We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Arvell Anthony. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Arvell below.

Arvell, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I’ve been an entrepreneur, project manager & business strategist since 2008.

A few weeks ago was the (re)launch of my online course academy & community (BizMind Academy) focused on promoting balance, mental health and wellness as apart of an entrepreneurs view of “success”. I grew up learning the dogma that entrepreneurship is all about the hustle and grind, and thus adopting many habits that weren’t focused on maintaining health or balance, as an entrepreneur.

After struggling earlier in 2022 with severe bouts of anxiety, due to the pressures I put on myself to achieve my goals (which weren’t grounded in balance, joy service and happiness) this BizMind Academy business venture became a significant focus throughout the latter part of the year, as the more I spoke to many entrepreneurs, the more I learned that many people were also struggling with anxiety and stress due to self-inflicted goals. My goal is to be apart of changing the narrative of what “success” is defined as for entrepreneurs to be inclusive of balance, joy, happiness and mental health (not just the financial metrics). I’ve learned that health is a very high cost to pay for the success of your business.

Arvell, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

At a young age, I saw my mentor (who was a founding member) be apart of the launch and growth of priceline.com. I interned at priceline in my teenage years and from watching my mentor, my appetite for entrepreneurship was born.

After that, I spent alot of time diving into the field of entrepreneurship and read many books (Rich Dad Poor Dad, Think & Grow Rich, Automatic Millionaire etc etc)… After college I worked at businesses and took on roles in AP, AR, Finance, Procurement, & Operations, which helped me learn the inside of business hands on, learning about all the inner workings of businesses. During that time, I developed a knack for Project Management and this became my strongest skillset.
in 2008 – After learning about the “consulting” side of business, I learned that I could start my own business and offer my same project management services to the company I was working for, and intern have them hire me (my company) and save them money on payroll taxes and benefits, since I would be the one covering those costs. This allowed me to charge more for my hourly rate, since I was being hired on as a consultant and not an employee. Upon learning this, I formed my Vorrei Consulting LLC company, and proceeded to venture into becoming an entrepreneur.

I landed projects working with Sinew Solutions, which was a mobile app building company, and worked with them on many projects over the years, and this strengthened my skills as a PM. From there, I was able to land by biggest client, Gilead Sciences, the world leading billion dollar pharmaceuticals company, providing them with Project Management for the rollout of their R&D materials management software application. During this time, I worked with many small business owners providing Project Management and moreso “Strategic Management”. I opened up a commercial recording studio in LA, and also opened up Stacksfx.com, which is a guitar pedal company. Small business clients learned of my background running businesses and began asking for more than just Project Management help and this is what led to me providing Strategic Management assistance to many small business owners.

Gilead was a major client but I also worked with many small business owners during this time and along the way. I worked with Gilead sciences as my main client for many years until relocating back to NJ in 2016 from Palo Alto CA, and soon after my daughter was born.

2018 – BizMind Academy was born from around the time my daughter was born. With a newborn child, I couldn’t maintain many small business clients as well as working with fortune 500 clients (whose demands are more time consuming), so this began the birth of creating and providing courses to potential small business clients who needed help with Project Management or Strategic Management, whom I didn’t have the bandwidth to help 1on1.

As I mentioned, many of the small business clients who needed my help always struggled with managing their time and having any “extra” time to work on improving the business, and accomplishing the tasks the resulted from our Strategic Management sessions, so the “Lessons in Time Management” course was created, as a way to help Strategic Management clients learn to better manage their time, to help them carve out time to work ON the business instead of spending all their time working IN the business.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Recently. I’ve mainly been a 1on1 consultant most of my business career but I’ve pivoted in business due to my ordeal with stress and major anxiety attacks in 2022.

After struggling earlier in 2022 with severe bouts of anxiety, due to the pressures I put on myself to achieve my goals (which weren’t grounded in balance, joy service and happiness) this BizMind Academy business venture became a significant focus throughout the latter part of the year, as the more I spoke to many entrepreneurs, the more I learned that many people were also struggling with anxiety and stress due to self-inflicted goals. My goal is to be apart of changing the narrative of what “success” is defined as for entrepreneurs to be inclusive of balance, joy, happiness and mental health (not just the financial metrics). I’ve learned that health is a very high cost to pay for the success of your business.

I am now focusing most of my effort in business, transitioning away from 1on1 consulting and focusing on BizMind academy as there are too many entrepreneurs “suffering in silence” chasing “success” which is not grounded in balance and happiness. I’d like to do my part to help change the narrative of how we define “success” in business, moving away from the focus on just financial gains and focusing more on total life balance, happiness and joy.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn that “success” in business doesn’t automatically mean success in life. And that being successful in business isn’t financial only achieving your financial goals.

2022 hit me hard because I had reached alot of my goals to be successful, but I wasn’t happy. I was making the money I wanted, I had the recognition I wanted, but I wasn’t happy. It was only then that I realized that my path that I created for myself was only focused on goals that were financial or public facing, but the lifestyle and daily reality I created wasn’t grounded, balanced, or even cared about if I was happy.

I’ve had to unlearn my definition of success. It’s a weird feeling to hit your goals, have everything you thought you always wanted, and still feel empty and unfulfilled. This is when alot of stress and anxiety started to build up, as I couldn’t continue to live my life daily, doing the same things, and carrying around this weight of unhappiness. Plus, in everyone else’s eyes, I was a success, so why in God’s name wasn’t I happy. And how could I say to anyone I wasn’t happy. People would kill to have my achievements. It was a struggle.

Its why BizMind Academy now means so much to me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bizmind.academy
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/bizmindacademy
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bizmind-academy/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BizMindAcademy?sub_confirmation=1