Who doesn’t want to be a millionaire? Money making conversations with ‘yes we can’ as a response is something every business individual strives for. And if a leading financial expert is assisting you in it, assuring the desired benefits through an intellectual conversation and with a solid proof, it’s the cherry on the top of a cake, isn’t it?
Meet Loral Langemeier, a money expert, sought after speaker, entrepreneurial thought leader, and best-selling author of five books who is on a relentless mission to change the conversation about money and empower people around the world to become millionaires. Through her innovative platform Integrated Wealth Systems, Inc. she is converting this vision into reality. In an interview with Insights Success she sailed us through her persistent life journey that begins with ‘Yes! I can’ as an answer.
Below are the highlights of the interview between Insights Success and Loral Langemeier:
Give a brief overview of your background as an entrepreneur.
I didn’t come from success. I’m a farm girl from Nebraska – I created my success in life, and I think a large part of that is my desire to always have a high-level conversation One of my most formative memories is from when I was a child at Thanksgiving time. There was a table for the adults and there was a kid’s table. I was told to sit at the kid’s table, but I quickly decided that I didn’t like the conversation the kids were having and that I wanted to be where the real conversation was. I went to the adult table, pulled up a chair, and invited myself to the conversation!
I think that lesson is so important and missing from so many people – they are not inviting themselves to the conversation! No one is going to do it for you, and so you have to go out and make it happen yourself.
How do you diversify your organization’s offerings to appeal to the target audience?
We simply listen to the marketplace! During our workshops, we talk about the process that ANY sales person needs to utilize to help close a sale or better understand what their customer is looking for. Whether it’s a one on one conversation, or me learning and seeing what the market wants, we appeal to the audience by delivering EXACTLY what they ask for.
It’s amazing to me how few entrepreneurs listen to their customers and the market, and it’s the biggest opportunity to make money or grow a business when done well.
Describe some of the vital attributes that every entrepreneur should possess.
The most important attribute or skill is understanding your numbers; every entrepreneur should understand their finances, their taxes, and corporate structure.
Business is a numbers game, and if you don’t have a thorough understanding of the numbers of your business, product or service, and market, you will not succeed.
How do you strategize your game plans to tackle competition in the market?
The easiest way to tackle competition is to have none! When you look at some of the biggest companies of the past 25 years, a majority of them created entirely new products or services that didn’t exist before. So when you are thinking about how you will compete, consider how many competitors there are first and whether or not it’s a field worth competing in.
Once you decide you want to compete in a market with other providers, you need to determine what the best value is that you can provide and gives you an almost unfair advantage over your competitors, and then offer that.
What are the frequent challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in the workplaces and what are the ways to tackle them?
Even though I am a world leading business and personal finance expert, I still find that there are men who have trouble dealing or working with a woman. While I can’t fight stereotypical mindsets, I can be the best at providing financial expertise. The key it to having enough potential clients and customers that I don’t have to rely on close minded folks who might not want to work with me. If they can’t wrap their minds around the idea of working with a woman, they REALLY won’t be able to wrap their minds about most of the deals I am working and I don’t need that hassle.
What were the primal challenges and roadblocks you faced during the initial phase of your career as an entrepreneur?
The biggest setback I ever had was the loss of my database during the move of my business from one location to another. I had been speaking and networking for years, and there were several hundred thousand people in it when we lost it. All of that hard work was gone and I was looking at having to start from scratch. The biggest thing this episode taught me was the importance of having the right people on your team no matter what it is you do. Having the right team in place and empowering them to act on your best interest is incredibly important if you want to truly grow and scale your business.
Where do you see yourself in the near future and what are your future goals?
Cannabis, block chain and crypto-currencies are the biggest areas I am currently exploring and making deals in. These have the potential to make the dot com era of the late 1990’s look like a dot bomb, and I am so excited with the variety of ways entrepreneurs will be creating their wealth during the next decade.
What is your advice for budding and emerging Shepreneurs?
The best piece of advice I was given and that I give out today is this: don’t give equity for what you can hire. I think too many people give equity away just because they want friends. If you can hire it, you don’t give equity away.
Sources: The 20 Most Successful Shepreneurs to watch in 2019
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