EnrichHER 2018 Spark Conference held last March 14 at Atlanta Technology Village. EnrichHER, founded by Dr. Roshawnna Novellus are local initiatives designed to help entrepreneurs with coaching, capital, and connections. In business, the saying is “it’s not what you know, but who you know.” EnrichHER Spark allows entrepreneurs to advance their businesses by making meaningful face-to-face connections with local leaders, investors, business coaches, and like-minded entrepreneurs.

According to Dr. Novellus, one of the biggest issues that women-led businesses face is access to capital. For this reason, InrichHer program presented an entrepreneur showcase that included a grant to a lucky entrepreneur with shared resources that will increase success of gaining capital.

Meet the EnrichHER 2018 Spark Conference Finalist

Kim Gamez . Founder & CEO. Mi Padrino . Siena Heights Univ

Mi Padrino is an event planning service to help parents and families organize, plan, and fund events celebrated in the Hispanic tradition. We help you organize and share the details of your events with your friends and family around the globe, instantly. They can be a part of your celebration no matter where they are in the world.

Kim Gamez, the CEO and founder of Mi Padrino, saw a need for a more efficient solution for organizing Quinceañeras, Weddings, and baby showers for the Hispanic community. As a mother of 5, Kim appreciates the complexity of coordinating all aspects of these time honored traditions with families near and far.

Mi Padrino is a one of a kind solution to plan and share your special day and we are so excited to offer this easy event planning platform to simplify this age-old tradition.

https://mipadrino.com/

What was your first job ever? Ice Cream Shop.

Who are your mentors and icons that have influenced you the most and why? Although I could name off many famous people that have influenced my path along the years it really has been the people that I love the most.

My mother- She was an amazing entrepreneur and always found a balance between being a wife, mother and boss. She taught me to work hard and think outside the box, be patient and kind but most importantly to always be grounded. Treat customers and employees like gold because they will be the ones to make you successful.
My older brother- he has his doctorate in Hispanic culture and was the first person to introduce me to this amazing community.
My husband- teaching me about his heritage (Mexican), and what being a part of a community really means "always giving to others even when there may be little to give".

When did you first realize that you were born to be an entrepreneur / business leader and what course of action did you take in terms of following that passion? I was raised by parents that were entrepreneurs. I have never known what an 8-5 job means. My parents worked days/nights/weekends... it's always been the norm. When I was in beauty school, I realized I didn't want to stand behind a chair and make money for someone else, so I enrolled in business school to one day open my own salon. This was the start to my crazy entrepreneurial journey.

Being an entrepreneur is a gift and a curse. We have to work 20 times harder and learn to sacrifice a lot to arrive to our destination. What advice would you impart to future entrepreneurs and to strong business leaders[MA1] ? You have to work harder and smarter than any of your employees and at most of the time get paid less. You have to listen to yourself, your customers and your staff. Sometimes the answers to your problems are right there in front of you... you just have to listen. You have to LOVE what you do because if you don't love it and take care of it no one else will.

Leading a successful group is a challenge. How do you consistently inspire and motivate the team to extract the most optimized version of themselves to bring to the table? I like to offer education to my staff every chance I get. If there is a webinar, course or convention that they might learn something new at I try to make that happen for them. I also encourage mystaff on a regular basic to think outside the box. We do this during weekly meetings. If money and time were not an issue... what would you love to do? Sometimes you get some crazy ideas.. and sometimes you can figure out how to actually make them happen!

When you have to put out a fire, what process do you have that's proven to be effective? Listen to all sides and approach the situation calmly, putting personal issues/opinions aside.

How do you decompress in order to keep that balance? Keep a good calendar.
Enjoy your family... without your phone in hand. Love what you do, and it won't feel like work. If you don’t love it... get out while you are still ahead. Drink good wine. Life is too short and too busy to have a headache from crappy wine.

What's been the most gratifying business or personal role that you had that led you to be where you are now? Being a mother and showing my kids that you can be a great mom and have a successful business is a role I take seriously. Showing them that hard work literally puts food on the table and ballet shoes on their feet. My little babies give me the drive to work harder and dream bigger every day.

Life lessons learned that you carry with you to keep the fire alive to stay on top of your game? I was born with my twin sister Katie who died when we were babies. I am constantly reminded that God chose me to live and not her. That my life is a gift and not take one day for granted. When life gets tough, like throw in the towel tough, I just think about how lucky I truly am. I take a step back, assess the situation and one way or another get back up. Sometimes you just have to breath and reflect.

How do you define success? Success to me is Love and Happiness. If you know what love truly is and you call yourself happy then I don't know what could beat that. If you are talking about business, well success is making enough money to take care of your family, having a place that employs others in your community, having a little bit extra to give back to those in need and when all of that is said and done if there is enough to treat yourself for a good'o mani-pedi well then, I would call that success!

What's next for you? Next? Keep on living the dream. My work here is not finished. I have a business to grow, kids to raise and a mark to make on this earth.

Click here to meet The EnrichHER Speakers 2018

Originally Published on WireTap Media. Interviewed by Maryan Aiken. Publisher. CityBox Media. PaperGlass Media. WireTap Media.

Listening to Spotify. Earned It . From Fifty Shades of Grey Soundtrack . The Weeknd