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Name: Kaare Long
Business: A Cue Creative Consulting, a creative consulting agency
Industry: Marketing & PR
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Reason for starting: I was a single mom on income assistance with two young daughters. I had no support in the way of child support and needed to find a way to not only survive as a single mom, but thrive. I realized the only way to that life was to create it myself. I bundled up all of my acquired skills over the years and created the very first version of my business.
Related: Read about another Marketing entrepreneur here.
How do you define success? Success for me means “perseverance.” Being a single mom creates many barriers to living a life that I could feel proud of and also be available as a mom to my two daughters. Success for me is sticking it through the hard times (there were many!) and sourcing my natural tenacity to never give up. It paid off. After many failures, I learned to utilize those times as lessons, a way to improve and get better. I realized that my failures were what made me an expert in my field. I had achieved a high status by refusing to give up, learn from my many mistakes and continue to grow without letting the failures bog me down.
Biggest Success: My biggest success is the creation and realization of a social movement project called “Sayhitoastranger.” This adventure started out as an experiment in my home city of Vancouver, and it ended up becoming a very popular and well-known event. The entire organization is volunteer run, organized and led. I created this project out of the passion and desire to live my personal and business motto “Community over Competition” — I work with others in my field and I work with local businesses. I believe that when we all work together and collaborate for a bigger vision, we can get further than if we compete with each other and work for just ourselves. This project has grown over the years and is now my biggest success and my proudest creation. This work helps me to have a positive impact on thousands of people at a time.
What is your top challenge and how have you addressed it? My biggest challenge has been in the financial realm. Coming from poverty while on government assistance, it was difficult for me to see the way out of that lifestyle. The transformation from poverty into self-sufficiency required a lot of deep inner personal work. It was very hard at times to work through issues, face fears and most importantly trust the path I was on.
I’ve continued to work on trust and allow my passion to lead. It’s a continuing process and I grow with each challenge I face. This challenge was overcome by learning how to believe in myself, ask for help when I needed it and trust in the power of commitment.
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Who is your most important role model? My role model is not just one person, they are many. I look up to and admire all the women in business who have come before me, persevered before me and given me the support, encouragement and advice on the right path to take. I’ve learned something from every woman in business I have connected with. It takes a lot of courage, determination and passion to lead the entrepreneur life, and the stories I hear from other women inspire me so much.
[box_light]Website www.acueconsulting.com
Twitter www.twitter.com/aCueConsulting
Facebook www.facebook.com/aCueConsulting[/box_light]
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Edited by The Story Exchang