Going from each back into county and going to college and a big four firm, I'm sure at moments you were terrified and very unsure. How did you handle that? &gt;&gt; There were a lot of nights you would come home and want to cry because you're like, I don't fit in, I'm not smart enough, I don't understand all the terms that they're throwing around. I don't feel like I fit in. You hear a lot of people say fake it till you make it. I don't know if I subscribe to that because self awareness and emotional intelligence are things that if you can bring to work every day it will set you apart. Just take a step back and kind of observe and bring humility to the table and you come with a good heart every day. You come wanting to serve, come wanting to serve those for him you work, as well as for your clients and you caring for your fellow man. Things just have a way of working themselves out. And you can have an impact, and you should strive to have an impact. 

The best way to pursue a career in accounting is to get a degree in accounting from an AACSB accredited university.

My dad worked in maintenance and repaired appliances on the side. He taught me how to work and I didn't really have an urgency to go to college beyond getting my AA. I received advice later on that pushed me to go to college for accounting.

I got my HVAC certification and was working in that field. I went to college for accounting and thought I'd get my degree and go back to HVAC until I got an offer from a Big Four company that set me on the corporate accounting path.

On most days, my typical responsibilities include coaching and cheering for my team, interfacing with other teams and leaders, and reviewing and interpreting accounting guidance and financial information.

Vice President, Finance & Corporate Controller

You shouldn't leave home to go away for school.

Dedication

Self-Reflection

Go To Work Every Day Wanting To Serve

I was like, yo, I know how to bake. Let me take pictures of my bread to document my progress. I made an Instagram. That's when I got into sourdough. I started throwing stuff in the bowl and letting it rise and playing around. I had no clue what I was doing with my life. My following was 1,000 people. I would post a little bit more on Instagram and started to make it look a little bit better and that's like a resume now. I baked everyday when I could and posted almost every day something. I had to go to sleep knowing I did something to further my baking endeavor even if it was just posting a picture. And one day I was baking, I was like hey, let me make some pan de coco, I haven't made that in a long time. That was the deal breaker for me. I made it with sourdough, I posted a video of it, and it just exploded. People like freaked out over that. Following starts to increase. And people start contacting me. What do you want? It's just a video of bread. &gt;&gt; [LAUGH] &gt;&gt; The recipe. The recipe. The recipe. The recipe. So like the recipe. How do you put? Blog. I started my little LLC. You know baking blog company. No working capital, right? There's no inventory here. It's just the Internet. So I was like, this is a little bit smarter. And so I've since been able to use that platform and turn it into a business which is crazy. It's easier to start than a physical restaurant, but use the same principles. I can bake, I can share my baked goods with people. I can help people make better bread, and then I got on a podcast. And then a book publishing company contacted me in March. And they're like this your story is great. Like, your blog, your following is exploding like who are you? What is this bread, like let's do a book, and I was like let's do the book. &gt;&gt; [LAUGH] &gt;&gt; Right? Let's do the book, so it's like I went from barely believing in what I was doing and not having much money. I'm not rich. I barely have money still, but it's like I have a plan. I have a business model now. It's scary to like be out there and like put your name on a website and be like, these are my recipes. I don't know if it's gonna work. Sometimes you just don't know if things are going to work but like, this is what I do. There's so much pressure in baking and so much science in math, it intimidates people and so the way I write things is I try to let them know it's gonna be okay. [LAUGH] It's just a loaf of bread, just put it in the bowl and see what happens, because you made it and however it tastes it's gonna be delicious. 

If you have a craft or a talent that you're passionate about, work hard at it, cultivate it, and then make sure people know you have it. Create professional social media accounts or a personal website so people can find you and see your work. Opportunity won't arise if people can't find you. You don't need any kind of degree to become a successful baker but I do believe that accounting knowledge is essential for becoming an entrepreneur in any field.

I'm a child of immigrants who unfortunately struggled financially. I was a talented soccer player and wanted to play professionally, but my family couldn't afford to send me to the critical camps and programs to get to that level.

I was miserable at my Big Four accounting job and didn't do well on the CPA exam. Food and cooking had always been a passion in the back of my mind, so I made the switch to become a baker but it took a while to save the necessary startup capital.

I had student loan debt and also needed to save money to open up my bakery, so I forced myself to stay in a job that I wasn't happy or feeling fulfilled at.

I bake every day and post videos and photos of my recipes and creations daily on Instagram. I post my recipes on my blog. I'm currently working on recipes for a cookbook.

Baker & Blogger

You can't open your dream business without money.

Determination

Success

Creating A Successful Baking Blog

Blogging is just a way to express yourself. So if you can verbally express yourself, I think you can also as writing. Blogging is more like, people wanna know you. But writing for newspapers and magazines, I think that takes a little bit more professionalism. So you have to understand the style they are looking for, and you can do that just by reading them constantly. If there's a publication you really wanna write for, I would say, read it every day, and see what style are they looking for 

Go intern in the industry that you think you want to work in when you grow up. If you feel you fit in the work culture & enjoy your work, then pursue a degree in that field. You may have different skills & aptitude (in my case it was math) from where your heart is (in my case travel)!

When I came to the US, I was 17 years old & encountered a different way of life here. Back in India, you live with your parents till you get married & they support you financially & emotionally. Here, I had to learn to take care of myself.

I remember I needed a computer to do my college homework, so I would use my manager's computer. One day, he offered me an interest-free loan to buy my very first PC & deducted the payments from my paycheck every other week.

I have two vastly different schedules. When I am out on a press trip, I have a packed schedule from 8am-midnight which includes meeting PR folks, interviewing people, tasting 7-course meals, touring the attractions & in between all that, finding time to make notes, take pictures & post on social media. When I am home between trips, I generally work from my couch, responding to emails, editing photos, writing blogs & articles, as well as coordinating my next trips.

Food & Travel Writer

When are you going back to your real job? Traveling isn't work.

Inspiration

Blogging Is A Way To Express Yourself

So what was you, I guess first job after grad school? &gt;&gt; I don't know how this happened, I feel like the most fortunate person in the world. But I actually had my job before I graduated with my masters. Because I knew that I wanted to work her so bad that when they had an internship available, I was supposed to send my CV to one of the professors to send to the division. And I was like, no, I'm gonna send my CV directly to them and find out how I'm gonna get this internship before everybody else. When the internship was over, I just kept showing back up. &gt;&gt; [LAUGH] &gt;&gt; What do you guys need? What can I do? And they even moved buildings. And so I was like, I'll pack boxes. [LAUGH] I'll help you move. And by the time I was getting close to graduation, I had interned here probably for about two years and so they knew my work ethic. They knew what I wanted to do and they knew that I had considered the fact that there was nobody in the office at that point that was doing both archeology and historic preservation. And so they said, you know what, maybe we need to hire this woman. And here I am. So I just think that just goes to show that noticing the opportunities in your field and being able to speak to those in an interview and knowing what sets you apart from other applicants or competitors is a really, really, solid idea. 

Notice the gaps and opportunities in the field you are interested in and how to apply the things you've learned in the classroom in new/interesting ways.

I spent a lot of money doing study abroad programs to figure out what area of archaeology I was interested in.

I work for the historic preservation division with the goal of working with local communities to empower them to interpret and protect their cultural resources. This means hosting a lot of outreach events and community days to introduce people to the cultural artifacts in their communities. There is also a lot of local travel involved visiting different sites. 

Archaeology Outreach Coordinator

Maybe my heart really isn't in archaeology.

Hard Work

Know What Sets You Apart

I guess, right now, our focus as a company is on KleanGent. And so I have a company called KleanCo. It was started behind the concept of KleanCollar. KleanCollar is a product that I invented and patented, that permanently prevents your shirt collar from getting dirty. An issue that I thought I was the only person in the world to have, and then discovered while in college, having to dress up and getting tailor-made shirts, I was spending a lot of money and wearing that shirt a very minimal amount of times, simply because of the collar of the shirt. Eventually, it gets a dirt ring. And with people, throughout the course of our day, it happens. So because of my unique sense of style, people started consulting with me like, hey, where'd you get that tie? And it was oftentimes ladies at my church who loved sewing. And I was like, can you make this for me? And they'd make it, and I'd pay them. And so I turned it into a brand. And what I needed to really do, from a strategy perspective, is I needed to fund the cost of getting KleanCollar to market. But I started KleanGent, put up a booth one day at a fraternity event. And we did roughly $7,000 in about 24 hours. I sold out of everything. I'm like, okay, well this is amazing. Maybe we can keep this going, started a brand. That brand continued to kinda prove itself as something that would be successful and lucrative for us as a company. And so I started a subsidiary called CleanGent, where I would separate KleanCollar, which is solely just our wearable technology and the product that we invented, and move into men's apparel altogether. So KleanGent here is actually a subscription service to where we had these boxes made. We spent a lot of money on these. But every month our subscribers will get one of these boxes in the mail. It'll have a tie, pocket square, fleer lapel, whatever they want it to be, and we'll mail that out. We did a pre-launch where people could sign up, and we had 787 people sign up. So that becomes daunting because then we have to logistically coordinate how we're gonna get these boxes to people literally across the world. So we had to start working on a logistics plan, and getting relationships set up with mailings, and shippers, and things like that. So a great way for me to celebrate my 30th will be officially launching KleanGent, which is our subscription service of men's apparel items. 

You have to learn to balance ambition and realism. If you want to be an entrepreneur, you have to always ask yourself, "What makes you different?", and "Is what I am doing going to help someone?" 

I've always had a problem with authority. I'm not disrespectful, but I've always been independent and have tended to do things my own way which doesn't work so well in structured corporate settings. I had to become my own boss.

I've been fired from every typical 9-to-5 job I've had because I just don't work that way. Being my own boss, creating my own schedule, and being in control is what fuels me. 

Entrepreneurship inherently comes with financial struggles. Some of my ideas have not worked out and I've lost money, but other ideas have worked out. I've had to liquidate assets, sell cars, etc. in order to get the money to continue working. 

Every day is different. The good thing about being an entrepreneur is that I have the luxury of having a flexible schedule which allows me to prioritize different things each day. I allow my team a flexible schedule as well, so we typically have to sync up with each other everyday to make sure things are getting done. I am always meeting with people, seeking out investors, and working on prototypes for our products.

Founder & CEO

You are crazy. You could never pull this off.

How To Build A Business

So being at home just one weekend, this is back in the day when you could actually pick up a newspaper and look at the help wanted ads in the classifieds. I just saw this ad, and it was, like, they needed a public relations person at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, which at the time was headquartered here in Macon and it'd be great if that person had journalism background or experience in the music industry. And I was like, my God, did somebody plant this in the paper? Like this sounds just like me. No experience needed, entry level all the way. And so I applied for the job. And sure enough I got it. But then it was this heavy notion that I gotta go back home and all of a sudden, this great life that I had built and really discovered in Atlanta that was diverse and exciting and just nothing like I had grown up here in a very small world. And, in particular, a very small conservative private school world. I didn't wanna leave all that, but I knew that this was the job for me. And so, I came home and went to work at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in public relations and events, and just really began to find a niche and in sharing history, telling stories, learning how to build those stories, delivering a product, and just seeing how much Georgia music, not just my family's contribution to it, but people from all over the state, had played in creating music, and then I really just had this awakening to what music has done. We all love our music, but when we look back at music history and we see, especially here in the South, how it's brought people together, I really became very in tune to that. 

Make the best of every situation. You may not be doing what you want, where you want, but finding the silver lining might end up opening doors to something truly great.

I struggled a lot with moving back home after living in Atlanta for college. I felt like going back to my small town was a step back and that there wasn't anything there for me. It took me awhile to realize what my town had to offer.

I am the first person in my family to go to college and I don't think my parents had any idea what going to college was going to do for me.

We utilize family stories and extensive research to put together public and private walking tours of Macon, Georgia. We get to collaborate with experienced tour guides and music history buffs to share some of the best historic sites of the South that are rich in music history. In my spare time, I am also a communications specialist and journalist, so I write a lot and am constantly looking for fun, new ways of sharing interesting stories. I do most of the marketing side of the business. 

Co-Founder 

Community

Finding My Niche

There will be people who will support you, but you always have to remember you're gonna have to fight your way out of it. If you wanna be an actor, you're gonna have to do everything in your power to be an actor. People aren't just gonna open doors for you. You might get a couple of doors that open up, but no one is gonna want it more than you and that's the advice that I needed to hear as I was producing Joey Stefano. It's like having to find these investors and actors and everything, it's like I'm the one driving the train. It's not a democracy when you're driving the train. 

Start getting work in the field of your choice as soon as possible. Intern, volunteer, get part time work, whatever you can get so that you can get the experience and start building your resume and connections. 

The ACTs switched my test scores on accident, which resulted in me having to enroll in remedial classes, and it affected which colleges I was accepted into. 

While working for Central Casting in Los Angeles, I was working extremely long hours on dozens of projects and I couldn't keep up with the pace of it all. 

I have always been an outspoken person and that has gotten me in trouble with higher-ups before. The worst moment in my life is when I was misquoted in an article and it nearly destroyed my career. 

When a get a casting job, one of the first things I do is to travel to visit with the producers and director(s) of the project to talk about the look of the project, specific casting needs, and my timeline. Once I have a good idea of what we are looking for, I organize casting calls (meetings) and put out advertisements with various theaters, talent agencies, websites, newspapers, etc. to get local actors to come in and read for the different parts.

Casting Director

No, you can't cast that actor because nobody will know who they are and you can't pitch that movie because it's not what we are looking for. 

Support & Encouragement

Drive The Train

Don't get discouraged by a lack of a clear path. It just means that you have to make your own way. Find a support network that can aid you in that process and continue to push. And whatever faith tradition is important to you, whatever helps sustain you, that connection to family, lean on that. So that you can do the things that you were put here to do. Taking care of yourself is one piece of that puzzle. If you give so much out to everything else, if you consumed in sadness or despair, depression. If those things consume you, then you are not able to do the work that you were put here to do. So take care of yourself, your mind, your body, your spirit, so that you can go out and do those things. 

Find a solid organization or other resources to guide/mentor you in areas where you are weak. Find out the certifications, associations that matter and can help you develop the network that you need. 

I grew up amongst racial tensions in my community as a child and later on encountered discrimination when trying to become a teacher. You have to learn to navigate through the opportunities available to you and make your own way. 

I was always worried that what I was doing wasn't living up to my family's legacy and sacrifice and that I should be doing more. You have to be happy with where you are, but always be open to new opportunities. 

I slacked off a bit early on and let my GPA slip. You have to stay focused and use the resources available to you to succeed.

Morning check in with the team on current initiatives, mid-morning organizational meeting or connections with potential program/education partners. Afternoon program evaluation and long term planning. 

Senior Public Programs & Education Manager 

Why would you want to be a teacher, I thought you were really going to do something big. 

Dedication

Go To Work Every Day Wanting To Serve

Johnathan Daniel

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