Piñatas de México

da vicino

pareva una statua nuda e indifesa

Repeat after me and repeat that every day:

Today is the best day in my life.

Church of Lord’s Ascension in Subotica, Serbia.

Drama filled sky as sunrise over Malomirovo foothills to the Strandj mountains Bulgaria

Как хорошо, прям чудо чудное. Какая же тут прекрасная и замечательная атмосфера сказки. Порой от видов дух захватывает.

Очень рад, что «Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince» в целом вышла такой замечательной, и в частности DLC «Melody of Mystery». По крайней мере пока.

An Interview With Jerome Knyszewski

Hire with your heart. I’ll take someone with less experience and a big heart over an expert who cares very little.

When the employees know YOU care, then they care.

You absolutely have to know the language of your customers. What are they doing, saying, and thinking. Know those three and you’ll be great.

As part of my series about the “How To Take Your Company From Good To Great”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Gianna Miceli, an outspoken champion for women’s health, transforming the stigma attached to menopausal women from fat & frumpy to sexy & fabulous with her revolutionary message that women over 40 are not medically defective — they are eating themselves to it.

She is abolishing the paradigm that is brainwashing women to believe that a post menopause life will include a plethora of prescriptions and never feeling sexy in their own skin again.

Fans of her book, “Why American Women Are So Fat, Sick, Tired, & Angry, say, “This book helped me see that there is an easy solution that doesn’t require a prescription”.

Gianna has been in the beauty business for over 20 years and is a certified holistic detoxing health coach.

She entered the Fitness Atlantic Bikini classic at age 45 after losing 40 pounds in the middle of menopause, finished the Spartan Race at age 46, and published her book at age 50.

Gianna has helped women lose an average of 45 pounds, reverse pre-diabetes, high blood pressure, and kick antidepressants & sugar addiction to the curb in her online “Sexy & Fabulous Academy,” and “90 Days To A New You Program”, and is on a mission to end the medical enslavement of women over 40.

She is a captivating and sought-after speaker whose presentations on Youtube and her five star rated iTunes podcast are opening the eyes of women across America.

Gianna Miceli speaks for health events, wellness groups, professional business women, weight loss conferences, entrepreneurial associations, boomers, etc.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

At 53 years old, I’m in the best shape and health of my life and I show other women how they can do it too.

I do this by showing them how to eat for their over 40 hormone changes.

When I was 40, I was pretty happy with how I looked, but by the time I was almost 42, I was so tired I could barely get out of bed, and I had put on 40 ugly, debilitating pounds.

I saw many doctors to figure out what was going on and every one of them had different answers which means they had no answers.

My parents were both obese and my father had Type 2 diabetes, two liver transplants, and kidney failure, and I had anxiety that I was heading down the same path and there was nothing I could do about it.

I was so afraid to gain another pound.

Every single day my mind was worried about this because obviously, I had to eat. What the hell was I supposed to eat to keep from getting even fatter?

I had no one else who could or would take care of me financially so I absolutely had to figure out how to turn this around.

My life and income depended on it. I was trapped into a corner and I felt scared and alone.

Finally when I was 45, a woman came into my life and in the most random conversation, she spoke to me about eating in a way that made my liver & hormones work optimally.

I had never heard these ideas before, before but she said it would get the weight off me and give me my energy back.

That same day I threw away the food I had in my refrigerator that she told me to, and bought the delicious foods she told me to eat.

In a week I lost 7 pounds, and in two weeks I cleared chronic acne I had for nine years.

I was hooked and felt so amazing!!

I had so much energy I actually wanted to go for long walks.

OMG for the first time in four years I had hope that my future was going to be ok!

I was led down a road that would ensconce me into studying physiology, hormones, menopause, gut health, and food for the next 10 years and write two books, and I put it all together in an easy, online delivery system for you.

Prevention is the new model.

I want every woman to feel as amazing as I do and have the confidence that I do, and feel that she is in control of her future and income and that she’ll be more than capable of taking care of herself into her old age.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

I think everyone can agree, that when you first start your journey, the biggest hurdle is believing in yourself, especially if you have friends and family that are nay-sayers about what you think you can create a

business about. You will feel very alone and you have to be strong in your conviction and intuition that what you are doing will make a difference and that what you are trying to do, say, and/or teach, people will want to hear.

Did I ever consider giving up? Yes! Many times! It’s hard. You want every client to be a success, and to fall in love with what you have to offer and that’s just not reality.

Where did I get the drive? When these doubts come into your mind, to me, it’s like God put someone in your face or into your life that solidifies that the problem you are solving is very needed. When you help someone and change their life, no amount of money can give you the same satisfaction.

I got the drive to continue even when things were so hard because I just have this very strong vision of what I want to accomplish. I wanted to make a one stop location for women entering menopause to get the best, most honest, and helpful information possible that didn’t involve getting a prescription from a doctor.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?

The funniest mistake I made when I was first starting out was to believe this marketing guru that I would make $50,000 in my eight weeks of working with him. Was it funny? Well it is now, but it wasn’t then. Of course I did not even make back my $10,000 investment in him.

The lesson I learned was to take advice from real people that you know and to find mentors who can prove that they are living the life you wish to live as well.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

What makes my company stand out is that I have a real solution, that addresses the root cause of a woman’s misery, that has no risk of cancer.

I hear from women all the time who have been failed by doctors. I just received this email last night:

“I have always been in shape all my life. I was diagnosed with thyroid disease at 33. I’m 49 and my waist gets bigger every day even though I eat clean.

I’m a vegetarian which I became after I couldn’t get rid of my acid reflux disease. I work out. I lift weights and I still can’t lose it.

My diet is clean and I’ve been working on my digestion. That’s always been a problem.

I’m definitely going through menopause. I’m scared. And no one will help me.”

My response to her is too long to print here, but this is a very clear example of how the doctors fail women.

Just off the top, I guarantee she does not have thyroid disease, she doesn’t have too much stomach acid, she has too little, and her entire digestive process isn’t working right and she’s on the precipice of an autoimmune condition.

I guarantee she has at least 6 prescriptions she takes daily for all this when what’s really going on is lacking in the right nutrition to make her metabolic processes work.

There’s nobody doing this in regards to menopause women. Not a soul.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

To avoid burn-out, you have to eat right, and get sleep. The partying catches up to you and then you think you’re old, but you’re just really toxic and metabolically starving.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

Most of all I have to thank the people who said my business is silly and only exists in my mind.

But on a kinder note, we have technology to thank for being able to bring our gifts to the entire world without being in person.

I have clients in Canada, Australia, UK, Jordan, and South Africa and it’s mind blowing to me when I think about it.

Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. The title of this series is “How to take your company from good to great”. Let’s start with defining our terms. How would you define a “good” company, what does that look like? How would you define a “great” company, what does that look like?

I would define a good company as one that has a clear mission and consistent values and message.

A great company takes care of its employees and gives back to the world, with a greater mission.

I volunteered at “Thrive, Make Money Matter” with Cole Hatter and that was my first exposure to Gary Vanyerchuck and learning how companies take on a mission for greatness.

I have a plan in mind for mine but have not set it up yet but it will be helping the women of the world who don’t have easy access to feminine hygiene products. They don’t have a Walgreen’s aisle filled with options like we do in the USA.

Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things one should know in order to lead a company from Good to Great? Please share a story or an example for each.

The five most important things one should know in order to lead a company from good to great are:

1. Hire with your heart. I’ll take someone with less experience and a big heart over an expert who cares very little.

2. When the employees know YOU care, then they care.

3. You’re never finished. There’s always more to learn, better ways to do things, and especially in expanding your marketing.

4. You absolutely have to know the language of your customers. What are they doing, saying, and thinking. Know those three and you’ll be great.

5. Come from a place of service and the rest will fall into place.

Extensive research suggests that “purpose driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. Can you help articulate for our readers a few reasons why a business should consider becoming a purpose driven business, or consider having a social impact angle?

The typical response is to know your why, and many people think that means money, or taking care of their family, but I think it has to be a grander “why”.

For instance, my “why” is to end the medical enslavement of women over 40. It’s a huge hurdle to deprogram them into believing the cure to what ails them is in nutrition and not prescription bottles.

Why do I want this? Because my obese mother was probably a very depressed woman strapped with three kids, working full time and by the time she came home from work, she went straight up to her room and was barely involved in her children’s lives.

I didn’t understand this level of depression until I got fat myself, how consuming it can be when you hate living inside your own body. I want women to be the best women, mothers, and wives they can be.

What would you advise to a business leader who initially went through years of successive growth, but has now reached a standstill. From your experience do you have any general advice about how to boost growth and “restart their engines”?

I think if your business reaches a standstill, you’ve lost touch with the customer base. You’ve got to go back to, what are they thinking, doing, and feeling. They will tell you. From nail polish to luxury automobiles, they’ll tell you why they’re no longer buying.

Generating new business, increasing your profits, or at least maintaining your financial stability can be challenging during good times, even more so during turbulent times. Can you share some of the strategies you use to keep forging ahead and not lose growth traction during a difficult economy?

The strategies I recently used was to improve my digital experience, so I created something once, and can sell it for any price. It requires no more work on my end, so even lowering the price doesn’t make more work for me, and now I can help more women.

Then I added a product line. Find more ways to solve your customer’s problems and create more income for yourself.

In your experience, which aspect of running a company tends to be most underestimated? Can you explain or give an example?

In my experience, the marketing aspect of running a company is underestimated. It’s so easy yet complex today.

We can use bots to reach out to find our customers but those bots had better be speaking the language of our customers.

It’s like how the tech is listening to everything we do and say today, how our phones are literally spying on us, and then they deliver exactly what we need.

For instance, I had a phone conversation with a friend who was coming to visit NYC and I would meet him for lunch on this day at this time at this restaurant..

Soon after that call, I received a notification from Lyft with a coupon for 10% off my next ride, and it literally told me what time to leave and what train to take so that I would be meeting my friend at the time discussed!

As you know, “conversion” means to convert a visit into a sale. In your experience what are the best strategies a business should use to increase conversion rates?

This is one of the most overlooked experiences online. You literally have to leave a simple but very direct breadcrumb trail to guide the potential customer to the purchase, always keeping in mind that the customer is always thinking…..”what’s in it for me?”

Of course, the main way to increase conversion rates is to create a trusted and beloved brand. Can you share a few ways that a business can earn a reputation as a trusted and beloved brand?

The way to gain trust is to be consistent in your message and to be seen. Video is the best way for the world to gage the essence of your personality and videos make the best 24/7 employees in the world.

Great customer service and a great customer experience are essential to build a beloved brand and essential to be successful in general. In your experience what are a few of the most important things a business leader should know in order to create a Wow! Customer Experience?

The way to impress your customer is to USE THEIR NAME! Respond to their inquiries like human beings and not $3 an hour employees overseas.

It’s so easy to make someone happy just by acknowledging their needs and giving a little extra and being human.

For instance, I’ve been with my cell phone service carrier for 25 years so I’ve seen the customer service leave the USA and become almost non-existent and it’s a shame. It would blow me away if someone would acknowledge that I’m a human being that pays them every month for 25 years.

What are your thoughts about how a company should be engaged on Social Media? For example, the advisory firm EisnerAmper conducted 6 yearly surveys of United States corporate boards, and directors reported that one of their most pressing concerns was reputational risk as a result of social media. Do you share this concern? We’d love to hear your thoughts about this.

This is fascinating because this year, many corporations took risks becoming socially “woke” and that’s a risk.

I think it’s a very personal decision, for instance, a friend of mine jumped on the Trump Train at the very beginning and that CREATED his brand. He exploded by doing so. His little radio show is now nationally syndicated. His one town newspaper column is now nationally syndicated. He was interviewed by over 1500 media outlets. He’s had three best selling books since then, so you never know. He just took his company to a public IPO for millions.

What we do know, is that not having a social media presence makes you invisible. It’s the world we live in now. Your customers get to know you via what you say on your social media.

What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a business? What can be done to avoid those errors?

My biggest pet peeve, is that people have lost the ability to communicate clearly, and when told, “Hey, I don’t know what you’re communicating”, they throw it back at me, as if I’m not intelligent, which is hilarious. I take all feedback as feedback to assess no matter who it comes from. It’s a perception someone is having about your business and it has to be addressed to some capacity.

And I’m sorry to say, it’s mostly from women. Women are too timid to speak directly about what problem they actually solve and they create these very odd elevator pitches that don’t communicate a concept. I’m like, “what problem do you solve? I don’t know what you’re saying?” I know from their responses they just blow off that i did not know what they are trying to say.

What can be done to correct these errors is one has to realize that you’re not selling to yourself. YOU might understand your elevator pitch, but the market does not. The market will always tell you if what you do is valuable or not. Can you solve a problem quickly? Can you save someone time, money, or pain? They you have a business.

Thank you for all of that. We are nearly done. You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Wow what a great question!

If i could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the people, I wish I could completely change the medical system to what it was before the Rockefeller Foundation bought up most of the medical schools back in the 1930’s and changed the curriculum from naturopathy to allopathy and put us on the path of “a pill for an ill”.

That impact would change the future of the planet. Type 2 Diabetes is the fastest growing chronic illness that barely existed 100 years ago and in the USA, we spend $250 million dollars a year on it and it’s reversible in 16 days by changing one’s menu and doctor’s have known this since the late 1800’s.

I hosted a fantastic event in Vegas a few years ago called Smart Health and I was super excited to meet and mingle with the top CEO’s in health tech.

The entire two days, the speakers talked about how to manage type 2 Diabetes around the world, not reverse it. And the whole time I was dumbfounded at how much time, money, and effort was going into this instead of really healing people. We could and should be teaching people how their bodies are creating Type 2 Diabetes. What a shame!

How can our readers further follow you online?

My most active social media is Instagram @MsGiannaMiceli but I’m on Youtube, Facebook, Linkedin, and Parler.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!

About the interviewer: Jerome Knyszewski (Kenchefski) is the CEO of HeavyShift. Jerome serves as an advisor to CEOs of Fortune 500 companies as well as entrepreneurs who disrupt their industries and therefore tend to be targets of malicious online attacks. His company builds, protects, and repairs the online presence & reputation of many celebrities, products and beloved brands.

Gianna Miceli: How To Take Your Company From Good To Great was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.