In this episode of Entrepreneur’s Enigma, host Seth Goldstein sits down for a lively and candid conversation with his longtime friend and powerhouse entrepreneur, Gloria Bell. With over 30 years of business operations, event management, and entrepreneurial experience, Gloria has made the transition from a successful corporate career to becoming the founder of the Women in Tech Summit and the Inspiring Tech Foundation. Join them as they discuss Gloria’s journey through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, her pivot from corporate to tech, and the importance of maintaining a sense of wonder. Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or a seasoned business professional, you don’t want to miss this insightful and inspiring conversation with Gloria Bell on Entrepreneur’s Enigma.

Key Moments

[03:58] Transitioned from construction to technology project management.

[06:27] Red Stapler Consulting, Tech start-ups process help. Success or failure.

[10:54] Isabelle lured me back to Philly Startup Leaders.

[15:21] Gloria’s current online hangout – very important.

[16:38] Different social media platforms have unique communities.

Find Gloria Online

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gloriabell/

https://womenintechsummit.net/

If you’re enjoying Entrepreneur’s Enigma, please give us a review on the podcast directory of your choice. We’re on all of them and these reviews really help others find the show.

GoodPods: https://gmwd.us/goodpods

iTunes: https://gmwd.us/itunes Podchaser: https://gmwd.us/podchaser

Also, if you’re getting value from the show and want to buy me a coffee, go to the show notes to get the link to get me a coffee to keep me awake, while I work on bringing you more great episodes to your ears. →  https://gmwd.us/buy-me-a-coffee

Follow Seth Online:

Seth | Digital Marketer (@s3th.me) • Instagram: Instagram.com/s3th.me

Seth Goldstein | LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/sethmgoldstein

Seth On Mastodon: https://s3th.me/@pch

Seth’s Marketing Junto Newsletter: https://MarketingJunto.com

Transcript Provided by CastMagic.io

Seth [00:00:00]:
Entrepreneur’s Enigma is a podcast for the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, to the wins and the fails that we all face being entrepreneurs, how we learn from adversity. Every week, I talk to a different entrepreneur with a story to tell. I’m Seth Goldstein. Come with me on the journey. This is entrepreneur’s enigma. Let’s get started. Hey, everybody. Welcome to another edition of the Entrepreneur’s Enigma podcast.

Seth [00:00:34]:
I’m, as always, your host, and I have a really good buddy here today, Gloria Bell. I’ve known Gloria since the first tweet up in Philadelphia in 2008 Yes. Ish. Because I think 2007, I was still talking about what was what was going on with my lunch. And then then I figured out, oh, there’s more to Twitter than what’s what you’re eating for lunch or you went to the bathroom, that kind of thing. But that that whole reputation of Twitter didn’t really go away to, like, the teens, and people realized that there was actually something there. I remember always everyone was always like, Twitter, why do I care what you ate for lunch? I’m like, it’s more

Gloria [00:01:10]:
than that. Yes.

Seth [00:01:11]:
But, anyhow, Gloria is a powerhouse. And she she’s modest, but she’s a powerhouse in Philly in the startup community. She has more than 30, years of business operations experience, event management, entrepreneurial experience. She is the founder and chief bottle washer of the Women in Tech Summit. She runs the Inspire Tech found Inspire and Tech Foundation. She helps out for startup leaders. I mean, literally, Gloria doesn’t sleep, I don’t think. I think she’s a vamp a a a, sun infused vampire because I don’t know when you sleep, but, like, you’re constantly I mean, you have more energy than I do.

Seth [00:01:51]:
So hey, Gloria. How’s it going?

Gloria [00:01:53]:
It’s good. How are you doing, Seth?

Seth [00:01:55]:
I’m doing great. And she’s soon to be a Grammy, which is hard to believe. And she’s so excited. We’re all excited for Gloria because she’s this kid is gonna be teched out. They’re gonna have all the tech.

Gloria [00:02:07]:
They

Seth [00:02:07]:
don’t know how to use it, and then they’re eventually gonna surpass the master and teach Gloria how to use the tech.

Gloria [00:02:12]:
It happens.

Seth [00:02:13]:
Oh, it it happens. My 11 year old’s that way right now. He’s like, no. That’s not how you do it. It’s faster to do it this way. I’m like, how did you figure that out? He’s like, I pressed a few buttons, and I figured it out. I’m like, oh my god. It it’s it’s happening.

Gloria [00:02:26]:
They are smarter than we are. Absolutely.

Seth [00:02:28]:
And their brains are so much more moldable. Their medulla isn’t fully formed till 25, so they have a lot more sponginess to go. Us, what we know is what we know. So

Gloria [00:02:38]:
Our filing cabinets are full. Theirs are empty.

Seth [00:02:42]:
I’m losing stuff out of my file cabinet. Like, I’m dropping stuff on the floor occasionally. So, Gloria, how did this all get started? I mean, I know we know each other from Twitter. You’re prolific on Twitter. May he rest in peace. And how this all get started? Like, what’s the origin story of Gloria?

Gloria [00:02:59]:
The origin story of Gloria. So Gloria is on, I guess, technically, her 5th career. I had a 20 plus year corporate career before my tech and entrepreneur career.

Seth [00:03:15]:
You survived corporate that long. Wow.

Gloria [00:03:17]:
I was in corporate that long. I know. Can’t believe I survived.

Seth [00:03:21]:
I lasted two

Gloria [00:03:22]:
and a

Seth [00:03:22]:
half years, and I was like, peace.

Gloria [00:03:24]:
Yep. Exactly. But I was in the insurance industry for a little over 20 years doing insurance claims, of all kinds. And, on the side, I owned and ran a couple businesses with, various friends and family members.

Seth [00:03:42]:
Red Stapler. Them

Gloria [00:03:44]:
Red Stapler. This was even pre Red Stapler. Oh. I owned a construction company. Yeah. I’ve got a really varied back

Seth [00:03:53]:
It’s not it’s Gloria. I should not be surprised here, but I am. Construction company. Wow.

Gloria [00:03:58]:
Yeah. I had a construction company, had a residential and commercial cleaning service, did a few other things. But how I ended up doing what I’m doing now is I was actually working, with a friend on his technology project management company Oh. And kind of realized that was what I had always been in love with. I’ve been in love with tech since I was a kid, since my dad got his master’s degree in data processing. Oh, so it’s in the elementary school.

Seth [00:04:31]:
So so the the techies in the genes.

Gloria [00:04:33]:
The techies in the genes. And I was really burnout doing what I’ve been doing because I had spent many years handling insurance claims and many years doing very large what we call large exposure commercial claims, which was yeah. Guys falling off construction sites, kids getting molested in day care centers. Oh, that that takes a while. In apartment complex swimming pools, like, really ugly stuff that really just drains you because you’re with people at the worst point in their lives.

Seth [00:05:10]:
I know that was that’s the reason why I’m not doing journalism anymore. It it burn it eats you. Oh, it’s terrible.

Gloria [00:05:16]:
Yeah. It it just kind of you can only handle so much for so long.

Seth [00:05:21]:
20 years. God bless you, though.

Gloria [00:05:23]:
Yeah. So I decided to take a big risk on myself.

Seth [00:05:28]:
Yeah.

Gloria [00:05:29]:
And the when I was working with my friend’s company, we were working with a lot of a lot of small dev shops, a lot of 1 and 2 man, freelance agencies, really talented people, really good at what they did in design and dev and all of that, not so good at running businesses? That’s what I was really good at.

Seth [00:05:51]:
Exactly.

Gloria [00:05:52]:
And so yeah, found my niche. And so do you know what? I’m gonna take a chance on myself. I’m gonna follow my passion. I cashed in my four zero one k.

Seth [00:06:05]:
So you took a hit on that too.

Gloria [00:06:07]:
Oh, took a big hit on that.

Seth [00:06:09]:
Yeah. Because the feds don’t like you taking your the the the financial markets don’t like you taking money out before you need to retire.

Gloria [00:06:15]:
No. No. They do not. Cashed it in, started my company, Red Stapler.

Seth [00:06:22]:
Red Stapler, and met Seth at that point. I remember that was that was, like, the big thing with Red Stapler. Yeah.

Gloria [00:06:27]:
Red Stapler Consulting, and it was doing operations and process consulting for tech start ups and small dev shops. And, the thought behind that was either I’m gonna be successful. I’m going to fail miserably, fall on my face, lose every penny in my retirement, and have to go beg for my old job back, which that if that was the worst case scenario, yeah.

Seth [00:06:56]:
Yeah. You feel fast or you succeed slow. You know, you just kind of it’s it’s not the worst thing.

Gloria [00:07:02]:
We’re gonna

Seth [00:07:02]:
take a quick break, hear from our sponsors, and get right back to the show.

Gloria [00:07:05]:
It’s not the worst thing or somewhere in the middle.

Seth [00:07:10]:
It’s always somewhere in the middle.

Gloria [00:07:11]:
Life ends up being somewhere in the middle.

Seth [00:07:13]:
Always.

Gloria [00:07:14]:
Always. So did that and spent, not quite a year. And in that 1st year was about the same time that social media was becoming in the forefront in the news. We were all getting on Twitter. Yeah.

Seth [00:07:34]:
404-04 o.

Gloria [00:07:37]:
Yes. Exactly.

Seth [00:07:38]:
Code you trust in Apple iPhones. I would probably text message an update and get text message. I waste the I would waste the text message to tweet.

Gloria [00:07:48]:
Exactly. So I have a personal fascination with how technology changes how we communicate. And, you know, knew a little bit about marketing for my owning my own companies, and so kind of just dove in with this personal fascination about where is this going, how is it changing marketing, how is it changing how we communicate

Seth [00:08:14]:
Yeah.

Gloria [00:08:14]:
And and was getting out talking to people about it, getting invited to come speak about it in places. And the next thing I knew, every phone call I got was, you understand this Twitter thing. Can you come help us? They weren’t wanting my business consulting. They were wanting social media consulting.

Seth [00:08:31]:
Hey, Pivot.

Gloria [00:08:32]:
So that was the first Pivot.

Seth [00:08:34]:
Yeah.

Gloria [00:08:36]:
And met started, you know, being a part of the the tech and the entrepreneur community in Philly, which led to volunteer opportunities like the very first Women in Tech Summit, which has now been around for 12 years. And yeah, 12 years

Seth [00:08:53]:
12 years.

Gloria [00:08:56]:
And is now a globally award winning conference.

Seth [00:09:00]:
That’s awesome. Go, Gloria. Go, Gloria.

Gloria [00:09:05]:
And, you know, I’ve been with it since day 1, and I’m now running it by myself.

Seth [00:09:10]:
Oh, god bless you.

Gloria [00:09:11]:
It’s been through a few iterations with lots of great volunteer partners and, lots of other partners along the way, but it is now under the umbrella of the new nonprofit that I started, the Inspiring Tech Foundation.

Seth [00:09:27]:
Love it.

Gloria [00:09:28]:
So, you know, I’ve put my consulting career kind of on the back burner and am now focused solely on what work can I do for underserved groups in tech

Seth [00:09:39]:
and then

Gloria [00:09:40]:
also sitting on the board of the startup leaders on how can I help entrepreneurs?

Seth [00:09:45]:
Oh, and then you get to deal with you get to not deal with. You get to be with Isabelle all the time. She is talking about high energy.

Gloria [00:09:51]:
Yes. Woo.

Seth [00:09:52]:
Love you, Isabelle.

Gloria [00:09:53]:
I get to be the counterweight to Isabelle.

Seth [00:09:56]:
You I like, she challenges me with energy. Mhmm. And I have a surplus of it. And Gloria knows how much energy I can have.

Gloria [00:10:04]:
Oh, yes.

Seth [00:10:05]:
But Isobelle, whoo. She’s got so much energy, and she channels it, and it’s just like she’s a powerhouse.

Gloria [00:10:13]:
She is. I mean and and we actually make really a really great partnership because we I think it makes sense to you. Really big ideas that we balance each other really well with. So

Seth [00:10:25]:
Yeah. You just tell her to say, alright. Hold on. So the process is in place, Isabelle. That’s the process of the place. Alright. Now go. Yep.

Gloria [00:10:32]:
Well and then that’s just it. You know? Yeah. We each have big ideas, and then we figure out how to implement each other’s big ideas.

Seth [00:10:39]:
So It’s great. Because Philly Startup Leaders, I think, has really come into its own. Yes. I I it’s always been around, but I think the past few years, even with the pandemic, I think it’s kind of come out of the pandemic stronger, I feel.

Gloria [00:10:54]:
Yes. I agree. And and stomach. Yeah. That’s how Isabelle kind of lured me back in because I I sat on the board years ago of Philly Startup Leaders back in the very early days, and, you know, helped implement a lot of their signature events. I was part of starting those.

Seth [00:11:13]:
Yeah.

Gloria [00:11:14]:
And, you know, and then kind of sat back and said, okay. Time for somebody else to to take the reins. And

Seth [00:11:19]:
If you you were a running woman running the woman in tech summit all by yourself. So, I mean, come on now. You’re a little busy.

Gloria [00:11:26]:
Little bit busy. And then, you know, Isabel and I had a a great conversation about what some of her plans for the future were.

Seth [00:11:36]:
And I

Gloria [00:11:36]:
was like, alright. Well, let me see how I can help. And Love it. Again, volunteering lured me back in and

Seth [00:11:44]:
That’s fun.

Gloria [00:11:44]:
No. Took a new seat on

Seth [00:11:46]:
the board. That’s fantastic. So alright. Now onto the questions of of the podcast. Okay. You’ve done the corporate. You’ve done entrepreneurship to the nth degree. What is the best thing about being entrepreneur, I mean, versus being in the corporate world? I mean, clearly, there’s a benefit.

Gloria [00:12:03]:
Oh, there is a benefit. For me, it’s determining my own destiny.

Seth [00:12:09]:
Mhmm.

Gloria [00:12:11]:
I mean and there are good sides and bad sides to that.

Seth [00:12:15]:
Oh, we’ll touch on that. What keeps you up at night next? Yeah.

Gloria [00:12:19]:
But the best part of it is, you know, I get to decide how successful I’m going to be. I get to decide I mean, to a certain degree, there’s outside forces that have some impact.

Seth [00:12:33]:
The clients.

Gloria [00:12:34]:
Yeah. The clients.

Seth [00:12:35]:
They’re sometimes worse than actual bosses sometimes.

Gloria [00:12:38]:
Oh, yes. Yes. They can be.

Seth [00:12:41]:
Yeah.

Gloria [00:12:42]:
But, you know and I get to choose what I want to work on. Mhmm. For me, that is the biggest benefit.

Seth [00:12:51]:
I love it. It’s so true.

Gloria [00:12:53]:
I, you know, I get to work on things that are important to me.

Seth [00:12:57]:
That’s awesome. So on the flip side, what keeps you up at night?

Gloria [00:13:00]:
What keeps me up at night? I think the thing that probably and if it’s not keeping an entrepreneur up at night, I worry about them, the money.

Seth [00:13:10]:
Oh, it’s constant.

Gloria [00:13:12]:
Yeah.

Seth [00:13:12]:
Even if you’re doing really well, it could be going in an instant, and then you’re back to square one. It’s just like

Gloria [00:13:17]:
it’s Well and just you know, even when you are doing really well, is is the money being put in the right place? Am I putting the money in the right programs? Am I taking care of my people in the right way?

Seth [00:13:34]:
Yeah.

Gloria [00:13:34]:
And when the money’s not coming in, where is it gonna come in? What is the thing I can do? What do I need to do? We all have those nights of how’s the next bill gonna get paid?

Seth [00:13:49]:
Oh, it’s so scary. But I’m more positive scary. What is the most important thing to carry with you all the time?

Gloria [00:13:57]:
To carry with me physical thing to carry with me or mentally to carry with you

Seth [00:14:02]:
can go as deep as you want.

Gloria [00:14:04]:
Well, physical thing to carry with me, the thing that is on me all the time is my phone.

Seth [00:14:09]:
Oh, yeah. Imagine you’re living without your phone. Especially how busy you are. Jeez.

Gloria [00:14:15]:
But mental, emotional thing to carry with me is a sense of wonder.

Seth [00:14:22]:
Oh, I love that. No one’s actually said that before, kinda shockingly. No one’s ever said sense of wonder, but, you know, I can that that that’s very important. Kinda wonder what’s next

Gloria [00:14:32]:
and how things are gonna go. Yeah. Just a a sense of always being curious, always learning, always looking at what else is out there. Mhmm. Because you never know that person that you talk to. I’ve met clients standing in line at the grocery store.

Seth [00:14:53]:
Isn’t that fun? It’s so weird and so random, but it happens.

Gloria [00:14:58]:
I’ve had ideas, you know, taking my granddog for a walk. You know, just

Seth [00:15:06]:
more when you walk your grandkid too.

Gloria [00:15:08]:
Oh, I know. Probably lots more.

Seth [00:15:11]:
Yeah.

Gloria [00:15:11]:
But it’s just always trying to maintain a sense of of wonder

Seth [00:15:17]:
Love it.

Gloria [00:15:18]:
And and being curious about the world.

Seth [00:15:21]:
That’s important. That’s very important. So, Gloria, despite what we was formerly known as whatever the heck you wanna call it, Twitter, where do you hang out most online now? Like, where can people hang out and find out what the heck Gloria is up to right now? Well, not right now. That’s kinda creepy, but you know what I mean?

Gloria [00:15:37]:
It’s funny because I’m still feeling my way around now that Twitter’s not not really there. I would say LinkedIn

Seth [00:15:45]:
Yeah.

Gloria [00:15:46]:
Is where you’re gonna find most of what I am doing. Yeah. I have other social platforms, but I have, like, Instagram, Facebook, and stuff. But I keep those networks relatively small. Those are like friends and family.

Seth [00:16:05]:
Yeah. That’s smart. It’s smart to do that. And LinkedIn’s more like your business family.

Gloria [00:16:09]:
Yeah. LinkedIn is is where I’m I’m more public. Yeah. It’s a program that you can use in the

Seth [00:16:15]:
tech space. Yeah.

Gloria [00:16:17]:
I’m playing around with threads. Still getting used to it. But what’s funny is I had taken such a big step back from Twitter when it started becoming a cesspool.

Seth [00:16:30]:
Yeah.

Gloria [00:16:31]:
And I’m I’m actually having a hard time finding my way back into that rhythm of

Seth [00:16:38]:
I mean, it’s a good thing that we don’t all do it. I mean, I’m on MASTA on a lot. But that’s its own that’s its own community, and that’s kind of it’s not Twitter. It’s it’s just not it’s not Twitter, neither is Threads. And threads is not Mastodon. People are all freaking about how Mastodon threads are gonna federate. It’s Meta’s gonna screw up the federate version. I’m like, I don’t think it’s gonna happen.

Seth [00:16:57]:
I think it’s it’s through their own beast, and if they talk to each other, great. I don’t have to go to threads to follow Gloria. It’s that simple. I can go beyond my account and follow Gloria, which I think is gonna be freaking fantastic if it federates. I I people are freaking out. Like, it sucks. It’s gonna ruin the federal person. Like, I don’t think he can.

Gloria [00:17:15]:
No. No. I think having the access to each other

Seth [00:17:21]:
Is important.

Gloria [00:17:22]:
While still being able to maintain where everybody feels comfortable. When somebody figures out that key

Seth [00:17:31]:
I see. Brilliant.

Gloria [00:17:32]:
Oh, yeah. That that’s that’s gonna be

Seth [00:17:34]:
Maybe that’s your next thing, Gloria.

Gloria [00:17:37]:
I don’t have time for next thing. I will give that idea to somebody else and they can pay me revenue from it.

Seth [00:17:43]:
Yeah. Yeah. Mark my words, there’d be something else popping out, like, you know, grandkid clothing that’s tech enabled or something.

Gloria [00:17:54]:
That I have actually thought about.

Seth [00:17:56]:
I know. I I my the the entrepreneurial gears never stop, you know, so Yep.

Gloria [00:18:03]:
That’s awesome. Yeah.

Seth [00:18:04]:
Well, Gloria, thank you so much for being on. I’m so thrilled. I can’t believe I only it took me 200 episodes to get you on. I can’t believe it. Like, what the heck? This is, like, this is awesome. I’m glad to have you on. Good buddy of mine. He knew me when I started Goldstein Media 16 years ago.

Gloria [00:18:19]:
I know. I I can’t believe you.

Seth [00:18:22]:
Doing it. I’m talking about insane. Talk about insane.

Gloria [00:18:25]:
But it’s been a great journey, hadn’t it?

Seth [00:18:27]:
Oh, I went through it for the world. So Yep. On that note, we’ll see everyone next time.

Gloria [00:18:34]:
Thanks.

Seth [00:18:35]:
That was a great show. If If you’re enjoying Entrepreneur’s Enigma, please view us in the podcast directory of your choice. Every review helps other podcast listeners find our show. If you’re looking for other podcasts in the marketing space, look no further than the Marketing Podcast Network at marketing podcasts

Gloria [00:18:57]:
.net.