I am originally from South Africa.  I have been in the United States for 14 years, and am still grateful for being here every day. South Africa may be the most beautiful place in the world, but the United States is the best place in the world to live.

I came to the United States for a visit with my sister. I had 2 suitcases and $500.  Little did I know at that time that I would decide to stay, and how that decision would impact my success and quality of life. I must admit, the first few years were really rough on me. I had no business contacts, no friends, no colleagues, no community, no credit… And of course my education meant nothing because who knows anything about education levels of a foreign country. I was exploited, worked obscene hours, and loved every minute of the creation process.

The first job I got out of necessity. Talk about starting at the bottom… It was with a terrible boss who exploited me, was verbally abusive and underpaid me dreadfully. I was known as “the girl” for as long as I worked there.  I am not a believer in self-pity so I did what I could to make a success of his business and went above and beyond the scope of what I was supposed to do. Within 3 weeks, I had developed a system where I was closing 87% of phone sales (in an industry where the average phone-sale close was 38%). When the owner of the company next door overheard an argument because my boss short-paid me (again), he pulled me aside and offered me a fantastic sales position. Of course, I quit, and accepted the new position.

I implemented the sales system, and watched as their revenue increased dramatically. It was a large national Moving Van Line. At the time, I was the only woman in the country doing sales in that industry. My name soon became well-known, and I had many company owners calling from all over the country just to see if it was true that a woman was working in the industry.

Five months later, I was offered a golden opportunity. An owner-operator needed someone to develop his business from the ground-up.  He chose his business name, but needed branding, logos, hiring of staff, marketing, advertising and everything else that goes into entering a highly competitive market. He was busy with a adjacent side of his business, and was totally hands-off. Within eight months, I had set up a staff, system, and generated enough business that we were almost overbooked 7 days a week. There was sufficient sales revenue so that he was able to purchase 4 trucks cash within a matter of months. Today his company is still thriving, and from the fruits of the business, he owns a few businesses and some commercial property in New York City.

Five months into that project, I brokered a deal. I was asked to start up another National Van Line simultaneous to running the prior company. All parties agreed to the split/competing interest, and I accepted. Within one year, the National Van Line was indeed national, with affiliates all over the world. That company too is thriving and still uses almost all of the systems I implemented.  I left the company for years, but many years later, I returned. With some changes, new affiliations, and converting systems to ISO 9001:2000 standards, I was able to increase sales revenue for national (excluding local) business by 201% in less than one year.

That was just the start. Wherever I have been, I have increased sales, streamlined operations and set business-owners up for continued success. This is my love – I thrive on the creativity and the challenge of creating profit out of nothing. The solutions to problems seem so obvious to me, and I feel compelled to show others how.

I love the good life probably more than anyone. And don’t mistake me – dedication, hard work and diligence is required to reach a goal. Just make sure that you are coming from a place of solutions rather than the “nuts-and-bolts.”

There is no need to work to the exclusion of all else. There is more to life than that! Some people are so focused on working hard, they lose sight of their end-goal. They can get so caught up in details of the “doing” instead of the end-vision that they never get to where they want to go.

My secret to success and life is that with a dream, determination, energy and a little hard work, you can have everything you dream of and more. Let me show you how.