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The Great Gaspari

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Rich Gaspari may have the muscles, but it’s wife Liz Gaspari’s drive to succeed that has helped power the brand to all the corners of the world.

By Jill Schildhouse

Her resume headline would read something like this: “Bulldog in the boardroom uses her brains and beauty to transform the face of business on a global scale.” Except, she’s already got her dream job serving as vice president and international sales director of Gaspari Nutrition.

In fact, Liz Gaspari — wife of former Mr. Universe, Mr. America and Professional Mr. World Rich the “Dragon Slayer” Gaspari — proudly admits to a constant and insatiable drive to succeed that stems from her culture and upbringing. And while entrenched in the male-dominated sports-nutrition supplement industry, she’s doing her part to break gender barriers one country at a time.

Gaspari, 37, sat down with Muscle & Performance to shed some light on what drove her to become one of the most powerful women in the sports-supplement industry.

Q. When did you first discover your knack for business?

A. At the age of 16, I opened up a single specialty kiosk. By the time I was 19, I owned six profitable kiosks, then sold the business. This was the beginning of my pursuit to succeed in business. I just loved it right from the start. From ages 21 to 25, I sold textiles overseas and purchased a burnt-down dry-cleaning business. I got the dry cleaner up and running and sold it a year or two later for an incredible return. I always loved taking nothing, putting my entire soul into it and making it into something special. Then, a few years later after I sold the dry-cleaning business, I started an upscale custom-cabinetry company.

Q. How did you develop such a strong drive at such a young age?

A. Sales is in my blood. My family is from Kabul, Afghanistan. My family owns most of the industry in Afghanistan, and I inherited their business sense. Luckily, I was born in the U.S. in Pennsylvania and didn’t grow up in a culture that suppressed women.

Q. How did you meet your husband?

A. I met Rich in 2002, as a favor to a personal-trainer friend of mine who wanted to introduce us. I stalled for six months before finally agreeing to go. I quickly realized how smart Rich was and what an incredibly passionate man he was. He caught my eye because I saw in him an equal who reflected my own drive for success — him in his drive to improve the lives of others and me to help bring it to as many people as possible. At the time, I was attending Rutgers, [The State University of New Jersey], majoring in business and economics, but I turned my attention to Rich. It was hard not to see the incredible potential in this man, so I took a gamble. I started working as a shipper in the garage of his home office. And in 2005, Rich and I got married.

Q. How has your career with Gaspari evolved over the years?

A. When we moved to our first location in Neptune, N.J., I was in charge of domestic sales. The Vitamin Shoppe was the first distribution that I landed. It is one of my most esteemed accomplishments, and I’m happy to say they’re still with us today. But the world was calling, so I turned to international sales. We are one of the top global supplement companies in the industry. We initially started off in eight countries and are now selling to more than 80 and growing, including Australia, New Zealand, England, Poland, South Africa, Egypt and Thailand. The rapid evolvement of my position was due to two factors: Rich supported me completely and allowed me to grow without limitations, and when people anywhere around the world use a Gaspari product, they know and trust that the products will work.

Q. With all Gaspari’s growth and success, how has its mission changed?

A. It hasn’t. Rich’s philosophy to make the absolute best products on the market, to educate and to give athletes the tools necessary to be their absolute best is who we are. We’ve both worked hard to make sure what he started doesn’t stray from its original focus: to stay within reach of our customers and athletes and stay innovative with products that are effective and taste great. We gauge the scope of our success on how we affect people’s lives. Every day, people put their faith, trust and health in our products, and that is something that we don’t take for granted.

Q. What has been your biggest challenge while working for Gaspari?

A. Fighting preconceived notions of women’s role in this industry — especially overseas. It’s hard to get noticed and gain respect. I’ve had to forge my own path in an industry constructed by males. I find it especially evident when dealing with customers in the Middle East. The Arab businessmen go into culture shock because first, I’m a woman, and second, I can communicate in their language: Farsi. Believe me, making a name for yourself when you’re married to a public figure like Rich presents a great deal more obstacles than benefits, which is why I find my role in this company very satisfying. My drive, my ethic and my business sense are what carved my own path to success.

Q. What are you most proud of?

A. My family. I’m proud of the business and what we’ve created, but I’m head over heels in love with my husband and our children— Sofia is 3 and Matthew is 9. I’m trying to convince Rich that we should have more kids. The want is there for a larger family. I would love to populate the world with my husband!

Q. What are some tips you can offer the busy working mom who is trying to balance her work and home life without sacrificing herself in the process?

A. OK, these are my trade secrets. First, I love our MyoFusion protein blend. I’m very picky about taste, but I love the chocolate. Second, I live a healthy lifestyle — I don’t sit and eat candy and watch TV. I go to the gym, where I do cardio and lift free weights. Third, I live on our multivitamin, Anavite. It keeps my energy up and helps me get through my day and workouts with relative ease. I admit I’m a workaholic — I answer e-mails on the treadmill and have many sleepless nights talking to clients across the globe at 2 a.m. I do 500 things every day, but I’ve been fortunate that I understand that balance and what works for my family.

The Passing Zone on Good Day L.A.

taped yesterday for today’s show!

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Tania Gabrielle on Funseekers Radio Network

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11.11.11 at 11:11:11– Celebrity Numerologist spills the secrets behind the lucky day

 

Ali Brown on Kiplinger’s 6 Rags-to-Riches Millionaires

Advice to young entrepreneurs: “It’s important you seek out other business owners for information, advice, support and resources.” – Ali Brown

Occupation: Entrepreneur, business consultant and publisher, AliBrown.com

When it comes down to deciding if entrepreneurship is the right move for you, Brown says, “Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone. Every definition of entrepreneur I’ve found includes the word ‘risk’.” For those who are willing to take the leap of faith, she advises: “It’s important that you seek out other business owners for information, advice, support and resources. Today, would-be entrepreneurs have the Internet and social media, and it’s a great place to get started learning more about how to grow a business.”

Read more

Grant Cardone in Forbes

The 10 Worst Stereotypes About Powerful Men

Not long ago I delved into the common negative stereotypes that plague high-powered businesswomen, who are still a rarity at the top of the corporate food chain. The descriptors–icy, emotional, masculine, single and lonely—hit a nerve. The piece is now one of my most-viewed, got picked up on several blogs and was shared by thousands.

I found a theme embedded in the comments: Successful men face harsh stereotypes too, and they are fed up. “What stereotypes do men at the top face? Is it not possible that, being at the peak, [everyone is] prone to being judged and labeled?” one reader asked. “Stereotypes about powerful men are not necessarily positive,” wrote another, and “are almost identical to the stereotypes about power.”

I decided to take a look. Entrepreneurs, business consultants and academics weighed in on the snap judgments and cruel adjectives hurled at successful men. The following represent the 10 worst.

Arrogant

Business owner and author Michael McIntyre has had this label lobbed at him several times, and believes arrogance and ego have become the top identifiers of powerful men. We see it the movies: “Bond, James Bond.” On TV: a la Don Draper circa 1964. And in the news: via billionaire Donald Trump and his presidential aspirations, or Rupert Murdoch’s media (world?) domination. There’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance, but in the portrayal of powerful men, it’s usually black and white.

Greedy

Consultant to J&J, Procter & Gamble and Toyota, and author of How Rich People Think, Steve Siebold believes “greedy” is one of the most pervasive male adjectives. Gordan Gekko may be the poster boy, but this stereotype now haunts almost any man with a lucrative job. Recent Wall Street examples–Bernie Madoff and his $50 billion scam or Goldman Sachs’ Lloyd Blankfein and his $73 million 2007 salary–haven’t helped, either. If you’re male, successful and even tangentially deal with finances, you’ll likely face this judgment.

Womanizer

“It seems like all very successful and powerful men are labeled womanizers,” says executive producer and author Grant Cardone. “They probably are hopeless romantics looking for the same kind of experience in the bedroom and at home that they have achieved on the battlefield of business: Success, success and more success.”

Compulsive And Risky

Markets are overrun with testosterone-pumped, stupidly aggressive and short-term thinking men, right? You’ve seen the headlines: Too Much Testosterone On Wall Street?, What If Women Ran Wall Street?: Testosterone and Risk, Was Wall Street Drunk, Stupid or Evil?. Of course none of these mention that the best money manager in the nation, billionaire (and man, incidentally) Warren Buffett, is the polar opposite. He is methodical, relatively risk-averse and even-keeled. His favorite holding period, he says, is “forever.” Still, the stereotype prevails.

Overbearing

Powerful men don’t play well with others, or so the story goes. Steve Jobs was criticized for being difficult to deal with and pushing his employees to the brink. He had a reputation for demanding perfection. However, Cardone wonders if it was a fair characterization, asking if perhaps it was “just his quest and commitment to excellence and genius?”

Selfish

Brian Scudamore, founder and chief of $100 million junk removal service 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, was so wary of being typecast as the narcissistic, know-it-all boss that he went to great lengths to prove himself otherwise. On a mission for transparency and inclusiveness, he excluded closed-door offices from his headquarters, stationed himself in a cubicle and initiated daily “team huddles” to allow employees to voice ideas or concerns. “The main reason I haven’t fallen into the ‘ruthless exec’ category is because I’m motivated by meaning,” says Scudamore.

 

Insensitive

“One of the most prevalent and problematic stereotypes of male managers is that they care less about input from their employees and the welfare of the workforce in general than their female counterparts,” says Todd Thomas, a management professor at Northwood University in Michigan. In this year’s ranking by The Great Place to Work Institute of the best companies to work for, which includes measures of employee satisfaction, the top 25 companies have male CEOs. “Some of these guys are getting it right,” Thomas says.

Workaholic

One astute male reader wrote me that he is fed up with the perception that successful men “are chronically absent fathers or husbands who are emotionally cut off from their families.” He believes the Ebenezer Scrooges are the exception vs. the rule. He’s onto something. A recent survey of 1000 men by researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln revealed that American men value fatherhood more than having a successful career.

Brutally Competitive

Cardone, author of business books If You’re Not First, You’re Last and The Closer’s Survival Guide, points out that powerful men in high-stakes jobs are often characterized as brutal competitors in a zero sum game. Their purported savage instincts guarantee their personal gains at the expense of anything or anyone in their paths. As an example, he offers up retired basketball coach Bobby Knight who “was so committed to winning that it came across to the public as win at all cost.”

Lucky

Successful self-starter McIntyre says he’s faced assumptions that his family must have pulled strings for him or paid for him to go to an elite university, which led to his “lucky” and “charmed life.” In fact, he enlisted in the air force in order to put himself through Arkansas State University, and then worked his way up in the sales industry. Even icons like Bill Gates are characterized as having been in the right place at the right time, undercutting their agency. Researchers recently completed a nine-year study on the advantage of luck, concluding that everyone gets lucky but what you do with it–ROL, or return on luck–is what matters. “Getting a high ROL requires throwing yourself at the luck event with ferocious intensity, disrupting your life and not letting up,” wrote the study authors.

(Taken from Forbes.com)

Grant Cardone in The Washington Examiner

There is no doubt Penn State University has taken a big hit from the child sex abuse scandal.

The university got rid of its president, athletic director and the face of the school, Joe Paterno. So where does it go from here, and how does Penn State rebrand itself?

For the answers, I sought the advice of Grant Cardone, New York Times best-selling author and star of National Geographic Channel’s “Turnaround King.” He is a world-renowned sales expert who has rescued numerous struggling companies.

How tough will it be to rebrand Penn State without Joe Paterno?

Cardone » “This is always difficult when a brand is so tied to one individual. In the case of Paterno, he was the cash machine for the school, and they will have a long road back — from where to start to how to get the energy and focus off the past and back onto the future. Penn State has been around for 150 years, and they are going to have to be very aggressive about rebuilding their brand, making their good works known and attaching to people that can bring them forward.”

The football program is responsible for such a large part of the athletic budget. How do you save the football brand?

Cardone » “The way to save any brand is don’t give up on it — which they won’t. Then bring in great people that will take the team back to the winning column. No team or business can rest on their laurels or past successes. The ability to raise money is tied to winning. Some examples are in the cell phone business, RIM [Blackberry] and Apple. RIM has relied too heavily on past successes and has gone from 43 percent market share to 19 percent … while Apple gets into the phone world with a zero share of the market and now dominates. RIM will have to repackage and reinvent itself. … Any brand can come back with enough commitment, a plan and the right resources.”

How important is landing a big-time coach?

Cardone » “In order to re-establish the direction of Penn State’s football program, I would go for a top name replacement and make a statement. ‘We are in the game. We are not going away. … We are moving forward combining winning and ethics.’?”

Examiner columnist Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this!, on washingtonexaminer.com.

• MORE ON THESE TOPICS:
• Grant Cardone
• Jim Williams
• Penn State

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/sports/blogs/watch/2011/11/jim-williams-rebranding-penn-state#ixzz1e4ygHwWL