We were lucky to catch up with Malili Dib recently and have shared our conversation below.

Malili , appreciate you joining us today. How do you think about vacations as a business owner? Do you take them and if so, how? If you don’t, why not?

Taking time off is as important to me as putting in the hard work. Vacationing is the time when you can reset, refresh and most importantly find the inspiration needed to help your business continue to evolve and grow. Burnout is very real, and sometimes the best way forward is simply to take a break! I guess it may be hard for some people who feel like taking said break will set them back or damage the growth of the business, but I think once you let go and incorporate rest time into your schedule, you realize there are more benefits than setbacks. Spending quality time with your family while you sip a margarita on a nice beach may just be exactly what you need to take your business to the next level!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

As a very creative and restless mind, I have never been able to just do ONE thing. So, I am now the proud barer of many labels… I am a full time actress with an extensive career in Voice Over who also works training The San Diego Police Department.
I am also the co owner of Golf By QD, a golf jewelry and accessory brand.

Let’s start with talking about acting. One of my biggest passions and a job I can hardly call a job… anytime I am on set or a recording booth I am amazed at how I can get paid to quite literally “play around”, wear costumes and pretend to be other people… It is just such a fun job to do. Unfortunately, it is an incredible unstable and unpredictable career, which has lead my creative/restless mind, to look for more things to keep it stimulated. That is how I ended up working with the police department. The police sadly gets a bad rep sometimes, but people don’t know just how much work these brave men and women put in to serve and protect us! One part of their training involves hiring real actors so that they can improve their interrogation skills in a safe environment. As an actress, it is one of the most rewarding jobs that I do, because not only am I getting to do what I love, but I also feel like I am giving back to my community. I always think how the work we do in these trainings actually has the effect of saving someone’s life when the officers apply their knowledge in the real world.
If you’ve read this and were shocked to learn the extents they go to to train, I ask that next time you see a police officer, you actually thank them for risking their own lives so that the streets can be safer for us :)

Moving on to the artistic/entrepreneurial side of things:
My brand Golf By QD was something I created with my best friend AKA mom. We both like playing golf, and even though we are both pretty terrible at it, we ARE really good at looking amazing while doing it. Each time we would put together a golf outfit and went out to play, we wondered why there wasn’t a nice brand of accessories that would be both good quality and affordable. We always saw accessories that were either very cheap looking, or ones that were made out of gold and diamonds and costed a fortune. We had a lightbulb moment and decided to create our own brand of jewelry and accessories that would be made in Mexico by artisans using the best quality Sterling Silver. That way, we could have affordable yet luxurious pieces. Our brand is a favorite specially amongst female golfers, who we imagine, had the same problem accessorizing as we did when we decided to create the brand. Best part of this venture tho? That I get to do it with my beautiful mom!

That is pretty much what I am doing at the moment. I also have my brand Spirally Apparel, which I introduced to you last time we made an article, but which has been put on hold due to lack of time and manufacturing challenges. It will be back very soon tho and I would love to update you about it when it does!

Thank you so much for including me in your magazine again!

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

I do both and there are pros and cons to both… Selling directly on my website means I do not have to share percentages of the profit with the platform. I pay a set anual fee to use it and the rest belongs to me. The challenge here is getting the necessary traffic into the website. Marketing is a very very costly part of a business, and without it, it is impossible to get people to come to your site. As many of you business owners out there probably already know, doing a successful marketing campaign is no easy feat and you can end up spending lots and lots of money that leads nowhere. This is where the confort of an established platform like Etsy comes to play… There I have to share profits on every single sale that I do, BUT, the traffic is all there already. My products are viewed by thousands of people that are already browsing the market place, and to me, this means I save lots of money on marketing. So I would say, the more the merrier. It doesn’t hurt to have your products in as many platforms as you can manage!

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

There is a book I read that completely changed the way I managed and organized my days and I believe has really helped me take my business, and honestly LIFE, to the next level. It is the best selling book called “atomic habits”. It taught me the importance of creating small, sustainable changes that would slowly add up, resulting in BIG transformations. It took the pressure off of expecting big, quick and unattainable shifts. When we create unrealistic expectations for ourselves and don’t manage to accomplish them, that only diminishes our morale and makes us want quit. This book changed my whole perspective on habit formation. Literally a game changer! I recommend it not only to entrepreneurs but really to anybody looking to make sustainable, long lasting and positive changes in their life!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.golfbyqd.com
• Instagram: golfbyqd
• Tiktok Personal: @Malilidib3 IG Spirally: @spirally_ IG Personal @MaliliDib Golf ETSY: https://www.etsy.com/shop/GolfByQD