TITLE: “Keeping Happy Thoughts and Business Intact Amidst Crisis”
GUEST: Karla Singson
GUEST INTRO
Karla Singson is an award winning writer, public speaker, and owner and Marketing Lead to multiple businesses in the brick-and-mortar and online space. She founded and built these businesses herself, and has turned them into seven-figure ventures. She also published Open Bar – a light, bar-themed book for thriving and aspiring entrepreneurs. She is also one of the very few Filipino entrepreneurs to be featured in Inc., Entrepreneur, and Forbes.
EPISODE SUMMARY
Is your business affected by crisis? Does the uncertainty of the pandemic stress you out and make you look for strategies to pivot your business operations? As owner of online and offline businesses, Karla Singson perfectly understands your situation. But it’s not yet the end – we can fight and prepare for what’s to come with taking action combined with positivity.
Q: A lot of people are they know you as Karla Singson now, but who was Karla Singson in the beginning? And how did you get started?
A: “I would say that the Karla five or 10 years ago was very different in terms of confidence and certainty. Like, I feel like now I’m more sure of myself. I’ve made a lot of bad and good decisions and I’ve learned how to discern between the two of them. And I would also say I’m in an emotionally better place because I started doing, you know, a better routine, like a better morning routine, I read more meditate and I found a partner who also cares about me and treats me very well. And so I feel like If there’s there are three things that is so different from if you met me five or 10 years ago, I would say, it’s the confidence not just a confidence to speak, confidence to, you know, to do what I do, but confidence in myself that I’m sure of my positions now. Number two is I’m a little, I’m way more of a go-getter now. I know, I’ve made a lot of mistakes. And I also know that I’ve made also good decisions, like I’ve had a lot of wins and losses. And think I’m getting better and better each year as we all are with really taking risks and deciding so now I’m more strong and I’m more headstrong and selective of the people around me. And number three, the three big change would be, I have also accepted that a lot of the things that are around me are either constant and then, I have to adapt fast. Or they’re changing, and I have to adapt fast. So either way, I have to adapt fast, or that I could actually change them. So it’s only just three of those things. So I think that growth really is mentally, mostly for me. And and that would be the biggest change from Karla Singson that people knew before compared to now.”
Q: Right now, you’re really a very successful entrepreneur, you run multiple businesses. You’ve been all over the globe for a couple of times especially last year before this COVID-19… Going back to the path that you’ve taken before, how did you go through it and what were the successes, the experiences, the most memorable ones that you have experienced yourself when you were starting out?
A: “Okay, so I would say that some of the most memorable experiences that I had when I was starting out or actually more of the losses, more of the failures, like I’ve shared with some friends of mine about this experience, my first very big client in events that owed us ₱800,000 pesos and did not pay us. That was a lot of money. It’s still a lot of money now, but it was back then it was way more money. And I owed some people some money and I destroyed some friendships along the way, even though I didn’t want it to happen. And you know, like, something like that. And the other failures and losses were, of course, you know, I’m very open about sharing the death of my parents. So my mom, my dad passed when I was 22. And my mom passed when I was 27 and then that really, you know, broke my heart and put me in depression. But I learned something that’s pretty surprising. So the year that my mom passed was my most down year ever. Like, it was the first time that I needed professional help to tackle depression because I didn’t know how to, you know, my mom was my everything. And then surprisingly, that year was the year where I made the most amount of money. So it’s pretty weird. But looking back, I thought, you know, if I can do that in in the year where I’m most depressed, I could probably do better. And I can just continue growing. So most of my biggest lessons really came from my losses and my failures. So with that said, I would say you know, whatever failure you have, and whatever loss you have, there’s always a lot of learning that comes from it.”
Q: You’ve mentioned something that I’ve learned this one thing. With what you said, it’s like the biggest lesson that you’ve learned in life. So what was that?
A: “That we just keep moving forward. You can’t have anything wear you down and you really can’t have anything…so a calamity will hit your area. Maybe you have to go out, you know, there’s a Coronavirus. Maybe you have to shift your business maybe have to shift your offers, maybe you have to lay off people. If someone died, your mom died, your dad died. You know, surprise, surprise, our bodies have a limit and our human bodies can only take so much you know, even if it’s not an illness, even if it’s an accident, or even if someone committed suicide, you know, our bodies have a limit. So we have to learn that and you just have to keep moving. You can’t allow something to wear you down. I’m not saying you have no right to be sad. Whatever, but I have to keep moving forward because that’s the only way that you grow as a person. And the only way that you also get to take your loved ones, your community with you, because there are people who had really bad childhood, for example, and then they succeeded. And then people say, Oh, you know what, maybe he succeeded because he had such a bad childhood that he doesn’t want it to happen again. But there are also people who are losers and are really ruining their lives and they have bad childhoods. And people say, Oh, you know, he had a bad childhood. So I understand why he would be like that. So you know, it’s like, two different perspectives. You have to choose a perspective that will help you grow.”
Q: You’ve mentioned that you had you mentioned about losses. Now, I’m curious, how do you deal with losses in terms of business? Is that something that you’ve mentioned earlier? That you have to keep moving forward. Of course, not all people can just easily move forward most, especially if they are like in debt or they are stuck with stocks that are not selling things like that. So how do you deal with losses in business?
A: “Well, first of all, you have to make sure that it will not happen again. This is the reason why we study history in schools. So you don’t repeat. We don’t repeat their mistakes, right? So the first thing that you need to do is, you know, I’m not discouraging you to not cry or make money, money, you know, that’s normal and means that actually, I had a moment when I just went home and did not talk to my boyfriend and I just cried, I just kept crying and he was like, what’s wrong? What’s happening? And I just can’t even talk. I was just so tired. I was so done with everything. And until now, sometimes I still ran to Mitch, like if I have a bad day. So if you made a mistake, or if you had a loss in business, first you have to learn your lesson. You have to if you have to write it down. What are the things that could have been avoided? What can you do differently? You know, all the lessons that you can learn. And then after that, I would encourage you to be as objective as you can and make the best out of what you have left for you, because when I lost a huge amount of money that I thought that I would get, like payment from a client, I did not, you know, Oh, you know what, let me just get a job because this is not working. I knew that it was their fault. It was not my fault. It was my fault, because I didn’t require a down payment. So it was my fault for delivering deciding to deliver the job without payment. So that’s on me, right? So I decided that I’m never gonna do that again.”
Q: What are your best practices in terms of securing and making sure that you’re not really going like for example, you had this loss for this particular client? For the next client, what type of thing do you now do well moving forward? So you don’t have to experience that kind of loss anymore? Any specific best practice that you can share?
A: “Number one, get a lawyer and have a bulletproof contract. When you onboard a client you have to discuss and everything that’s in the contract, and you have to tell them that you know that, that that’s what it is. And you require a down payment and everything. So there there there are clients that cannot pay you up front. There are certain establishments, I know that companies they have to process the billing being nonprofits, so the United Nations is my fire. They always pay 30 days after the event, but that’s okay. Because that’s their system. And you know, I don’t think the United Nations will lie to you anyway, you know what I mean? So you have to also be very discerning, um, you asked about specific things, get a lawyer get a bulletproof contract.
Number two, don’t do anything without a down payment and only do up to that thing that they paid for. So they paid for half. So you do your job and then you bill again. You maybe you can have your first draft or your first milestone and then they pay, you know, so and then maybe if you had some reporting that you have to do at the end, maybe you can, they can pay you the last 10% after you submit the report, but it’s just a teeny amount, 10 to 15 – 20% would be the maximum I would say you have to really protect yourself because right now at this time, you will realize how good it is to have cash on hand.”
Q: What inspired you to push yourself into being the entrepreneur that you are right now, when you were in your early 20s? Not a lot of people know it, Karla is actually accelerated and she graduated college at the age of 19. So with that kind of background and the mindset that you have right now, I’m curious to know what kind of lesson, experience or mindset have you had when you were in your teenage years? So what would be your best advice?
A: “I would say for the young people out there if you have a dream and your dream is not just for you, I think that’s the that’s the strongest dream ever. Coz I know you know, I didn’t grow up in a rich family. In fact, the first two years of my life were spent in a squatters area like literally in the slums. So I remember the time when one of the houses that we live didn’t even have a bathroom and just have a hole in the floor. So we were very poor. And then my parents worked really hard and saved up all of their money to put us through in private school. Because in the Philippines, you know, being in a private school is really different, right? That’s our luxury. Yeah, like it’s really different. I remember when I was a kid, I don’t know probably for five years every weekend, our viand would be noodles, because you know, my parents wanted to save money and I just had this idea when I was in high school when I was in college that I will be the one to build generational wealth, I will be the one to make my parents proud. Because I was the eldest child, I thought that it is my absolute duty to uplift my family and to help my sisters and to buy my mom’s dream house, my dad’s dream car, you know, something like that. So, I always like even when I was in college, I would look at my rich classmates because I studied in Ateneo through a scholarship, not a scholarship because I was smart, but a kind of a scholarship through an educational plan. And then I would look at my classmates who were rich, who had GTech, I remember that I don’t know when I’ll be able to afford Gtech pen. Oh my god, that’s so expensive. And I remember going home and I would tell my dad you know what, that my classmates have this like really expensive ballpen and they’re called GTech. And like 70 or 80 pesos and and my dad can it can you buy me one and my dad’s like, Oh my god, that’s so much money for a pen. You know, what matters is your answers in the exam, not your pen. So just study and I’ll buy you a five peso Panda ball pen and just deal with it. So that’s my advice there.”
Q: I’m curious because you’ve mentioned that you weren’t born with a silver spoon. But how has having so much money affected your personality now? Did it immediately change the way you are?
A: “Yeah, I definitely I would say that I live a comfortable life right now I can buy whatever I want, I can go wherever I want. I can have the charities that I want. So how did it change me? It changed me in a way that I became more understanding of other people in terms of understanding where they are.
I realized that no matter how much you say money is, you know, it’s not important, what’s important is kumpleto ang pamila, whatever. What is important is healthy tayo. I’m sorry, but I will not accept that. I want to have money because I want to take care of myself, family and I want to not just survive, I want to actually afford the things that give us better experiences, that give us better options for safety. You know, if for medical support, it’s not just luho. So the big thing with my personality is I became more understanding of where people are. And I also became more generous in terms of helping my favorite charities and rewarded my employees – my teammates are fucking awesome. I’m so lucky to have that. And I was able to give better, it makes me feel so happy whenever I get to support my sisters in whatever will help them grow. And, you learn your lessons along the way, like the more money you make, you realize that your circle starts to become small because there are people who will try to use you. And there are people, not just friends, actually relatives. Yeah, everyone basically not just that they they’re gonna use you or they’re gonna try to bring you down.
You know that, Melissa right, even you like when you started getting a lot of followers, you started getting more and more out there, you also started to get people either steal from you in terms of intellectual property, steal clients from you, tell your friends stuff about you, gossip. So you know, like, it’s hard, you know. It’s true, you have to be ready for it. Package deal yun kumbaga.”
Q: So Karla, what’s your projection to the current situation that we are in now? How long do you think it’s gonna last and what do you think would be the repercussions of this this corona virus thing?
A: “Yeah, actually my vision and my my thoughts on the corona virus pandemic is kind of different because I want to look at it with a psychological lens. I’m not a prayerful person but my prayer is that every leader in our country right now would think about the mental health of their people.
A lot of people don’t agree with me. We need to start working again. We need to start we need to start opening the restaurants and libraries again, all the establishment as safe as we can make it, we need to start working again. Because work is not just affecting the economy and people’s livelihood. 56% of Americans don’t have an extra $400 for savings or an emergency. Can you imagine? Here in the Philippines. Well, people don’t have savings actually. You don’t try this experiment. Try this experiment. When you go to an ATM if there are receipts, tingnan nyo how much ang balance. I bet you, you will rarely find balance that is more than 20,000 pestles rarely, very rarely. I tried that many times forever. It’s a game I play with myself, whenever I go to an ATM, it’s always maintaining balance 100 pesos, you know, people are living paycheck to paycheck. Right? Most people so. So number one, we need to start working right away because a lot of people don’t have their financiala intact, and they need to build that up. And this is a wake up call. So they need to do that. Number two, work is deeply connected to our being. And it’s part of who we are, and part of what we achieve. So imagine your day, you spend eight hours in your job, you spend, let’s say two hours for commute, and that’s who you are. That’s your being. That’s your identity. And then that thing is taken away from you by a government that’s telling you you can’t be who you are. You can’t get out of your house. I feel like all of a sudden, aside from the financial burden, the mental and emotional burden of a government tell you you can’t be who you are anymore is very, you know, I think it’s so a lot of times. Yeah. Wow, look at these people on social media. They’re kind of going crazy. They’re fighting everyone. Why? Because they just want to be heard because they feel like their freedom is being curtailed. And that’s what’s scaring me more actually, my stand on the virus is that just like you mail by you said, I’m very happy you actually talked about that in public. That was very brave of you. When you said that it I was coughing, blah, blah, blah, but I’m still hanging out with my camera. I probably have grown I probably don’t have but you know, I’ll do my best. And I feel like I feel like that’s it, you know, we just, it’s new. So it’s the first pandemic that we have with social media, but humanity and our planet knows what it’s doing. We have experienced way worse pandemics, but that time without social media, and 50 million people died. And it lasted for about two years. That was really crazy.
And then you have your social media is giving people kind of some sort of a license to talk about anything, their opinions, and then you have people freaking out so it’s not really the perfect social media, not even the perfect environment to discuss ideas. You know, like I believe in people’s best intentions. But I also believe that most people now are operating on different kinds of fear, fear because financially they’re not ready, fear because their job is taken away from them, their being, their identity is being taken away from them. Like can imagine Melissa, if, let’s say I’m your husband, we get married and I’m Jeff Bezos, okay, so you’re my wife and I tell you, hey, Melissa, stop working. Close your Facebook page. Delete all of your clients, delete your email list. Stop your work, because I have all the money in the world, and I’ll take care of you. Do you think you’ll stop working? I don’t know. Right? You’ll probably start cheating on me. So what I’m saying is who what our job is to you know, we can’t just stop working. We need to start working again so that people can find meaning in their lives and we’re less crazy and we spend less time you know, tick toking.”
Q: Well, how do you think we should? Okay, so you said that everyone should start working again. So how should entrepreneurs start coping up basically? What do you think should be the baby steps that they should take amidst?
A: “Yeah, I really hope so. I really hope so. I you know, as safe as we can get the word racist, as safe as we can. We need to start working again. Of course, I’m not saying that people should risk their lives and stuff like that. But I feel like we don’t even really know the real numbers, like whatever is reported, there’s 5000 times more out there. We should actually just stop posting the numbers because it’s just freaking people out. So advice and how businesses can cope or how businesses can turn things around. Number one, and this is something that we did because I have to, for those who are watching, I have two businesses that are hit very, very tough right now. My events business in the Philippines and my events business in Las Vegas. So in my whole life as an entrepreneur, this is my first year and my first time ever to lay off people. And I have to lay off some of my American teammates. And it’s really, really heartbreaking. You know, it’s not an easy conversation, but we have to do that. In the Philippines, I was able to pivot because I don’t want to let them go. Thankfully, I keep a lean team but this is one thing we did and this is one thing that you guys should do first.
Number one, be ruthless with your unnecessary expenses I want you to look at every single thing that your business is spending on right now, every Google email $5 a month, every subscription…Do you really need it, or pwedeng hindi na lang. Every single service, the internet, downgrade or cut muna then reconnect na lang. Mas mura pa yon. Email your landlord about possible rent relief for two to three months. Ask for their cooperation, they will understand. Wala namang umuulan na pera ngayon. Everyone’s business is suffering, you know. So cut off all of your expenses and this will be difficult, cut all of your employees who are non-essential, like, be generous, maybe give them some kind of severance pay, but as far as I know, you know, you did not agree to adopt these people. So, unfortunately, if the industry will not start getting better in the next month, I would say you have to let some people go and you have to, you know, I know you don’t want to do it, but also welcome to the real world, lay off people, laying off employees, it happens every day, even if there’s no pandemic, you know, these things happen. And so my advice is, is if you’re a if you’re an employee, you have to make yourself essential right now, you have to show your best you have to really deserve that seat on the table. Otherwise, you will be sat. Aside from that, labor is now getting cheaper for the entire world. So it’s also forcing us to be once again a more global economy. Even American labor now is very, very cheap and it’s ready to compete with, with our rates in the Philippines. Yeah, so commoditized basically. So you know, you need to cut your expenses and you need to shape up.
Number two, I would say, if you own a business, you have to turn every employee into a salesperson. This is my favorite, because sales and marketing is my favorite part of business. So arrange an affiliate deal with all of your employees and if they get too close a client, you give them a commission on top of their salary. So you have to mobilize every single person in your business that they will help you in keeping the business alive. Bayanihan, tulong tulong tayo. It’s not just that you want to get the money, it’s you want to keep the business afloat. Because even if you stopped paying salary or you say, no work, no pay by an arrangement, you will still pay your utilities, your subscriptions you know that kind of has to go on. So you have to get everyone’s hands on the table. And everyone has to be cool with keeping the ship afloat. And this is also a chance for your business owners to find out who among your team members are real team players and are not just there to collect a paycheck. And if you are a good boss, and they know that you’re generous and you reward them, they know in their hearts that when times get better, you will be the first person to give them a bonus anyway, so it’s just a matter of trust.”
Q: I’m curious what is the first tool expense that you cut?
A: “So my first one was emails. I had double I have one of the companies that I’m focusing on. The business is called scale when we are a middle marketing agency. That provides managed outsource teams for creative tech and support. And we have so many we have remote workers. So what we did is we went through 100 plus emails, and I caught the emails that weren’t used or haven’t been opened yet – duplicate emails.
So for example, info@melpro.com and admin@melpro.com. So that’s a redundancy. So we need to let go of one. So that was the first expense. And then we let some non-essential people go, unfortunately, but very nicely, and then we immediately found cheaper alternatives for all of the systems and subscriptions that we’re already using. And personally, I cut my Audible account, which is funny because I actually spent more money in physical books, because I want to spend less time on social media. It’s so toxic guys. I think I’m gonna die with a toxicity so I started doing my nails at home. So it means DIY.
Now is the best time to launch something DIY like if I can go out right now I would do Facebook Lives or flower arrangements just to hang out with you. My audience I was good like flower arrangements on Facebook Live and talk about business. I think it would be fun but it’s you know, places are closed right now and I’ll try to find if there’s a flower shop. That’s actually a pretty cool idea, we can inject more positivity in social media.”
Q: Well, okay, so this leads me to the next question. How do you think we can keep businesses intact? Basically, most especially if the chunk of his sales is offline, wala pang online, whatever, they don’t have enough funds to really divert their operations from offline to online.
A: “If it’s a non-essential product, then it’s going to be very difficult to push it for example, I’m selling a Fitbit, or it’s actually not a bit but it’s a Huawei, but you know, like a smartwatch, a fit watch. It’s a non-essential product, right? No matter how hard I push right now, even if I personally delivery to you and I’ll disinfect myself and wear a mvery hard to sell it, right, right. Maybe you can you can partner with a company that can give it as a premium. So one industry right now that’s going very hard is at home workout videos. So maybe you can partner up with them and sell your Fitbit as an upsell. Yeah, something like that. So you just have to find a way you have to be creative. Let me give you another example. So I have a business in Davao, which is a flower shop, right? So we are, we are a flower and gift shop delivery service, which is not essential. But this time people want to receive messages of love and hope.
So I’m not saying that we’re suffering, what kind of suffering but we can still pay our rent and our salary and maybe make some pencils. At the end of the day. I don’t know how much we’re going to make but it’s a little slow. But what I did is since we have systems for delivery I turned my team into a delivery team for food and groceries and stuff like that. So, I shifted, I pivoted into another service that’s needed at this point. Because this is something that you have to remember guys, even if there’s a pandemic, humans will not stop buying, and humans will always buy. And you know why sometimes they even buy because it’s just comforting, because it’s just comforting to have money and to be able to spend it so that you can retain a little bit of normalcy in your life. You know, that’s why these things happen, you have to look at it within a psychological with psychological lenses and not be freaked out and not be freaked out by the money. You have to understand what the most emotional motivations are, in order for you to think what’s best for your business. So yeah, pivot and adapt and try to see what people are buying. So I’m so proud. I have a lot of students now who just magically like that started selling sanitizers. I’m so proud of them. I’m so happy. I have past students who are very, very entrepreneurial.”
Q: So we’re going going to the next question. Thank you again for giving me those insights. Yes, but going back to some people who still remember you as a woman who got viral, what would be your advice to those types of people?
A: “I realized that when I was at the height of the doughnut post when I had so many haters, I was also acting half emotionally. I was finding some of them who gave me rude comments. I would also reply to them to say, dude, like, #Don’tme, you know I’m a competitive debater di’ba? I can be here debating all day.
Though actually, after one day, I realized that wasn’t worth my time. And I also kind of see how you know where they’re coming from, you know, every person has their own struggles. And most of us actually react based on what we’re experiencing.
Let me tell you another example or a story. So I made a lot of investments last year, because I, I acquired a bunch of cash, I sold some assets and I had really big projects, and I made a lot of investments last year, I bought real estate.. And there’s this one investment that I did with a friend of mine. And turns out, she was a scammer, and she didn’t return my money and I felt stupid. So it really hurt me because she was a close friend of mine. And then, and I was talking to my boyfriend about it, and he kind of was asking me questions about it. And I started, he was just trying to understand, right because I’m so upset, and he was trying to I understand what led me to giving this person money. But the way he was asking questions was because he was trying to understand. But somehow in my world, in my brain, it felt like he was attacking me and he was making me feel stupid. And my brain, in my little brain, I thought that he was asking me questions so that he can further show me how stupid I am. And oh my god, then we had a fight. And then I told him, stop asking me questions. You’re making me feel stupid. And you think I’m stupid. If you think I’m stupid, and stop beating me like, you know, it turned into this big thing. And obviously, I was wrong. I was being irrational. And I didn’t know if it was my hormones or if I was PMSing. But yeah, that happened. And I realized looking back that I was just reacting based on my situation. And there was just a conversation in my head that I was facilitating. That wasn’t true. So I feel like these haters, these bashers when they read something online, there’s a conversation in their head that forbids them to read and understand the real context, that no matter how smart you are, how much evidence you show, they will it will not override the conversation that they have in their heads. So after a while I just, you know, I just stop responding, sometimes actually still respond just to have fun, because some people there are so mad. And sometimes I just find it funny that they’re really, really mad, like, pinatay ko buong pamilya nila. And don’t forget, because of that post, I’ve had so many new friends. My life changed a lot. I’ve made millionaires out of my new students that I met there. I’m more I’ve helped at least I would say at least 15 stay-at-home moms start a business and that changes everything.”
Q: I want to share with you this photo so this I think, what is this photo Bill White will write for food? What’s the story behind this photo?
A: “So my aunt gave that to me. That shirt is from Museum Museum. It’s a museum for journalism and news in Washington, DC. See, and I was obsessed with white house drama, my whole life. And she lived in Washington DC. And she got me that she got me that shirt and it was my favorite shirt. And it was also kind of a joke because I’m a writer. So it says we’ll write for food, right? So it’s funny because it makes people think that I’m the super broke writer that will write for food. So I use this photo in, in a lot of the dating sites that I was on when I was still single. And it’s always a photo that guys like the most because they think it’s funny, and it’s cheeky, and they like the fact that I’m a writer. It’s very cheeky.
And that’s another thing. That changed. I used to like, not wear makeup at all. And then I started wearing more and more makeup when I moved to the states last year. You’re in 2019 because everyone was wearing makeup and I felt like a like the odd one out I felt like a kid sometimes in a room of wearing Mama’s shoes you know so I didn’t want that so I started to wear makeup and I felt good.”
Q: So let’s go ahead and start doing the rapid fire questions. First question. Have you ever bribed anyone?
A: “Yes. A lot of people, especially when I’m in hotels, I want to have an upgrade. I would bribe the front desk. I bribe a lot of taxi drivers to drive faster… what else? Yeah, I’m not I’m not ashamed.”
Q: Well, why do you think not everyone is as successful as you are? Yes.
A: “Maybe they don’t want to, they don’t feel like they, they don’t really deserve it deep down. It’s a deep, deep work. It’s self work. So sometimes when we feel like we don’t deserve something, we don’t work towards it. It’s the same thing with diet. You know, every single day you decide you want to lose weight you want to eat right but you still eat that cheeseburger because deep inside you don’t believe that you’ll actually get to your goal weight and that you deserve it.”
Q: When you walk past a homeless person, how much money do you give them? Or what do you give them?
A: “Usually 100 pesos, but if I have a chance to buy them food instead I will do that.”
Q: Are you worried about losing your fortune?
A: “I am very much. Because it has afforded me with a life that is very comfortable. And if that life is taken away from me, I don’t think that I, that it that I will be the same. I think I will be kind of the same and I will work hard again. But it’s also not just me now. It’s my family too. You know, I have my sisters, also and my senior citizen on who is depending on me. I feel like if that has to happen, and if it will happen, like can you imagine guys, if the banks just closed and told you? We’re out of business? We’re not going to give you any more money. Buy like you have to start over again. Yeah, so it’s kind of crazy, but you know, I think I’ll survive. But yes, I worry about losing my fortune. I am.”
Q: If could relieve one moment in your life which one would you pick?
A: “Oh, my debut when I was 18 years old. I love that. That was probably one of the happiest days of my life. Because every one I love is in one room. And that’s it.”
Q: What quality do you like most about yourself and why?
A: “Oh, my sense of humor. I think I’m a pretty funny person and it forces it always. I always have this quality to look at things positively or make fun of it. I can’t wait to be a billionaire, like with a big B so that I can just start my stand up comedy career.”
Q: So last question, what is the biggest challenge to young people today? And what’s your best big advice for them?
A: “I think it’s really focus. And I was single, I would go on dates. And I notice that guys don’t even maintain the right eye contact for a while. And a lot of the millennials now are very badly focused, they procrastinate a lot. It’s because we are used to, you know, the dopamine that we get on social media and facing computers with multiple windows open at a time. And we think we’re multitasking but we’re actually just switch tasking. And if we don’t focus on one thing, it’s very hard for us to finish anything, anything at all in our lives. So but if you notice, guys, for some of you who still read physical books. If you turn off everything and you read a book, you start reading and then you look up and you’re on like page 65. And nothing even went by, you know, it means that if you have focus and you’re more likely to finish, whatever it is that you want to finish, it’s a business, it’s an article, it’s a whatever, it is a flower arrangement or tumatahi ka dyan nh face mask at home, whatever it is, if you know how to focus, then you will achieve a lot of things in life.”
FAVORITE QUOTE
“So most of my biggest lessons really came from my losses and my failures. So with that said, I would say whatever failure you have, and whatever loss you have, there’s always a lot of learning that comes from it.”
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
Know more about Karla and Melissa at:
