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I'm sitting at the Qantas Lounge at the Melbourne International Airport ready to board another flight to Los Angeles. I am a tad tired. 2.15am wakeup wasn't my best work, but sometimes excitement does get the best of me. Travelling for me, is exciting and part of the bigger adventure. I get to meet people that inspire me, shock me and sometimes join me on my journey as a friend, client or person "I just know".
Meeting people when you are an introvert is completely and utterly out of your comfort zone, and I know the value of being outside your comfort zone. It's one of the best things that can happen, especially if you are an entrepreneur.
In the end, we were both right. Expanding to the United States was singularly the bravest thing I ever did, and it has set me up for profitability in the company in US dollars while the Australian dollar remains weak. Our offices make money and it has been an absolutely amazing journey. I have met some phenomenal people, all of whom have added to my life.
It also lead to a bit of "excitement" in my life. I was at a stage where I needed something to lift my game and expanding into the US market did exactly that.
Beware of the global startup
When I started Marketing Eye more than 9 years ago, I had a vision to be the world's best small business marketing firm. I dreamt that I would open offices all over the world that would sell marketing services backed by sophisticated technology platforms, media and education, to businesses that had revenues of $1 million to $200 million.
Primarily, the companies that would be ideal clients were one's that were entrepreneur-led, like me, and who had a dream to significantly grow their businesses and mostly be industry game-changers - although the latter wasn't exactly necessary.
In the early days, we had hurdles. The first was our own mind-set of being use to working with funded startups or medium to large corporations and shifting the way we interacted, engaged and nurtured our clients to success to cater for burgeoning SMB market.
It took time. More time than I ever imagined.
