Pop Quiz, Monday with Adelheid Waumboldt, Founder at ISET Agency
The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.
I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.
- Can you please tell everyone your name?
Adelheid Waumboldt AKA Heidi Waumboldt AKA The Boss. *smile*
2. Tell us about your business and what you do?
I am the Founder of the ISET Agency which provides business development services to companies, entities, entrepreneurs, personalities, and collections. We have a solution for any funded problem and a very broad clientele that spans through innumerable sectors. Some of the most well developed entities call us to assist in their various activities, particularly when they find themselves with a task that is pushing their own team to the rails in terms of not having enough hands or lacking in a piece of the puzzle. We are well-connected, uncomfortably honest, masters of strategy and development.
3. Why did you want to become an entrepreneur?
In the fifth grade I begged my mother to buy wholesale packages of candy that I began secretly selling for $1 a piece on the school bus. I made hundreds of dollars in the first week and my mother started getting a lot of calls from other parents as well as the principle of my school with very basic “cease and desist” pleas. In the meantime my mother had placed me with a talent agency which allowed me to feature in commercials and print as well as a few films. I actually was on the cover of Fortune magazine in 1991 at 6 years old. There is an inherent part of me that is constantly innovating, churning over new ideas, and creating revenue streams where they otherwise don’t exist. Certainly this is largely in part to my mother, who brought me up to understand the value of a dollar. My mother worked very hard when I was growing up — she was a great businesswoman — but she also always worked for other people. I think, at the end of the day, we are all the slightly improved versions of our parents. My son is 5 years old and tells me every morning that he is a rocket scientist while gluing pipe-cleaners and copper jewelry wire together. “Entrepreneur” is in my blood, and “businesswoman” was the tutelage of my youth.
4. What are the challenging aspects of running a business?
Whether we like it or not, all challenges one faces in their business or personal life are products of one’s own decisions. I think perhaps we each face different challenges in our work environments. These days, we are luckily only seeing challenges that come with fast growth of an entity, which is the necessity to hire people at an advanced rate. Finding multi-disciplined talent can be difficult but we are lucky that we maintain a strong core with some of the best young innovators. My assistant, Daria Popova, whose background is in working with the CEO of the Russian Investment Agency, is a force to reckon with. Shawyon Fazal is my go-to when I need to magic an exceptional prospectus, sponsorship, or sales deck into reality. My partner, Rachel Dares, of Rachel Dares PR — is a negotiator who leaves me often in the stance of applause.
5. What do you love most about your job?
I love the thrill of the business world. I love closing deals. I love delivering the products and services that I promise to our clients and seeing their pleasure in working with us. I love hearing new clients on the phone tell us how “their friend so-and-so from (insert huge company here) has recommended our services.” I have worked for many other people throughout the years, all over the world, in many industries, and I am exceptionally proud to take all of that knowledge and pour it into the ISET Agency.
6. How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
To be very honest, food is important to me. I am a woman who likes to eat and to eat well. At least once a week, Rachel Dares, and I bring our staff out to lunch at a very nice restaurant in DTLA. We eat lobsters, steak…whatever we feel like. When you treat your employees well, and with respect, they work harder and deliver better products. When you fuel your body with delicious nourishment, you have balanced emotions and a clear thought process. We work hard, and we play hard. Balance is the secret to success.
7. What would one piece of advice that you give to a new business owner?
I advise new business owners to take risks and never to be afraid to do something “differently.” Innovation is important for new businesses wielding their own path. I would say the number two, but equally important advise is, “don’t be greedy — don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” Keep your options open, don’t sign any “exclusive” deals off the bat, and understand your worth.
Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:
Website: https://www.isetagency.com/
