"Once a person realizes their fantasy can be reality and they take action, you've got an entrepreneur."
Veronica Hanson Tweet
Meet Veronica Hansons – a recovering “American Dream” addict. Her entire life was carefully created to show off on social media. She bought the designer items, sent the kids to a prestigious private school, drove her electric vehicle, and had the quintessential white picket fence.
Though, she was also rather bored.
Nowadays she’s a minimalist, nomad, travel hacker, obsessed with multiple streams of income. Unlike the new age philosophy of protecting your time by saying no as a complete sentence, Veronica loves having the time freedom to say YES! She says yes to adventure, opportunity, and life.
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Table of Contents
Thank you for joining us today. Please introduce yourself to our readers. They want to know you, some of the background story to bring some context to your interview.
Veronica Hanson: I grew my business in the social media era. For many years social media was a place to show how sparkly and wonderful your life and business were, it was a highlight reel. Every piece of content and most decisions made were all based on the expectations of clients, friends, and society as a whole.
One day I realized that expectations were making my life worse and not better. I shredded expectations and decided to run away. No matter where I go in the world I can run my business or create a new business that serves me and not what is expected of me.
You are a successful entrepreneur, so we’d like your view point, do you believe entrepreneurs are born or made? Explain.
Veronica Hanson: I believe entrepreneurs are realized. Most people have the entrepreneurial spirit within them they just never allow themselves to act on what they perceive to be a fantasy. Once a person realizes their fantasy can be reality and they take action, you’ve got an entrepreneur.
If you were asked to describe yourself as an entrepreneur in a few words, what would you say?
Veronica Hanson: I would say I am a profit first entrepreneur. Focusing on passion is often glorified in entrepreneur circles. Realistically, not every person making jewelry or knitting a blanket can make it into a business. Being willing to separate a passion from a viable business is essential for a successful entrepreneur.
Tell us about what your company does and how did it change over the years?
Veronica Hanson: My company sells adult-focused products through in-home parties. That business model worked great for a decade. Over the years my business has expanded to owning an Airbnb, coaching homeowners to convert their home into an Airbnb. Then during covid, I was able to expand again to coach moms how to build multiple income streams while becoming international nomads, later I added a product collection for Moms Who Expat and can now book travel for nomad families as a travel advisor. Evolving and adding new segments to my company has allowed me to stay relevant while continuing with my initial message of empowering and educating women on sexual health via online platforms now instead of in-home parties.
Thank you for all that. Now for the main focus of this interview. With close to 11.000 new businesses registered daily in the US, what must an entrepreneur assume when starting a business?
Veronica Hanson: An entrepreneur must assume they will not have all the answers while building their business. A common misstep is that entrepreneurs try to build and scale their business alone. It’s not that entrepreneurs don’t want to hire help or tap into experts but they don’t feel they are “ready” until some imaginary point in their business. Seek experts and invest in the right people before you feel ready in order to achieve the most success. If you go into being an entrepreneur believing you are the best person suited to do every task within your business, you’re going to have a tough time.
Did you make any wrong assumptions before starting a business that you ended up paying dearly for?
Veronica Hanson: I assumed that collecting customer data in an official CRM software was too high level for my new business. Then all of a sudden I’m ten years in and lacking the appropriate data to continue scaling by re-engaging existing clients. Had I been building for the business I wanted and not the business I had my life would have been much easier for a number of months while I scrambled to create a relationship management process. I missed a lot of years of recurring revenue by not having the proper processes in place. Just because I am great at closing the sale does not mean I shouldn’t have tapped into an expert who could keep my entire database organized to maintain my relationships with every client I ever closed.
If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what advice would you give yourself and why? Explain.
Veronica Hanson: Work twice as hard on your business when life is coasting smoothly so you can get off the gas pedal and take care of personal business when your life is falling apart. Businesses are innately intertwined with our personal lives and when ebbs and flows of life come we can ride the wave of previous hard work. In the years I built my business before kids I didn’t work as hard as I should have to lay the foundation for the business I could have had in those early days of being a mom. Moving, divorce, death in the family, and health conditions can all affect our focus on our business. Work harder when things are easy so you can take the time necessary when life happens.
What is the worst advice you received regarding running a business and what lesson would you like others to learn from your experience?
Veronica Hanson: The worst advice I ever received was to quit because what I sell was not mainstream enough. Some outspoken nonbusiness-owning people in your network might feel that having a more broad market appeal is the right approach to building a business. Most successful entrepreneurs will tell your something similar to the opposite. Narrowing down and appealing to a niche audience is much more effective in building loyal clients and credibility within a customer population. Take advice with a grain of salt because people who are successful are often quiet, the naysayers and unsuccessful people are loud.
In your opinion, how has COVID-19 changed what entrepreneurs should assume before starting a business? What hasn’t changed?
Veronica Hanson: Covid has shown us that business that pivots can survive under even the worst worldwide conditions. Businesses that try and stay the course with blinders on can end up nose-diving off the preverbal cliff. Assume you will have to pivot in your business in response to what’s working, industry changes, and client needs.
What is a common myth about entrepreneurship that aspiring entrepreneurs and would-be business owners believe in? What advice would you give them?
Veronica Hanson: Entrepreneurs and would-be business owners often look to those that have come before them to learn how to do things. Being a business owner does not in itself mean you are to be listened to. There are tons of entrepreneurs out there doing things horribly wrong, running businesses at a loss, and not worthy of the credibility given to them. There is a big difference between a successful business owner and simply a business owner. Tread carefully when looking for mentors within your space.
What traits, qualities, and assumptions do you believe are most important to have before starting a business?
Veronica Hanson: I believe an extremely deep connection to why you are doing what you are doing is the most critical quality to starting and maintaining a business.
I have begun articulating my personal drive and connection to my business by describing three levels of passion a business owner must discover about themselves. Level one desire is anything you would be willing to say out loud to someone asking you what you aspire to have or do in life. Things we are willing to say out loud are superficial and heavily controlled by expectations of others, whether we admit it or not. Level two desires are the ideas we let live in our heads and daydream about on a regular basis. Our daydream-level desires only go as deep as what we have allowed ourselves to believe we are worthy of, which is often much less than we truly deserve. Finally, level three desires are the ideas that as soon as they enter your brain, you immediately kick the idea in the face. You tell yourself it’s ridiculous to even bother imagining that insanity because it will never realistically happen. Level three desires are the only ones that will truly drive the action necessary to change behavior.
In order to have a successful business, you must know your real desires for your life which will drive you to take action.
How can aspiring leaders prepare themselves for the future challenges of entrepreneurship? Are there any books, websites, or even movies to learn from?
Veronica Hanson: We’ve all watched incredibly successful entrepreneurs get their place at the top by exploiting workers, destroying the environment, and creating unsafe products. I’m sure nobody starts a business with the thought that they will become a stain on society someday, yet we have watched that happen repeatedly. One of my favorite CEO’s to watch is Dan Price who runs a very active twitter about how to be a leader with integrity. His message is basically that it’s cool to be socially responsible, prioritize your workers, and align with human first principals. It would be my hope that aspiring leaders can learn from the pitfalls of current industry leaders and do better for future generations.
You have shared quite a bit of your wisdom and our readers thank you for your generosity but would also love to know: If you could choose any job other than being an entrepreneur, what would it be?
Veronica Hanson: If I couldn’t be an entrepreneur I would be an author, actor, or artist so that I could earn royalties. One of the biggest benefits of being an entrepreneur is that I don’t trade my time for money. Creating something once and selling it over and over while earning royalties would be my in another life scenario.
Thank you so much for your time, I believe I speak for all of our readers when I say that this has been incredibly insightful. We do have one more question: If you could add anyone to Mount Rushmore, but not a politician, who would it be; why?
Veronica Hanson: If I were to add an influential person to Mount Rushmore it would be Oprah Winfrey. As a woman of color, she has masterfully worked within the constraints of society to gain power and influence in order to challenge the constraints of society. She advocates for women, minorities, children in developing countries, people in poverty, and entrepreneurs among others. Her legacy will always be that if you are someone who makes it big, hold the door open for as many people behind you as possible. She knows that she loses nothing by giving other people access to knowledge, resources, and opportunity.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Veronica Hanson 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 Veronica Hanson or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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