Daraja Asili shares her entrepreneurial journey and how the real estate and mortgage crisis of 2009 caused a major life transition that put her on the path to founding Happy Trees Entertainment which currently draws over 100,000 paying customers per year to attend her live events. She explains her unique offerings which include Paint Night, Plant Night and Farm Fresh Goat Yoga, and then discusses how she hires, trains, and manages a fully remote staff of over 30 people. Daraja also shares her personal meditation practice, how and why she varies her day structure, and how she organizes her time for optimal productivity. She also talks about business growth and when it actually makes sense to ‘scale back’. She then discusses ‘Daraja Consulting’, her other business that helps small to medium size companies accelerate their business growth, and shares the most effective ways to improve your sales and marketing to take your business to the next level. She talks about why the best ROI today for your marketing dollars is on social media platforms, how she built her business primarily through Facebook advertising, and shares her single most important piece of advice for optimizing your Facebook ad strategy. She explains how highly targeted affinity-based niche marketing can work for any businhttps://trello.com/c/YZxnSnls/38-12-daraja-asiliess, and gives an extended example of exactly how real estate agents can successfully execute this strategy. She then discusses how you should think about establishing the right strategic business partnerships that can really accelerate business growth. She concludes by sharing the advice she would give to her 20 year old self, knowing what she knows now.
Episode #13: Goat Yoga, Managing a Fully Remote Staff, And Getting Over 100,000 Paying Customers Per Year to Attend Your Live Events, with Daraja Asili
Episode Summary
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About the Guest
Daraja Asili
Daraja Asili is the founder and owner of HappyTreesEntertainment, which produces creative experiences in local spaces. Her events include “Plant Nite” where you can spend two hours at a local hotspot creating a living tabletop garden with friends, and plant everything from Zen gardens to quirky terrariums with the materials provided and a host to guide you. The second brand is called “Paint Nite” where for two hours at a local bar or restaurant, you can paint on canvas and express yourself and your creativity to the fullest. And her latest event category is “Farm Fresh Yoga with Goats”. Daraja is passionate about designing transformative processes, curating creative experiences, connecting people, and helping people discover something inside of themselves that they may not have known existed by way of activating art, culture, and entertainment in unique spaces. Last year over 100,000 people attended her events. She also runs “Daraja Consulting” which helps businesses develop and implement accelerated growth strategies. And perhaps most impressive from an entrepreneurial perspective, she has built her business with a location independent infrastructure so she can run her company, including managing a remote distributed staff of over 30 people, from anywhere in the world.
What You'll Learn
- How to Run an Events Business and Scale it to 100,000 Paying Customers Per Year
- How to Manage a Fully Distributed Staff from Another Continent in Terms of Both Communication and Project Collaboration
- How to Avoid the Biggest Mistakes Small Businesses Make So You Can Think More Effectively About Sales, Marketing and Scaling.
Links From the Episode
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WORK-TRAVEL PROGRAMS MENTIONED:
- Hacker Paradise (Use This Link for $100 Discount)
- Remote Year (Use This Link for $200 Discount)
LOCATION WHERE THE EPISODE WAS RECORDED:
BOTTLE OF WINE SHARED IN THIS EPISODE:
DARAJA’S TOP TRAVEL RECOMMENDATIONS:
DARAJA’S BUCKET LIST TRAVEL GOAL:
- Visit Every Country in the World
Check Flight Prices to Any of These Destinations
OTHER EVENT MENTIONED:
- Nomad Summit (Get 10% OFF Tickets to the Next Nomad Summit By Using the Code “FRIENDS”)
BOOK DARAJA RECOMMENDS:
APPS DARAJA RECOMMENDS:
DARAJA’S FAVORITE PODCAST:
PUBLIC FIGURE WITH WHOM DARAJA WANTS TO HAVE DINNER:
CONTACT DARAJA
Daraja’s Websites:
Follow Daraja on Social Media:
Time Stamped Show Notes
[02:40] DARAJA’S EXPERIENCE IN KENYA WITH WANDERIST LIFE
- Drinking Pinotage Wine
- Safari in Masai Maara
- The “Wanderist Life” Work-Travel Program
[06:42] DARAJA’s GOAT YOGA, PAINT NIGHT AND PLANT NIGHT EVENTS
- Daraja’s First Goat-Yoga Experience
- How She Started Selling Tickets to Goat-Yoga Events
- Daraja’s Paint Night and Plant Night Events
[13:10] DARAJA’s ENTREPRENEURIAL JOURNEY
- Daraja’s First Experience Running a Business
- Her Introduction into the Art Scene and Hosting Events
- Her Path to Founding Happy Trees Entertainment
- Her First 6-Figure Year
- Hiring Her First 20 Staff
- Why She Recommends Building Your Business Up as a Side Hustle First
- Daraja’s Experience Driving Uber and Lyft While Building Her Business
[25:23] STRESS REDUCTION, DAY STRUCTURING, AND TIME MANAGEMENT
- How Daraja Manages Stress
- How Her Business Journey Has Taught Her to Deal with Stressful Situations
- How the Key to Entrepreneurship is the Art of Problem Solving
- How Daraja Empowers Her Team to Solve Problems
- Why and How Daraja Meditates Each Morning
- Daraja’s Morning Routine and Day Structure
- Her Techniques for Time Management
- Daraja’s Tactics for Optimizing Productivity
[40:50] HOW DARAJA HIRES AND MANAGES A DISTRIBUTED TEAM
- Daraja’s Hiring and Team Building Process
- Her Process for Identifying When a Person is Not a Good Fit
- How Daraja Manages a Distributed Team
- Team Communication and Project Management
- Daraja’s Tips on Growth and Scaling
- Daraja’s Experience in The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program
[1:03:14] “DARAJA CONSULTING” TIPS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
- Primary Impediments to Growth of Small Businesses
- The Importance of Self Awareness
- Growth Acceleration Strategies
- How to Generate the Right Type of Leads
- The Most Effective Way for You to Spend Your Advertising Dollars
- The Importance of Relationship Building
- Why You Should List Out Your Strengths and Weaknesses
- How and Why to Identify a Super-Niche Target Market
- How and Why to use “Affinity Marketing”
- How and Why to use “Consultative Selling” Techniques
- Why You Should Refer Some Prospects Out to Other Companies
[01:34:32] THE LIGHTNING ROUND
- Top Book Recommendation
- Top App Recommendation
- Top Podcast Recommendation
- Celebrity Daraja Would Most Like to Have Dinner
- The Advice Daraja Would Give to Her 20 Year Old Self
- Top Travel Recommendations
- Top Bucket List Travel Goal
