{"id":97,"date":"2022-11-29T19:37:26","date_gmt":"2022-11-30T01:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/jso004\/?p=97"},"modified":"2022-12-05T14:46:11","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T20:46:11","slug":"final-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/jso004\/2022\/11\/29\/final-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Open your eyes and ears to the valuable information about our world today. Brad Lepper, founder of Stone Bru Coffee, Tonya Vakalskus, Realtor with Keller Williams, and Mark Shut, Founder of Web 3 Ready all provide huge insight on real estate, business, and crypto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Business From Scratch with Brad Lepper<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: Being a Successful Realtor\u00ae Over Time\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/1X0E3Grq430F83xQp7xIRJ\/video?si=0e8fa702b51f4a6c&#038;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Brad is the founder and CEO of Stone Bru Coffee which is a local coffee roaster in Sioux City. \u201cSioux City is a small market, but we dominate because of the experience, quality, and structure we bring to our customers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brad started out as a real estate investor and worked a 9-5 at Scheels. He was working at Scheels for 8 years and then it clicked. Brad had learned everything he could about the business of Scheels and began to change things up within Scheels. He began asking questions about how they could organize their inventory better or make more profit by outsourcing more suppliers. Finally, Brad had enough when he was approached with a business idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Originally, Brad was going to open a laundry mat off of Sergeant Road in Sioux City. However, the location had a drive-through window, and he didn\u2019t want to let that go to waste. Brad partnered with Nick Tropht who is the head roaster for Stone Bru. Together they created a coffee shop instead of a laundry mat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Juice<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brad dove into the specifics of starting a business and how to best go about making a plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou need to assess the opportunity and idea. Is there something already like this, are you the first to the market, do you have other people helping you on this?\u201d Questions like this are important when starting a business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think about it this way. If you learn and cover everything you need before starting the business, you will be in a better position. Or you thought\u2026 According to Brad, \u201cJust start. Things are not going to go as planned but you can be best prepared for when you need to pivot\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the main focuses that Brad had was on the end goal and enjoying the process along the way. He mentioned \u201cEveryone wants the million-dollar business but they never talk about the feelings of running a hundred-thousand-dollar business or less. That feeling of making your first sale and then every milestone after is what drives me. Of course, I want the result in mind, but the journey is where the real fun happens\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brad also commented on the current real estate market since he has experience in this field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cReal estate is about to go through hell. The interest rates are high, people are scared, and inflation is coming.\u201d He also goes on to talk about how the media hides a lot of important information in order to delay market crashes and preserve the economy so the wealthy can get their ducks in a row.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Markets up or down- Tonya Vakalskus<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: Competing with Starbucks and Dominating the Coffee Market\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/5nsQDIMtHEWGOQj4ifOIxJ\/video?si=4606917aba3f4272&#038;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Tonya is a Realtor within Sioux City and in Okoboji. She is one of the top real estate agents in the mid-west and even served on the Iowa Association of Realtors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tonya started her journey in real estate in her thirties, this was young for Realtors at that time. She described her first years in real estate as a \u201cwhirlwind of confusion\u201d. Once she got her feet under herself and went through working with mentors, she was able to grow her network, start selling properties, and brand herself as a top Realtor in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On top of that, being a real estate agent means that you run your own business. She is an independent business within the brokerage that she operates with. \u201cBeing your own boss is hard.\u201d She says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you are working for yourself, there are many difficulties. Tonya says the hardest thing is \u201cStaying accountable. You need to be able to do the small things and get the work done.\u201d People always talk about the end result or the big thing that got them to their riches, but they never talk about the little things along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Tonya, she has many small wins. \u201cWhen I got my first closing on a house, it felt amazing. I was able to produce more for my clients because I now was evolving as an agent with my skills getting better every day\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tonya also loves working with people. She believes that the connections you make along the way in business are some of the key aspects to success. \u201cIf you don\u2019t meet people, people will never meet you\u201d. Tonya is talking about growing your sphere. In real estate, the more people you know the more houses you can sell which means more money for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking of houses, the current economic status of the housing market is confusing. Tonya says it best, \u201cthe market is going down, however, we are still seeing homes go on the market because there is less saturation. People can get good deals on homes and save money along the way.\u201d There is always a positive that comes out of a negative. The lower market means that there is more investments to be made in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Industry on the Rise- Mark Shut, Founder of Web3Ready<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mark Shut is the founder of Web3Ready which is an education platform for the new emerging web 3 platforms. He is a student at Southern Methodist University, SMU, and is studying business and real estate. He loves web 3 but one of his passions is learning about real estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mark sees the world as an ever-changing environment that we all live in. The world of digital technology is getting more and more advanced. Web 3 is the newest of them being a decentralized platform for people to organize, share, and profit from content, products, and currencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The education company that Mark runs is growing every day. He has his own platform <a href=\"https:\/\/www.w3ready.io\/\">https:\/\/www.w3ready.io\/<\/a> . People are able to come and learn about web 3 for free and start their journey into crypto, NFT, and digital assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The hardest thing for Mark was \u201clearning that planning only takes you so far, you must take action and really do the work you say you are going to do.\u201d If you struggle with this you aren\u2019t alone. Staying on task and not getting distracted is one of the most difficult things to do. Mark mentions that distractions play a huge role in the development of his business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEvery time I see a notification on my phone, the world I am building sucks me right back in\u201d, Mark. He is building the platform for the future that people will be utilizing and learning from every day. His goal is to \u201cbe the go-to education platform for web 3 information\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Along Mark\u2019s business journey there was one thing that he says was the most important, \u201cnetworking\u201d. The network you create determines how you succeed, most of the time. \u201cI began expanding my network by going to events, connecting with people on Linked In, starting conversations, and shaking a lot of hands\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: Web3Ready? Are you ready for the new world?\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/1kKsH03nSKD7fQEivIdvmw\/video?si=4b9a889c344c4daa&#038;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Remarks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Business is a beast. The best way to conquer it is to learn from the successful people around you. This comes from putting yourself in uncomfortable positions and striving to be great. Figure out what makes you the best and really hone in on that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Open your eyes and ears to the valuable information about our world today. Brad Lepper, founder of Stone Bru Coffee, Tonya Vakalskus, Realtor with Keller Williams, and Mark Shut, Founder of Web 3 Ready all provide huge insight on real estate, business, and crypto. Business From Scratch with Brad Lepper Brad is the founder and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1161,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/jso004\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/jso004\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/jso004\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/jso004\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/jso004\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/jso004\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/jso004\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions\/109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/jso004\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/jso004\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/jso004\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}