Michelle Heath

I'm a very collaborative person, and when I start to feel like I'm going into the trough of disillusionment and despair, I have to listen to that lonely factor and lean into the collaboration that really fuels me. It can be very lonely when you're building a business, especially the closer to the top you get. So much of my success has been about surrounding myself with incredible people. I create a lot of content for social media and I've built my social media following and audience because there's a lot of people who want to learn from each other, and that really fuels me. That fuel to the fire really helps pull me out when I feel like I'm moving into those downturns. I say I'm in the business of people, and it's so true. It's really all about surrounding yourself with people who can lift you up and make you better.

Don't be afraid to really tap into that always be learning and always be growing and challenging yourself mode. When you're starting something new, it can be really hard to go from being at the top of your career to starting from scratch. For me, going from being a C-level person at a Fortune 50 company to starting my own business, it was a hard reconciliation from my ego. The easy times feel easy when everything's easy and you're closing deals, but there will be times when you're really gonna have to dig deep. So not being afraid to always be learning and to let yourself live in a beginner mindset is key. Don't be afraid to say 'I don't know how to do this, and I need to go find somebody who does,' and ask for help. It was hard for me to do that in the early stages of my business because I felt like I was supposed to have all the answers, but it's just not possible. Find your little independent board of advisors and trusted advisors that you can reach out to and say 'I need to talk through this problem' or 'do you know someone who can help me do this.' You don't have to solve it all on your own. I feel very grateful to be able to share what I know with other women who are starting their businesses and helping them on their journey. It's about paying it forward. How you allow yourself to live in that beginner mind, that growth mindset, I think is really key to personal success as well as achieving your business goals.

AI is really central to what the future will look like, but if we all just become robots and everything just becomes automated slop, what is our purpose then? The trust and the transparency and the human connection, I think, is now more important than ever. I'm building an AI agent called Gia, the Growth Intelligence Agent, in Claude as something that could help people who are using AI to build their go-to-market presence and build their brands and marketing in a more automated but also human and brand-led way. How can I really help businesses hold on to and build that emotional connection? They can automate for efficiency and the tasks that can be automated, fabulous. But really keeping the human element and helping businesses lean into that emotional connection is what I see as the key challenge and opportunity.

I'm in a position to give more than I get, so I really want to be able to share my skills and knowledge. For me, a lot of it is about being able to help others, and maybe that sounds kind of altruistic, but it really is about that for me. How that leads to more people hearing my story, or if I can inspire a few more women to hang their own shingle, that's what matters. A lot of the podcast interviews I'm doing now are really about being able to share those stories and hopefully provide some perspective and inspiration for other people as they're getting their journey underway. I want to be able to help more people with their businesses and share what I know with other women who are starting their businesses and help them on their journey. It's about paying it forward.