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

Vinicius, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s something crazy on unexpected that’s happened to you or your business

At the end of January 2020 I was sitting in my office, planning the year, as usual. I had already made the budget forecast, separating the quarters with all the calculations as required by protocol so as not to have a deficit, on the contrary, to make a profit as far as possible. We were in the pre-lockdown days of the Covid-19 pandemic, and people were already starting to talk about a new wave of recession in the economy. The World Health Organization had already announced the outbreak and issued an alert declaring a public health emergency.

The moment I opened the report on the books I had in storage, I felt that I needed to take an extra step of faith and take a risk. I really believe in God, and I heard a voice inside me saying, “You need to hire someone.” This voice inside me kept saying, only this time louder, “You need to hire someone in February.”

Until that moment, I had practically worked as a solo entrepreneur, as I had created a lean and automatic operation that allowed me to balance the payroll and at the same time continue to grow in a company that was already earning 5 figures. It was not my personal desire to hire anyone this year; Therefore, I decided to “leave the boat” and take this step of faith.
I called a friend who was unemployed, interviewed him and hired him. Two months later, what no one imagined happened. The pandemic arrived without knocking on the door and asking for permission. The newly hired man became fearful and worried about his future, thinking he would lose his job. I instantly replied that his job was guaranteed.

As much as I was watching the news about the possible lockdown, I remained firm under the direction I had received from God. I don’t even need to say the ending, right? In the following months, our sales increased by approximately 1500%, making my company reach 7-figure revenue. With the strong volume of books sales, if it weren’t for this hiring, I probably wouldn’t have been able to send so many orders. In the following months we hired more people, reaching a team of 12 employees here in Brazil and 20 new employees in Europe, expanding into more than 30 countries.

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

I started working as an entrepreneur when I was 20 years old in 2007. I created my agency with the aim of creating websites for potential clients. Since then I started preparing a program that I call “Income Accelerator”, in which through multiple incomes, I could think about structuring my financial life for the future. This plan consisted of making several extra income, managing these resources, and investing in new projects.This incredible journey took me from working as a cashier at McDonald’s to opening a restaurant, teaching music lessons to playing in big bands, counting pennies to investing in the financial stock market.

In 2014 I opened our bookstore and focused on getting my marketing agency off the ground.
Keeping my priorities in mind, I decided that every business I would open would have some key fundamentals:

Firstly, the majority of employees would be people who were rejected or those who were considered unlikely to be successful by society for the appropriate positions. Many of my collaborators today do not have a college degree.

Secondly, of all the resources I earn, part of the profit is sent to invest in our Brazilian Kids Care association – our social projects and orphanages in Brazil to help underprivileged children who are being neglected by their parents.

Third, I would remain steadfast with my core values, fundamentally caring about the individuals who are directly or indirectly part of my business, without wanting to profit at any cost. If I grow, everyone needs to grow together.

Currently I have been working mainly as a mentor for personal and spiritual development, inspiring leaders to be driven by the desire to grow professionally, and at the same time invest in social works. I believe that each person has a sphere of influence in which they are placed as an agent of transformation. Capable of bringing great impact to the city and local community.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I’ve always been someone who didn’t like classes to learn a new language. My mother had to send me to several schools in an (unsuccessful) attempt to make me learn English as a teenager. While my cousins ​​were already graduating, I was still in ESOL 1.
At the moment when I was about to decide which course to choose to study at college, my family and I decided that I would move to the United States for a six months period of time to rethink my career. It was during this period that I learned English.

A few years later, I was making websites for a radio station in my local town that was part of a group of churches. This group had more than twenty thousand members in the city. An American couple had decided to move from South Carolina to Brazil, specifically to this group of churches, and they needed someone to help them adapt to the location.

What I couldn’t imagine was that out of at least 120 people working full-time in this local church, none of them knew how to speak English, with the exception of me. I was invited to take care of this couple. We became friends and partners to this day.

From this I learned a lesson to always value the opportunities that came my way. When I was younger, I didn’t appreciate it due to my mother’s insistence. Imagine where I would be today if I hadn’t spent those six months in the United States? My life path would probably be different.
And the second lesson I learned is, sooner or later, everything will connect and make sense. We often have knowledge, tools that we don’t know when or where we will use. But one day everything will make sense and connect in an incredible way.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

In one of our online course launches, we hired another more experienced team to help us with the necessary steps and guidance. Both we and the other members of this agency seemed to have the same values. The idea was that, by sharing the same values, we could work together to create a launch that reflected these principles.

At first, I confess we were a little shocked. We were unfamiliar with the world of marketing and infoproducts, and a lot of the guidance seemed strange. We need to have several conversations to understand everything that was between the lines.
One of the points agreed between us was that the course would be sold for 697 dollars.

However, the week of the launch, one of those responsible came to us with a new plan. In his strategy, we noticed that he started to use mental triggers and other marketing concepts. This, in itself, was not a problem until we realized that these techniques were being employed to force a sale through deception. The plan was to announce that the price of the course was, in fact, $997, but that, just at that moment, it would be reduced to $697. He assured us that this was “normal”, that “everyone does it” and that, in this way, we could sell a lot, reaching the expectation of reaching 100 students. But this was completely against our values. If the course were actually still available for purchase for $997 after the promotional period, this strategy might even be more acceptable. However, the cart would only be open for 7 days, and then the course would no longer be available. In other words, we had never talked about the value of the course being 997.

We chose to leave the strategy of this experienced team behind and use our strategy. Together with the team, I led changes to our website and throughout the sales funnel, even without having any experience in launching infoproducts. I took the opportunity to guide the team that we would make a sales pitch while being as transparent as possible. We announced that the price would be 697, we explained the reason for the price and that it would be available for 7 days only.

The way we can allow ourselves to be seduced by the culture of profit at all costs is very subtle. Marketing techniques must follow what is already defined, and not the other way around. This reaffirms the importance of putting our values ​​and ethics first, allowing business techniques to align with these principles, rather than leading us down a path that could compromise the values ​​we truly believe in.

The result? We got 560 students. This episode showed us that it is perfectly possible to achieve success in business without compromising our integrity and values.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://viniciuslemos.com.br
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/euvinilemos/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8iQEwJ6jsC3ytk6AEvGanA