"It has taken a journey of self-belief for me to get here."
Meet Mallory Aitchison, CEO and cryptocurrency expert for Genesis Group Trading. She is 23 years old and lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Their platform specializes in cryptocurrency and forex education – all online, teaching people from all across the globe.
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Table of Contents
Before we begin, our readers are interested to know about how you got started in the first place. Did you always want to be where you are today or was it something you were led to? Share with us your journey.
Mallory Aitchison: I don’t believe I have always wanted to be in the exact place I am today. It has taken a journey of self-belief for me to get here. It was continuous grit and not giving up that has led me to this place. I would have never thought I would be teaching about investing in the crypto and forex markets. This industry is also saturated with men, so I could have never pictured a female like myself be led to being a leader in this space. I believe if you are able to manifest success and put that energy out into the world, good things will come. This is how my attitudes have always been that has led to my constant levels of growth.
Tell us a bit about your current focus. What is the most important thing that you’re working on and how do you plan on doing it?
Mallory Aitchison: My current focus right now is overall growth of our company and expanding into other parts of the world we have not reached. One of the most important things I am working on right now is assembling a sales team to help us execute this vision. Our overall goal is to have 1,000 active students in our educational platform.
Some argue that punctuality is a strength. Others say punctuality is a weakness. How do you feel about it, please explain.
Mallory Aitchison: As a person who isn’t so punctual, I can say punctuality is a strength – and something I personally lack. Luckily, the pandemic taught us that we are able to do many of our endeavors at home, it has made me more of a punctual person. I don’t have to get ready and leave the house to do my work, I do it all from my home office. This transition has certainly made me more punctual personally.
With our company, we run close to 40 live educational sessions a week for our students. It is very important our educators hold themselves to a high level of punctuality as we are running on a strict schedule. Some of our sessions can even go into the late night, with the latest being 1:00AM CST. Being as those sessions require a person to stay up late for the education, it is very important our educators be on time to their classes.
How important is having good timing in your line of work and in the industry that your organization operates in?
Mallory Aitchison: Timing is absolutely EVERYTHING in trading. All of our trade ideas are based off of strategic timing. We make strict decisions on entries and exit in our trades with timing. It is important to be patient and let our trade ideas come to us, not chase the markets. Timing is also important as we run on a schedule of educational sessions that run each day. We want to provide the absolute best for our customers, so we make sure we extremely punctual in these educational sessions.
Sometimes in our industry, we can see strange market movements due to institutional moves from larger organizations such as the major banks. This can affect our usual timing because we have outside circumstances affecting our usual flow. This is where we will typically adjust our analysis to the new standard of ‘timing’ to adapt to the markets.
Founder of Virgin Group, Richard Branson, states “Timing is everything in life, and it’s particularly crucial in entrepreneurship. People often equate success with luck, but it usually comes down to impeccable (and carefully mapped out) timing”. Do you agree with this statement? Please answer in as much detail as necessary.
Mallory Aitchison: I one hundred percent agree with this statement made by Richard Branson. In our business, it has taken several months for us to get ‘flow’ in what we are doing. It has taken consistency and patient waiting for our timing to become right in our journey to success in this company. I do agree that people can sometimes equate success with luck, sometimes that can be a poor excuse past failures or the inability to reach that level of success. In my opinion, throughout my entrepreneurial journey it is all about timing. There were times where I wished that I could be further along in my career, however I believe that the timing of success wasn’t right at that particular time. I think that the universe tasks us with success when we are ready – and that all comes down to timing.
As a leader/entrepreneur/CEO, how do you decide when to put the pedal to the metal and when to take a break? How do you time the key moments in your career?
Mallory Aitchison: Work and life balance is something that is super challenging running and owning my own business. Being as the pandemic has transitioned me to working full time from home, this has made it especially challenging when to set things down. I have my office space separated from my living space, which helps me step away from work when I am relaxing. I think that success is equal balance between pedal to the medal, and self care. You have to understand when to take breaks, otherwise you will no longer be efficient. I specifically try to carve out things throughout the day, away from working, where I can take care of myself and relax. If I am doing this, I am at my best self and getting the most work done.
Branson also states “If you’re starting to feel like you’re just going through the motions and losing sight of why you started, it might be time to take a break”. But how do you decide when to take a break?
Mallory Aitchison: As someone who has experienced burnout, Branson could not be more accurate in that quote. Burnout is something that is very real, especially as an entrepreneur or business owner. It all comes down to have a pattern of good work life balance. If you are able to have a balance of hard work and self care, burnout will not ever happen. Another thing that has helped me personally avoid burnout phases is changing things up when I am feeling like I am going through the motions. Whether that be my work-space, my daily tasks, or even who I am around – I will make necessary changes to help my efficiency. Always take care of yourself first, even when everyone else needs your help.
“Timing can be everything when starting up. It can be the difference between building a thriving business and not” How has good timing helped you achieve success in your career or business? Are there any particular examples from your career that you would like to share?
Mallory Aitchison: When we started our business, we had to walk away from another crypto and forex educational platform. Deciding to do your own thing comes with lots of risk, but we made the jump. The timing of this could not have been better, as after we left there were fires starting everywhere in the organization we were apart of. Sometimes we want to stress on the small details or having everything perfectly figured out with something new. In cases like this, it is speed over perfection. You just have to make the jump and time will help you figure everything else out. To this day, I am so glad I made that decision.
“When you’re thinking of starting up, ask yourself: ‘Is the community I want to serve ready for this idea?’ It could make all the difference!” Would you like to add anything to this piece of advice for all the aspiring entrepreneurs?
Mallory Aitchison: I think asking questions like this is wonderful. After all, you want to have fulfillment in what you are doing. One piece of advice I could give surrounding this topic is if you are able to structure your company off of good standing core values and individuals, everything else will fall into place. Work hard and have the mindset that things will go your way, and they will.
COVID forced many businesses to adapt fast, some did so successfully, others failed, it was a lot due to good or poor timing. What are some of the big lessons you’ve learned during the pandemic?
Mallory Aitchison: One of the biggest lessons I learned over the pandemic is that technological knowledge is everything with these emerging times. Those who were not willing to adapt to the new virtual way of doing life and business are those who struggled the most. There are still many companies who are very hesitant to digitize everything. In our space, everything is online and digital. Although we never are around our students in real life, our platform all connects us. We have students from all over the world, and I would not have been able to be connected to them without technology.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Mallory Aitchison: A real challenge for us right now is taking away the stigma that is around forex education. There are many MLM’s in our space that have used this type of financial education for the wrong reasons in the past. Our goal is to show people that you can trade without outside noise or motives.
Your insight has been incredibly valuable and our readers thank you for your generosity. We do have a couple of other bold questions to ask. What fictional world would you want to start a business in and what would you sell?
Mallory Aitchison: It would be great to build a virtual world around our company for our customers to interact and day-trade in the crypto and forex markets with one another.
Before we finish things off, we would love to know, when you have some time away from business, what is one hobby that you wish you could spend more time on?
Mallory Aitchison: I genuinely love cooking. Sometimes with my schedule, it is hard to cook because I am always on the go. I have always wanted to learn how to make my own sushi!
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Mallory Aitchison for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Mallory Aitchison or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
