Q – 1) Kindly give our readers an introduction to your business. Please include what your business is all about, in which city you are located and if you have offices in multiple locations/ cities.
A) Forever Grateful Earth created the first coffee with six brain-healthy superfoods. First of all, we focused on the full coffee experience. Our coffee tastes better than a pour-over because we source only premium gourmet beans. Instant coffee gets a bad rap because so many companies use cheap coffee. We believe you don’t have to sacrifice taste to get the mushrooms and all-natural nootropics you want in your coffee.
Both of our coffee products come with your Super Brain Blend which consists of turmeric, cinnamon, lion’s mane, chaga, l-theanine and black pepper. All six of those powerful ingredients are infused into the coffee with extracts.
Here at Forever Grateful Earth we believe that Mother Earth has given us all we need to heal ourselves.
We believe these ingredients are the best all-natural ingredients to consume daily to support overall brain health. Even better, our ingredients has no crash, no jitters and no feelings of anxiousness. It’s clean healthy energy.
We are located in Laguna Hills, California. We sell our coffe on our website and Amazon.
Q – 2) Kindly give us a brief description about yourself (it should include your brief educational or entrepreneurial background and list some of your major achievements).
A) I am passionate about health, helping people, being of service, and personal development. Forever Grateful Earth is an extension of that.
My background is in health and brain health. I was a personal trainer for five years. After that I was a marketing writer for health products and services for ten years. For three years I worked and was mentored for the world’s leading brain imaging neuroscientist and psychiatrist.
I worked as a ghostwriter for for three books on brain health and three television shows on brain health.
Q – 3) What inspired you to (start a new business venture) or (to make significant changes in an existing business)? How did the idea for your business come about?
A) I was inspired to start Grateful Earth for several reasons. One, I wanted to deliver these six brain healthy ingredients so that people could enjoy them daily because the only way to experience the health benefits of thse superfoods is to take them daily.
We believe in the saying, “change your brain, change your life.” And we want to help people add these brain-healthy superfoods to their diet. Feeling brain fog and having low energy can be deliberating. These superfoods have been shown to help people think more clearly, have more energy and focus. That can completely change someone’s life.
Two, the mushroom coffees that are out there use cheap coffee and don’t have the best flavor profiel. I like coffee and I knew there was a better way to do it. So we focused on the coffee flavor, aroma, and mouthfeel.
Three, I’ve seen people’s lives change dramatically with brain health improvement. I’m insipried to help people lead better and more fulfilling lives. And that starts with being able to think straight, optmizing clarity of mind, and even staying healthy. A side benefit of these ingredients is that they’ve been shown to help support the immune system.
Q – 4) What three pieces of advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
A) 1. Have Faith: When you’re an entrepreneur you’re going to setp into many unknowns. You’re not going to know everything and you never will. You’re going to make alot of decisions semi blind and experience many failures.
You have to have faith in yourself, in others, in your product, service, team, and a higher power. You have to have faith that you’ll figure it out. Believe there is a way and a solution. You have to faith in your path and decisions, especially as a leader. A leader must inspire. And major quality of a leader is faith.
2. Be Resourceful: You’re going to lack manpower, expertise, capital, and more. You’re going to launch during bad economical times. You’re going to have competition. You’re going to experience a winter. It’s going to rain. Seasons are inevitable. All of these can be excuses for failure but at the end of the day, people have done more with less.
Surviving and thriving come down to being resourceful. Embracing problems and being a problem solver. In life and in a business, problems and challenges are inevitable and they will never stop. That’s what life and business is about. Constantly solving quality problems. And to do that, you need to be resourceful.
3. Be Grateful: Running a business is an emotional game. Why make money if you’re just going to be mad, angry, worried, and ungrateful all the time. Not everyone— team, staff, clients, partners— are going to do what you want all the time. You’re going to feel stressed. You’re going to feel worry. The best way to take care of your health and quality of life is to recalibrate to the vibration of gratitude.
My advice, learn to celebrate your wins, be grateful for the opportunity, and enjoy the ride. So many people wish they could have our problems. Feel blessed that in life you had a chance. That you took a chance to build a business.
Q – 5) What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
A) 1. Develop a love for serving: If you focus on helping people, you’ll be successful. Over-deliver what they want. Whether it’s a product, service, customer service, etc. Many people think about what’s good for them or the product or company and forget that we live by the customers that buy and support us. Even better to think of yourself as you work for your team and employees, not the other way around. Ask your team, what you can do for them? And not what can they do for you. Set them up for success and you have a better chance to succeed. Life supports what supports more life.
2. Develop a love for learning: In todays age with YouTube and blogs, you can honestly learn anything you need to do real quick. Develop a mentality of learning to do what you can yourself and let depending on other people hold you back.
Not knowing can seriously cost you money. Plus, when you learn it, you’re more skilled to hire someone down the road to do it.
Schedule time to take online classes whether free or paid for to learn the specific skills you need to be successful.
Dedicate reading time on your craft, business/ industry, personal growth, world news, leadership skills liek communication or public speaking, and even spirituality. Seriously, do it. You’ll thank me.
3. Know if being an entrepreneur is really for you. Many people glamorize and romantisize being an entrepreneur which makes it very attractive to people but it’s truly not for everyone. Self-Knowledge is power. And this is so true in this situation.
Just because you love to cook, doesn’t mean you should own a restaurant. It might mean that you should be a chef. Being a yoga teacher doesn’t mean that you should open a yoga studio. It might mean that you should be a yoga teacher. Just because you invented something doesn’t mean you should be the CEO of a company. That could be disastrous. The skills it takes to be a CEO are developed over time.
Truly take a self examination and ask yourself, if you are the artist, the operator, or entrepreneur. These are truly different people. The artist is the chef. The manager is the manager and the entrepreneur is the visionary and risk taker. All of these require different skill sets and mentalites.
Before you waste your time, money, and energy and other people’s time, money and energy. I implore you to ask yourself how you’d truly like to spend your life.
Q – 6) How many hours do you work a day on average?
A) I prioritze life balance and quality of life. This is what works for me. I also prioritze sleep, rest, rejuvenation and healing so I sleep 8 hours a day.
Q – 7) To what do you most attribute your success?
A) Intention and grace. Doing things mindfully, purposefully and with intention has been super productive and healthy. Also, allowing grace to work and operate in my life is super important. I understand that most things, I cannot controla and are out of my control. I can only control my myself and my intention. And then I surrender and let the world operate.
Q – 8) How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?
A) Facebook and Instagram have been my life blood for customer acquisition. They’re tried and true.
Q – 9) Where did your organizations funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it? How did you obtain investors for your venture?
A) I self funded and the Small Business Administration (SBA) gave me a start up loan. I’m so grateful for them. Without their loan, I don’t know how I would have launched my business so fast.
Q – 10) What is the best way to achieve long-term success?
A) Being flexible, learning, learning from mistakes, doubling down on what works, treating people with respect and integrity, and having fun and enjoying every minute of it.
Q – 11) Where you see yourself and your business in 5 – 10 years?
A) I see our business expanding worldwide and serving more people with inspiration, gratitude and brain-healthy drinks and lifestyle.
On a personal level, I’ll be more involved in helping people on the ground level through speaking, teaching, and trainings.
Q – 12) Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?
A) Active Greens. I love their product and how they market.
Q – 13) How important have good employees been to your success?
A) Key. Trust. It’s the team that matters most.
Q – 14) What motivates you?
A) God, love and serving people.
Q – 15) How do you define success?
A) Living a purposeful and fulfilling life.
Q – 16) What is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
A) Freedom. Time freedom. Choice freedom. Since I have a remote/ ecom business— Location freedom.
Q – 17) In one word, characterize your life as an entrepreneur.
A) Blessed
Q – 18) If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
A) I’d start earlier.
Q – 19) How has being an entrepreneur affected your family life?
A) I get to work from home and spend more time with my family.
Q – 20) What is your greatest fear, and how do you manage fear?
A) No fear
Q – 21) How did you decide on the location for your business?
A) I wanted freedom of travel.
Q – 22) If you could talk to one person from history, who would it be and why?
A) Thomas Jefferson because of his intelligence, accomplishments, it’d be an honor to meet a Founding Father.
Q – 23) Who has been your greatest inspiration?
A) Tony Robbins
Q – 24) What book has inspired you the most? (OR what is your favorite book?)
A) Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill
Q – 25) Embrace and learn from your mistakes. Find the gift and silver lining.
A) Think before acting.
Q – 26) What are your hobbies? What do you do in your non-work time?
A) Musician and yoga.
Q – 27) What makes you happy?
A) Serving God
Q – 28) What sacrifices have you had to make to be a successful entrepreneur?
A) Financial, home, working long hours
