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

Shatora, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

If you really knew what it took to start and grow a business, you would start yesterday.

Unknowingly I’d been an entrepreneur since I was 13. Through the years I’ve always been willing to learn and try a new thing. Learning from mistakes and failures and being sure to document the wins so that I could repeat the process and do it again.

When you hear some of your favorite business owners talk about how they spent 5 years, 10 years, or even15 years just to see some success.

We tend to look at the two years we’ve put in and wonder why you haven’t “popped” yet?
(Now, that’s not to say you can’t blow up in two years, it happens.. Just not often.)

We spend years working on our craft, whether we know it or not.

Business ideas usually stem from experiences we’ve had in the past, products created for things that inconvenienced us, monetizing what we are naturally talented at, and transferring skills. Learning lessons that we didn’t know were going to have a major impact on who we are and how we operate just because of people that we’ve watched.

As an Entrepreneur, success takes a different type of work. It takes for you to become a different type of person, not only for you to obtain success, but more importantly for you to sustain it.

For most, you’ve got what it takes, but you better believe it takes everything that you’ve got!

I started my business while still working a nine-to-five. Every “job” I have had, I’ve looked at as an apprenticeship (to learn new skills) and as my investor (to pay the bills and business start-up expenses). I spent many late nights and early mornings.

I once read that there’s consequences to commitment. And it is so true.

The amazing thing is that it’s up to you to make it worth it.

Shatora, 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?

I am a Mother, entrepreneur, author, and transformational speaker and I’ve been helping Business Owners get their business ish together!
My “Rewired Methods®” have become well-known for the no B.S. , unfiltered approach to both Business and Personal Development.

As a business and personal development strategist, I have collaborated with many notable brands, delivering results-driven techniques that drive revenue, boost productivity, and transform individuals from the inside out.

Alongside One-On- One Business coaching and Mentorship, I also have a Private Community of Ambitious Entrepreneurs that meet weekly to Mastermind, share ideas, hold each other accountable, collab and offer support to one another.

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

My story of resilience starts back when I was a high school freshman.

I was in a singing group and we wanted nothing more than to be on tour, on MTV and winning Grammys.

We would get up every morning early before school standing outside sometimes in the freezing cold singing and practicing. Then after school we were on a 3 way call once more singing and writing songs. Getting our 10,000 hours in.

We were so determined and so consistent that even our graphic arts teacher allowed us into the red room some mornings so that we wouldn’t have to be out in the cold and it offered great acoustics. haha

After school, we would call every major record label EVERY DAY in hopes of reaching someone who would put us in the game. We called so much that we knew all the evening receptionists at every label from Arista to Jive.

One magical day, one of the receptionists said, “you know what, I’m going to transfer you, but you better not tell anyone it was me”.

The next thing we knew we heard and man’s voice and we just started singing. No intro, just harmony!

Surprisingly he didn’t hang up and we got to have an actual conversation..haha.

He said he would give us a shot but we had to get a demo over to him within two weeks.
We shopped around and the least expensive demo would be $250.

So, we got creative. We took a Talkboy handheld voice recorder and we went into the graphic arts room and sang our hearts out.

The next day we wrapped our cassette tape up in toilet paper (for safety in the mail). 😂Put 16 stamps on a manila envelope (because we didn’t know how many stamps it took to get it to California) and we mailed out our demo.

Almost a week later we got a call back from John Henry.. laughing! He said “this is either the most hilarious joke, or you girls got heart.” And of course we said it was the latter.

He said, “okay seriously. You’ve got to get this demo to me… A real one.” And he gave us 2 more weeks.

At this point, I had already lied about my age in order to get a job at Pizza Hut, but my little $109 check didn’t cut it.
We begged our parents for the money. But no one wanted to spend “that kind of money.”

The next two weeks passed and we were unsuccessful. We called John Henry several times to ask for more time, but unfortunately, he never took a call from us again.

I felt like I lost everything. My heart was broken. Yet a switch flipped inside of me.

I told myself that I would never again allow something as small as $250 dollars come between me and my dreams.
I would never let my lack of knowledge or resources stop me from achieving success.

We were later able to record a demo in a real studio, although it was still too late for our biggest opportunity to date.

So fast forward to now, I have an unraveled cassette tape and a turntable tattooed on me, not just because I was a DJ, but because cassette tape represents music, my first love, and it’s unraveled because that’s exactly how I felt about my dreams.

However the turntables are a reminder that the tables do always turn. Another opportunity comes and you must be ready during the lifetime of that opportunity.

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

The most life changing book for me would have to be ” The Game of Life and How To Play It” By Florence Scovel Shinn. “Destiny By T.D. Jakes” was another next level book for me.

Personality assessments (16 personalities or Innermetrix) – Assessments are the foundation that I base majority of my business practices on.

Here are my Rewired® tips to help guide you on your journey. I relate these to every aspect of both my business and personal life.

1. Believe that the God /Universe or whatever belief you subscribe to has ordered your steps and has got your back. The way has already been paved, under grace and in a perfect way.

2. Think about the things that make you unique, and turn these to your advantage, even if they don’t look like advantages at the time.

3. Opportunities don’t always come easy but if you show up every day giving it 100%, you maximize your chances.

4. Be inflexible on the destination, but flexible on the journey – sometimes the path to get somewhere doesn’t look like what you had in mind, but may turn out to be even better than what you had expected.

5. Hire people you would work for, and let them do their magic – #goteam,

6. If you haven’t healed from it, you’re not over it, so don’t speak on it. (This is very important for your personal brand)

7. Always make sure you look for other people’s magic, and shine a light on it – I can guarantee you that it will come back to you tenfold,

8. If you can dive deep into a persons inner monologue, (understand what they are saying, thinking and feeling) and you can solve for it… you will have a forever customer/client / friend/ partner.

Contact Info:

• Website: flooz.link/shatoraladorne
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shatoraladorne/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shatoraladorne/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Shatoraladorne/featured

Image Credits
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