Today we're joined by one a nationwide startup venture mentor who's humor and personal experiences have led her to two TedX talks. She's been named to the Phoenix Business Journals 40 Under 40 Class of 2017, and she's one of the nation's premier consultants. She has developed a “Backbone of Success”™ method that helps female leaders to up-level their business and mindset. She's a speaker, founder of #iStartFirst, Amazon bestselling author, Bossbabes and Millennial success coach, Olenka Cullinan!
The Notes
Olenka shares how she got started as an entrepreneur with her first business.
- Her first adventure was working for her mom translating and interpreting for her mom’s for her mom’s wine-making company.
- Her dad was a very conservative government official.
- Her only other career was teaching and she was drawn to it because of the schedule, but she did spend one short week in corporate business post college, which was not for her.
- Rising Tycoons was her first company that equipped teens to pitch their business ideas to investment panels in the Phillipines and India.
- That was the moment she knew she wanted to jump back into the entrepreneurial lifestyle.
- She continued teaching at a community college so she could build the business.
- She did a lot of public speaking to inspire young people to become entrepreneurs and which led to the birth of Rising Tycoons Academy.
Olenka shares some tips for parents who are raising teens right now.
- She encourages parents to find a mentor in the area of their potential or passion.
- It’s also important for them to have the opportunity to experience a myriad of different interests so they can explore and experiment.
- She encourages parents to also give their kids some form of financial education so they are more equipped to be independent in the real world.
Olenka gives some tips for how to find a mentor for your child.
- You can utilize people from your work or even entrepreneurial friends.
- It doesn’t need to be a formal or weekly commitment. It can just be a lunch date or an occasional Zoom call to check in.
- A kid swap could even work well so that you and a friend mentor one another’s kids- a business date instead of a play date!
- There are so many people who are willing to put in the time-it’s really a matter of reaching out.
Olenka talks about how #IStartFirst started gaining momentum.
- Her first book was called Passionistas, co-written by thirty-eight millennia lbusiness women.
- Through the writing of this book she recognized how few girls had wanted to participate in Rising Tycoons.
- A friend prompted her to consider what she could do to create a solution to this problem.
- She responded by creating the hashtag #IStartFirst to simply create awareness around the need for strong female leadership in the entrepreneurial world.
- From here, she launched bootcamps and summits for IStartFirst.
- She is adamant that these events are reserved for women since there so few resources available exclusively to women.
Olenka shares how she is raising her daughter with entrepreneurial skills.
- She found a mentor to meet with her daughter regularly.
- Her 8 year old daughter has had a bank account since she was six.
- Fifty percent of any money she gets goes into her bank account and the rest she gets to spend however she wants.
- She is learning the value of money and how to withhold from immediate gratification.
- She recently got to be the business manager in a school project where students were responsible for running a business.
- On Friday nights they have “Dollar Dinners” where they each have a opportunity to pitch a business idea to each other and together they decide whose idea was better and the winner gets one dollar.
Olenka shares some tips she’s learned for balancing business and family.
- She initially struggled with a lot of guilt in working so much, but has overcome a lot of that.
- She has a memory of her mom working a ton of hours and she realized she did not want that to be the case for her own family.
- She makes an effort to build her schedule around her daughter but she is also very honest with her daughter about what she has to accomplish.
- She tries to expose her daughter to best parts of being an entrepreneur, though it isn’t all a cake walk.
Olenka talks about what a “Sparkle Tribe” is.
- In her bootcamps, Olenka has weekly hour long coaching calls during the program, but then participants wanted an online space to continue to gather, so there is a Facebook group for them.
- The name came from a woman who likened the experience of the bootcamp to being around a campfire and watching the sparks go up and that the women were the “sparks” or “sparkles”.
Okenka shares how you can become more involved with her programs.
- She offers 30 Day bootcamps for 30 day goals where female business owners get to crush and surpass the goals they set.
- Those bootcamps are limited to 20 women to increase the level of participation and accountability.
- Twice a year she hosts the IStartFirst Summits with speakers, workshops, and networking opportunities.
Olenka shares her #1 piece of advice for a parent entrepreneur who is raising a kidpreneur.
- Let your children see as much into your business as possible.
- Share when things go wrong and what that means- as well as your successes so that they can participate in the celebration too.
Meet Olenka Cullinan
Olenka Cullinan, is a speaker, founder of #iStartFirst, Amazon bestselling author, Bossbabes and Millennial success coach. Olenka has developed a “Backbone of Success”™ method that helps female leaders to up-level their business and mindset. Her work as a startup venture mentor nationwide, combined with humor and personal experiences led to her two TEDx talks, Phoenix Business Journal 40Under40class of 2017, global exposure and made her into one of the nation’s premier consultants.