Why Business Strategist?

Gisel Martin l December 15, 2017 l Blog Post 1

Hola!

I’m Gisel Martin, a Business Strategist, and this is my first blog post. I work with entrepreneurs to create a step by step plan to turn their vision into a business. And, I work with small business owners to make an assessment on their current business and make a plan to execute their business goals. I genuinely want to help entrepreneurs and small business owners because I believe that cultivating successful small businesses will tremendously elevate our local communities.

Here’s My Story

I’m the first one in my family to graduate from college. I grew up in a Mexican-American bicultural home in the San Francisco Bay Area. My undergraduate degree taught me how the world conducts business and how transnational business activity across nations can have negative effects on local communities. I participated in an internship abroad at a Women’s Artisan Cooperative store in Oaxaca. It was completely different than the business models that I had been learning in college. Ever since then, I always knew that there was a better way of “doing business”.

I am very grateful that I found my soulmate and life partner at a young age. We struggled through a long distance relationship and have been together ever since. I earned a masters degree in International and Multicultural Education while growing our family. At the beginning of my masters program we had a two-year old daughter. After my masters program and a graduate certificate, we had two daughters and I was 6 months pregnant with our son. The question I was often asked was, “How do you do it?” My answer was always the same, “I don’t think about it. I just do it.”

Now, I live my life in a state of intention. The growing phase of my life (building a relationship with my partner, growing a family, and educating/empowering myself while establishing a career) is far from over. But, I do recognize that my mindset of living with intention has changed my perspective from “I don’t think about it. I just do it”, to asking myself if my action will come from a place of good intention that will positively impact me and the people that surround me.

Why Business Strategist?

My role is to facilitate the planning part and connect you to resources and people that fit with your vision. In the most simplest terms, what I do is ask questions, listen, write things down or draw it out. My methodology is different because I use art supplies to create colorful visuals that outline your vision. When I work with a client I ask a lot of questions and write everything down. I let my client guide the session with their vision. Sometimes the vision takes us to a point where my client needs to make a decision. I like to work in a peaceful and creative environment. We’ll set a session date and I’ll arrive with art supplies and you'll arrive with your vision. It’s a very organic process.

I want to help people connect to their passion and share it with the world while making a living. Specifically, Women of Color because I want to increase access to business information and resources to communities that don't normally have access. You can find intriguing stories of WOC entrepreneurs here. I believe that elevating our small businesses as WOC we will alter the “glaring diversity problem in the business world.” (quote from Saluting Entrepreneurial Women of Color)

Next Blog Post

Next month I'll post about creating your year-end reflections to help you develop goals for 2018 and the following month I'll post more information about business planning.

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Did you find my description of business strategist helpful? What else would you like to know about working with a business strategist?

Let me know in the comments.