It was an honor to be invited to participate on a panel for UCR women’s leadership conference discussing female entrepreneurship. It felt great to share my experience and help others grow.
What does a typical day look like for you?
My day is divided into 4 different roles; time for myself, my kids, my team and my husband.
I wake up at 6:30 A.M. each morning and go jogging for half an hour. It's my own time to get a fresh and energetic start to my morning, I then come back home to prepare to take my kids to school. After dropping off my kids, I will go to work at 8:30 A.M. Something that I do that I feel is unique is that I will walk around the office, station by station, and talk to each employee. At our weekly Monday meetings, I see how things are going and address any important topics. At the start of a new day, you get creative and have lots of fresh ideas. I pump up my team by sharing my ideas and vice versa. In the evening after work, there is story time with my kids. I will put the kids to bed because now it’s time for me to talk to my husband; daddy time.
It’s about your quality time at the present moment; give 100% to every moment.
What were some challenges you faced?
I can’t believe that I’ve been in business for almost 20 years. When I first started my business 20 years ago, my goal was to be a national, household brand and to be in national chain stores. Now 20 years later, some major stores are bankrupt. The biggest challenge that I am facing today is the changing and evolving industry. Everyone seems to be on Amazon, which is another challenge. Everything is shifting so I must adapt to the change and continue to innovate, think outside of the box, reorganize my team, update product lines, focus on R&D, and have my Company stay focused on my vision and align with my mission.
You don’t want to change everything overnight because whatever you built over the years will be gone.
What makes you keep going?
For me, it is important to think about your mission and why you’re doing it. What is the purpose when you start your business? Everything you do will go back to that mission. When I started up my business, my mission was totally wrong; I just wanted to make money. That wasn’t a strong mission, everyone wants to make money. I focused on whatever the hottest item was at the time. I would sell them but always ended up with high inventory that I would have closeout sales once the fad was gone. So you want to focus on your mission, vision, and long term strategy.
For Mobo, our purpose is to keep creating fun and exciting experiences while improving fitness for everyone in ways that they will always remember.
This is a mission that keeps me motivated to which I strive toward everyday.