Lauri-Ann Ainsworth: Key Areas Social Entrepreneurs Focus on For Faster Growth

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What are social entrepreneurs doing today to accelerate their success? We spoke with Lauri-Ann Ainsworth, CEO of the Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship in the Caribbean. She mentors many startups and entrepreneurs and is on the front lines addressing the biggest challenges and seeing what is driving their progress forward.

More About Lauri:

Lauri-Ann carries with her years of experience in developing the Caribbean’s entrepreneurial landscape. Having coached and mentored startups, she’s developed a strong passion for supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem supported by her visionary thinking and leadership capabilities around development, partnerships, fundraising and communications. She is a certified project manager and a graduate of the University of Toronto.

Learn more about Lauri and her work at > bransoncentre.co

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Transcription of Interview

(Transcribed by Otter.ai, there may be errors)

SPEAKERS

Adam G. Force, Lauri-Ann Ainsworth

Adam G. Force 00:03

Welcome to the Change Creator podcast where entrepreneurs come to learn how to live their truth, get rich and make a massive difference in the world. I’m your host, Adam forest co founder, Change Creator and co creator of the captivate method. Each week we talk to experts about leadership, digital marketing and sales strategies that you can implement in your business and like to go big, visit us at Change creator.com forward slash growbig to grab awesome resources that will help drive your business forward. Hey, what’s up, everybody? Welcome to the change order podcast. Hope you guys are doing amazing on this fine Wednesday, Adam force here host of the show. So some exciting stuff going on. Let’s just see, besides all the world chaos that is taking place, it’s like a live reality TV show that’s happening, pretty much. Let’s get on a positive note of 2021 ramping up our businesses. If you missed the last episode with Trevor Anderson, we talked about what it takes to build a winning agency. But you can look at that as what it takes to build, you know, a service based business right at the he’s built a couple of agencies. So we get into this conversation. It’s really great conversation. Trevor’s a cool guy. He’s actually right here in Miami near me. And he has all kinds of awards with his agency and stuff. So lots of insights young dude. And, you know, he’s crushing it. So there’s a lot to be learned from the processes that he’s put in place and how he’s actually developed his quiet roster and all that kind of stuff. Alright, so the interview that I’m going to have today is with Laurie and Ainsworth. Now, in all transparency, this was recorded earlier, in 20, and slipped through the cracks, it never got published. So we wanted to take a moment to share this interview, because it’s a valuable interview. So now, Laurie, and Ainsworth is the CEO of the Branson center of entrepreneurship in the Caribbean. If you recall, I was just, I was just a speaker at the Branson center of Entrepreneurship Summit that they just did a lot of fun, exciting event, there’ll be more coming out around that soon, I think with them. So, you know, laurieann, she has a lot of experience in developing the entrepreneurial landscape in the Caribbean, right. She’s coached and mentored startups, she has a, you know, a very big passion for helping drive the entrepreneurial ecosystem forward. And she just has this leadership quality, that’s really important to the Branson team. She’s really good at developing partnerships, fundraising, communication, so all these things that are very valuable to that environment over in the Caribbean, as they work with entrepreneurs in different startups. So she has a lot of experience to share when it comes to social entrepreneurship. And that’s what we want to dig into is, you know, what, what are some of the challenges these social entrepreneurs are facing? How are they overcoming them, these are things that you want to become aware of, and there are pitfalls that you can avoid, but also insights to help you make progress with your business, the same kind of progress that all the people going through the Branson center of entrepreneurship are making, right? So a lot to be learned here. And it’s a valuable conversation. So we’re going to share this with this interview here today. And I hope you guys enjoy it. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook. That’s the bread and butter channel for us. And we have our private Facebook group called be a Change Creator, it’s right there on the on the Facebook page, the big button you can get to it. And guys, if you haven’t been to our website in a while, we’ve been putting out a lot of content, lots of different interviews, you can get show notes and things like that. We also have a ton of very extensive guides, right? We call them pillar content resource hubs, whatever you want to call it. They’re deep dive pieces of content. All right, and they’re right there on the homepage, we put them now, and there’s more and more coming. But this is to help organize what we have to help you find what you’re looking for. Right. So dive into those. Get the insights you’re looking for. It might be about brand storytelling, you might be looking for the best SEO tools you might be looking for, you know, different things around e commerce, we have all of that there, depending on what your business is and what you need right now on your journey. So don’t forget to stop by at Change creator.com and that’s it guys. We’re gonna dive into this conversation. I hope everybody’s New Year is off to a good start. And that this conversation is going to help feed your inspiration and give you fresh ideas and insights that drive your business forward. Okay, show me the heat. Hey, Laurie, welcome to the Change Creator podcast show. How are you doing today?

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 05:09

I am great. Adam, thank you so much for having me on.

Adam G. Force 05:12

You are welcome. I’m excited. You know, we did an interview with Jean and Richard. And now we got you here. So we’re keeping it in the Branson family and keep supporting you guys. And we love all the work you’re doing. So I’m excited about this.

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 05:24

Yeah, no, that’s awesome. I love that you have me on. I’m so glad to be a part of the Brandon center family and just talking to you today.

Adam G. Force 05:31

Yeah, how did you get involved with them anyway?

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 05:34

Okay, so, great story. So I’ve always been interested in entrepreneurship, and actually started my career in marketing. And I left my marketing job, I started my own business as a marketing agency. Then I got myself back into the entrepreneurship world and I started working leading a tech accelerator in Jamaica to be in that tech accelerator. We had a relationship with the Branson center, we were always partnering together and working closely. So I was quite familiar with their program and their current CEO. Well, I decided to leave that tech accelerator, I saw this CEO of the Johnson said data farmers market. And she picked me up there. And pretty much told me that I needed to call my work with her, she actually had just become the CEO, she was moving the center from Montego Bay, where Richard Branson had launched it to Kingston where I live, and I agreed to come and help her with her program. So two and a half years later, I’m the CEO of the Branson center.

Adam G. Force 06:40

Wow. That’s pretty exciting, huh.

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 06:43

Yeah, it’s quite exciting.

Adam G. Force 06:44

Interesting. Um, so what have you been doing with them since you started?

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 06:50

Yeah, thanks for asking that. So you know, I think when whenever there’s a change in leadership, you always want to kind of make your own mark, and the previous two CEOs of the Branson center had done a stellar job with what they were able to bring individually to the program. And for me, I personally am very much into productivity and wellness. And I wanted to create a program that was supporting the whole see the whole entrepreneur, not just helping them to grow their business from a financial or investment standpoint. So I, when I took over, I was very clear about ensuring that we injected a wellness aspect to the program. And then COVID happened. And I think it’s become even more important. But while COVID happened to me that we also had to shift our program. So whereas we were supporting entrepreneurs to accelerate their businesses, and we’re supporting the entrepreneurs in the group stage, not startups. Yeah, we had to shift No, because of what’s happening to our current entrepreneurs, they’re losing revenue, they’re laying off some of their team members. So we’ve shifted, and we are now focusing on recovery planning. So we are focusing on three pillars, three main areas, which is marketing, which has been a huge, huge demand, particularly how to be visible how to start telling your story to the right audience so that you create the demand for your products or services, financial coaching, how can you keep more cash in your business? You know, how do you plan for the future? And of course, strategic planning, what do you need to do now what you need to do in six months, you know, 12 months? And how can you make decisions that are practical? And so what we’re doing with that is trying to give them scenario based approach so that they’re not doing these knee jerk reactions and decision making. So that’s how we’re kind of switching up our program now.

Adam G. Force 08:51

Yeah, no, it makes a lot of sense. And, you know, people we’ve noticed the panic, right? Like we had this pandemic take place. And then there’s a panic and especially in the impact entrepreneurship space, people who are coming from this mindset, they feel like they’re taking advantage of a situation when it comes to selling during this time. And this has been a big setback. So you know, we did a whole week of live videos where we were addressing some things in our Facebook group and you know, what we’re telling people is the, as an entrepreneur, we solve problems, right? So right now, whether let’s take the pandemic way you’re solving someone’s problem, but the pandemic on top of it, and they just have different problems to solve. So you could, you’re still just being an entrepreneur and if you’re afraid to sell then you don’t love your audience because if you love your audience, you’re going to help them by changing their life and selling what you offer. Right?

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 09:46

I couldn’t agree more with you Adam and that is, you know, you you said a word that’s really important, the mindset, you know, we have to change the mindset. It’s not about selling and to just earn money, especially in the impact space, yourself. problem for people. And you’re being rewarded for your efforts. You know, you have to continue to live and thrive so that you can share your gift, whatever your gift is. And I totally agree with that.

Adam G. Force 10:12

Love it. Love it. Yeah. So and how has been, I guess, how has the response been on your side with people coming through the program and stuff? Like, have you started implementing these discussions and changes? And like, what’s it been like for you?

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 10:27

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, for us, we have been outside of our office for more than eight weeks now. And we had a very much interactive kind of experience for entrepreneurs, we had to take it 100% online. So we’ve shifted everything. And we thought that we would see a decrease in engagement, because our entrepreneurs really like to network with each other. But surprisingly, they love engaging with each other, they actually love coming to our workshop, they love coming to the sessions that we’re still having for them, because they get into a renewed sense of energy and drive, but to continue doing what they’re doing, and just getting new ideas and, you know, be more innovative and collaborative. So it’s been great for them to have our program continue. And I think it’s actually been really important for them to continue thriving during this period.

Adam G. Force 11:18

Absolutely. You know, what, that networking peoples, they kind of thrive off each other’s energy in some ways. And, like an interesting example is, you know, we’ve had a student in one of our programs, and he, he went through this program, and now he spent over $150,000. Over the years, he helped, he works with like, Olympians, pro athletes, all these people, and he wanted to move his business online, right. And so he struggled. And he spent all this money on marketing teams, website designers, and it never came together cohesively because some really fundamental marketing strategy steps were missed, right? So he goes through this program, and within two months, he’s selling a 15 $100 offer, he’s getting applications or pros to work with him. And all this stuff just started shifting and changing. And when that happened in the group, environment, everyone else started getting excited, and everyone has started paying more attention and working harder to see the uptick.

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 12:12

Yeah, no, absolutely. You know what that reminds me of a session that I just recently did with my team, I learned how to do masterminds. And I think that’s exactly what we need more of know, people actually having these groups of masterminds, where you’re being encouraged to move to the next level by your peers. And it’s not just, you know, everyone sitting down holding hands, kind of sobbing and crying over spilt milk, but really like, what can you do, you know, to move to the next level and empower each other? I think that’s awesome.

Adam G. Force 12:44

Absolutely. You know, one of the best pieces of perspective or advice I’ve gotten was from one of our current mentors, and we pay a pretty penny to be part of these masterminds. And so we’re at a summit in Redondo Beach in California, and not long ago, before this whole pandemic. And she was like, Listen, all entrepreneurs face the same challenges. It’s just the difference between the ones that succeed and don’t is how they respond to those challenges. And that is such a simple statement. And you might put people like when you just think about that, it is a game changer. Because if you, if you let’s say you put all this work in, in your business, the pandemic hits, and now you’re not selling, but you just spent 20 grand on marketing and it’s not working, you can start to doubt your product, you can start to be fearful and start making decisions out of fear and panic. And all of a sudden, now you’re going from point A to point B gets much, much longer from bad decision making, because you’re making it out of emotion. Right? And if you respond differently, it’s a game changer, right?

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 13:48

Yeah, no, I couldn’t agree with you more, there’s so much nuggets of wisdom right there. Because, you know, bad decision making comes from Yes, that whole process of us going down, you know, that spiral of depression and just self doubt. And that’s why I think, you know, first is ensuring that you’re taking care of yourself, but because once you’re getting enough sleep, and exercise, and all those good things we all know, that we should be doing, it increases your capacity to actually make a good decision and to think through, you know, first and foremost. And then I think the next component is, you know, getting up to be a part of those groups, those communities so that you can recognize what you’re offering is actually needed. And you don’t, you know, talk yourself out of it, like what you’re describing.

Adam G. Force 14:33

Yeah, I mean, and that is the key because if you’re smart, you just diagnose the problem and start making smart decisions without being emotionally driven. I remember when I was younger, and I was working in corporate world, thank god that’s over. You know, my father used to be a little bit of a mentor to me, and he’s like, if you get some email that like really ticks you off and you get emotionally charged. He’s like, do not respond for 24 hours. He’s like, you cannot respond from an emotion. State. I mean, it’s just a similar concept, right? similar idea of how we’re thinking about our businesses and responding. And it just changes the entire trajectory. So when you bring in the health aspect to open up the capacity for focus and smart decision making, I love that, like, I’ve been a big fan of like meditation, health, and there’s obviously a ton ton ton of science that supports what this actually does to improve your own capacities for better, you know, decision making and business.

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 15:33

Yeah, no, absolutely. I couldn’t agree more I, I’m a big fan of meditation. As I was saying to, you know, before our call, I wear both hats. I’m the CEO of the Branson center. And I’m also very much in the wellness space, I’m a life coach, my health coach, a yoga teacher. And so I totally subscribe to taking care of yourself first, so that you can take care of business. And meditation is something that I practice all the time. My own mentor, you know, tells me that the first thing I have to do every day is take care of my fundamentals, which is did you get enough sleep to function? Did you exercise you have your body whatever that looks like? And are you putting nourishing food in your body? Those are my fundamentals on top of meditation, you know, I need meditation to focus my mind get clear. And I think there’s a lot of misconception about meditation, but maybe that’s a different podcast.

Adam G. Force 16:23

No, I mean, it is because, well, it’s also one of these things that like, I’ve and I’ve been guilty as charged, whereas like, I did a year straight, 20 minutes of meditation in the morning, 20 minutes in the evening, and I had incredible effect on me. But over time, for whatever life circumstances came up, I just kind of lost, I fell off the wagon, as they say, as they say, and even though you know how important it is to do these things. You have this like, unconscious routine of just doing like, I like to wake up, have my coffee, and at 6am I’m sitting at my desk doing work. And I’m like, this is not the best thing for me. But I still can’t stop myself sometimes, you know,

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 17:03

I know that habits, you know, the habits that we have, there are so easy to fall back on. I’m not gonna say that I don’t either, especially during this period, you know that the first two weeks, I was like, Oh, my God, what’s happening watching us not doing meditation. But I think it’s important to kind of recognize it when you recognize it first. And there’s an awareness of Okay, I’m doing something that I know I’m not supposed to be doing. How can you shift the habit? and really try and not do what people tell you? You should do? Like, you have to do the 20 minutes. It could be the minute you know, it could be the five minutes?

Adam G. Force 17:37

Yeah.

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 17:37

And I think that’s important for people to know, you know, you don’t have to it’s not all or nothing.

Adam G. Force 17:42

Exactly. It’s just do what works for you start somewhere, right? Makes a big difference. And so are you applying this now to the Branson center?

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 17:52

Yeah. So I mean, while as I said to you before, you know, when I started in this capacity, I wanted to bring wellness to our entrepreneurs. And we started doing it through, you know, some talks with myself and entrepreneurs, as well as with my team, we were, you know, doing our meditation and brought essential oils to the office. And we continue to provide our entrepreneurs with resources and materials to support them along their journey of wellness, both mentally, physically, and even psychologically, you know, I think all of this helps. So just the awareness and sending that message out there to them is what we’re doing, right? No, obviously, we’re not in the business of wellness. But I think personally, that it’s a big part of what we need to communicate in order to help them and Funny enough, when we’re talking to our entrepreneurs, some of them said, you know, we do want more of that we do want to hear, you know, that some of us are stressed out to somebody about being stressed out. And oh, we didn’t know that we could talk to you about being stressed out. I’m like, of course you can, you know, you don’t have to come to us and just talk to us about business and your numbers and where you’re going. We’re totally here for you in a holistic way. So yeah, so we’ve been opening up the floor and just making space for that. And I think it’s it’s working right now.

Adam G. Force 19:17

I love that. And I think it is an important part because it’s because it’s not just one thing or another, like if somebody wants to be successful as an entrepreneur, there are multiple parts of the lifestyle that you need to be addressing, like you said, right, you don’t you don’t just have a car and an engine, you need fuel to so making it at least maybe it’s not the primary part of what you’re teaching, but it is part of the conversation, right?

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 19:43

Absolutely. Exactly. Adam that’s it.

Adam G. Force 19:45

Yeah, that’s interesting. And I can imagine they’re probably hungry for it. And you know, it’s interesting because I, I follow this guy, James Wedmore is a pretty amazing entrepreneur as well. I kind of look up to some of his mentorship over the years and he Has this program to help young entrepreneurs, it’s called nail your niche. And we wanted to explore it. So we’re like, let’s see what he’s doing to help people with this niche. So we look in there. And out of these 10 modules, one of the things he has in there is on meditation. So it’s like, meditate on your niche. I mean, since like, Man, it’s, these things are starting to be more commonly integrated as part of a process for success.

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 20:26

You know, and I think that that is the way that we need to go, there are so many different things like, you know, meditation, taking care of yourself productivity. And when I say productivity, I use that very loosely, but just what works for you, you know, decluttering, your desktop, you know, decluttering, your shoulder, the things that are adding to your stress and anxiety that you pick up your phone and you see, you know, 2000 messages that’s adding to your, you know, your stress level, and not supporting you in having a calm and clear mind. So there are so many nuggets, I think that need to be added into this whole trajectory of, you know, success and achievement. And I think that it’s not been in the conversation for a long time. What some people have been talking about, as you say, James Wedmore, but I think it needs there needs to be a bigger space for it.

Adam G. Force 21:14

Yeah, yeah. No, totally makes sense. And I guess it’s one of those things that is, it’s growing, right. So it’s, it’s going through it’s it’s, it’s taking its course, I guess, and we are the kind of players that are helping push it, right. Yeah, absolutely.

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 21:28

And I think that it’s so important that we do give it a voice. So we give it a big voice. And I think more persons even like Arianna Huffington, who has, you know, completely moved into this, you know, wellness space? And, you know, show that’s necessary?

Adam G. Force 21:44

Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, at the end of the day, like what I have found over the years as an entrepreneur is sure you need some business savvy, and you know, you have to understand some of the technical stuff. But when you start making six figures, and you want to go to seven figures and things like that, because you’re you’re helping more people, and you’re having a bigger impact. There’s a part where no matter who you are, and how successful you are, it becomes mostly a mental game, like, what are the subconscious, like blocks, you have bad habits, like we talked about that are holding you back? And how do you start getting around those things? So it’s the bigger part of the puzzle, in my perspective, has been the mental part of it.

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 22:25

Yeah, I couldn’t agree more with you. And I think that as you’ve been stepped more into leadership positions, whether or not it’s in a corporate space, or it’s in your own, know, your own business, it becomes more of a mental behavior.

Adam G. Force 22:42

You know, because we all have these histories and stuff. And we have certain things that like, it actually led me I read, geez, what’s his name, but it’s a book called Biology of Belief, by this doctor, and I started reading a bunch of books about subconscious mind, like biology bleeds, well, understanding the science. And it’s just incredible how, like, basically 90% of our actions throughout the day are determined by the subconscious. So if you don’t understand how you’re programmed subconsciously, or how to change it, to become the person you want to become, you’re gonna have a very long road.

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 23:18

Yeah, and yes, and yes, so I’m doing that, right. My mentor, is carrying me through this whole program to unlock what’s in my own subconscious, so that I can continue to lead in a way that I want and show up in the way that I want to, because I think this is, you know, this is something that’s not unique to anyone we all have traumas we all have, the beliefs that we have, that we don’t recognize, are actually leading our lives and leading our actions. And I think it’s very important to tap into that and just figure out what’s going on so that you can show up as your best self.

Adam G. Force 23:53

Absolutely. Now, here’s a good one for you, Laurie, that we’d probably hear both like, but from the entrepreneurs who work with is, you know, they have kind of a hate relationship with money because they think it’s the root of all evil, or they see the Jeff Bezos of the world and they hate that he’s hoarding billions of dollars. I have found that okay, if that’s how you’re is that if that’s what you’re saying about other people, you’re just continuously programming yourself to not like money. And guess what happens to people that don’t like it? You don’t have any

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 24:27

It doesn’t come to you

Adam G. Force 24:28

come to you.

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 24:29

Yeah, totally. I mean, all of that, you know, law of attraction, belief system around money. Yes, absolutely. I agree with you. And I have been in the entrepreneurship space for many years now. And that is the very same thing I hear all the time. Entrepreneurs feeling bad about charging for their services, you know, feeling like they have this gift, whether it’s service based or product based, and they should give and particularly if you’re talking about you know, social impact. People are very apprehensive about charging, but then my question is How do you survive to continue to offer the service, if you don’t get paid for it?

Adam G. Force 25:04

100% You can’t help anybody then. And I thought, that’s why you’re here, you’re here. You know, I get it, because I used to be that guy. I was the guy who hated money. It’s the root of all evil, it causes poor human behavior. And so I took, I mean, and I still work on it, I do meditation affirmations, like I had to, like really change my perspective and my thinking about that. Otherwise, I just got capped off at like, it’s funny how your bank account and your business earnings will just cap off at whatever your setting is at. And you’re like, why am I stuck here? Like, and you just got to start figuring that out?

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 25:45

Yeah, you have to call it and I totally believe in manifesting, and that your thoughts and your words have power. And I did you know, I love that. And I’m not sure if I can say her name on a podcast, but I did this course, about money manifesting. One of the interesting things that I’m very conscious and aware of, is how we speak about money and I have children. And what I say to my children about money, I’m very aware now. So you know, to say, you know, don’t touch that money. It’s dirty. Yeah. No, money doesn’t grow on trees.

Adam G. Force 26:18

Exactly. Was this a girl or boy? T Harv Ecker

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 26:23

No, it’s, um, she has this program called Get Rich Bitch.

Adam G. Force 26:29

Oh, okay. I probably don’t know. But I’ve seen a few people out there hitting this market like that. And it’s they all are teaching a very common, you know, concepts, which is to help you get over the and understand these barriers. Right.

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 26:43

Her name is Denise Duffield Thomas.

Adam G. Force 26:45

Yeah, no I don’t know her. Yeah no, yeah, you can talk about, we could look at other people. Sure.

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 26:50

Yeah. And I didn’t know if I could say that word. But yeah…

Adam G. Force 26:52

It’s all good.

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 26:53

That’s the name of her thing. Okay.

Adam G. Force 26:55

Interesting. You know, it’s funny, because you talked about like, freeing up space before, you know what I recently did. I catch myself like just unconsciously grabbing my phone to look at updates, you know, like, what’s going on with our marketing on Facebook? Well, any new emails or just whatever, and I was getting so like, Oh, my God, I gotta stop doing this. So I set an alarm for 9am 12pm 3pm and 7pm. And those are the only four times a day that I will check email and stats are anything and it’s made a huge difference. I’ve my weekly phone time has gone down four hours.

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 27:30

Yeah, I think that’s great, Adam, and that is exactly what more people need to do. I totally do the same thing, too. I go, and I look at my phone constantly. Even if I’m in the middle of writing something and check, another message came in, because I have to, you know, and I think we all are guilty of it. And it’s changing the habit by saying you know what, I’m going to set a certain amount of time to do different tasks. And I do that myself. So yeah, I have sheduled my time into different blocks, I have admin time where I’m checking that email. And that’s usually in the morning or the evening, that I have focused time, which is my one or two hours of actual dedicated work. And that for me is in the morning, sometime where my brain is clear, I have the most energy and willpower. And then I have sacred time where it’s for my kids. And I had to have this when I was in the office because I pick up my kids from school, brought them home. And so I knew that I couldn’t have time for meetings or for work or for you know, anything. So I would block these times in my calendar. And I tried to do it still having that sacred time where I’m spending that, you know, hour or a few minutes doing whatever with the kids or with whoever or for myself, you know, so that’s how I block my time as well.

Adam G. Force 28:48

Yeah, I love that. I love that. Yeah. So what are some major, I guess, things to look out for right now with the Branson center that people should be aware of now you guys are focused in the Caribbean, right? So do you have to live in the Caribbean then to be part of what you’re doing? Or how does that all work for people?

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 29:07

Yeah, thanks for asking. So we are Caribbean based, we are Branson center Caribbean. So we support entrepreneurs in the Caribbean that we have had entrepreneurs in other countries but who are somehow related to the Caribbean, right? Yeah, we do, however, have a global network of mentors, coaches facilitators who all support us to help what we’re doing. And our mission is to create dynamic Caribbean economies. Because, you know, as many people know, the Caribbean suffers from low unemployment and GDP growth. And so when Richard Branson started the Branson center of entrepreneurship, it was to inject more innovation and, you know, sparked more entrepreneurs starting up and crazy businesses and creating jobs that would lead to economic growth. So since we started in 2011, we’ve made a lot of shifts. And right now, we are supporting our entrepreneurs here in our cohort to recover and become resilient. We’re also we also have a blue economy program because you know, climate change is an ocean health is something that’s very important to us. It’s very important to our founder as well, Richard Branson. And so we have been supporting the blue economy with a special stream. And in our response to this whole crisis, we are now putting together a whole hubbub that we will make available to public so that people can access some of our trainings that they can grow their businesses or recover from this crisis. So there, you know, there’s lots that we’re going to be putting out, we’re actually going to be doing a summit soon to support everyone globally as well, not just the Caribbean.

Adam G. Force 30:53

That is awesome. Yeah, I love it. So where can people just learn a little bit more and find out, you know, what you guys are up to? where’s the best place for them to go?

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 31:04

Yeah, so you can find us at Bransoncentre.co. That’s our website. And you can find us on Instagram, Branson Centre Caribbean, and those are the best places to find us. We’re also on Facebook or on Twitter, but I think, you know, go to our website to check us out, go to Instagram and see what we’re doing. It’d be great to get more people interested in what we’re doing support in any way we’re looking for. We’re always looking for mentors and persons who would like to help with their expertise, you know?

Adam G. Force 31:34

Yeah, absolutely. And just so anybody listening knows, it’s spelled Branson, and then the word center is ce n t r e. Okay. Just Laurie, thanks so much for your time today is a lot of fun. And I feel like there’s just a lot we’re on the same page about so it’s exciting to see what you’re bringing to the table for the Branson team and you’re obviously a great fit for them.

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 31:59

Oh thank you so much. This was such fun. I love talking to you. Thank you so much.

Adam G. Force 32:03

All right, take care.

Lauri-Ann Ainsworth 32:05

Take care.

Adam G. Force 32:07

Thanks for tuning in to the Change Creator podcast. Visit us at Change creator.com forward slash go big to get access to free downloads and other great resources that will drive your business forward.

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