In this episode, host Emmanuel Eleyae is interviewed by Eleyae Systems COO Melissa Crawford. You’ll hear about his background and what inspired his passion for business as well as what he did before he started Eleyae Systems. He shares some valuable insights about marketing and why you should avoid scaling your business too fast. You’ll hear some great advice for business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs. Emmanuel also shares his thoughts on AI and rising privacy concerns as well as what’s next for Eleyae Systems. About Emmanuel/What Eleyae Systems Does: (1:11) Intro/Emmanuel’s background (2:38) Differences between marketing & operations (4:15) How businesses can fail when they scale too fast & the importance of operation systems (8:00) Explanation of operations used at Eleyae Systems - systems to scale revenue & serve customers (10:12) Origins of Emmanuel’s passion for business & how he continued it. Joining the military, getting an MBA in business, working for Amazon, and finally starting a business (14:06) Why this is his dream job - exciting & challenging. Very knowledgeable and up to date on trends/important information (19:07) Melissa explains what Eleyae Systems does for business owners (20:17) The hardest part of Emmanuel’s job - he’s an introvert and constantly has to interact with people, and keeping up with marketing trends/changes - it’s a fast paced industry Advice About Business: (23:33) Advice - find something that works and stick to it. He talks about starting GE’s Slaps business and how they tried multiple different kinds of ads until they found that influencers sold the most. Marketing is not as hard as people think - stick to the basics (28:11) Should you run facebook ads? The importance of organic community & demand for product (30:11) Advice for new entrepreneurs - make sure there is demand for your product before you go too far with it. People make the mistake of sticking with their business when the market is telling them nobody wants it - ask people what they would pay for your product. Charge less than what you think you’re worth - you’ll have a calmer energy & get testimonials which you can then use as justification for raising your prices What’s Next: (37:22) Emmanuel’s thoughts on AI and ChatGPT - it’s not scary, it’s a resource for ideation. It helps with the tedious part, not the creative part (41:18) Emmanuel’s opinion on the proposed TikTok ban & privacy/data mining (48:02) What’s next for Eleyae Systems  (53:26) Closing remarks - business is the hardest thing to do, just keep going Quotes: (23:56) “Simplify. Find one thing that works and double down on that.” (31:44) “Let the business go, and then you can always start again. The key is to make sure you still have enough resources to start again.” (32:07) “Validating demand is the sole job of the CEO/founder.” (36:30) “The gold at the beginning is not sales. The gold at the beginning is testimonials. People demonstrating transformation.” Resources: Website: eleyaesystems.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/eleyae YouTube: @eleyaesystems TikTok: @eleyaesystems Instagram: @eleyaesystems