We were lucky to catch up with Kedma Ough recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kedma, thanks for joining us today. One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?

Life is always giving you the AHA moments and you need to be paying attention.

It all began with a broken relationship. I was in a difficult personal relationship and we were constantly arguing about money. At the time I had excellent credit and he has poor credit. One day I arrived home from work and did the unthinkable. I transferred every bill, every debt, from his name to my name. Six months later, I was meeting with my attorney and he offered two options. Option 1 was to spend the rest of my working life paying off someone else’s debt. The second option was to file bankruptcy. After much thought I filed bankruptcy. I remember the moment vividly, my head looking down, trying to hold back the tears from shame and defeat. As I left the courtroom, I walked outside and found a curb right about a lamppost and proceeded to sob to God for more than an hour. Two weeks later I was in my new apartment and received a letter from Capital One Credit Card. I remember opening the letter and staring at a notice that stated “congratulations you have been offered a $ 200 credit card”. I was confused and perplexed having just filed for bankruptcy.

All of a sudden I had the AHA moment. I remember as a young girl I would play the board game Monopoly. I knew that on the board game, everything could be mortgaged and I could be out of money but if I could roll the dice and pass GO than the banker must give me $ 200 dollars. That was it! That was the moment I said “I just got played back into the funding game. What if I could go on a journey and uncover every fund, every resource, and every grant for others that have gone through the same struggle?”

It was at that moment that the journey began. It would take 15 years of building an understanding of the funding game and along the way I helped more than 10,000 business owners leverage $ 100 million in funds and resources. In 2019, Target Funding was released, published through McGraw-Hill detailing the step-by-step plan for others to find their way through the funding maze. Along the way, I built my credit score to 810 and became on paper a multi-millionaire.

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.

For the last 25 years, I have helped more than 10,000 business owners navigate the funding space and build exceptional companies. Today, I provide business coaching classes and consulting for companies as well as inventors focused on bringing their products to the market. I am dubbed the Small Business Superhero and most proud of serving others that are focused on creating a better life for themselves and others.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The Power of First Impressions. Often people meet me when I am wearing my cape. They are first confused and wonder if it is a gimmick or a costume. This is the power of first impressions because most of us develop a first impression but rarely validate if it is accurate.

I believe that everyone is playing out a movie.
Unfortunately, I was born into a horror film
I didn’t realize till the age of seven that I couldn’t escape.
As a young girl, I would come home from school.
And I would turn on the television and watch my favorite program.
You probably guessed it.
it was Wonder Woman
One day after many episodes, I was watching my show and all of a sudden I realized that the
I realized that as a little girl, maybe I was Wonder Woman.
Maybe I was supposed to have a villain in my life.
Maybe I was supposed to find a way that escape.
It would take another 10 years before that happened
At the age of 18 I entered into a community college that was already a mess.
I will never forget that moment. I was sitting in the classroom.
It was wintertime. It was an evening class and I was trying to better myself. I received a nine on one page from my therapist, Judy.
Except Judy never paged me.
I remember picking up my books, running out of the classroom, running out into the cold freezing air and trying to locate a payphone and trying to locate a paid phone.
I put the money in the payphone and I called Judy.
Judy What’s the matter?
She said Kedma Listen to me very carefully.
I do not know how he got this number but he is on the way to the college right now and if he finds you, he’s going to kill you.
She was referring to my villain.
This was not the movies.
This was real life.
I hung up the phone. I ran back to the parking lot and I was too late.
You see he was pacing back and forth in his vehicle from lane to lane, trying to find me.
I went into shock.
If you don’t know what shock feels like.
It felt like quicksand was keeping my legs down I tried to scream and nothing would come out and I remember a voice in the back of my head saying Kedma Run, Run but I couldn’t run.
So there in the freezing cold.
I got on my hands and knees and started crawling inch by inch to my car.
I got to my car and slowly opened the door. I took my books. I retraced my steps, and I went back to the payphone to call for help that night. That night my life changed forever.
Three things happened as a result of that evening.
Number one a group of friends found me a safe haven it was a basement apartment in Huntington, New York. You had to go down 15 stairs. The windows were shut tight. The apartment was infested with cockroaches. I would live there in hiding for five years.
The second thing that happened was I had an opportunity to apply for a job.
I remember walking into the interview to meet with this woman Patricia.
She was a chain smoker and she was the manager of a collection department.
I said I’m in hiding. She we we know. I said I need a job.
She said we know we’re going to give you the job and we’re going to protect your identity.
The third thing that happened was
my friend said write a letter to the college where it happened.
And I did.
I wrote a letter and explained everything that was happening in my life. And two weeks later, the college asked to meet with me.
I remember the moment I walked in and there were 15 strangers that were around a table that just read the life story.
And I said I’ve lost everything. I’ve lost my home.
I’ve lost my family and I’ve lost my identity.
The only thing I have left to live for is an opportunity for an education
The committee said they had never had anything this dire.
They said they had to deliberate and they asked me to go to the secretary’s office. At the secretary’s office, I asked the secretary for a piece of paper and pen and I wrote a letter to God.
The same God that I had asked every day, every week, every month and every year to save me – to save my sisters and never got a reply.
However, this time, my letter was a contract and I was giving an ultimatum. The letter read like this
Dear God
now you have taken everything away from me.
I have nothing left to offer this world.
I have nothing left to give to this world
I have nothing left to move forward.
However
if there was an opportunity where I could better myself where I could learn and become someone
then I promise you if given the opportunity, I will spend the rest of my life offering opportunities to every single person that crosses my path and if you cannot provide that for me then I’ll take my life tonight.
And I signed the contract.
Two hours later, I walked back into the committee. Awoman stood up and said Kedma Bashary, I want to shake your hand for the woman you are and tell you we are giving you a full scholarship to this college.
That moment happened more than 30 years ago and I have now been living out the contract every single day for more than 30 years.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

There are far too many but here are a few

1. The four hour work week by Tim Ferris really helps to realign on to manage time and be most efficient with outsourcing tasks
2. Thank and Grow Rich focuses on the mindset you need to build wealth in your life
3. The third is Tedx series as I get bite chunk knowledge that allows me to impact my world. I am also a Tedx speaker and recently did a Tedx talk on the surprising solutions to accomplishing your goals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-QISH8VjEk

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kedmaough.com
• Linkedin: kedmaough

Image Credits
I had a very hard time upload the photos. Send me an email and I can send them to you. my email is Kedma@kedmaough.com and I will send you a link to them