"I believe that businesses have to put more emphasis on being virtual and have virtual capabilities."
Meet Maria Liberati, a serial entrepreneur, Gourmand World Award Winning Author/Celebrity Chef, Ceo of Art of Living, PrimaMedia Inc – a digital content company, publishing print books, English language and English translations of foreign publications, producing podcasts (The Maria Liberati Show) and Streaming TV (The Basic Art of Italian Cooking by Maria Liberati).
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Maria Liberati: I am a serial entrepreneur CEO of Art of Living, Prima Media Inc, a digital content company producing podcasts, streaming video, published books, ebooks. I began the company because I wanted to have more control over my own books, so when my first book became a success I republished it under my own imprint and then wrote 3 more books and collaborated with a few other authors.
However now we are branching out into kids books and English translations of foreign language books that we have acquired the rights to. We began producing digital content more frequently due to the pandemic.. I also host a podcast, streaming TV Series on ROKU, have an award winning blog and website. I also serve as a mentor/ consultant for people that want to start their own business.
I also design internship programs for Universities all over the USA and mentor students that want careers in journalism, publishing, marketing.
2020 and 2021 threw a lot of curve balls into business on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past couple years, how can businesses thrive in 2022? What lessons have you learned?
Maria Liberati: I believe that businesses have to put more emphasis on being virtual and have virtual capabilities.
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2022? What advice would you share?
Maria Liberati: It certainly does and forces us to adapt new ways of doing business every day. I think that businesses should focus on adapting to change and become more virtually available, even for those that have traditional bricks and mortar stores.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Maria Liberati: I have adapted by going more virtual and putting emphasis on developing more virtual things- websites, social media, streaming. All industries have changed and no matter what industry you are in- virtual in some capacity is necessary
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2022?
Maria Liberati: That I needed to develop more virtual capacity and implement more virtual aspects to my business, but it did not take long to discover waht needed to be implemented, just longer to adapt and learn
Online business surged higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for 2022?
Maria Liberati: I believe online businesses will keep surging higher and most businesses that survive will go virtual or hybrid, it is imperative now and expected to be virtual in some capacity for any business.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Maria Liberati: It varies, some days I am in front of my screen at least 8-10 hours sometimes more. I do break every so often for 1 minute or sometimes an hour if I need a longer break… and tend to go online before I go to bed just to check in on everything.
The majority of executives use stories to persuade and communicate in the workplace. Can you share with our readers examples of how you implement that in your business to communicate effectively with your team?
Maria Liberati: When I communicate with my teams I like to communicate using positive language and words and never dwell on the negative but the positive. Language and words are such powerful tools and as a business leader you have the power to motivate your teams by your choice of words.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Maria Liberati: Right now I think the real challenges are converting to a digital world, virtual, NFT’s and Crypto. So if you are a business that has been around for more than 10 yrs you need to explore how to embrace all of this because it seems to all be evolving that way. So as an entrepreneur, you need to get the skillset necessary to begin adapting your business to also have that other dimension (virtually available) or going totally virtual.
In 2022, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Maria Liberati: I am most interested in learning about NFT’s and Crypto and developing my skill sets in those fields. An entrepreneur is constantly growing and learning and those are two areas I want to learn to extend my company.
A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September in 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. 47% of people plan to leave their job during 2022. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. Do you think leaders see the data and think “that’s not me – I’m not that boss they don’t want to work for? What changes do you think need to happen?
Maria Liberati: That is a tough one. Unfortunately with the pandemic many business owners had to frantically do whatever they could to save their companies so that employees could continue earning salaries so this may have contributed to employees feeling unheard. And so many changes had to be quickly made so that companies had to be saved. I think that business owners need to keep their employees ‘in the loop’ so there is not a misunderstanding of what is going on.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Maria Liberati: Resilience is one of the business superpowers that is a necessity, especially in today’s ever changing world. Being resilient means standing up to all the ‘curve balls’ that life throws us.and analyzing what is necessary to keep going and overcome the obstacles. I have had to put this superpower into practice many times. That is what being a business owner is all about!
What does “success” in 2022 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Maria Liberati: Success is about achieving balance between work and family, being able to enjoy not only what you do for work in life but also spending time with your family and friends and making the time to take care of yourself and do things that give your life that spark! Work and money are necessary and great but if you don’t have that balance you will quickly burn out.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Maria Liberati 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 Maria Liberati or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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