. And you notice she started with step back and remind yourself of your vision. She didn't say step back and go get some funding or whatever. That's all part of it. But you started with vision, but you really quickly said you got to move to profit and you got to gain clarity on your path. And I think that those three steps are powerful. You know, reconnect with your vision, get the profits, gain some clarity. You've got to shift your mindset from growth to scaling. And so I love the framework and I love your thoughts. And I think this is something that's pretty valuable for most people. So before we take off here, is there any last comment or thought you want to leave with our audience? Well, I'm really glad to be here. And also, I was saying that it's better to scale smart than grow harder. Because the difficult part of being an entrepreneur, and I have been there, of course, and I'm still there, is to transform your business, your entrepreneurial journey into an enterprise. And that's what I'm here for, to help you entrepreneurs to apply tools that I already have proven a success in 500 Fortune companies in Europe because it's universal. I mean, you don't have the business is going to be the tools that we apply. I already proven there are no just guesswork. No, I don't work like that. And also we have proven already that they are working. And if you are ready to scale SMART, I'm here to help you. Yeah. Well, and I'll do, you know, listen, if you're listening to this, I'll put some links in the show notes. You can go check out, go directly to the Bold Business Framework, and you can also check out her links on social media. And, you know, I really appreciate you being here with us today, by the way. Thank you. But if you're listening to this, I want to remind you that no matter where you're at, whether you're experiencing massive growth or whether you're hitting a roadblock or whether you're struggling, you know, it's never too late to start creating the business that you wanted to create. And you're in a different place now. It just takes starting and making the decision and making the steps moving forward. So thank you so much for being with us here today. I hope you've learned something and grown. Do me a favor and share this show. Check out the show notes. And I'll look forward to talking with you soon. Once again, this is George Wright III. This has been the daily mastermind and have a great day.
