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

Hi Gunel, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

While working on my MBA in Healthcare in 2017, I realized that Minnesotan Azerbaijanis didn’t have community recognition nor a platform. I saw an opportunity to use my passion for education, bring people together to build relationships and sustain our ancestral roots. So, in 2018, I established a nonprofit organization—the Azerbaijani Association of Minnesota. It wasn’t easy for me juggling school and having no non-profit experience, but I kept telling myself I could do it. I researched and built my network, created business goals and reached out to other community organizations to learn how to lead a nonprofit.
Over the next five years, I developed a social media platform, generated multiple media news coverages and created billboard marketing. I met with local mayors and political leaders and built relationships with the Governor’s Office to declare a statewide Azerbaijani Day proclamation recognizing the role of Azerbaijanis in MN. We lit the Lowry Bridge with the colors of Azerbaijani Flag, participated in international festivals, organized cultural exhibitions and raised monies to sponsor student tuitions and support the less fortunate in Azerbaijan and Ukraine. This work led to national and international awareness by many leaders. I was invited to serve as a co-facilitator for a national historical Azerbaijani rally by Capital Hall in Washington DC and received the Azerbaijani President’s Award for my successful efforts in educating others. Driving the work of the Association gave me a place to purposefully use my passion and fueled my eagerness to succeed.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I was born and raised in Azerbaijan. I moved to the United States in my late 20s leaving behind successful career as TV host. I hosted weekday morning and evening TV shows on our country’s National channel. Additionally, I took part in movies, music videos and was featured on the covers of magazines. Basically, I was one of the most recognizable faces in my country. When I moved to Minnesota it was hard to realize that Azerbaijani community doesn’t have deserved recognition. This motivated and inspired me to establish non-profit organization that will serve the purpose of educating local communities about Azerbaijanis as well as spread awareness about the culture, background, tradition etc..
I have accomplished many projects and events to elevate Azerbaijani community in Minnesota since I became an ambassador for my community.
This work inspired me to follow my passion of public speaking and communication. Just recently I launched my own business “GleamBIG:” to utilize my TV experience and public speaking skills.
I use platforms such as Rotary organization to make my voice heard, to talk about my story of an immigrant woman who’s trying to find her way in the land of opportunities.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

With my move to the United States I was searching to find my identity, a place to fit in and feel connected. I decided to do what my heart felt connected to—I created a blog that united Azerbaijani women across the United States, Canada and Europe. My blog invited them to share their immigration stories to help inspire, motivate and support one another. I achieved my goal of helping women find hope through greater communication, understanding and problem solving of our unique struggles and challenges as immigrants. My blog grew very fast, gaining over ten thousand followers in less than a year, with twelve writers contributing very diverse content that served all immigrant women throughout America, not just Azerbaijanians.
Creating a blog by a woman for women was a critical point in my life. At that time, I met a lot of incredible women, including immigrants, international and exchange students. I learned that, regardless of location, we all shared the same struggles of adjusting, being seen and recognized, while trying to adapt to entirely new environments and traditions.
After a few years, I extended the blog to the YouTube platform, conducting interviews and making videos of my travels to provide insights for those women who hadn’t yet, and maybe never would, get the chance to visit America.
I realized I needed to change my career focus from the blog to one that provided more opportunities. As I already mentioned, I founded non-profit to lead my community and today, I own Gleam BIG—a company that offers a dual track of services: Public Speaking and Social Media marketing services. It gives me the opportunity to use my knowledge and skills to contribute with purpose, sustain my self-independence and continuous learning growth, provide a source of income and offer greater flexibility, where I obtain greater worth on many fronts.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Growing the network of clients or members requires simple understanding of their background. In my case, I have a clear goal, to raise awareness about my community and also turn attention to immigrant Azerbaijani women like myself. So, my focus is local communities, city representatives, platforms like Rotary, Green Card Voice, International Festivals, local news papers etc. To grow the network it is important to determine your audience, find a place where you can connect to them.
While I believe social media is one of the most powerful tools to engage your audience, meeting and getting to know your audience has as big, perhaps bigger impact. For instance it’s always more productive to have meetings in person rather than over the Zoom, because the energy you receive from meeting people in person is not the same online.
So, my most effective strategy and advice is to focus on building relationship first. This is the strong foundation of successful business.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gleambig.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/azerbaijan_minnesota
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/gunelkrishnan

Image Credits
All pictures belongs to me.