We recently connected with Olivia Rios and have shared our conversation below.

Olivia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you wish you had waited to start your own firm or do you wish you had started sooner?

My backstory is that I’m an indigenous latina from New Mexico that came to Georgia to attend school. I had a slight detour and got married and had children; unfortunately I did not finish getting my degree. Instead I focused on raising my kids, which was especially challenging after my divorce. I eventually went back to school when my kids entered high school, eventually graduating from Oglethorpe University in 2015. When my children were finally in college is when I decided it was time for me to take the leap and start my company.

While at my previous firms, I had often had the need for additional experienced support. At the time there were two well known consulting agencies offering support, we hired both companies and had to cut our contract short because they did not have the experience or expertise. This was my ah-ha moment, I knew there was a gap in the market that I knew I could effectively fill.

I had prepared for a couple of years before I left my firm, set up my business structure and reached out to previous vendors to begin developing partnerships. I officially started my business in July of 2019 and by January of 2020 we had to software vendor partnerships. Unfortunately the pandemic hit shortly after which put everything on hold and I had to figure out how to pivot which is when i started looking at working in the government contracting space. Luckily everything turned around at the beginning of 2021 and we quickly hit revenue stage.

Looking back, I really would have done things the same way. I am so grateful I was able to raise my kids and be present in their lives. In addition, although I was able to finally get my degree, I knew I still had some things to learn that could only happen by doing the job and having the experience.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have always worked in the legal industry in a variety of roles beginning as a legal assistant and eventually transitioning into the marketing department where I first became familar with marketing technology. For those unfamiliar, the legal industry has a very unique culture which is reflected primarily in how legal services are marketed. Because I was the product owner and MarTech Manager and extensive background working for lawyers and law firms, I am extremely familiar with the particular pain points most firms experience. But more importantly, I know how to solve those problems.

What sets us apart is that we have curated a team of highly experienced MarTech experts with similar backgrounds at other AmLaw 100 firms. We are a woman owned/founded company and all women support team. We are problem solvers who partner with our clients to not only solve current problems but anticipate and prepare for helping our clients continue to scale and grow

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

There are two things that I would say show my resilience. The first is that I started my business mid 2019, right before the pandemic hit. Although I had been able to secure a couple of partnerships and was in talks with 3 big firms, everything came to a screeching halt with the pandemic. Although it was a scary time and I wasn’t sure we were going to make it, I was determined to hang in there because I knew I could offer expert level fractional support to suppoMrt firms that was not available. We not only made it through that dark period, we were able to hit over 6 figures the following year and doubled our revenue the year after that.

Secondly: When I started my business I quickly became aware of my knowledge gaps. I knew how to do the work and knew I could do it better than most but there is a lot more to actually running the business. To address this issue i took advantage of a variety of resources and programs for founders. However, there was a particular cohort run by the City of Atlanta’s Economic branch, Invest Atlanta called the Women’s Entrepreneur Initiative. I applied to participate in this cohort a couple of times but was denied until this year when I was finally accepted. This cohort has opened so many doors for my small business to continue to scale.

When I was accepted into the cohort this year my kids told me they were proud of me for being accepted but more proud that I didn’t give up

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Some years back when Data Privacy was becoming a real issue and CASL was coming online (Canadian Anti-Spamming Legislation) I recognized that this was going to have a huge impact on the industry and I needed to get my arms around it. So I started an international peer group to address industry related marketing issues and discuss/share best practices, solutions, recommended products, etc. In addition, I leveraged my relationships with the software vendors of the products we were employing. I made myself available to speak to anyone who had questions about how to address any data privacy concerns but also recommendations/best practices for business development, data aggregation, implementation, rollout and training. I believe that because I was so willing to share my knowlege and resources was critical to building our reputation in the industry

Contact Info:

• Website: www.coldmtconsulting.com
• Instagram: coldmountainconsulting
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olgarios/