SDH230: How to be Confident with Your Decisions with Perrin Kaplan

How do you define power? What equates to success? Is it by others standards or your own? No fears SDIHW listeners, our guest gives us the scoop on that! Today we meet Perrin Kaplan, who is the co-founder of Zebra Partners; a female-run global marketing and PR firm! Due to their background at Nintendo, they specialize in helping companies in fields of emerging technology, entertainment, gaming, and virtual reality, connect with their customers, and create loyal and active communities! They work with clients from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups, and their diversity reminded them of the stripes on a zebra, because their clients and their needs are never the same. With their broad range of clientele and services, Perrin and her two co-founders are up always up for the challenge, and are ready to share their expertise with companies so they can grow their businesses and become powerhouses! The three co-founders started Zebra Partners 10 years ago after they launched the Wii console with Nintendo. Though Perrin was the head of communications and corporate affairs for 16 years, she felt that it was time to use her talents and skills to go into business for herself, and took her trusted colleagues with her. As a team, she said they always worked beautifully together, with each of their personalities balancing one another, and due to their deep respect and confidence in each other, they haven’t argued once since Zebra Partner’s launch. She said one obstacle she struggled with in the beginning was redefining what success and power meant to her. She lived the visibly powerful life at Nintendo as the head of a major global company and enjoyed all the luxuries that came with it like authority, constant offers from other companies, and all the splurges that her salary could buy. But when her and her partners ventured out on their own, she had to become accustomed to doing business from her laptop at her dining room table, while in sweats munching on a Trader Joe’s salad. All the superficial frills were gone, but she learned to see power and success in a different way. With her own business, she got to construct her own life, choose who she worked with, what projects she took on, built her own rules, and teach her clients and her coworkers something new every day. And even though she said she’s not making the big decisions anymore, her happiness and joy come from the multitude of small successes and the relationships she gets to nourish and build! Get settled in and hear more of Perrin’s story on today’s episode! In this episode you will… Know how to build a good team dynamic Figure out what success and power means to you Be confident in your own decisions and not look to others to feed your ego Know how to train and develop your staff Create an email schedule Learn how to turn away clients INSIGHTS “In corporate, I had many successes, but my ego was being fed often. When you run your own business, you need to feed your own ego, but you have so much more control. They’re both fantastic journeys…but it’s all about being confident in yourself and loving yourself, and not defining your own success by other things and people around you.” -Perrin Kaplan “If you’re having a blue moment, move your moment…That’s the beauty of being an entrepreneur, you can make things be whatever you want...you can run things how you want to get to the successful feeling that you need.” -Perrin Kaplan “Nobody wants to turn away business, but I think if you’re going to always be at your best, and produce the best for companies, it has to be a two-way street where your chemistry is very good…it has to be a relationship, or we have to pass…You have to love yourself enough to know that if you say no to this something better is going to be coming next, even if you have to dig hard to find it.” -Perrin Kaplan RESOURCES Zebra Partners Website Zebra Partners Facebook Zebra Partners Twitter Entrepreneur Website