DO GOOD X Podcast

Ep. 44 Entrepreneurship Unlocked: Expert Tips to Grow Your Business with Sweta Govani

• Kimberly Daniel & Stephen Lewis • Episode 44

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Welcome to the DO GOOD X podcast, your trusted source for insights and inspiration to help you build impactful businesses! In today’s episode, hosts Kimberly Daniel and Stephen Lewis are joined by Sweta Govani, a go-to-market expert who guides businesses through the crucial $0 to $1M stage. Sweta dives into the strategies, challenges, and key insights for entrepreneurs looking to turn their vision into a thriving business. She explores everything from building a strong product-market fit to scaling operations and leveraging marketing for maximum impact. Whether you're just starting or aiming to hit that next milestone, this episode is packed with actionable tips to help you grow your business and make a lasting impact. Tune in for expert advice and practical strategies that can transform your entrepreneurial journey!

IN THIS EPISODE:   

(00:00) Introduction

(04:05) Sweta Govani shares her background and what prompted her to start coaching

(10:11) Sweta defines Go-To-Market

(16:43) Overcoming the barriers of business growth for entrepreneurs 

(22:09) Sweta’s tips on essential learning paths and resources 

(27:15) To achieve business growth, try to get into your customer's shoes

(29:17) Sweta answers the off-the-cuff questions, and the hosts share their thoughts about this episode

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

  • The transition from $0 to the first $1 million in revenue is crucial for many founders, especially those starting with limited resources. This stage is often overlooked but is fundamental to building a solid foundation for long-term success. Founders in this phase require holistic support, focusing on strategy, market fit, and sustainable growth.
  • The entrepreneurship journey can be transformative, especially for those driven by a strong sense of mission or purpose. Entrepreneurs are encouraged to stay true to their vision, breaking through barriers and creating impactful businesses that resonate with their passion and target market.
  • Many entrepreneurs fail to identify their ideal customers, leading to mismatched products and wasted resources. Founders must know who they are building for, engaging with potential customers early to validate ideas, refine offerings, and create solutions that meet market needs.

RESOURCES:  

DO GOOD X - Website

DO GOOD X - Podcast

DO GOOD X - LinkedIn

DO GOOD X - YouTube

DO GOOD X - Spotify

DO GOOD X -  Instagram

Happy Paying Customers

Lean Canvas - Website

The Mom Test - Book

GUEST BIO: 

Sweta is a go-to-market expert helping founders grow from $0 to their first $1M. With over 15 years of experience across marketing, tech startups, and mission-driven work, she’s led growth at early-stage companies, including two where she was the first marketing hire. Sweta's career began managing a massive email program that generated $40M annually. Today, she focuses on supporting underestimated tech and tech-enabled startup founders to acquire their first 100 happy-paying customers through her Founder-Led Marketing Club. There, founders receive one-on-one support from Sweta and peers. She’s also passionate about helping entrepreneurs design go-to-market micro-tests, avoid common mistakes, and build customer-funded businesses that generate lasting wealth.

DO GOOD X - Episode 44 Sweta Govani-Transcript

Narrator: [00:00:00] Welcome to the do good X podcast, a sanctuary from the entrepreneurial grind host, Kimberly, Danielle, and Steven Lewis advocates for impactful entrepreneurship guide you on the path where purpose meets business. Join us to slow down, reconnect, and explore the challenges of under resourced entrepreneurs, uncovering the unique journey of building businesses.

That make a difference. Now you're host.

Stephen Lewis: Welcome to the do good X podcast. My name is Stephen Lewis, and I'm a catalyst for positive change in communities and businesses. Now for over two decades, I've inspired leaders and entrepreneurs to live and work on purpose with intention, faith, and a commitment to their wellbeing. And I'm delighted to be joined by my co [00:01:00] hosts.

Kimberly Danielle, Kimberly, it's good to see you. 

Kimberly R. Daniel: Good to see you too, Steven. And good to be here with you all. Thanks for tuning in. My name is Kimberly Danielle, and I am a communication strategist, a coach, and a community builder who comes from generations of faith driven leaders and entrepreneurs who believe that our purpose should drive us to contribute to the common good.

And look, you all, I am excited about our guest and our conversation today, because I think there will be some jewels that are dropped that you will be able to use in your business. So we are excited and delighted to have Sweta Jovani join us today. Sweta is a go to market expert specializing specifically in the zero, zero dollars.

To the 1, 000, 000 stage. You don't get that often. Let me say people typically don't [00:02:00] focus on that particular stage, but after 15 plus years of working with early stage startups, she discovered a mission helping underestimated tech or tech enabled startup founders get their 100. Happy paying customers so that they can build thriving businesses on their own terms.

Nobody else's terms your own, and she does this through her membership program. Founder led marketing club, also known as F L M C and N F L M C. Smart, supportive founders get one to one support from sweat and peers in a small group setting via slack and live sessions. And through this and beyond sweater has advised.

Or supported hundreds, hundreds of founders in that, in that same stage, the zero to 1, 000, 000 stage in journey. And she is passionate about supporting these underestimated founders in building a customer funded business. that generates [00:03:00] life changing wealth for them. We are very excited about this conversation, Swetha.

Thank you so much for taking the time to connect with us and to share your story. And it's wonderful that we were connected. Via a mutual, a mutual friend who I happen to just meet on LinkedIn. So y'all side note, LinkedIn can be a very valuable relationship building tool, but thank you so much for joining us.

Sweta Govani: Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much for having me. And I'm so glad that we were introduced as well. I think we got along immediately when we chatted. And so I'm glad you reached out and I'm happy to be here. 

Kimberly R. Daniel: Yes. You know what? We're going to just dive right on in because I wish we could ask all the questions that Stephen and I desire to ask today, but I know we're not going to get to them, but we'll just go ahead and dive in and see.

See, uh, you know, what, what we can cover today to [00:04:00] provide some value and some tips and resources to those entrepreneurs who are tuning in. So let's just start out with focusing on the 0 to 1 million in revenue. You've achieved incredible success in helping these founders to, to go from 0 to 1 million.

And sometimes in just one year. Or getting close to that in just one year. So while many resources cater to establish businesses already generating revenue, you focus on this specific, unique, overlooked, often overlooked group founder starting from scratch. So what inspired you to really dedicate your business to supporting underestimated founders specifically at this stage?

Sweta Govani: Oh my gosh, where do I begin? There's a lot to unpack in that question. So I think you mentioned at least three things, right? There's the underestimated part, the founder part, and the zero to one part. [00:05:00] Um, so the underestimated and founder part. Frankly goes back to my own personal life. So I personally self identify as underestimated.

I'm a woman, I'm a person of color and I am an immigrant. I was born and raised in India and so much of, and I moved to the U S when I was 13 years old. So I have enough of a memory of being, you know, raised in a largely patriarchal society and being underestimated there as a woman. Um, you know, I had shared recently this story that came back to me about.

When I think I was about 10, max 12 years old, because it was before I moved. Uh, it was one of the first times that, first memories that at least I have when someone asked me, what do you want to do when you grow up? And it was a young boy about my age who had asked me that, and I said, I sort of just blurted out, I want to be a businesswoman.

And he literally started laughing at me [00:06:00] because women are not supposed to own their own businesses. And that memory is one of the first memories I have where I remember being very explicitly Underestimated. And it has stuck with me since then and it comes back in waves, back and forth. Um, it's now decades ago, but I still remember it and I don't remember his name.

I don't remember what I said in return or how I behaved, but it stuck with me. And so that piece has always been a key driver for me for wanting to prove people wrong. And that's the whole definition of underestimated, right? It's not that you're not capable. It's that the society and the world views you.

As less than, and so that, that was the key driver for the underestimated. And the entrepreneurship part is Kimberly, much like you, I come from a generation of entrepreneurs. So my grandfather has this really inspiring story where [00:07:00] he was born in extreme poverty in a tiny village in, in India and, and my, my dad and his siblings actually also experienced some of that in their early childhood.

And my generation is the first generation where. We were born and got to actually experience what it's like when entrepreneurship breaks the cycle of poverty in your family. And so I've seen the power of that. And I still get goosebumps when I think about it, because it's not lost on me that I could have easily been in that tiny little village working on a farm.

And that would have been the end of my life. That would have been the beginning and the end of my life. And I'm so grateful for the opportunities that entrepreneurship and my grandfather and my parents, you know, getting into entrepreneurship have opened up for me. So I get a little emotional when I think about it.

Um, but that's, that's really, it's a very, um, yeah, personal story for why I do what I do. And I [00:08:00] really believe in it, you know, just like a lot of the other things that people believe in that drives them. This is for me, my thing. It's my thing. I believe in the power of entrepreneurship. Um, and the zero to one part.

Came out of, honestly, this is like much more logical reason for it, even though it may not seem like it, um, I honestly eat my own dog food, so I always advise founders the first thing you should do when you think of an idea or you think of the fact that you want to start a business. Talk to 100 people who fit within the general description of the type of people you want to help.

And so my general description was, I wanted to help entrepreneurs, I wanted to help founders. And I had a hundred conversations with them, now it's been thousands, but I started off with a hundred. And it was so abundantly clear, nobody wants to touch the zero stage. Nobody wants to go there. I think some of it, just to be fair, is that most marketers [00:09:00] actually don't have experience at the zero stage because most marketers are brought in much later, so they don't have the experience.

So a lot of times, a lot of my peers would say, Oh, I work at zero to one stage, but they'll talk about zero being series A funded, which first of all, only 0. 5, what is it? 0. 05 percent of startups are even VC backed. And then out of that, you're talking about a tiny fraction of it, right? So it just became clear to me that this was, there was a clear need and one where in, in very real ways, in, in terms of there's just, isn't a lot of people who can help at the stage.

And then there's not a lot of people who want to help at the stage. Um, so. I found, I found my mission and it made, it was very clear to me that this is where I wanted to make it work. Um, yeah, that's my story. 

Stephen Lewis: Wow, that's such an inspiring story. And, uh, thank you for, for listening and having the courage [00:10:00] to, to do what it is that you do.

And so for those who are not familiar with what a go to market strategy is, can you define what that is? 

Sweta Govani: Oh my gosh, yes, it's one of those jargon words that gets thrown out a lot. Oh my gosh, so go to market, the way I think about it, and I will say there's a few different ways to kind of interpret it, um, to be fair, but the way, we'll focus on the zero to one stage, right?

So at the zero to one stage, what go to market means is that we're thinking really holistically. About how am I going to get me as the founder going to get my earliest, what I call happy paying customers for this new solution, whether it's product or service, whatever combination that you might need to put together in the early days, how will you get happy paying customers for that?

And I say holistic because it's really important to think about the fact that it's not just. The channels or tactics or marketing or sales work you'll [00:11:00] do. It's also thinking about what is it that you're even going to sell, right? What will you sell in the early days when you're starting from zero? How will you talk about it?

What is the positioning going to be? What will you do from the perspective of actually being able to deliver the service? So if you were at a bigger company that, you know, people would call it cross functional because it cuts across product, marketing, sales, customer success. But as a founder, it's just you.

So just think about all the things you'll do to actually get the customers, sell them something, deliver deep value, right? All the things. So it's really taking a very holistic approach of. How to get and keep customers. 

Kimberly R. Daniel: That's good. That's helpful for folks who don't know the jargon, because it's so easy to get caught up with the jargon when we know it.

And then some people fall through the cracks because they don't know exactly what that means. Can you talk about what. [00:12:00] Are some best practices that entrepreneurs should keep in mind, uh, specifically when developing their go to market strategy so that it aligns with their purpose and it aligns with their growth potential as a business and as an entrepreneur.

Sweta Govani: Ooh, okay. I really like how you framed that. Um, so there's two parts of that question. I want to answer kind of, this applies to everyone no matter what, and then there's the purpose part of it that I think is really important. Um, so when I think about, I sat back and I looked at all the founders that I've supported and sort of, what are some of the big things that people come to me for?

One of the big, the first steps that everybody takes when they work with me is at this point I've codified my process. So they. Come up with a draft plan, and it's to address exactly the problem you're talking about here, right, is There's a lot of jargon. And so I always tell people, don't worry about getting it right.

We're not getting A plus this year. All we're trying to do is take everything that's in your brain and put it down on paper, right? [00:13:00] I want you to learn the jargon and so we can speak the same language when we're talking about that. And I looked at all of this, so I've looked at so many of these now at this point, I should count them, but I haven't counted them yet.

And one of the big things that stood out to me, and there's a video that we can point people to where I break down the five most common mistakes that I've seen people make. Um, when it comes to go to market, but there's one in particular that often is the root cause and it's that you actually haven't clarified who your customers are.

What are you building for? And sometimes it happens because we got excited about an idea, but we forgot about who would that actually help. But sometimes it could be for a slew of other reasons where, you know, we get excited about an idea because we think there's lots of people who could use it, but we still can't pinpoint.

The one person who we're going to sell it to first, right? We struggle with that one, making that practical thing, right? If we're visionaries, entrepreneurs tend to be visionary. [00:14:00] So we struggle with the practical part of it. So that's the big thing that I would say is really, really, really, really hard. Push yourself.

What's one person who's within my reach somehow, it doesn't have to be someone in your network. It just has to be someone that you can reach out to on LinkedIn. It can be strangers. Kimberly, you and I got connected through strangers. We can do it. Everybody has access now, right? To the few social media platforms.

We can all do it. So just be specific about it and try to think about why would, what's in it for this person? Why would they respond to a cold outreach from me? What might I be able to do? And if you're a purpose driven entrepreneur, this part is generally easier because just tie it back to your purpose.

Just stay true to your purpose. What is the reason you're doing what you're doing and who are you trying to serve and help through that process? I've noticed that big trend where mission driven or purpose driven founders. I tend to be able to answer this question so much [00:15:00] faster because it's clear to them.

There's a reason they have lived experience or they have this fire inside of them for a problem they're trying to solve. Um, so it seems like it's in you. I believe in you. It's the answer lives within you. You just have to ask yourself, whom do I want to solve what problem for? And then try to find just one person to talk, who will agree to talk to you before you know it, the one will be 100.

It will happen. You just have to straight, stay true to yourself. Um, and one of the, the other things I'll say about purpose driven too is the first step in the process, before we even talk about all the other components of the go to market, I always encourage founders to do is sit and reflect and try to ask yourself, what is the type of business that I want to build?

I filed this under what I call parameters. What are your go to market parameters? What is the type of business you want to build? And what are your absolute no go's? Don't, do not make [00:16:00] sacrifices on your purpose. You can build a business on your terms in a way that moves your mission and your purpose forward.

You do not need to make any sacrifices on that. Money and mission are not mutually exclusive. It's doable. You can do it, but you just have to start with that as a deal breaker. 

Kimberly R. Daniel: That right there. Do not sacrifice your purpose. That's important. 

Stephen Lewis: So, so, Swetha, tell me, what is the unique challenge, um, underestimated founders face when reaching their first 1 million?

Like, how do you help them overcome those barriers? 

Sweta Govani: Oh my gosh, there are so many. And I'm sure both of you have a ton, ton to add to this as, as well in what you've seen in your networks. Um, I think honestly it comes down to access. And a lot of times when we talk about [00:17:00] access, I think we talk about money.

There's all these statistics about, you know, women only make up X percentage, and I think it's like 2 percent of venture backed startups, you know, black owned businesses, this shockingly low number. Right? Like. That's fine, but I, and I know that that's important. I know that that needs to change, but the more I've worked with founders, the more I realize most founders shouldn't even be building venture backed startups.

It's not even a good fit for them. They, when they describe to me why they're building a business and they tell me about their purpose or their mission or the life that they want around their business. Venture scalable, that venture scale path would be a horrendous fit for them. So even on a personal level, it may not be a good fit.

So ask yourself, you know, educate yourself on what does it really mean to take [00:18:00] external funding? Who are those investors? What does that mean for your life? And is that even the life that you want? And when I really got down to thinking about it, the big thing that stood out to me was nine times out of ten, the answer is no.

They just say that they want to raise money because they need some way to get started. And that's completely fair, right? They don't have the same networks and access to friends and family who might be able to put in a little bit of money to get you started. And so it's, it's the access to money is an issue, but it's also an access to knowledge, to resources, to information, to alternative ways of being able to get started.

And so there really, as part of my methodology, the true inspiration for it was realizing. The only way to solve for this, we can't solve systemic generational issues overnight. That won't happen. We have to do the hard work for it. But what does that mean for the [00:19:00] entrepreneurs today, right? What can we do?

And it just became so clear to me that if we just focus on building a business that's centered in happy paying customers. We don't have to worry about raising money. We can just customer fund our business. That said, I do want to set realistic expectations, right, especially for founders who might be new.

One of the big things that I've realized is it takes a really long time to pay yourself meaningfully. So a lot of founders, and they often whisper when they say this to me for some reason, they'll say my big milestone that I'm trying to hit my business. Is I want to be able to pay myself meaningfully in some way so I can keep working on this business.

That's it. They just want a fair shot at continuing to grow their business. But unfortunately, the truth is it actually takes a really long time [00:20:00] for founders, whether you're VC backed or not, by the way. To pay themselves meaningfully. So in the work that I do, I'm always going to try to help you to get to that point.

But even for the founders, right, Kimberly, I think you were talking about one of the case studies that I've talked about on LinkedIn, where, you know, the founder's about to, to hit a million pretty soon. They only recently started paying themselves. We're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars that they reached before they were able to pay themselves, meaningfully, right?

So you really do have to figure out other ways to stay in the game. And so there's a lot of shame out there for some reason, in having a second job, in having services revenue, in exploring, it's okay. Think about other ways that you can do that. And I'm saying all this from experience, by the way, I started my business as a consultancy.

It wasn't until later that I started to think about ways to productize it. And I [00:21:00] have a vision for more that I want to do. So I'm eating my own dog food. We just have to figure out ways to continue with our purpose and our mission, but we do need to make money along the way. And so figure out a way that you can do that in the meantime, in a way that makes sense for you and your life.

But I'll always advocate for trying to get to customer funding your business as quickly as possible. 

Kimberly R. Daniel: So we are going to shift a little bit to our resource roundup and here we typically explore various resources and practical tools and additional tips because you all have already gotten some, but these will be some additional tips to equip you all who are underestimated on this journey as you build your business.

So just want to start off for founders who are unfamiliar with go to market strategies. [00:22:00] What are some essential resources or learning paths that you suggest they start with? 

Sweta Govani: Oh, that's a good one. I actually, I'll be honest. I've not found very many go to market resources. If you go on Google. Uh, you won't find very many good ones that are targeted at the zero to one stage.

Uh, they tend to focus on go to market as a function within bigger organizations. So I would caution you not to follow those actually, which I think is a really, really important thing. Um, and then the second thing also, actually, if you start researching, you'll probably find all these like overnight success stories of startups.

Do not pay attention to those. Those are never full stories. Always try to figure out which of these does it actually apply to me? Do not look for, for growth hacks. That is also not going to help. So what I would recommend is really try to figure out the most basic business fundamental things. So there's a lot of resources out there.

One in particular that I [00:23:00] like is the lean. Lean Canvas. We can link to it. I think that's a good one to just think about your business. I don't think it's helpful, honestly, in today's day and age to have like a 10 page business plan. So just start, start with a simple one pager when you're just thinking through like what are all the assumptions around my business?

Um, and then when it comes to the go to market part of it, uh, that's where you're kind of double clicking on just go to market, right? Um, at that point, I'm more than happy. I'll, I'm actually just about to, to load this. I'll share it with you all. Um, I just did a session recently on how to validate your idea with real customers.

And. Instead of, and actually cross out validate and say pursue, pursue your idea. You can do it. Just start getting customers. And in it, I go over some of the fundamental aspects of go to market as well. Um, so that might be a good resource to get started. And then when you're really into the customer stuff, I would say, like, really try to get into the shoes of your customers and [00:24:00] talking to them.

One of my favorite books is The Mom Test. It is one of the best books out there. I read it in a weekend, which I rarely do with books, by the way, I literally couldn't put it down. It's one of the best books to just figure out what's the right way to talk to your customers. How do you get, how do you do essentially customer discovery, but do it in a way where you can get honest answers from people versus basically asking your mom, what do you think about my idea?

And she's, of course, going to say, I love it, hon. Right? So I think those are some of the best resources that I would recommend to get started and really ground yourself and your customers. Do a simple business plan, then figure out a way to get on the path to getting real customers and start having conversations.

Stephen Lewis: So for founders with limited budgets, what scrappy, cost effective resources or tactics do you recommend for growth at the Xero stage? 

Sweta Govani: Ooh, yes. Oh my gosh. So This [00:25:00] might surprise you, but I always tell people, take the lazy way. Always, always actually try to do all your marketing without any money at all at the beginning.

So always, that will always apply. Um, but one of the best things that I would recommend is, like I said, you know, start off with a hundred conversations. Start off with a hundred conversations and that validation, uh, resource that I mentioned, I actually break down, how do you actually, what do you do? So I break it down into essentially three phases of what you should be doing, right?

How do you use the first twenty to thirty conversations? What kind of outreach message can you send to them? What do you do in those conversations? And what happens? If you're going to go from having these conversations to essentially help shape your idea and figure out which specific customer segment do I want to focus on, which specific problem do I want to help them with.

And then over time, what happens is that seconds. Kind of phase of that is you start to figure out what I should pitch and that's the positioning [00:26:00] part of it, right? You start thinking about what to pitch and as you're going through that The next set of conversations will be you actually pitching it So you'll go from having these conversations where you're trying to shape your idea To actually turning them into sales conversations and you're pre selling your idea.

So when you pre sell it at the zero stage, you're no longer at 0, right? Before you build your business, you, you have revenue coming in. And at the beginning, you know, maybe it won't be a lot. Maybe, you know, you charge somebody a hundred dollars for something that really should be 1, 500. But the point is to get someone to take their card out.

And pay you for something. And that is the best validation you can ever have in your business. It's the best way to de risk your business, particularly as an underestimated founder, when you don't have a lot of fallback, right? How do we do that? How do we de risk our business? The best way to do that is to get real customers.

to take that card out and pay you [00:27:00] some amount of money. 

Kimberly R. Daniel: For folks who might be stuck at the zero dollar point, what is one piece of advice that you would share with them? 

Sweta Govani: Try to get into your customer's shoes. If you're stuck at the zero dollar stage, it's one of, there's finite things that are wrong. One is the customer piece, so we've talked about that a lot.

The other piece that I come across a lot Particularly with underestimated founders. Is a lot of mindset work. So sometimes because we're underestimated, we tell ourselves all these stories. We think that our product needs to be perfect before we go pitch it to someone. We think that we need to justify why someone should consider working with us.

Right. Which affects the way that we show up in conversations and the way that we run our conversations and sales conversations. So try to really reflect and try to think about. [00:28:00] Why is it that you're doing what you're doing and reframe it from, I'm trying to ask somebody for something to, I'm trying to deliver value and solve a real problem for people in this world.

You're worthy. You're deserving. Your idea is amazing. It deserves a chance. You can do it. Just sell it. You will, you will, you will make magic happen. 

Kimberly R. Daniel: Mindset is so powerful. We've talked about that on this podcast before. So that's really good. That's really good. And if you are listening in and you are inspired by this conversation with Swetha, uh, be sure to check out the resources that we list in the description of the podcast where you can explore those further and also know that Duke at X is here to support you.

So you can go to dukeatx. org and here we have resources. We have a community And opportunities that [00:29:00] can really compliment and help you on your journey toward gaining those a hundred happy customers, but not in the way that Sveta does, you know, we have, we have a different path, a different niche. So I also encourage you if you are in that stage to explore her resources as well.

Stephen Lewis: Well, now we're going to turn to our segment. Off the cuff. And we have a series of questions that have not been shared with Sweater that we will ask at a fast, rapid pace. And here we just want the first thing that comes to your mind, um, and an uncensored response. Are you ready? 

Sweta Govani: I think so. I'm nervous.

Let's do it. 

Stephen Lewis: So what is the best piece of advice that you have received on your entrepreneurial journey? 

Sweta Govani: Ooh, stay in the game, probably. Yeah, figure out a way to stay in the game. 

Kimberly R. Daniel: What is one of your go to [00:30:00] practices or rituals to slow down, center, and connect with yourself? 

Sweta Govani: Oh, this is going to sound so crazy, but take three deep breaths.

Take three deep breaths. Whatever it is you're dealing with, just give yourself literally a moment to process. Three deep breaths. 

Stephen Lewis: What is one piece of go to technology that has been a game changer for your business? 

Sweta Govani: Go to technology. I'm a, oh, I use a lot of tech. Uh, the first one that came to mind, though, is Loom.

I use Loom a lot. I do a ton of videos. It's, a lot of the work I do is async, so I'm doing a lot of reviews of plans or giving feedback on landing pages, like very hands on things, right? And The best way to do it is to just have loom. So now, now there are alternatives to it, but it's one of those technologies where I'm just, I'm addicted.

I like it so much. [00:31:00] 

Kimberly R. Daniel: How much of your success do you attribute to your faith versus your own grit, will, and hustle? 

Sweta Govani: I feel like everything has to be grounded in your faith. It's so hard. Entrepreneurship is so hard and people can work. Grit is important. But grit is falsely getting a lot of attention because there's so much of this hustle culture that gets promoted.

But faith, I think faith has to drive everything else and define everything else and ground it. Grounding is the best way that I can think about it. 

Stephen Lewis: So complete this sentence. Because of my entrepreneurial endeavor, communities and all my customers will be or are more able to do. 

Sweta Govani: Ooh. Build thriving businesses on their terms.

Kimberly R. Daniel: Thank you, Swetha, for your work in the community, in the world, for these [00:32:00] entrepreneurs who are underestimated and in that overlook stage where they lack resources to really support them to get to that 1 million mark. We appreciate you taking the time to chat with us today and to share your tips and your expertise with those tuning in.

So thank you so much. I appreciate you. 

Sweta Govani: Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. This is so great. 

Stephen Lewis: Yes, what it is, uh, you're doing some amazing work and I think, um, it's really inspiring. I think in the entrepreneurial and social entrepreneurial eco space. Um, a lot of people are not focused on the early stage zero to a hundred thousand.

And so there's not a lot of resources there. And so your ability to kind of, to break that down as a result of talking to customers helped you build a business that can actually kind of, um, [00:33:00] demystify how you do that is just such a gift. And, um, Yeah, blessings to you and your work. You're such an inspiring entrepreneur, and I look forward to seeing all the ways in which your work will continue to help so many.

That are trying to build businesses for good. 

Sweta Govani: Oh, that is so kind. Thank you so much.

Stephen Lewis: Man, Kimberley, that was a amazing conversation and we just scratched the tip of the iceberg on that. 

Kimberly R. Daniel: Right, right. I really enjoyed that conversation. I would, our producers say, Hey, we should have her back. You know, it, it might be really good to have Swetha back, um, sometime, because I know that there's a lot more that we could have dived into.

Um, or dove into maybe anyway, but for now we are just going to continue the conversation briefly in a different [00:34:00] way. Um, I just want to explore, like, what is one thing that you've learned so far from our work with Duke edX with founders that you think. Can be helpful to share with others. 

Stephen Lewis: Yeah, I think one thing I think is that your customers help you build your business.

I think, you know, we can't stress enough about that. But I think, you know, what we've come to find is that the more that you're on the ground talking to potential people who may be consumers of your products and services. Uh, their insight will help you build a better solution. And so talking to the customers help you build, um, a better business.

And so I think we saw some of that of what we heard in our interview today with Sweta. But yeah, I think that's a, that seems to be a through line that I think runs through the work and what we try to tell folks that do get ex hooked. [00:35:00] Come through our particular initiative and accelerate it. 

Kimberly R. Daniel: Yeah, I think that's good.

And I would add, I mean, this was something that Swetha mentioned as far as a challenge or something that founders that she works with face, but the mindset, the mindset that entrepreneurs have or what you create for yourself is so incredibly important because it could be that one thing. That gets in your way toward following your purpose, launching this business that could potentially be very successful and impact others positively.

It could be what we need. And so, how are you caring for yourself in the journey before you even get on the journey to be able to navigate anything that emerges? I see that the founders that we work with [00:36:00] just creating space for them to truly share what the conversation is that they're having inside is is helpful because then they get to have that community of support that.

Affirms them that ask the question, okay, yeah, that's your thought, but is that actually true? Is that based in fact, or is that something that you made up yourself that you are now allowing to get in your own way? And so again, I just think, you know, one of the biggest things that I've seen is how much our own mindset can get in our way.

So how are you cultivating a mindset that sets you up for success?

Stephen Lewis: So true. Customers and mindset are like the key elemental ingredients within building a successful business. So yeah, I [00:37:00] think those are two great takeaways to keep in mind as people move forward in building their businesses for good. 

Kimberly R. Daniel: Right. Well, we hope that you continue to join us on this journey and this podcast, and we want to be a resource for you.

So please do join us next time and until then be well and do good.

Narrator: Thank you for listening to the do good X podcast to continue the conversation or access our resources visit www. dogoodx. org. Join us again for conversations that will nourish your soul, ignite your dreams. And empower you to build an impactful business one intentional step at a time. Until then, keep striving, thriving, and doing good.