I recently went one on one with Fred Mwangaguhunga. Fred is an entrepreneur who founded and runs the popular site Media Take Out.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?

Fred: I went to law school and business school and assumed that I'd be working on Wall Street all my life. Soon after I got there, I realized that working in a big corporate entity wasn't in my best interest.

When I got to Wall Street, everything was going fine with my career - but I noticed that I was having some issues fitting in. It's a problem that I've faced throughout life. I was doing great work, learning, and growing. However, I wasn't connecting with upper management like I saw many of my colleagues, and as a result, I wasn't getting quite the recognition that I felt I deserved.

There are some people that are built for corporate America. In large organizations, they overachieve, because of their personality. There are others, like myself, whose personalities don't quite fit, and so they are often overlooked and underperform.

It was a tough thing for me to accept at the time, but I'm a realist. I had to come to grips with the fact that if I were going to achieve the success that I wanted, it wasn't going to come from within a corporate setting. This isn't the case for many people, but it's my reality and I had to accept it.

Recognizing that about myself set me on the path to entrepreneurship.

Adam: How did you come up with your business idea? What advice do you have for others on how to come up with great ideas?

Fred: I've started a few businesses before MediaTakeOut, including an online laundry service, and a telecommunications company.

In my first business, the telecommunications company, I started it because the market was hungry for new telecommunications companies. I had no particular insight into the industry or the customers. I was simply following the crowd. That's the wrong reason to start a business, and in my case, the business ended up folding.

I learned a valuable lesson: to only start a business when you know something - or can execute better - than the current market players. I used that concept for my next two businesses and had much more success.

With MediaTakeOut.com, I started the business when I saw the growth of blogs and online media. I got in before most people realized how fast the news audience was moving from print to online. We were a very early entrant into the market, and that was a big part of our success. Also, we focused on an underserved segment of the market, African American celebrity news.

Adam: How did you know your business idea was worth pursuing? What advice do you have on how to best test a business idea?

Fred: To some extent, I had to step out on faith - but I used data too.

I recognized the growth of online media before it became widespread knowledge. I had relationships with bloggers, and had firsthand knowledge of their growth - so I knew that I was entering a rapidly growing market.

I knew that if I created a blog with compelling content, I could have a successful business even if we grew at less than half the growth rate of other blogs.

For new entrepreneurs, your biggest challenge will be growth. If you choose to enter a rapidly growing market, it takes some of the pressure off.

Adam: What are the key steps you have taken to grow your business? What advice do you have for others on how to take their businesses to the next level?

Fred: The biggest thing that we've done to grow our business is to focus on customers.

Before starting MediaTakeOut, I was never in news media; but I was an avid news media consumer. So I think of myself as a news consumer, and my perspective is mostly from the customer's standpoint. That's the culture I created at MediaTakeOut.

Our focus is always on how to give a better product for the customer, in our case our reader. I've found that the more you focus on the customer's needs, the more your business grows.

Adam: What are your best sales and marketing tips?

Fred: Sales and marketing are really two completely different things, at least in online media. We're marketing to readers, and we're selling to advertisers. That's two completely different groups.

For sales, your best bet is to hire great people - there is no substitute.

Marketing is something that you can (and probably should) do yourself, at least in the beginning. As the founder of the company, you are its chief marketer. You should be telling any and everyone about your company, and talking it up every chance you get.

Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?

Fred: A great leader is one who sets a vision and convinces others to work hard towards achieving that vision. There are a bunch of different ways to achieve this, that work within a particular leader's personality. So there's really no one way to do it.

I've found that people tend to follow leaders who work extremely hard. If you're the first person in the office and the last person to leave, team members respect that - and follow suit.

Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading, and managing teams?

Fred: Building a strong team starts with setting a culture. Each team develops a culture whether you like it or not, so you should be the one to set it. You can have a team built on a culture of hard work and collegiality or one on a culture of back-biting and blaming others.

After setting the culture, hire people who are comfortable working in that culture, and make sure to constantly reinforce it.

Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders?

Fred: Work harder than your competition, always remain an optimist and believe in your team.

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?

Fred: Know yourself, accept your weaknesses, and play towards your strengths.


Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.

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