IAM858- Co-founder Passionate About Diversity and Leveraging Technology

CEO and Co-founder of GTMPlus (gtm-plus.com) – a software development company that provides IT outsourcing, team extension, customer, and technical support services for businesses that want to work with broad-minded people who understand customer problems and provide excellent solutions. Public speaker, Co-Founder of Startup School University Edition, the get-things-done person with a passion for diversity and leveraging technology to make life digitally better.

• CEO Hack: 1) Google calendar, (2) Calm app for meditation (3) The Promodoro Technique (4) Book- How will you measure your life
• CEO Nugget: Work smart, not hard
• CEO Defined: Leading and inspiring people by example to achieve a defined goal

Website: https://gtm-plus.com/

Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelia-kovbasa/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/neliakovbasaofficial
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/nelia.kovbasa/

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00:02 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:30 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Nelia Kolbasa of GTM Plus. Nelia, it's awesome to have you on the show.

00:42 – Nelia Kovbasa

Hello, Gresham. Thanks for having me here today. I'm really so excited and I want to share everything with the entrepreneurs and CEOs.

00:51 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. I'm super excited to have you on as well too and get to hear a little bit more about your story and all the awesome work that you're doing. Before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Nelia. So you can hear about all these awesome things that she's doing. She is the CEO and co-founder of GTM Plus, a software development company that provides IT outsourcing, team extension, and customer and technical support services for businesses that want to work with broad-minded people who understand customer problems and provide excellent solutions. She's a public speaker, and co-founder of Startup School University Edition, the Get Things Done person with a passion for diversity and leveraging technology to make life digitally better. Nelia, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:36 – Nelia Kovbasa

Yeah, thank you for the introduction. I'm ready.

01:38 – Gresham Harkless

All right, let's do it then. So to kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about how you got started. Could you take us through what I call your CEO story and we'll let you get started with all the awesome things you're working on?

01:48 – Nelia Kovbasa

Okay. I started as the project manager in a tech business incubator and I was always fond of startups, their passion, and the way they work. And I wanted to do my business at that time. And I did, I started the education academy, tech education academy in Austria, in Europe, with tutors around the world. And I failed the first time. Actually, there were several times but that was the first time. And because we didn't do the market research and the market was not ready for the product we created at that time. Later on, I worked as an IT consultant for tech companies and also as a project manager.

I found my perfect partners and we decided to set up a company that will help tech businesses to grow fast enough to keep up with the developing world all the time. So, yeah, that's the story. Right now I'm really young CEO of the company. We started the company 5 years ago and right now I'm 26 so you can imagine.

03:10 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. Well, happy 5 years and it's a very exciting time and probably a crazy time as well too. But I think so many times we forget that when you have failures or mistakes or things that don't go the way you want them to go. A lot of times there are seeds of success that allow us to kind of start our next venture and the venture after that is a lot better. But it's important that we understand that and then also take the lessons learned that we can kind of take to learn and be better.

03:37 – Nelia Kovbasa

Yep, all the time. All the time we need to see what you've done wrong and what to do better next time.

03:45 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. So I know I touched on it a little bit when I read your bio, could you take us through GTM Plus, and tell us a little bit more about how you're working with and serving the clients you have now?

03:56 – Nelia Kovbasa

Yeah, actually I say that we have startups and companies to grow their tech products faster than light speed. To tell the truth, we provide software development and stuff augmentation in a really short period. Our team does understand that time is money. And there is not so much time for approving your concept, for example. So that's why we built MVPs in a short period, you go to the market, you see the feedback and you decide on how to move with the product forward, or make it a pivot, or do something better and do more features. So that is the part of our business, which is the most crucial for our customers, for startups, and for tech companies.

04:51 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that's absolutely huge. And it's so funny because I often, and most of the time when I talk with people, I always bring up the MVP, the minimum viable product, and to be able to kind of test those ideas out. As you said, sometimes you have a short period of time before you can make that impression. So depending on what your goal is, to be able to have something you get to understand if you want to kind of double down and put more resources into it, or if you need to pivot, or maybe just, you know, put it, you know, on the shelf and not deal with it, but you have that information, that data that you can kind of build from it, sounds like.

05:22 – Nelia Kovbasa

Yeah, because I was making mistakes from the beginning in my businesses, and I know that the faster you do them, the faster you can make the right choice after. So it's important to do them, to fail fast.

05:39 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. I think there's a book that says, you know, the quicker you can get to know or you can fail, the more you have an opportunity to innovate, to pivot, or do those next steps in order to get you to where you want to be.

05:51 – Nelia Kovbasa

Yeah, absolutely.

05:51 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be for yourself personally or your business or a combination of both. But what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

06:05 – Nelia Kovbasa:

Okay, my secrets I don't have any. I would say that my 6 success secrets are to combine everything to relax, rest enough, and work enough. I have several tips. I have applications on my phone which I use all the time. The first one is Google Calendar and I book there everything I booked for my vacation half a year before and I booked time for rest and I book time for a family there so Nobody can book a meeting afterward. Also, I'm using the application Calm for meditation. I think it's nice to have this time for your own and to calm and relax. Also, I think that it's really important to work, work dedicated to one task at a time. So I'm using the application, there are a lot of applications for that, but I'm using Focus2Do.

This is the application for using Pomodoro techniques. So the Pomodoro technique makes you focus on one thing at a time for a short period of time, but you don't have any other disturbing things from outside. So that's really how that helps to work productively. And also I have one thing that's maybe secret, maybe a secret. It's a book, How Will You Measure Your Life? Clayton Christensen. I reread this book each year, I think, and all the time when I need to make really crucial decisions. And this book helped me to choose the right way all the time. Anything that my choices were correct all the time?

08:09 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And I appreciate you for sharing that with us because yeah, a lot of times with your secret sauce you're able to combine so many different things and those like CEO hacks, those things that you have that allow you to be so effective and efficient, allow you to kind of take things to another level. And so you correct me if I'm wrong, that book and I guess the influence of that book allows you to kind of filter out what decisions to make or not to make because you've answered that question ultimately in your life and what you want to do.

08:36 – Nelia Kovbasa

Yeah, that's correct. That's absolutely correct. And I advise all people who I work with and who I partner with to go through this book and to think about your life while you are reading the book because it's really important.

08:54 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, it's so funny because a lot of times, even 1 of the books I talk about so often is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. And it always talks about beginning with the end in mind. That's 1 of the habits. And I think so many times we skip over that we jump into our startup, we jump into what we're doing from a work standpoint, and we never really asked that kind of foundational questions. So I haven't picked up that book, but it definitely sounds like something I should pick up as long as everybody else listening to this.

09:20 -Nelia Kovbasa

Yeah, do that. You will definitely enjoy it.

09:23 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I definitely appreciate that. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be like a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client or if you happen to be a time machine you might tell your younger business self.

09:39 – Nelia Kovbasa

Okay, CEO now get it for me work smart not hard, and actually, that helps to to not to burn out and achieve your goal because working a lot and hard is not about goal achievement, it's about working all the time. And working smart is another way to organize your life balance your life and achieve your really important goals of the whole life. Because when you're doing something, you're not doing this for nothing. You need to think all the time about the huge goal and the way that is the easiest way to get there. So that should be the smart way, not the way when you're burnt out all the time every day you're tired of life. It's another thing.

10:42 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And I'll say so many times that it's sometimes not the number of hours in the day is how you leverage them. And I think so many times we forget that we can be very strategic with, you know, what we're doing on a day-to-day basis. So that's why I love that nugget because it talks about, you know, really understanding and being focused on how to be creative, smart, and intelligent with the decisions that you make on a regular basis, not just kind of spending time to suspend it, but to be very strategic and smart about those every second and every hour.

11:13 – Nelia Kovbasa

Yeah, that's really important Because the only thing that is not renewable is the time and when we waste the time, there is no way to go back and to change something. So the thing that is the most important and the most expensive is time.

11:36 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I would definitely agree with that and I imagine definitely you know working with clients as you are related to that IT aspect and be able to kind of consult with them and let them know the best ways, that's probably 1 of the best ways to kind of leverage as much time as you can and be very smart with your time.

11:52 – Nelia Kovbasa

Yeah, that's correct.

11:55 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So now I wanna ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO and we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So Nelly, what does being a CEO mean to you?

12:10 – Nelia Kovbasa

Okay, for me, being a CEO is about leading people, by example, to a goal, which is common for everyone in your organization. The goal should be defined, and everyone should understand it. And you as a leader, as the CEO, should empower people to go there and to achieve it. So it's about how the CEO is about leading and inspiration of people around you and making them feel comfortable in dedicating their time to your business and to your common goal.

12:58 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, I definitely appreciate that. And as you said, leading and being inspirational. I love the words that you use about empowering. I think so many times as leaders, we think that it's that person that's kind of pointing in front of the ship and saying, everybody does this, that, and third. But I think when you really empower people, not only do they really take ownership of their position and what it is that they're doing, but they also find out sometimes how to problem solve without being told how to do that. And I think that at the heart of entrepreneurship and business, especially in the startup world, it's all about solving problems. So as more people you have to do that, the more likely you have a successful organization.

13:36 – Nelia Kovbasa:

Yeah, you're right, because you need to have people in a team whom you can rely on, not only saying the instructions on what to do.

13:45 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. absolutely. Well, Nelia, I truly appreciate that definition. And I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things she and your team are working on.

14:04 – Nelia Kovbasa

Actually what I want to say is that before doing something it's really really important to define what you're doing and I think that every CEO has his or her own company and they need to think about the company like, is this my loved company or is this company for just for business. So when it's a business company, try to find a company which you will love. And then move forward with that company and that will make you happy and provide you with a result.

14:50 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And I think asking those questions, you know, as we kind of talked about and said so much about, you know, in the nugget is so important because I think a lot of times we're just kind of going through life, going through business, going from a day-to-day standpoint, but to be and ask those foundational questions and be able to have those answers is really how you get to where you want to be.

15:09 – Nelia Kovbasa

Yeah, that's correct. Absolutely. I really thank you for this podcast. All the time I'm sharing these thoughts with people. I'm very, very excited because I think that it may change the life of someone. I hope that will do.

15:27 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. I think you're doing phenomenal things and it's great to kind of have and kind of pick the brains of really awesome people that are doing phenomenal things to kind of learn from. So I appreciate you for doing that. And for people who might want to follow up with you and hear more about what you're doing, what's the best way for them to get a hold of you?

15:45 – Nelia Kovbasa

We can connect on LinkedIn or you may write my email. I think you can share my email with them.

15:53 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. We will have that information in the show notes so that everybody can follow up with you, Nelia. But again, I truly appreciate you as well. Thanks for taking time out, the most valuable resources we talked about, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:22 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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