GABY SEDRA - FULL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
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THE MEANING OF THRIVING THROUGH
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AJ: Welcome to this episode of the Thriving Through Podcast. Today, I am delighted to welcome Gaby Sedra as my guest. Gaby, I'm delighted to see you.
Gaby: Yeah, nice to meet you, and thanks for having me here. It's exciting.
AJ: Well, we're going to have a good time today. So, I have a couple questions I like to ask all my podcast guests. And the first one is, as you know, the name of the podcast is called Thriving Through. What does thriving through mean to you?
Gaby: Yeah, well, I do think that thriving is also a resilience, and making sure that we understand that in everything that we're doing, there's going to be tribulation and hardship. And to go through it, you know, go through this hardship with good faith and good joy, and knowing that you will go through it, and that you will be okay at every level. In your journey, and thriving is exactly that. I do believe that every time you go through the next step, it's a different level with a lot more challenges, but you look back and say, well, I can't believe that I made it through this hardship. And we need that.
AJ: I like that. That's a good mindset.
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PATH TO SELF-EMPLOYMENT
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AJ: And the second question I like to ask everybody at the start of the podcast is, what was your path to becoming a self-employed consultant?
Gaby: Yeah, well, my path, it took me about two years ago, I became a self-employed consultant, maybe a little bit over that, and what I realized, it took me a while to realize that even though I was an employee working for companies throughout my career, that I was actually doing the role of a person that's self-employed. It was actually an employer that made me realize that. Because I happened to be in a position which I got hired for, which was a large organization, and then I found myself with no resources, and thinking that I was going to have resources. How am I going to change an entire organization, and how am I going to influence so many people around the world in this international company without having any resources? And then the people saw in me entrepreneurial skills, and how I influence people, how I communicate, how there was no boundaries for me.
And that ignited in me something that made me realize, I mean, you could be an entrepreneur before even actually being an entrepreneur. You could have that mindset where you're walking in. And I worked for a company called Medtronic, where one of the principles that used to stick to me a lot was saying that, you know, act as if you're an owner of the part of your business. And that also instilled in me something. And I took that to heart. A lot of the employees would just say, look at these sayings and say, well, it doesn't really matter. I actually took it to heart, so whenever I had initiatives and so on, I made them my own, and I really took it as if it was my business, and from there on, it ignited that. But I really officially became an independent contractor in 2023, around that time.
AJ: The transition to being self-employed with that mindset is easier. One of the things I see with self-employed consultants when they come from the corporate world into self-employment is it takes them a while to realize that they are the CEO of their business, but they wear all the hats, not just serving clients, but all the hats. So, that sounds like it might have been a little bit easier for you, because you already had that mindset.
Gaby: Yeah, and I mean, there are certain things that are hard and are not transitional. Like, they're not that smooth when you're looking at it from an independent standpoint. You have to learn the finance part of it, and the accounting part of it, and all things that you were not exposed to when you were an employee. We were not taught this growing up. I mean, I grew up in a family where all we talked about was service, service unto others. And that was what we would talk about on the dinner table. But, you know, we didn't talk about finances, and we didn't talk about the business side of things, but the principles were there. But yeah, there are certain learning curves that are steep that you have to pick up from it, and that definitely was not necessarily always smooth.
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BIGGEST CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS
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AJ: So, speaking of learning curves, tell us a story or two about the biggest challenges you faced as you've been building your business and how you overcame them.
Gaby: Well, you know, one of the biggest challenges that you get is obviously the finance side, making sure that you understand necessarily the accounting, or the repercussions of how to manage a business, how to be incorporated. I went and I sought out a business coach, so that really helped me. Sometimes there's a lot of humility that needs to come whenever you're doing something, and even though it is a humbling experience, you have to understand that you can't do it alone, and you need to kind of seek other people's guidance.
And I think one of the things was getting that business coach. He kind of taught me something valuable, because I wasn't seeing the full picture of what needs to be taken care of. He taught me the importance of building a one-pager business canvas, where you talk about your revenue streams, and how you're going to develop partnership and value proposition, and all of these were kind of—I've heard these things in piecemeal throughout my career, but never packaged. And so that elevator pitch, and how do you package them all into one pager? And he taught me that, and it was very valuable. I didn't have a lot of sessions with him, but those few sessions were right on point.
The other thing that I discovered was the importance of partnerships and partnering with people that have similar philosophy, similar principles, but different capabilities. And that's where I found it's really important. So, also understanding your limitations as a business or as an individual. But partnering with people that think like you, but have different skill sets, and complement you. And I found that also very valuable to help me overcome some of the difficult period where I was just spinning my wheels on my own, late at night, at 2 in the morning, just trying to figure things out alone. I realized, well, you don't have to be so alone in everything that you're doing.
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INVESTING IN A BUSINESS COACH
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AJ: I want to come back to both of those. I have questions about each of them. One is on the business coach, so early on you hired a business coach. That can't have been an easy decision, because money's kind of tight early on. So what made you decide to invest in a business coach at a time where maybe the voice in your head was saying, you can't afford to do this?
Gaby: So, it's funny that you say that, and not all the things come with a price tag. When you're telling everybody that you're launching and you're going on your own, a lot of your friends come back and say, I could help you with this, I could help you with that. And so I have a good friend of mine, and he said to me, look, Gaby, I can't really help you with the business side of things, and however, my dad is an executive coach. And he dealt with big people, like he even mentioned like Donald Trump and other people that were really big. And so he told me, look, what I can do for you is I can introduce you to my dad.
So I accepted that. I said, you know what, of course, that's great. And he allowed me to kind of have more time, and he was really generous. He didn't want anything out of it. And the good thing about it is he gave me that senior perspective about things, but it taught me as well to be generous with people. And it taught me to open up to people and be more vulnerable, because that's the thing, is not everything has to have a price tag. Even if you're in business, and that was a misconception that I have. It's not all transactional. It's like, sometimes you do have to offer your service for free. And yes, you will spend some time doing things for free, but it's not going to go unnoticed. I mean, it's still service, but I learned a good lesson from that individual. But yeah, thank you for pointing that out. It's good to kind of share with others with the knowledge that you have, and not necessarily have a price tag associated.
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PARTNERSHIP STRUCTURE AND PHILOSOPHY
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AJ: Right. And then the other question about partnerships. Partnerships can be tricky to find the right personalities. When you talk about partnerships, are your partnerships formalized, or are they more loosely aligned with each other?
Gaby: Loosely. Well, what helps is, like, one of them is my brother, which is my brother. He's an incredible individual. You know, he's my older brother, his name is Malik. He has a company called eSky Solutions, and what they do is they have digital platforms, they do websites. And so a lot of it is kind of, like, he helps in kind of giving me, providing me certain digital technology that I don't have. And I could reward him by some of the courses he puts on my platform, then when there's sales, then he can get a portion of that. But again, some of the partnerships have similar principles and values, like I said, and that's really important, because you have to come to an agreement where it's kind of a good trade-off for both people. It's a win-win situation. That's something also I learned to seek partners with win-win. Like, how can we both kind of gain?
Another of my partners, I became good friends with over the years, and at the beginning what we did is we would have a lot of calls together. His name is Rhian Duploi. At the beginning, we would have just conversations, just meetings, just like me and you were just talking. And we would share ideas, and we would share different commonalities. But with time, it grew up into, like, well, yeah, well, if we could exchange business benefits as we're going and getting together. And that mentality helps out a lot. And again, it goes back to the service-first, service-first attitude and service-first partnership, which is important.
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STARTING THE STARS IN OUR SKY PODCAST
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AJ: Speaking of your brother, you started a podcast called Stars in Our Sky. And when we met earlier, you said it was one of the ways you overcame the challenge of getting visible. Can you walk us through that decision to start a podcast?
Gaby: Yeah, so I'll go a bit back. When I started the business, my brother gifted me with, he helped me get into a course called a Dale Carnegie course. And the Dale Carnegie course was called Skills for Success, or Skills for Results, but basically skills, building skills for business and networking. And one of them was just, like, kind of like, put yourself out there, constantly work on networking.
So that ignited it, and together, we, because we were having conversation, me, him, and Rhian Duploi, which is eSky and Golinit, we were having conversations together constantly about just life and business and so on. We said, hey, it would be a great idea if we recorded what we would say. Because if, I'm sure somebody would benefit. And that's how it started. We said, well, if we just recorded what we would say, and so many people would benefit because you got 3 people with life experience and different business routes, then why not do that? And that would be another form of service that we would do. And we said, well, we will also invite people, and we will call it Stars in Our Sky, because my brother came up with that name in the sense that whenever we bring people, there are like stars that come, and they would also bring their journey and how they went about it. So yeah, it's been an exciting few months that we've been doing it, but we're going, we're still going with it, and it's growing, so we're enjoying the process.
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MARKETING CHALLENGES AND REALITIES
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AJ: Fantastic. I want to talk about early days of client acquisition. So, can you share a story about a time when you tried to market yourself and it didn't go the way you hoped?
Gaby: It happens more often than not. I mean, I want the realistic part of it is that whenever you're marketing yourself out there, you have to know that you're against tremendous competition. So, I think that the reality check that anybody has to get is that you're say, like, a ratio of 1 out of 100. You know, you're going to do 100 applications, or you're going to market yourself 100 times, or you're going to speak to 100 clients, you may get one response. The ratio is small. But it's the tenacity, it's the repetition, it's the pick up the phone again.
I wouldn't give you one story, I could give you, like, 99 stories. But it's that one success that comes in that you celebrate makes you forget the 99 other ones. But what I would say is that in marketing, you're always trying to set yourself apart from the competition. And that's the hardest part to do, because there's so much noise out there. And I'm sure you see it. You're on LinkedIn, and out of all the stuff you get out of LinkedIn, how much of that do you actually stop and say, yeah, I'm going to connect with this person? Probably very little. You're just bombarded. So, yeah, not a specific example, but yeah, there is a lot that fail through.
AJ: I like, you know, you're absolutely right about you have to get out there a lot to get some wins.
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FIRST CLIENT WINS
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AJ: So, tell us about your first real win in getting a client through your own marketing efforts.
Gaby: So, the first win, it was actually more of word of mouth and reputation. So it was someone that worked with me in a previous company, and he knew the impact that was done. So the marketing had started even from before. I was starting to display that I am a new business, and I put on a video that I'm doing this type of business, and I started to record myself often explaining and sharing value-added content to people online, and doing an open session where people can come for free to get free learning and so on. And that person reached out to me and said, I want you to start consulting in my organization, and I need your help. And even though that person's from another continent, another region, that helped me to get on my feet and say, you know what, yeah, I want to do this. I want to help you out, and that helped propel for more.
AJ: And then, how about a win when you got a client that you went out and landed. You know, not a referral, not someone coming to you, but somebody that you didn't know, wasn't a lead already? Tell us about a win, your first win there.
Gaby: Yeah, well, the first one that you get from this type, where it's like someone kind of applies for it, it's definitely a satisfying feeling that you know that you have at least the mechanisms right. You've promoted it right, you have the right advertisement that was done. You also kind of have to put a little bit of money to promote it, whether through Google Ads or through any of the other advertisement. The wins there are good, but I say it's always, for me at least, it's always better word of mouth. It's always better that you're marketing through networking, because again, I think the key is how do you get people to trust your business? When people are always going, generally, if you're looking, let's say, for an insurance company, your first reaction is to go through the big insurance companies, you know, the ones that you're so used to hearing. So, the idea is, locally, how can you grab some of those clients through networking?
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PRIMARY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CHANNEL
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AJ: So, networking is your primary channel of business?
Gaby: Yeah, networking, definitely. Networking, word of mouth, and partnerships, and making sure that partners help you out as well, because partners get other streams, so they're working through that.
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MULTIPLE REVENUE STREAMS STRATEGY
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AJ: Okay. You've built multiple revenue streams. Your e-learning platform, direct consulting, partnerships with consulting firms. Was that intentional from the beginning, or did that evolve?
Gaby: That was intentional. Yeah, so that was intentional. I wanted to make sure that when we were building the business canvas, I wanted to make sure that I have different ways of reaching the clients. One is I had a philosophy on how to transform organizations that are of different size, and that is where it's really important to know how will I be capable of transforming large organizations without physically being in those large organizations, without killing myself, or without hiring an extensive amount of people. So I had to think of, and that's where the e-learning came into place, and e-certifications, and getting people can log in and do their own self-pace, and so you can cater for any size. And so I was able to do B2B, business-to-business, and I was able to do B2C for individual clients. So it was like a flexible model where you can cater to any type. So I had to come up with these kind of mechanisms that helped me scale rapidly.
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BUILDING THE GOLINIT E-LEARNING PLATFORM
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AJ: Tell us about the Golinit Platform. What prompted you to build it, and what challenges did you face in getting it off the ground?
Gaby: Well, look, I'm a Lean Certified, I'm a master black belt. I've done 20 years of Lean Six Sigma across multiple organizations of all the different size. So, from small, large, and across the world, so I already had a philosophy of how this platform needs to work. What are the key components that an organization would need that would be specifically value-added for someone seeking a lean organization? So I had already done my benchmark, I had already known what is being offered out there, and what are the struggles of an organization to get a good lean program.
So when I got that program going, now the question was to package it, and then I got my brother to help me out with building the website, and making sure that it has the right visuals, and I kind of inputted a lot of the information in there. I also work with other companies to make sure I have good e-learning content, so I made sure to have content as well that's on my platform. And then sharing the experience that I have helps to be the voice of the company and knowing that I know what I'm bringing to these organizations. So that's how we kind of got her off the floor.
AJ: And how is the platform doing?
Gaby: It's doing good, yeah. So I think the challenge is always to get people to your website. I think we could do more in terms of making sure that website is more visible to people. I think with the podcast, it helps to generate that, so that's starting. But I think trying to get it more visible on the internet is probably going to be the biggest challenge. You still have to do a lot of marketing, and that never stops, that really never stops.
But the platform itself is good. We have the website, where clients can access directly to our website and connect with us, but we also have the Academy, which is the e-learning platform, and then once we give the users access to that, so then they have access to hundreds of courses and certification, and then we add coaching as well to the clients.
AJ: And the e-learning platform is a subscription model?
Gaby: Yeah, it's a subscription model, it's an annual subscription, and then depending on what you want, some people say we just want for the year. We obviously give for large organizations, so it could be X number of people, then you get a certain discount for your organization, and so we try to customize it to what the client wants, so there's a lot of flexibility.
AJ: And hundreds of lessons. You said that it has hundreds of lessons. Did you build all of those out?
Gaby: So, we have micro-courses, we have over 10,000 different micro-courses. No, I don't build them. I partner with different content providers. He has a lot of those already on his platform, so we leverage that. We have Lean Six Sigma certifications, so Lean Six Sigma certifications, they're very particular in the industry. You often see them as being, like, you need a trainer to come in person to give those trainings, so we streamline that, we give the option to the client. Do you want us to come in person and train you, or do you want us to do it remotely? Or you want the cost-effective approach, where you can just have your employees access it online, and follow the process, and get their accredited certification at the end. And so a lot of them, they find that's very attractive, because nowadays we've become a global world. Globalization. You don't want everybody to be flying across the world to just take a course. So, that makes it easier to streamline that process.
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BEING COMFORTABLE WITH BEING UNCOMFORTABLE
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AJ: You talked about learning to be comfortable being uncomfortable. Can you give us a specific example of a time when you forced yourself to do something that felt really uncomfortable?
Gaby: So, I'll give you a personal example. I'll give you a personal story, and I learned that through different stories. One of them, I used to like to joke around, and my brother, he knew that. He knew that I was, like, I had a joking side of me. I'm not always serious. To the outside world, I made it appear a bit more serious. So, he knew I had a skill for saying jokes, and so on, but I was still a very shy person. And so my brother, because he knew that I had this talent, he made this huge event where he invited people in the community, like, hundreds of people. And he put me on the spotlight, where he gave me the main event, or like a half an hour of the event, to do stand-up comedy.
And he didn't give me really a choice. He's my older brother, and I was young, I was in my teens, and he didn't really give me a choice or a way out of it, but he told me, you know, this is the date of the event. And we're advertising that you're going to be the one doing the stand-up, which is the main part of the whole event. And then people came, and I went through it. And it was definitely uncomfortable at the beginning, given that I was shy, but I went, and I did a great job at doing it, but it taught me that lesson, where growth only comes with discomfort. So, if you want to accelerate it, especially, and so from there on, it also helped me to grow that comfort level of being comfortable with being uncomfortable.
And when I was even younger, again, a story with my brother encouraging me to go, we did our first vacation, first time we leave out of the country. It was only me and him and his best friend, and I was 12 years old, and he was 15, and we went to Egypt by ourselves. So, we flew and we spent 2 months in Egypt. And again, that's a growing experience. No parents, no adults, just us wanting to have an adventure and going out there.
So, this, in personal, as much as in professional life, it's really important to kind of do this, and this is something that I also, when I'm coaching clients, I tell them that the importance of transformation—in order for you guys to really reach the results that you want as an organization, you have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. And anytime we're introducing a traditional organization, and you want them to become a continuous improvement organization, they have to make that leap, and that leap of faith in it. And they got to make their employees get out of their comfort zone, and become, start experimenting. And that's something that, as much as I try to practice it in my life, I also like to bring it to other people as well.
AJ: It's really critically important. That's where the growth and the learning come from.
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DECISIONS AND REFLECTIONS
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AJ: Looking back over your 2 plus, 3 plus years of self-employment, is there a decision you made early on that you would do differently now?
Gaby: That's a good question. I think a lot of people, like, I still jumped into independent contracting, like, transitioned very quickly. And what I think is often, we delay this type of jump in our career till a late age. And I think, you know, I have kids, and I have a wife, so having a family and taking that much of a risk at an older age, you can say, well, why couldn't I have done this earlier. Like, there's always that in the back of my mind. Why did I have to, I was kind of doing the same job inside different organizations. Why didn't I start earlier? And so that's really the thing that kind of goes in my mind, like, when you're saying, well, you see a lot of younger people who have way less risk choose a very safe path, and you tell yourself, well, why don't you go experiment something like this? You know, why don't you try? And some of them are great specialists in what they do. So, to each their own, but I think, for me, I could have started earlier, and that's something that I don't regret, obviously I don't regret, but I think it could have worked out still.
AJ: And so would you tell your earlier self to get out there sooner?
Gaby: Yes, yes, yes. And sometimes you listen to other people, like, you know, I'll give you the example of the stand-up comedy. Sometimes you're pushed into situations, but you don't have to be pushed. You can throw yourself. You can attempt it, and what's the worst that's going to happen? And I'm sure you've heard that many times. What won't kill you makes you stronger.
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LIFESTYLE AND FLEXIBILITY
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AJ: Is your consulting practice delivering the lifestyle you dreamed of?
Gaby: Yes, yes, yes, I would say yes, because flexibility is the key. I do think time is of the essence, and that's what it gives me. You're not restricted. So from a lifestyle standpoint, it's definitely the best option that you can have.
So, it is the perk of the job. Every job, you want to have some advantages, and this is the number one advantage, which is flexibility. Flexibility who you work with, flexibility which location you go to, the time of the day that's most suitable for you. So, that picking and choosing definitely helps your lifestyle, because we're busy people, and we have families to take care of. So, again, it goes back to your priorities, like, who you're putting first in your life, and how do you manage around that?
For me, I have God, which is very important, making sure that I have time for my church and my service, and my spiritual life, my family, and making sure that I can go attend my kids' activities and be there for my family when they need me, and then there is the work aspect of it as well. So, how do you navigate all of that with a very busy calendar and work around it? So, that's really the advantage.
AJ: Very true, yes. I absolutely agree. I was able to go to almost every one of my son's games, and he played multiple sports, and I never missed a game, because I had control over my own schedule.
Gaby: That's huge.
AJ: It is huge.
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FUTURE VISION
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AJ: So I want to switch to the visioning into the future. Where do you see your business in the next 3 to 5 years?
Gaby: So, one of the things, I'm going to tell you, but it probably won't be a surprise to you, the inefficiencies in the government sector, working with large organizations. I have worked a lot with private, less with the public. And I think this is where I would probably do most of the expansion, so we've done a lot of applications in that area, a lot of proposals there. It is a bit slower in terms of getting back to us, but yeah, working with the government is definitely something that I think is of interest of me, and helping out the United States, Canada and other areas around the world for improving the efficiencies. Definitely becoming more global as an organization is what I want to establish a little bit more with time. So these are kind of my key focuses.
AJ: Okay, so going more global and working with governments. What do you think are the biggest challenges you're going to face in achieving your goals?
Gaby: The challenge comes back to what sets you apart from the competition. And this is a constant challenge that we're facing, and today, with AI, and with competition, like, before, you were competing against a firm, and you knew the firms. These are the firms. Today, you don't even know who you're competing against. You don't even know if the person that's next to you is a robot, or are you competing against this website that's 10 times faster than you? So, the challenge is definitely knowing what is the competition that's out there, and understanding it, and constantly reinventing the business so it could be adaptable for the new era that we're facing.
And I think that's a big threat for a lot of people. Like, AI and all that is. We did a podcast recently about how AI competes with AI, and how they comment on their own stuff. I think the sky's the limit from that end as well, and so how do you integrate, as well, that type of technology in your business? It's a challenge. And then looking at the end customer, what are they looking for, too? Because the end customer, as well, is changing. And what they need is no longer what was there 20 years ago. So, we just have to kind of face that challenge. It's a reality, and it's coming quicker than we think.
AJ: Yes, it is. Absolutely.
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RAPID-FIRE CLOSING QUESTIONS
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AJ: Well, we're nearing the end of the podcast, and I have a couple, I call them the rapid-fire closing questions.
Gaby: Sure, yeah, go for it.
AJ: What's one book, podcast, or resource that's been invaluable to your consulting business?
Gaby: Yeah, I listen a lot to Patrick Bet-David. I think he's very informative in the things that he brings, so I do like that podcast. That's been one of my top lists lately.
Also, I could take an opportunity to talk about my brother's book, which is, it's not for my advertisement, I don't get anything out of it, but it's for him. This is Malik's book. It's called Playing to Win. So, Malik being a good mentor to me, even an older brother, but he's a good mentor, and he's a good business reference for me, and he's been a great help as well in my journey to becoming independent. He mentors a ton of people. So his book, which is sold on Amazon, is worth taking a peek at. He's definitely giving an example of the foundational principles of being a strong entrepreneur, and being a good person, and how to work navigating the complexities of organizations.
AJ: Okay, wonderful. And my last question is the most important question. How can listeners connect with you if they want to learn more about you and your work?
Gaby: Yeah, so obviously you could connect with me through LinkedIn, that's mostly the platform that I'm on, so just add me, connect with me on Gaby Sedra. You can go through our website as well, and put me, add me to the form, we can have a free consultation as well. So, at GoLinit.com. And yeah, would love to connect with others that we can get an opportunity to discuss. I'm currently in the Tampa area in Florida, so if there's people out there that as well want to meet in person, so we can have a chance to meet.
AJ: Wonderful. And for those of you listening, Gaby's LinkedIn profile URL and the website URL will be in the show notes.
Gaby: Awesome, thank you so much.
AJ: So, Gaby, thank you so much for meeting with me and letting me pick your brain today.
Gaby: Thank you.
AJ: For all of those listening, until next time, keep thriving through.