Suzanne TaylorKing

I totally attribute my success to my dad. He instilled being an athlete in me from a young age, and just the honesty part. He had a military background, and from habits to making your bed in the morning, doing what you say - those lessons shaped me. One specific lesson really stood out to me. He caught me with cigarettes when I was in 8th grade, and I said, well, you smoke, and he took his cigarettes out of his pocket, threw them in the trash, and said, not anymore, I don't, and neither will you. That kind of integrity and leading by example has been foundational to who I am. The athletic background taught me grit and resilience, and the military discipline taught me to be a person who does what I say and says what I do. I think that whole philosophy comes from healthcare, and it's really just so important to me to be transparent, vulnerable, approachable, and fully show up for my clients, whether they're paying $97 a month or whether it's a corporate client paying me $5,000 a month - everybody gets treated the same way.

My mentor, who is 80 years old and charges a million dollars a year, gave me the best career advice. I asked her what I need to become in order to receive her referrals when she retires, and who do I need to become. She looked at me and said, you want million dollar clients? I said yes. And she said, do it, and then you can have mine. That's been a recurring theme for me - just do it. Just go do it. Go get yourself a million dollar client, figure it out, and then you can receive referrals from me, but don't just expect me to hand it to you. I think I try to be that for my clients too. I'm happy to make connections, I'm happy to introduce them to potential clients, but you better show up powerfully, you better handle yourself right. The message was, you want million dollar clients, show me you can do it, and I will share some with you. I liked that motivation, but also the challenge. It was such a powerful force for me. She also taught me about true reciprocity - understanding reciprocity is really, really key as far as business goes. If you're gonna have relationships in business that benefit your bottom line and enrich your life, understand true reciprocity, being of value to other people.

Sounds kind of kitschy, but believing in yourself, find a mentor. And like, an older mentor, like, not somebody who's successful on stage. Somebody who had success before social media in the real world and has a real network of people, like an actual old-fashioned Rolodex. And there's plenty of options to get one of those for free with SCORE. SCORE is a national mentorship program, and there's so many retired people or exited, you know, over 60 people, giving time to young entrepreneurs. I had a SCORE mentor, and he was life-changing, all for free, mind you. And I don't believe that mentorship should cost you money. You meet the right person when it's time to meet the right person to be your mentor, and they don't charge you for that information. The online space is very, oh, pay me $20,000, and I'll teach you all my secrets, but, you know, I'm 25, and this is my first business. Okay, maybe there's something of value there. But a real mentor is somebody 20 years older than you who has been through the trenches, come out the other side, maybe had an exit, and they want to help you because of who you are and what your business idea is.

AI is a huge opportunity for me right now when I combine it with business strategy. I don't teach AI implementation, I teach AI thinking and adoption, and how to integrate it into your business, systems, operations, marketing, HR, all of that. I'm in a group of AI consultants, and I think there's 80 of us in the group. I am the only one who has a business strategy background. I feel like it's such a missing piece with technology to actually have the strategy background. This is the first time I'm verbalizing that, because I don't know, I never thought about it - that's why I'm good at what I do, is because I have this strategy and operations background. So, I think that's really what makes me different.

Having fun, humor, honesty, reciprocity, and kindness are the values most important to me. I've just recently embraced this era of life where if you're not fun to work with, I don't want you as a client, no matter how much you're paying me. I've gotten to the point in life where if you're fun, I'm fun, we're gonna have fun together, we're gonna create money, magic, whatever it is - great. But if you think you're gonna treat me badly, or you're sexist, or weird, or whatever - no thank you. I don't need to do that. I think being what I do is a privilege, so I need to be the best version of myself for my clients and potential clients, so it's a great motivation to get in shape, do things, and be that person for other people.