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Name: Athena Gray
Business: AEG & Co
Location: Valrico, Florida, U.S.
Industry: Professional Services
Reason for starting? A passion for helping others and a gift for simplifying concepts and sharing information led me to want to share these gifts with others. So many women have brilliant ideas that are never shared because they don’t know what to do, where to start or have thousands of dollars to pay someone to help them. Women’s Service Trade Network was born to connect women, help get them the information they need quickly and allow women to start their businesses off with a solid foundation. It will be a community where women can share information, trade services and promote their services to others through a membership site. Allowing them to launch their business at a minimal cost so they can share their gifts with the world.
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How do you define success? Success, to me, is when I see the light bulb go off, that expression of knowing when you have shared information and it clicks for them. Once it clicks they take action and find their own success. Seeing others succeed based on what I have shared with them is the most satisfaction I can get.
Biggest Success: Having a publisher take interest in my book. Having someone say, what you are offering is valuable is gratifying. I can’t wait for others to see it too!
What is your top challenge and how you have addressed it? My biggest challenge is attracting the audience. I know I have value to share, but getting in front of the right people without having to spend thousands on advertising can be a challenge. Having the patience to nurture and build relationships through forums and groups to attract the right audience can be very time consuming. I found being creative and thinking outside the box from what everyone else is doing have been the most valuable in growing my audience. I have reached out to other entrepreneurs to partner with complimentary products or services, I am currently reaching out to podcast providers and offering free training to their listeners, and I am joined a group that helps promote each others work and provides free content to each other’s lists.
Honestly when I started on this journey, I didn’t intend to head in the direction I have taken. It came from necessity because I could not find the help I needed to get started. As is true with my natural tendencies, I went into research mode. I started to writing down all I was learning. I filled up several notebooks. By the time I was ready to launch my business, I had so much information I knew I had to share with others who were facing the same challenge of launching their business without having to spend thousands. This completely changed my business model and put me on a different path, for which I am very grateful.
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Who is your most important role model? I adore Carrie Green. She was my inspiration for finally taking the leap to put myself out there and to stop being afraid to share my gifts. It started with her book, and then I joined her community. She provides so much value its unbelievable. Once I put myself out there, I found so many inspiring women doing the same thing. Just connecting with like-minded women has built my confidence and allowed me to grow so much faster than I would have thought possible.
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Edited by The Story Exchange