Neva Lee Recla talks with Olenka Cullinan, Founder of Rising Tycoons, about the importance of Personal Development in Business. To date Rising Tycoons has impacted thousands of teens and Millennials, 1500+ adult infuencers nationwide and globally. Olenka is one of the nation’s premiere speakers and young entrepreneur experts, including 2 TEDx appearances.

I’m secretly a teen.                                    Image Credit: Captain Creps

Thank you. We’re going to do something a little bit different and my shirt is going to throw you out there and ask, what are your super powers? That’s what my shirt has to ask.

That’s an awesome question. It’s an awesome question. I would say that my biggest super power is understanding how teen’s brains work and just how teens operate. I think, to be honest, one of the reasons is because I’m a teen myself secretly. I don’t tell anybody, but I think I might … Yeah, I love being a teenager.

That’s so cool.

Yeah. What are your super powers?

My super powers … Chameleon ability, that’s where I can do other voices. What else? What else did we say I had?

All kinds.

Remember that one, like becoming myself or something?

True self identity.

Yes, I also have true self identity.

I love that. I love that. That is super cool.

Thank you. What are you working on right now?

What I’m working on … Well, guess what? I am working on a couple different things. One of them is a digital course for teenagers to basically take them through the process of learning everything about themselves, everything about their dreams. They’ll be able to go online, log into the course, and literally go through the process of launching their very own business. You know, whatever dreams they might be having. That’s what I’ve been working on.

I did bring my own tape for you, too. I’m going to show it to you. It was actually given to me by a super special … It was my super girl, Kate. It was given to me by a very special 7 year old girl. I wanted to show it to you.

That’s so cool.

So, she’s doing stuff like personal development.

You’re definitely doing stuff like personal development and business.

Absolutely, yes. I do a lot of personal development. I’m a big believer that this face right here between your ears, your mind is responsible for a lot of things you do in business. Yes, I work with kids a lot on understanding how important it is to have a right mindset. Sometimes in business, all kinds of things happen.

That’s so cool.

Thank you.

All right. Let me just look at my sheet. What do you want to do in the future?

I want to work with more kids, to be honest. I was talking to somebody about this, and actually, my initial next goal would be to take 21,000 kids through our program. My goal-

That’s cool.

That’s a lot of kids, huh? Yeah. It’s probably multiple school buildings. Yes, we want to take 1,000 kids through the program first, and then take another 20,000 by the end of next year. That’s my big huge goal.

That’s so cool. Then, let’s see. All right. Write that off. All right. This is good. What is your favorite thing to do?

When I’m not working with kids, which is my favorite thing … You see, I’m kind of lucky. I get to do what I love love love to do, which is hanging out with kids, smart and brainy kids like, you, for a living. When I don’t do that, one of my other favorite things is to travel. I really like traveling and being outdoors. I like going hiking. I like running outside. Do you like hiking?

Yeah.

Yeah. Except when it’s not too hot outside.

Yeah.

That’s my favorite.

Exactly. That’s cool. Your kind of breaking up on your … You’re sound like this.

I am? Is it better now or no? Is it still breaking up now?

Eh, it’s fine. Yeah.

That’s very weird.

Your internet connection is unstable. If you could change anything about the world, what would it be? I’m just going to say, “Drop the mic” with that. I like that one. It’s a good question.

Okay. If I could change anything in the world …

Exactly.

I think I would get rid of childhood cancer. I think it’s really really hard for kids to be sick and it’s obviously really hard for parents to see them this way. Yes, if I could find a cure for childhood cancer so no other kids had to spend their days in the hospital, that would be one thing I would want to do.

That’s so cool. All right. Do you have any questions for me?

Yes. If you could go and travel anywhere, where would you go?

Through time?

Sure.

If I could travel through time, I’d probably want to go backward when dragons were around and all the mystical creatures were around. Also, I’d go back and adopt baby Neva because I was super chubby and cute when I was little.

I love that. That’s super cool. Why dragons? Do you like dragons?

Oh yeah.

All right, very cool. Very exciting. I love dragons. They’re pretty amazing.

Yeah, they are. Let’s see. Do you have any more questions for me before I ask you the final question before the break?

Daymond John and Neva Lee Recla

Sure. Let me ask you this. What is your absolutely … Out of all the things that you’ve done so far, because you’re obviously a business woman even though you’re only 7 … Out of all the business experiences you had, people you met, is there somebody who just stands out, like your favorite experience? Maybe you went to an event or you met somebody and you were like, “Wow, this is awesome.”

I definitely can not choose, but one of them was JP Sears. Getting Real and Being Weird with JP Sears

Let’s see who else. You.

Aw, thank you.

Kolby Kay. Actually, I interviewed him. The Best Super Power is Being Yourself with Kolby Kay

I saw that. I saw the picture.

Daymond John. He’s amazing. Let’s see.

You met some super fun people.

Berny and September Dohrmann and sons

Berny Dorhmann, September Dorhmann with CEO Space International. Let’s see.

Those are great. Those are really great people.

Also their kids. Well, Berny and September’s kids.

Aw, that’s so cool. You’re very lucky. That’s awesome. You have met some incredible people to date. There’s more to come, I’m sure.

Yep. What advice do you have for kids or adults to help them with their super powers?

I think the biggest thing I would say is believe in yourself. Believe in yourself. Everybody has super powers. Sometimes, we just don’t listen. We don’t pay attention to what’s going on inside us. We keep ignoring things, but I would say really believe in yourself that it’s all a learning experience. We just learn in the process. Stay true to yourself and keep believing.

That’s so cool. All right. We’ve been talking to Olenka Cullinan about the importance of personal development in business. We’ll be right back.

Okay, we’re back. In case you just joined, we’ve been talking to Olenka Cullinan about the Importance of Personal Development in Business. Now, it’s time for – wait for it – Super Neva Questions. Super Neva Questions is basically like super nova, but better. You have to answer these eight questions as fast as you can, but make sure people can understand you. You’re the first one that we’re doing this with.

I got this. I got this. I got my super girl cape on. I’ll fix my cape. We’ll be ready to go.

What’s your favorite color?

Red.

What’s your favorite animal?

Tiger.

What’s your favorite superhero?

Batman.

What’s your favorite place?

Bali.

What’s your favorite holiday and why?

In Russia we celebrate our New Years like Christmas.
Photo by Marina Khrapova on Unsplash

New Years, because in Russia during New Years, we celebrate our New Years like Christmas. For us, New Years is the time when we open gifts and we get together with family and we do this huge celebration with tons of fireworks. Everybody comes together, like thousands of people on the streets. It’s absolutely my favorite.

I want to go to Russia.

Let’s do this!

If you could have any superhero power, what would it be and why? That is a tongue twister.

I would want to have teleportation skills, so flying skills, because I love traveling and going places but I’m sometimes impatient. I don’t like airports, going through security, and taking my time. This way, I could just go anywhere I wanted to go super fast and then travel a lot more than I do now.

Like this.

Yeah, fly the cape!

All right. What would you do if someone said they didn’t like something about you?

Will you read that question one more time for me, please?

What would you say if someone said they didn’t like something about you?

I would say, “I’m sorry you feel this way.”

All right. That’s really cool. Where can people go to find out more about you?

They can go to RisingTycoons.comand they will have all the information about me, about the programs we run for kids and adults. RisingTycoons.com.

That’s so cool. Before we get to Funny Face Time, really fast we should do a superhero pose.

We should. Ready?

Set, go.

I’m done.

Wait.

We would be a good superhero duo together. We should get together and do this picture in real life. We’ll have to.

Now it’s time for Funny Face Time. Make your funniest face. I have-

Let me see your funny face first. I want my funny face to be better.

All right.

That’s awesome.

This one’s my favorite.

That’s awesome. I’m ready.

You can do three.

Okay.

Now we need to do it at the same time.

Yes. Ready?

Wait. Oops. That really hurts.

All right. Do we get to do a couple more things? All right. We can do a couple more things. Let’s see. What’s your favorite childhood memory?

You know what? When I was little, I lived with my grandmother until I went to 2nd grade. My family would all live together with my grandparents. I’m actually named after my grandmother. Right before I turned 6, I really wanted … Do you like to play tea? Like tea parties?

Yeah I do.

Yeah, I really wanted this beautiful tea set but it was kind of expensive. I’d been asking my parents for months. I woke up on the day of my 6th birthday and that tea set was right in my bed in the box. I got to wake up to it and I thought it was the most amazing thing. I played tea parties nonstop with all my family and all my friends afterwards, and it was so fun. It was awesome.

That’s so cool.

What’s your favorite toy that you’ve ever had?

I don’t know. I have like four boxes of toys. I can’t really choose.

Uh oh, too many to choose from.

Too many.

Too many to choose from. Now let me ask you this. What’s your favorite superhero?

Super Girl and Wonder Woman. Super Girl because she kind of looks like me. We both have blue eyes in Super Girl’s series. Wonder Woman because I know her.

Did you go see the Wonder Woman movie?

Yes.

Why do you like Wonder Woman? What are her qualities that you like?

She’s very nice. I love her outfit.

Yes, definitely. What if you could have one super power? What would it be?

Actually, it might be teleportation because it’s kind of like flying and invincibility.

Why would you want to be invincible?

Because then I could sneak out in the middle of the night and go grab a cookie.

What? Yes, I know but you could also sneak out and that’d be dangerous so you’d have to be super … But if you could fly, too, if you could be invincible and fly that would be pretty awesome.

Yeah I could fly through … I could take a really quick dive so I could be invincible and take a really big dive through our pool.

Yeah, totally. Do you think all kids have super powers?

Yes.

How do they find them? How do they make them grow with them?

Just be yourself and youll find your inner superhero.

Just be yourself and you’ll find it. You’ll find it in your inner superhero. You are a superhero no matter what, but you’ll find your inner super powers.

I agree 100%. I could not agree more. Everybody has their own superhero inside them. That’s a very great thing you just said. I love it.

Do you have any pets?

I do. I have a dog. He is about this big. His name is Eddie. Eddie is old. He’s 11 and a half years old but has been with me since he was 8 weeks old. He’s been with me my whole life.

Cool.

Do you have pets?

I have a little puppy and then snails.

The puppy, what’s his name?

Her name is Kali.

Aw, so cute. Is she little still?

She’s a Toy Schnauzer, so about as big as … She’s about that big.

That’s great. You get to take care of her and feed her?

I remember begging my parents months upon months. We found her.

That’s so exciting. It’s great to have a dog. It teaches you a lot about responsibility, too.

It does. They say, “You’ll have to take care of it, though.”

That’s right.

All right. Oh, I didn’t tell you about the sign-off. Really quick, we’re going to go through the sign-off.

All right.

I’m going to say, “Remember kids, we all have super powers.” Then, we’ll say together, “And we can change the world.”

Yes, I love that. I believe that we can change the world. That is awesome.

Remember kids, we all have super powers. And we can change the world.

And we can change the world.

Thank you so much, Olenka.

Thank you so much, Neva, for having me. I love it. You do look like a super girl. You are super girl. I’m so excited. I love the cape. I love the show. Keep up doing what you’re doing. Keep being a rock star and flying that cape proudly, okay?

Thank you.

All right. Have a good day! Bye!

Bye.