Lydia Sugarman of www.privatelabelinteractive.com Interviews Kevin Hogan
1. Please tell us about yourself, personally and professionally. Where did you start out? Where are you now? Where are you headed?
Lydia, I grew up in poverty and didn't escape that until I was a sophomore in high school. Then because of my Mom's remarriage, my family lived in what would be considered a lower and then middle lower class lifestyle. I worked starting at age 11 cutting people's grass, delivering papers, selling greeting cards, shoveling snow, pulling weeds, anything I could to help my Mom. (We had six people in the 24 x 24 house after my step-dad died....five kids and my Mom).
Today I have cycled through a successful career as a therapist, I owned the first state-licensed hypnosis school here in the midwest for seven years. Going back in time I sold advertising, worked for nonprofit organizations at the gritty level, not the cush office level. (I worked directly with homeless Vietnam Vets for example.) Today I have evolved my work into a variety of expressions. I do body language analysis for media, I teach corporations how to be more influential in their sales and marketing and I show people how they can build themselves into a "brand" so they can have the security and freedom of being their own boss. I've never stopped working 16-hour days...the difference is I now enjoy what I do where for so many years that wasn't the case.
2. What does being an entrepreneur mean to you?
Being a home-made millionaire. Having home base in your home where you get to see your kids when you come home....being able to deliver a superb experience for everyone when they cross my path, whether that is a presentation or a product or seminar. Being an entrepreneur is the ultimate form of security and safety in difficult times. It allows people to develop wealth in every economic climate where millions of others will lose their jobs at the whim of employers to whom they have entrusted their lives.
3. Many people I’ve met have told me they were influenced at a very early age to follow the entrepreneurial path. What set you on an entrepreneurial path? Do you think entrepreneurs are “born”? Can it be learned?
Certainly not born. I became an entrepreneur by necessity at age 11 and two years later I see on my Social Security report that I earned Social Security wages from McDonald's and other companies when I wasn't working for myself. I hated the labor of restaurant work. I was a kid and I was terrible at it. I had asthma so lawn, garden and snow was not helpful but necessary. I loved selling greeting cards and was proud of building my paper route over the years.
People don't have to go through hard times to become an entrepreneur, but necessity can make things "easier." In other words, there was no option for failure or not working. It was required to ultimately succeed if we were going to eat.
4. What makes an entrepreneur? What makes entrepreneurs different? What do you think sets entrepreneurs apart?
Entrepreneurs have beliefs that government and companies don't take care of people (or shouldn't). As we have lived for millenia, we are ultimately responsible for our own lives. Entrepreneurs have a spirit of achievement. Entrepreneurs don't ultimately fail because you can't ultimately fail. It really isn't possible.
It's like going to the grocery store. You simply do that which you are good at, which you love or which you find fascinating, or even necessary at times and you just do it.
Entrepreneurs in America are doing the same thing that the colonists from England and Holland did in the 1600's when they came to America. They build wealth and value from nothing.
Entrepreneurs are the heart and soul of a free country.
Entrepreneurs value freedom, integrity, authenticity, loyalty above all else.
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Entrepreneurs in America are doing the same thing that the colonists from England and Holland did in the 1600's when they came to America. They build wealth and value from nothing.
