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

Hi Geraldine, thanks for joining us today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

As a 4 year old girl, I declared that one day I would have my own business. That dream was forgotten through my adolescence and as an adult my business happened by accident. I did many things before I landed where I am today.

I owned an online vinyl record store, graphic design outsourcing firm, film production company, a restaurant and did a bunch of freelance odd jobs.

People knew that from past experience in corporate, I had skills in marketing and web development then asked for my support. Things took off from there. I was working 24-7, completely passionate and devoted to my client’s success.

At age 28, most of the work I did was web development (a hobby of mine since age 13). Over the years as I acquired more clients, someone that specialized in branding and business strategy approached me to be a partner in my business. We balanced each other’s skill sets and energy well. She had much bigger visions than I did at the time. She suggested we build a team!

I still had the “do it yourself” mentality, so this idea was uncomfortable. In terms of growth and money, I was still thinking pretty small. I had a couple teammates but the idea of hiring more was scary because of our limited resources.

Over time I got into a more serious, committed relationship with my boyfriend and wanted to start socializing more. That’s when having a team and growing the business started to look more attractive.

Today I own multiple companies. For the sake of sharing my journey, I’ll explain how my business called, MeetGeraldine scaled.

I met a woman that was skilled in creating business plans. As a way to flex her skills and trade coaching, she offered to work with me for barter. We coached each other and she opened my eyes into a bigger vision. It was right there, written on paper along with an org chart drawn out.

Something told me that I should ask her to be my business partner, so I did. And she accepted. Somehow I knew that she believed in the scalability of my business more than I did. My intuition told me that I needed that.

Here are the sequential steps we took:

We figured out what it would take to build a team.

This entailed:

Working with a business / leadership coach to guide us closer to this bigger vision. By coincidence, I knew one from way back when I owned a film company.
Looking at our new org chart and creating job descriptions.
Defining what we wanted our company culture to be.
Creating a listing out on craigslist for a hiring event.
Building out a try out process so we can find the right fit.
(this worked 70% of the time, we learned a lot)
Once the core team was in place… Spending hours and hours and documenting our current processes along with our team.
Acquired a $100,000 loan to user for working capital.

The result was over the course of a few years – we scaled from 4 people to 19 people.

Our biggest strategy for scaling up was continuously refining and documenting our processes. It was the only way for our team to operate independently then be on the same page when collaborating.

Our most meaningful moments were centered around relationships with our teammates and colleagues. We spent a lot of time getting to know our team and understanding strengths and weaknesses. This helped us balance each other out and fill in the gaps. We also were attending networking events all the time and consistently being introduced to people by our colleagues. Many of those relationships still exist today and we continue to receive referrals even from people we met over 10 years ago in some cases only had that one conversation with them. It’s an honor to be remembered and trusted with people’s connections.

The biggest obstacle we faced was around understanding our overall financial picture, managing budgets and cash flow. This was neither of our strengths, we heavily relied on accountants, bookkeepers and other professionals to support us with this. Unfortunately, even though people know what they’re doing, sometimes they do it their own way and mistakes were made that we spent thousands of dollars to fix.

Another obstacle was personal growth while owning a business. We all change and evolve overtime. For myself, there were periods where I just wasn’t interested in my business as often or I felt triggered because the team dynamic was so new for me. This had a direct impact on my business. Luckily, I had coaches and did a lot of self-reflection and self-development to overcome this. Now things are great!

Lastly, throughout the 15+ years of being in business. I realized that it’s important to pivot when things don’t feel right, aren’t working or the market doesn’t grasp what you’re doing anymore. This was sometimes scary. Ultimately, things always work out.

Geraldine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

In the world of online marketing and content creation I’m known as “The Entrepreneur Guide, Web and SEO Expert”. For the past 15 years, I’ve worked with 1,000’s of businesses worldwide to improve how they show up online. I explain what’s missing and we take the steps to resolve it. That can look like enhancing their website, helping them show up on relevant search engines, coaching them on becoming a thought leader or influencer in their industry, or training their internal teams on effective marketing processes.

I started developing websites at age 13. Later in my late teens and early 20s, I worked for companies that had large corporate accounts in music marketing, advertising, and media buying.

Early on when I first started MeetGeraldine, I invented my own 7 Step System for Search Engine Optimization called, The SEO7. It wasn’t until years later that I realized how effective it was. Today, I have an online course teaching the method and I also speak at conferences about how it works.

I now have multiple companies, multiple business partners and one team that manages them. Our companies are in marketing, web development, web maintenance, online learning, personal development, and astrology. I know it sounds like a lot. It’s for real, we’re thriving and having fun in the process.

I’m also a rap artist. I go by the name, Realism* (but that’s another story for another time).

I’ve been able to learn lessons and have profound experiences overtime. I’m most proud that I’ve been able to tell concise, relatable stories about them so others can take them into consideration throughout their journey. There aren’t enough people sharing things other than a formula on how to get from A to B. Sometimes you don’t start at A and sometimes you skip B completely, get lost then have to find your way back.

My main company is called, Reverence. I love the definition of that word “mutual respect”. Our brand is committed to helping others, holding space, consistent skill building, and empowering our clients. I personally carry the same approach in all of my other businesses.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I spent many years “trying” on social media. I kept trying new things until I felt comfortable, until I knew what was working, until I was able to express the most holistic version of myself that I can. Part of this also meant that I had to get comfortable on camera, hearing my voice and writing my story in different ways over and over.

In regards to followers, I asked everyone I knew if they would be willing to follow each other. I gave them a high level “pitch” of what I post and/or what I was intending to post. I was transparent about the fact that I was still building my profiles. People saw that as relatable.

I don’t believe that you have to have tons of followers to gain business or credibility. Even when I had less followers than the amount I have now, I was able to obtain clients. Obtaining clients as a result of social media is few and far between for me, however everytime they are big clients and it’s worth consistently pushing my message.

I actually facilitated a course about social media with Zoo Labs. Currently it’s free ($250 value). Not sure for how long.

Does your business have multiple or supplementary revenue streams (like a ATM machine at a barbershop, etc)?

We have multiple companies/brands that focus on the following.

Online Learning – Partner with other companies to develop online learning platforms in exchange for profit share.

Online Presence (marketing/web/social media) – We have a select group of on-going retainer clients that we work with. We also facilitate competitive analysis and assessments for companies that want to improve their web presence and/or increase their revenue.

Web Maintenance – Our team of experts handle on-going WordPress website maintenance for companies that are looking for a reliable solution or want to be hands off with their website.

Content Creation – We produce content and generate money through ads and brand sponsorship.

Ecommerce – We have an Etsy shop

Personal empowerment – We have a subscription based platform with hypnosis audios to overwrite limiting beliefs that are stuck in the subconscious mind.

Restorative Justice – We create and train organizations on facilitating restorative justice curriculum intended to heal multi-generational trauma.

Astrology – I am an astrology coach that focuses on analyzing astrology, planetary influences, locational charts and people skills to help people empower areas of their life that are most important to them.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.geraldineconvento.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/geraldineconvento
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/geraldineconventodigital
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geraldineconventodigital
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/geraldineconventodigital
• Other: https://learn.zoolabs.org/p/social-media-strategy

Image Credits
Joel Griffin of Joel Creates