Cina Knecht
Cina Knecht, an immigrant with a knack for leveraging to obtain goals.
Cina immigrated to the United States. She describes herself as a crazy immigrant. She would have been a fourth-generation entrepreneur but decided she wanted a college degree. She showed up in the United States from Sweden on January 10th in Utah and was standing outside her University with her suitcases. Her tuition was paid, and she had $4.00 in her pocket. They asked where her apartment was and she didn’t know.
Luckily, she found a dorm contract and was able to find a place to stay. She wanted to get a good education. She didn’t know what she wanted to study but chose Computer Science.
Her family in Sweden were all entrepreneurs, and they questioned what she was doing. Cina, her husband, and children run 5 businesses.
You can be an entrepreneur and go to college.
The 5 businesses include Web Design, Metrics, and making Social Media payoff with her daughter. Her husband purchased a tax practice, and he is just starting that business and they also own a property management company. Cina and her husband have leveraged their income into real estate, purchasing of other companies.
Cina LOVES STRATEGY! That is her passion!
Cina ventured out in her very own WOSB several years ago with three other people as a financial advisor. Cina works well with her spouse, and he is her collaborative business coach. She has been married for 29 years.
Cina gets raw with an authentic missed-out, business story.
Six years ago, after having been a student forever, she met up with two brothers. One brother worked in the publishing industry and had invented an online platform that allowed publishers to convert a book to an e-book. The other brother was a software engineer. The group decided they could leverage this tool into an asynchronous publishing program for the educational teacher market.
Cina Knecht Teacher
No longer be a librarian but run the electronics in the classroom. The teachers were frustrated with apps. The group hired a team out of Bulgaria. The product moved forward quickly until the brothers began to argue. The team fell apart.
She took the product to the local education union trade show in a last-ditch effort. They showed the product, and they loved it. There was a venture capitalist there that liked the product as well. Because the team was stalled, another company published same materials and beat the team to market.
About a year later, Google created the Google Classroom. The company did not dissolve. She kept the assets, and she kept the name. She believes she still has a viable product. She has plans but hasn’t found the right team.
Pick the right partners.
Cina utilizes what she calls an Emotional Cycle.
Emotional Cycle
It is a great way to meet your goals. You can diagnose where you are at in the cycle and pivot to keep going toward the goal. The more significant your goals are, the more times you may go through the cycle, including several times in one day.
Cina stresses that you should have an advisor such as a business coach or mentor in your field to keep an eye on your horizon. These advisors can talk you off the ledge so to speak.
Cina has just launched a group called WOJO. It is mojo for women. The group is going to talk about identity and how to reclaim it. How do we take our past experiences and use our reputation to move forward and collaborate with other people.
Collaboration is massive and we get so much further by working with other people.
Small groups and events for women. Sign up for her email address at wojoforwomen.com
In addition to being an entrepreneur, Cina is a mother of 5 children.
You can contact Cina at
cknecht@aephoria.
