Gold Nuggets
- In a partnership, you have to make sure that your partner brings something to the table that you don’t have.
“When you go into business together, it’s a marriage and it’s for the long haul.” - “The biggest lesson is, we did not wait. I think that’s a big differentiator for any entrepreneur who’s getting by to thriving. We didn’t wait. We didn’t over-plan. We just went for it.”
- “At the end of the day, you could have a really basic room full of people, but it’s really about the people that are in there that makes it great.”
- “In order to succeed as an entrepreneur, one of the skills you have to learn is the skill of asking for help.”
- Steve has been telling Juliet for years that his ‘weird’ is very good for their partnership.
- Entrepreneurs often become paralyzed by overthinking, planning, and ‘what ifs’.
“There’s never going to be a good time. If this is something you really want to do, just go for it.”
“You just have to trust yourself enough to just do it.” - The best part about entrepreneurship is that you can just change things.
“If you have a new business idea, go for it, run with it, and try it out.” - “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams
Meet Victoria Marshman & Dani Kagan
Our guests are Victoria Marshman and Dani Kagan, co-founders of City Moguls, Inc. Their mission is to create unique networking experiences for entrepreneurs to connect, share, learn, and gain support from one another.
Smart Man, Smarter Woman References
We talk about a lot in each episode; however, we don’t want you to miss a thing! Here are some key items were mentioned if you want to take a closer look.
Website Recommendations:
https://www.citymoguls.com/
Become a City MOGULS Member – https://www.citymoguls.com/membership
Attend your first City MOGULS Event for FREE – https://citymoguls.typeform.com/to/KMuOGEFX
Book Recommendation:
The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life, by Robin Sharma
Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life, by Jim Kwik
Stay Connected:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/citymoguls/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citymoguls
Twitter: https://twitter.com/citymoguls
Learn more about our Cloud Accounting Services here
Transcript
Steve Loates (00:00):
Hello everyone and welcome to our podcast. Smart Man, Smarter Woman. A Podcast for Entrepreneurs by Entrepreneurs. And thank you very much for joining us today. I am Steve Loates.
Juliet Aurora (00:14):
And I am Juliet Aurora.
Steve Loates (00:16):
And we are your co-hosts. But before I introduce today’s guests, let’s hear a few words from my wonderful co-host, the smarter woman herself. How are you doing today, Juliet? You look fabulous by the way. I know no one else can see that because it’s a podcast, but you look great. How are you doing today?
Juliet Aurora (00:35):
Well, well, I appreciate that. And I do realize that you can say that I look fabulous, even if I don’t actually, because nobody can really see me. But no, I’m looking forward to today’s episode. For those of you that know me, you know that I feel very strongly about female entrepreneurs and empowerment of females. So I think that today’s episode is going to be great, because it is two women who are in business, have started a business, are living that empowerment dream, and so we’re going to have to kind of keep Steve in check because there’s a little bit lack of testosterone on the show, but I think that it’s going to be a great episode for everybody today.
Steve Loates (01:12):
Absolutely. And I’m also looking forward to seeing if we fall into absolute chaos, since this is the first episode we’ve done where we’ve had two guests at the same time. So I don’t know how this is all going to work, but if it just falls apart and goes into complete chaos, folks, don’t worry about it. Just hang in there. There’ll be all kinds of great stuff we’re talking about.
Juliet Aurora (01:36):
Definitely.
Steve Loates (01:37):
So, as you know, our goal with every episode is hopefully a little entertainment, but most importantly, some value for you the audience. Some insights, perhaps some ideas, gold nuggets to help you on your own entrepreneurial journey. And today, as Juliet said, we have two very special guests. Victoria Marshman and Dani Kagan are the co-founders of City Moguls. And I do love that name. It is a platform that celebrates, educates and connects innovative entrepreneurs to inspire great future leaders, which I think is awesome and is obviously something that fits with our audience. So, I’m sure we’re going to get into far more details about City Moguls and what it does for entrepreneurs. And so let’s bring our guests into the show, Victoria and Dani. Welcome. And thank you for joining us today from, I was going to say both from Toronto, but I now know that’s not true. So let’s say both from Southern Ontario, how about that? Looking forward to the conversation guys.
Dani Kagan (02:46):
Thanks for having us.
Victoria Marshman (02:47):
Thank you guys.
Steve Loates (02:48):
Our pleasure. So why don’t we start off. Please, for a few minutes, maybe share a little bit about your entrepreneurial journey and what led to you two guys getting together and founding City Moguls.
Victoria Marshman (03:05):
Yeah. So Victoria here, since you’ll be hearing two voices, for the first time, two guest voices. But I wanted to tell a little bit more about Dani and I’s early roots and how we met one another because it’s really shaped our journey together as entrepreneurs. We met on the dance team at the University of Toronto about a decade ago, and we soon, within first meeting one another, we locked eyes and we knew that we were going to be captains of that team and take it to new heights. So our actual entrepreneur journey together was really transforming team during university, and we didn’t get any funding from the school so we started to do a lot of fundraisers for the team. We wanted to make it very professional and not so hokey like it was. And that was our first experience really working together and realizing we were a dream team and really both had unique strengths that brought to the table.
Victoria Marshman (04:09):
And I know, especially for you guys, Steve and Juliet, in a partnership, when you do business together, that’s one important piece is you really have to make sure that your partner or whoever you’re going into business with really bring something to the table that you don’t have. And when you go into business together, it’s a marriage and it’s for the long haul. It’s not a short stent. So shortly after graduating, Dani and I both had careers in marketing. I worked in the nonprofit sector, but we always came back to the love of bringing people together through all sorts of events. And, as we evolved as really event experts, we actually launched an event planning company together where we were hired by all sorts of different people and businesses to produce galas, charity events, all sorts of things. And one of the biggest sources for us in terms of finding clientele was going to networking events.
Victoria Marshman (05:09):
So, Dani and I were avid serial networking event attendees. And we really realized after going to so many things like, wow, they are so stale and awkward and I can only have so many one-liners in my back pocket to start conversations with people. And it was just not what we envisioned building a business and finding clientele would look like. So, as entrepreneurs do, we put our heads together and kind of came up with the concept of City Moguls, which is really a platform that celebrates entrepreneurs. We look at entrepreneurs and see them as super heroes and celebrities and we just felt like there wasn’t enough in the existing market that did a good job of that, as well as solving that problem of creating organic and unique opportunities for entrepreneurs and people in business to connect that wasn’t so dry and stale.
Dani Kagan (06:15):
Love that.
Victoria Marshman (06:16):
So I’ll let Dani kind of elaborate a little bit more on what that looks like pre COVID and during COVID, I’m sure we’ll get into this.
Dani Kagan (06:26):
Yeah, I mean, Vic just nailed all of it. And Steve and Juliet, thanks again for having us. This is awesome. We love meeting other entrepreneurs. It’s like our bread and butter. We love it. So yeah, like Vic said, we met in university. We actually, we started a small event, a community event that was a dance fashion music event in university. We kind of just wanted to give back to charity and bring the community together and shine a light on Toronto artists at the time.
Dani Kagan (06:52):
And, we thought it was going to be like 25 people, a few cousins, a few parents, raise 100 bucks. And we actually brought about 250 people to our first event and raised $5,000 and thought, wow, we have something really special here. So we continued doing that event throughout university. Then Victoria and I went off into the quote unquote real world, whatever that means and got ourselves some jobs. Went into the corporate world, the nonprofit world, marketing world, events world and after some time there realized that we wanted to bring this event back. But instead of just kind of making it a community event, really celebrating entrepreneurs who were doing great things in the community. So not just starting businesses, but starting social impact businesses, social enterprises, nonprofits, people who were just doing incredible, innovative things and creating new ideas.
Dani Kagan (07:44):
So that’s the birth of kind of the Mogul Awards, which was our very first event and is now our signature event. And hopefully post COVID will come back in real life. But yeah, that event really celebrates the top 20 entrepreneurs in a big fashion show for Covenant House Toronto, which Victoria, it’s very near and dear to our hearts. And from that event, really, we snowballed into doing other networking events and really just trying to gather the community because we thought it was lacking. Like Victoria said, we never went to events ourselves and thought, wow, we met so many great people or had great connections or had a really unique experience. So we thought we could do it ourselves. And that’s exactly what we did. Fast forward five years later and we’re still doing it, now all online.
Steve Loates (08:33):
Awesome. Awesome. That’s a great story. I mean, obviously with the times we are currently in, that has probably caused you to change direction just a little. Maybe you could share a little about some of the things you’ve had to do, because obviously planning events where a few hundred people could get together in the same room is not realistic right at the moment.
Dani Kagan (09:02):
No, it is not, unfortunately. I mean, Vic and I are definitely one of many, many, many people who have had to pivot during this time. And we’re very fortunate because we weren’t just doing live events. We were really creating a community. And I think that’s something that entrepreneurs consistently need to do is, when they’re building their business, they’re also building a brand, they’re building community. So luckily we kind of jumped on that a few years ago. And so what we decided in March was we weren’t just going to sit around and say, oh, we’ll just wait for our live events to come back because the future is unknown. You have to do stuff while you can in the present. So, we really flipped all of our events that we were going to be doing online and started doing a workshop series.
Dani Kagan (09:51):
So we run two webinars workshops per month with expert entrepreneurs in different areas. So finance experts, tech experts, business experts, et cetera, who we do kind of a fireside chat with. And it’s a bit integrative and everyone gets direct access to all these experts that maybe they were seeing on a stage before. And wow, now you can get onto a screen with them and actually ask them questions directly. So, we started that workshop series. And then we started something that we were, again, we’re supposed to host this year and start this year as an in-person event.
Dani Kagan (10:26):
But we were so fortunate to have technology. We started our Mogul Crews mastermind series. So small groups of entrepreneurs who are kind of at the same level of their entrepreneurial journey get together, six week program, we do all the work for you. You go in and do the work together to really help each other’s business growth and personal development, especially at a time like this. So Mogul Crews has been awesome and essential for entrepreneurs right now. And then, yeah, we’ve continued all of our networking events online, which is great. People are doing speed networking. Vic, what else are we doing? I feel like we’re doing so much and it’s hard to keep up now.
Victoria Marshman (11:05):
Yeah. I mean, we’ve got a mentorship program now with our charity partner, Covenant House. So there’s that give back component too, where people and entrepreneurs and leaders in our community can have the opportunity to mentor at-risk youth who are looking for a hand up rather than a hand out and really get the business knowledge and insight to get past being in difficult situations. So ultimately, I mean the pivot has been insane, but I think the biggest lesson for Dani and I is we did not wait. And I think that’s a big differentiator for any entrepreneur who’s just getting by to thriving, is we didn’t wait, we didn’t overplan, we just went for it and figured out how to get everything online and help our community as we went.
Steve Loates (11:57):
Absolutely.
Juliet Aurora (11:58):
So I have a question. So when you started the business, it was in-person networking. And you said that part of the reason you started it was the events that you both attended were kind of stale and you wanted something a little bit different for the entrepreneur. Can you tell me or tell our audience, how was yours different? What have you guys done that makes yours different from all the other ones that are out there?
Dani Kagan (12:24):
You know, it’s funny. Because we started as a fashion charity event with the Mogul Awards, I think that really branded us as whether we are fashionable or not, and obviously people can’t see us, but I’m in a hoodie and Vic’s in a t-shirt. We’re not super fashionable people, but we love Canadian fashion. But, I mean, because we started with that fashion event, I think that helped give us a leg up in making sure that this wasn’t a stuffy, corporate, white walls kind of event. We really continued to make it sexy, engaging. A way for people to not feel weird about approaching other people. We always do interesting activities at our networking events to make people feel comfortable. I think it’s also just part of the energy that comes from us and our team and the people that are attracted to our events.
Dani Kagan (13:16):
Because at the end of the day, you could have a really basic room full of people, but it’s really about the people that are in there that makes it great. And obviously, Vic and I have a event production background, so there’s always a production. It’s always a show.
Victoria Marshman (13:31):
It’s about the experience.
Dani Kagan (13:33):
It’s an experience. Yeah. And I think that’s what people are looking for. A bit of an experience. From the second people walk in, it’s organized. And I think that’s also another thing that sometimes events miss is that you can walk in and the customer experience has to be exceptional from the second you enter a room and the second you leave. Are you getting a little gift at the end? Are you welcomed with a smile? Are you feeling comfortable when you walk in? Are people making you feel comfortable there? Are there things that are allowing you to go up to people and strangers to talk to them? I think that’s the conducive environment that we kind of provide at our events. But yeah, I don’t know if that answered your question.
Juliet Aurora (14:14):
No, absolutely.
Dani Kagan (14:15):
I feel like you have to be there. I feel like you guys should come to our next speed networking event, even virtually, and you’ll see the energy. It really is great. It’s a great community.
Steve Loates (14:23):
Absolutely. No, that’s great. I would like to, I mean, Juliet and I are huge believers that in order to succeed as an entrepreneur, one of the skills you have to learn is the skill of asking for help and asking, right, from other people. Because you are not going to have all the answers. And so we’re big believers in coaches. We think business coaches, everybody should have a business coach or a mentor, or be a member of a mastermind group. And you guys really seem like you’re addressing all those things. Can you tell me a little bit more about, particularly the mastermind group, particularly with it being remote, it intrigues me. Tell me a little bit more. I think it was, what was it? Mogul Crew?
Dani Kagan (15:16):
Yeah.
Steve Loates (15:17):
Okay.
Victoria Marshman (15:17):
Yeah. I mean, I think that’s it, that as an entrepreneur, you don’t have, especially in the early stages, you do not have this corporate structure of people that you can come to for advice or to bounce ideas off of. So, especially when we launched Mogul Crews in the heat of COVID as a virtual experience, people were curious and frankly felt they really needed it because there was no black or white answer on how to navigate your business through such turbulent times.
Victoria Marshman (15:58):
So, what we’ve found with the mastermind program, we’ve put together Mogul Crews, is that peer to peer support of having a safe space to come to, every week, for an hour and a half, same day of every week, to share your vulnerabilities, what issues you’re going through with your business, give ideas to other people. The amount of productivity that comes out of that hour and a half every week, and the potential for your network to expand and get new intros is huge. So it’s kind of like this mastermind program kind of combines, like you were saying that coaching, but more at a peer-to-peer level and having that unofficial advisory board to really help you navigate and steer your business in directions that maybe you’ve been blind to because you’re so in it.
Dani Kagan (16:58):
And it’s just that that accountability aspect too. Entrepreneurs can go eight hours, nine hours without leaving their desk, without leaving their calls. And I think it’s a nice little break for people to kind of step outside their business, look at it from another lens, have other people join and look at it from another lens and have that accountability aspect every single week, which is so important for entrepreneurs. And they are sometimes hesitant to do it because it takes time away from what they’re supposed to be doing. But, we all know as business experts that taking breaks, taking time to step away and maybe do analytics or refocusing and shifting can really improve your productivity and your business strategy long-term.
Juliet Aurora (17:46):
Definitely. And I find that one of the things that we have seen with our clients since the pandemic, and it’s been a big mindset shift for a lot of business owners over the last six months, is that they have tried, understandably, so hard to be strong for their customers and their team and have this brave face of, yes, we’re going to get through this all and we’re all going to be fine on the other end. That they haven’t had a support or a place for them to say, well I’m scared.
Juliet Aurora (18:20):
I really don’t know what’s going to happen. And I can’t share that with my team because I need them to feel confident that everything’s going to be okay. And so the type of organization that you guys have put together, over the last four or five months, I think is so valuable because it does give them a place where they can be real and actually talk to another entrepreneur who feels exactly the same way so that they don’t feel like they always have to have this brave face. So, kudos to you. I think it’s a real need that is out there right now that you guys are filling.
Dani Kagan (18:53):
Thanks. Yeah, Vic and I participated in a couple of Crews ourselves in March to May to help really finesse the program. And it is a really safe space for entrepreneurs. The stuff that we would go through, even talking to them openly and being vulnerable with each other, is so important. And I completely agree. Everyone’s putting on a brave face, like this is what we’re doing right now and this is what we’re doing. But everyone’s, am I allowed to swear? Everyone’s shitting their pants a little bit. And I think that’s okay. And it’s all right for people to kind of come together and work together on their issues because that’s what it’s about. It’s about the journey.
Steve Loates (19:30):
Oh, absolutely. Well, and it comes back again. No one does it alone. You also, you mentioned membership. Tell us a little bit about the membership program for, and I guess before we get to that, I do have to ask this question. Who came up with the name City Moguls? Because I love it.
Dani Kagan (19:48):
One of our founders, Monica Gold, actually came up with the name. And we’re really glad because at one point we were going to call it like Six Moguls because the Drake six thing was like [crosstalk 00:19:59].
Victoria Marshman (20:00):
In the heat of everyone being like yeah, I’m from the Six. [inaudible 00:20:04] That was a passing phase.
Dani Kagan (20:09):
Yeah.
Steve Loates (20:09):
Okay. Yeah. I think City Moguls is better. Okay. Tell us a little bit about the membership program. How do people sign up? How much does it cost? What do they get?
Victoria Marshman (20:19):
Yeah, I mean the whole reason behind our membership program is we’re offering this mastermind program, all of these events and workshops and resources, and we just wanted people to be able to access everything for an affordable, yearly fee. So our yearly fee right now is 299. Its regular price is $900. So it’s kind of like the COVID special. We want to make it accessible while people are going through rough patches right now in their business. But what people get access to with that yearly membership is they get to participate in two Mogul Crews. Those are six week long programs and we have three cohorts throughout the year, so they can participate in two of those.
Victoria Marshman (21:11):
They get access to our two to three virtual events and workshops with expert entrepreneurs like Michelle Romano and all these amazing people that are in our community. And then also, of course, they get access to our speed networking event, which is a huge hit and just a great opportunity to really authentically connect with 10 to 15 entrepreneurs every time you attend. So on top of all of that, we have a huge portal with a database of all of our past workshops and resources to really help you grow and scale your business. And of course, when we have events, you’ll get discounts on those events in person. But that’s a perk that’s on hold at the moment.
Steve Loates (21:56):
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Juliet Aurora (22:00):
So both of you are partners in the business, as you’re building it together. You said when you were talking about how you met and when you got started that you knew that you were going to do something great together. Can you help the other entrepreneurs in our audience maybe identify what it was, if they’re looking for a partner, you mentioned one thing that you need to look for someone who’s going to have different strengths than you. But is there anything that you can recommend for our audience that are looking to find a partner of some advice that you can give them to make sure that they choose a partner that’s going to be with them longterm?
Dani Kagan (22:40):
That’s such a good question because partnerships are probably one of the toughest things. Vic and I are in a full marriage. We have a picture. She actually proposed to me in 2012. We’re in a full marriage. And it’s important to realize that you are going and getting into bed with that person. So I think the first thing is, if you wouldn’t marry this person, then maybe they are not a great business partner for you, number one. Number two. I think that, and I know this sounds kind of crazy and strange, but Vic and I are both really weird. And I think that’s part of our magic is that we’re both creatives and we have similar backgrounds where we come from in terms of our value systems. We both value similar things. We both value family. We both value time off. We both value working really hard when we need to.
Dani Kagan (23:31):
So going through your value system with your business partner is super important. And being okay with each other’s weirdness, which is really important, and having the same kind of weird if that makes sense. And I think the third thing, for anyone that’s looking for a business partner or has a business partner and is unsure about that partnership, I think you have to just… Time also really is a thing. In time you will learn if you guys work well together or not. Victoria and I communicate so well, and it’s taken a really long time to get to that place, like any marriage. But you communicate really well after time and learn how the other one communicates. And you kind of get on the same page with your communication. We text and we call each other very, very frequently. And before, pre COVID, we were probably seeing each other more than our significant others. And that’s a sacrifice that you need to want to make. You need to want to be able to spend time with that person. We’re also friends. You have to want to be friends with your business partner.
Juliet Aurora (24:37):
Great, great.
Dani Kagan (24:38):
Did I nail it, Vic?. You’re like, that’s all wrong. That’s not what I think of you.
Victoria Marshman (24:45):
You nailed it so well. And I mean, I think because we’re both women, like Dani was saying, I mean, you might be able to relate to this too. The biggest thing for us is that we know we’re human, we have things that we love outside of our business. So being respectful of what the other people are going through, I think especially for entrepreneurs, when you build a business relationship, they become so integral in all parts of your life and understanding when you’re going through challenging moments in life, just being super transparent with you, I have a parent who’s in the hospital and I’m moving and empathizing and that person being able to step up in times of stress is huge in having that partner. So I think you’ve got to really hash out that person as a person and if they align with you.
Steve Loates (25:47):
Yeah. Absolutely. And I really appreciate you guys bringing up weird, because I have told Juliet for years that my weird is very good for our partnership. So I’m very glad to hear that it’s important.
Juliet Aurora (26:03):
That someone is defending your weird? Okay.
Victoria Marshman (26:07):
That’s where the best ideas come from, Steve. Hello.
Steve Loates (26:11):
Exactly.
Dani Kagan (26:12):
Your weirds just need to work together and that’s all.
Steve Loates (26:15):
Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. What advice would you give to someone who you met who was thinking of perhaps leaving the corporate world and becoming an entrepreneur?
Dani Kagan (26:35):
You stumped us both, Steve. No, I’m kidding. We probably have similar things, but I’ll let Vic start.
Victoria Marshman (26:41):
I think one the biggest things, and I think it’s very timely, especially right now that the carpet has been pulled out from a lot of people’s feet and they’re unemployed or re-evaluating where they’re spending their time and what they’re doing for work. And I know with a lot of peers and people in my community, friends, they get paralyzed in the planning and the, okay, I’ll leave my job and start this business when I have X, Y and Zed. And I think you hear it over and over again, but I can’t stress it more. There’s never going to be a good time. If this is something you really want to do, life is frigging short. Just go for it. And I think you just have to trust yourself enough and be confident in yourself enough to just do it. I swear that’s Dani and I’s probably one of our only advantages is we’re just not afraid to do and fail and figure it out. So I think you can just paralyze yourself with planning and overthinking when the right time is, what it’s going to look like.
Steve Loates (28:02):
Yeah. Too many people let planning or planning becomes procrastination. It becomes the same thing. And then they just over plan, over plan, over plan. And it’s gone.
Dani Kagan (28:19):
Yeah, that’s one of the things that-
Victoria Marshman (28:22):
So, that’s saying something.
Dani Kagan (28:25):
Yeah. That’s one of the things that one of our biggest mentors, Michelle Romano, talks about all the time is speed. If you have a great idea and you’re confident in your idea and you trust it, then it’s all about speed, because someone else can do it in a probably quite similar, with their own twist, whatever. But it’s all about you getting there first. And I think that, listen, everyone’s overwhelmed with this market’s oversaturated, that market’s oversaturated. Someone’s already done this. Someone already has a podcast. Someone already has this YouTube channel. Someone’s already doing this. And you know what? That’s probably true, but you’re going to do it differently because you have these ideas and this approach and this perspective, so why wouldn’t you do it if you think you’re passionate about it and it’s going to be successful.
Dani Kagan (29:15):
So it’s like a mixture of confidence and speed. And I think that every entrepreneur who has an entrepreneur inside of them should be thinking about that. And at the same time, entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone all the time. And that’s okay. And the best part about entrepreneurship is that you can just change things. You’re not like, oh, I’m an event producer and that’s what I’m going to be for the next two years. You have a new business idea? Do you think it’s going to go somewhere? Go for it, run with it and try it out. And I think that’s part of it, just going out there, trying it.
Juliet Aurora (29:51):
Great advice.
Steve Loates (29:52):
Yeah, absolutely. That is great advice. That brings us to a part of the show where it is the Smart Man, Smarter Woman version of James Lipton’s Q&A from Actors Studio, which you guys may never seen. It was long before you guys. But James Lipton used to interview these awesome actors, and he used to ask each one the same questions every episode. And it used to be fun. And I thought when we started our podcast, I was going to do the same thing. So we do. We ask all of our guests these exact same questions. I won’t tell you what Juliet thought of the idea initially, but now she thinks it’s awesome.
Juliet Aurora (30:39):
It’s great. I love some of the answers that we hear, so yeah.
Steve Loates (30:42):
Yeah, absolutely. So we ask that where possible, your answers are just one word. If it requires a brief explanation, and I do emphasize the word brief, please do so. And I guess the way we will do this, who would like to go first?
Dani Kagan (31:04):
Vic will go first. I just nominated you.
Steve Loates (31:06):
Okay. What we will do to keep it fair, I will ask Victoria the first question first. But with the second question, we will flip it around. We try to keep it as balanced as we can. And if I mess this up completely, Juliet, you just jump right in.
Juliet Aurora (31:28):
I think with you having to flip back and forth, it’s just going to be more complicated. [crosstalk 00:31:32] You have to try it to see if it works.
Steve Loates (31:37):
Exactly. After I said that, I thought, my God, how am I going to keep control of that? But okay.
Juliet Aurora (31:42):
Let’s go.
Steve Loates (31:43):
Let’s get started. So you guys are ready?
Victoria Marshman (31:44):
We’re ready.
Steve Loates (31:46):
We’ll start with Victoria. What one word best defines an entrepreneur?
Victoria Marshman (31:54):
Resilience.
Steve Loates (31:57):
Dani?
Dani Kagan (31:59):
Confidence.
Steve Loates (32:00):
Awesome. Dani, again. What profession, other than your own, would you like to attempt?
Dani Kagan (32:11):
Astronaut.
Steve Loates (32:12):
Victoria?
Victoria Marshman (32:16):
A hostel owner in a remote island, on a remote island.
Steve Loates (32:20):
Okay. Victoria again. What profession would you like never to attempt?
Victoria Marshman (32:27):
Oh my God. It’s funny because I thought I wanted to be it when I was a kid. A doctor. Kudos, man. I don’t know how they do that.
Steve Loates (32:37):
Dani?
Dani Kagan (32:39):
Oh God. Probably a beekeeper. Not my jam.
Steve Loates (32:47):
Okay. Glad to hear it. Dani again. What sound or noise do you love?
Dani Kagan (32:55):
Sound or noise?
Steve Loates (32:57):
Yeah.
Dani Kagan (32:58):
The ocean. Number one.
Steve Loates (33:00):
Victoria?
Victoria Marshman (33:02):
The birds chirping in the morning.
Steve Loates (33:05):
Awesome. Victoria again. What book would you recommend every entrepreneur should read?
Victoria Marshman (33:14):
Dani knows this one. The 5 AM Club by Robin Sharma. Changed my life.
Steve Loates (33:21):
Okay. Dani?
Dani Kagan (33:22):
Limitless by Jim Kwik.
Steve Loates (33:25):
Okay. Good choices. Dani again. When your own entrepreneurial journey is completed, what do you hope your legacy is?
Dani Kagan (33:35):
My entrepreneurial journey is never completed.
Steve Loates (33:38):
Okay. And that is your answer?
Dani Kagan (33:42):
Yes. I’ll leave it at that for now.
Steve Loates (33:43):
Awesome. Victoria?
Victoria Marshman (33:46):
Well, this relates to my book, Robin Sharma, but I think the biggest legacy I want to leave is impacting the most entrepreneurs I can to do what they want to do and what they love to do with their lives.
Steve Loates (34:00):
Awesome. Great job guys. That was fantastic. For the people in our audience who would like to connect with you guys, what is the best way for them to do that?
Dani Kagan (34:10):
They can head to citymoguls.com. Sorry Vic. Go ahead.
Victoria Marshman (34:14):
No, that’s okay. Hashtag technical issues. It’s cut in and out. Keep going.
Dani Kagan (34:20):
All right. They can go to citymoguls.com. They can send us an email directly if they want to. Dani@citymoguls.com or victoria@citymoguls.com. They can check us out on Facebook or Instagram at City Moguls, how it sounds. And we’re on LinkedIn at City Moguls. And I think that was all of the places. Now you can really just look us up. You could probably drive to our house or something.
Victoria Marshman (34:44):
Look us up. Your first event with City Moguls is on us so you can attend as a guest for free. And all of our fall, winter events are up on our website, so check those out or attend our speed networking event. It’s the last Thursday of every month, so we’d love to offer that to anyone who wants to come out and see what we’re all about.
Dani Kagan (35:08):
We love connecting. We’re always available for virtual coffee dates.
Steve Loates (35:12):
Fantastic. And before we conclude with this episode, do you guys have any final thoughts you would like to leave with our audience, other than they must all run over to citymoguls.com?
Victoria Marshman (35:26):
Yeah. I think, especially in this amazing time that we’re in, because we have to be optimists as entrepreneurs, enjoy the process, enjoy the journey, the ups and the downs, because things always end up working out the way they’re supposed to.
Dani Kagan (35:47):
Yeah. And I feel like for us too, and I’m sure you guys are the same, don’t be afraid of change. Change can be really good. And I think that obviously this is crazy times, but there are other changes that can be made that are really positive and exciting. So, change is good. Enjoy the change. Embrace the change.
Steve Loates (36:09):
And what about you Juliet? You got any final thoughts?
Juliet Aurora (36:13):
No, not really. I enjoyed listening to, I guess the dynamic between the two of you. You can tell why you are very successful partners. You’re very much on the same wave length and the way that you communicate as well. I thought it was just an interesting dynamic to watch. Now, I can actually see them. You guys just in our audience are just hearing them. But I thought it was interesting because, as Steve said, it was our first episode where we have two people on at the same time. But thank you both very much. I enjoyed the conversation.
Dani Kagan (36:46):
Thanks. That’s so sweet. Thanks guys.
Steve Loates (36:48):
And this episode’s Words of Wisdom come from John Quincy Adams. And they are, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” I thought that fit with today’s episode. So again, thank you very much, guys. It was great. Really enjoyed it. Wish you much success with City Moguls. Thank you to my awesome cohost, Juliet, who I couldn’t do this without. Once again, a great job. But most importantly, thank you to you, our audience, for tuning in and giving us a listen. We sincerely hope you found some value here. If you did, please subscribe. You can find us in all the regular places. iTunes, Spotify, Google. Or you can visit the website, smartmansmarterwoman.com. Thank you very much. Until next time, take good care of yourself and those that you love. Bye for now.
Song by Adam Vitovsky / CC BY 3.0
