Introduce Yourself: Post Your Autobiography 💁📖

[Pesso]

Hey Square Readers!

Thank you so much for joining our Square Readers Book Club!

Don’t forget to click Join Group at the top of our Book Club Group Hub.

I would love to learn more about you all, so here's a space to introduce yourselves and to meet some fellow Readers. 

So tell us a bit about yourself here in the comments. 

Tell us:

• Your name & location
• Your business name (and website)
• What you're hoping to learn and gain from Book Club
• Your favorite book (business or fun)
• A picture or two of you or your business

And of course feel free to reply to each others’ intros, especially those nearby or in the same industry as you.

Looking forward to meeting you all, and reading with you,

Pesso

[Pesso]

I’ll kick things off! 

My name is Aylon Pesso, but you can call me @Pesso. 

I’ve had a few businesses in my life, and I’ve also been a small business consultant and advisor. My biggest one was that I used to own and run Pesso’s Ices & Ice Cream in Bayside, Queens, NY, US with my dad for the last 18 years. I made every flavor of homemade Italian Ices & Ice Cream myself right in the back of our shop, until we sold our business this past year and I shifted over to working for Square. Here I come up with new ways to use my knowledge and experience as a small business owner to help sellers like you. I advocate for your needs within the company, and I create content and programs directly for you, just like this Book Club! 

My main goal here is to help you run your business better. By curating business books specifically for folks like you, and giving you the motivation and space to read and learn both from the books as well as from other business owners. I hope you’ll share your experiences and knowledge along the way too! And I’m also looking forward to learning more from the books and from you all. 

My favorite fun book right now is An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green — I highly recommend just jumping in to reading it without knowing anything about it. It’s a fun ride! 

My favorite business book when I was first starting up some new businesses was The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss. It’s not all super applicable but it got me into the mindset of simplifying and automating as many processes and decisions as possible. 

Is there anything else you want to know? Ask away! I’m pretty much an open book. 

Looking forward to meeting you all! 

Pesso

[YBF]

Why can't I reply too the original posts?  Do I need to do another step?

[Pesso]

Hey @YBF - did you try scrolling all the way down to the bottom and clicking into text box?

[CareyJo]

Hi!  My name is Carey.  My husband has been in the HVAC field for nearly 25 years.  He has worked for several companies during that time, however, we've also owned two HVAC companies during that time, currently on the second.  I've been self-employed for more than 35 years, I started at 19 and our business is my ninth.  I'm getting ready to open my tenth.  Our first business was open more than four years but the crash of 2009 pretty much killed us.  We've learned a lot about what we didn't want for this go-round and we're doing things differently.  We've been in business this time for six years.  I'd say we're seasoned entrepreneurs.  We used to average about 300k a year in sales but in 2021 we started to grow and surpassed 400k for the first time.  In 2022 we hit the big one!  We passed half a million and it felt amazing!!  What's more amazing is that we do not have employees - it's just us.  Yep, you read that right.  It's just he and I.  I run the business and he does the work.  He is currently working on funding some of his dreams too.  He won't be able to sit idle in retirement and he's only got 10 years left to work our business.  So our goal is to get his dream up and running to keep him busy so he can retire from HVAC in 10 years.  My tenth business will be what my dream has been for a long time - event planning and holiday decorating.  We live in Montana, USA.  We have six kids, 16 grandkids and we are constantly busy.  We travel a lot too.  My goal for the book club is just simply to learn something new.  My mindset is that we learn something new everyday and I'm always looking for ideas.  My books right now are of Christian nature, studying.  One of my favorite past books is Your a Badass at Making Money by Jen Senciro.  If you haven't read it, I highly recommend!  She has several others in the series as well.  

[CareyJo]

[Pesso]

Thanks so much again for joining and for sharing @CareyJo !

That's a whole lot of a businesses and an incredible journey! I'm so sorry for the heartbreak of going through so much especially in 2009. I'm glad that you learned from it and have been able to apply it into so much growth and success since then -- that's a huge accomplishment, especially without anyone working for or with y'all!

So cool that you're diving into your dream and getting to do it all, and working it into the parameters of your family and life. 

I love the learning mindset, I also believe in learning something everyday and experiencing something new. 

Thanks so much for the recs! I've read her first book, but I'll definitely add the money making one to the list.

Thanks again for sharing and being here, and I can't wait to have you in even more of our discussions!

[CareyJo]

Thank you Pesso!  Very kind words.  I am looking forward to it!

[TheArtChild]

Hi, my name is Alicia but I go by August. My business is The Art Child, LLC where I teach therapeutic art techniques and ideas to toddlers, teens, and adults. We also teach at Renaissance Faires, Schools, and More! I am a travel-based artist, and teacher. We are technically in our 3rd or 4th year but I have rebranded since 2020. My goals with this company are to create an established household name where parents, teachers, and other adults can find helpfulness with helping children express themselves, and hopefully more! 

I am hoping to read more business style books! I love reading them, and others. It will be fun to share our opinions on different things and to see where everyone is coming from. I hope to learn a lot from others, and I hope my opinions can help others too. My current favorite business book is Negotiate the Difference by Chris Voss. I've read it about 3 times. 

Photos are from the Delaware Renaissance Faire 2022. 

[Pesso]

Hey August @TheArtChild !

Thanks so much for joining and sharing -- That's such a creative (in all of the ways) business, and I'm so glad that you've been going strong so far. How did the rebranding efforts go?

I love that goal of becoming a known resource in the area to help kids grow and express themselves. Sooo awesome and I'm rooting for ya!

I know that your views and ideas can absolutely help other business owners in this book club and I can't wait to have you in our discussions. 

Thanks for the book rec, I just added it to my list!

[KaosXtecH]

Heck yes me and the family/friends are going to the southern California Renn faire tomorrow. Is pirate day/weekend. Not sure how far you travel with them but I will for sure say hi if you're there.

[Helen]

I’ll go next! 

Helen here, I’m a Seller Community Manager at Square. 👋

My autobiography, vol 1: I’ve been on the Community team for a few years and my current focus is content strategy for the Community. You might have noticed posts by me on a variety of topics, here’s one example - Business Basics: Great Books for Every Business.📚

I live in northern Nevada ☃️ but in a 'past life' I worked in book publishing in the U.K. I worked on business books, books about copywriting, and books about how to write well, so needless to say I’m a big fan of this book club already!

A selection of books from my bookshelf! I haven’t read 'startup' yet, but it was recommended to me!

That’s enough about me. I’m looking forward to learning more about everyone who has joined the Book Club. Not sure what to share? Check out the questions in Pesso's first post for some inspiration. 

New to the group? Please click Join Group at the top of our Book Club Group Hub to become a member! 

[Pesso]

Thanks for the introduction @Helen !

Well that's amazing - I had no idea that you worked in publishing and worked on business books! That's incredible.

Thanks so much for helping out and being a part of the Book Club, tremendously appreciate all of the support and engagement you've brought here!

[YBF]

My name is Aimee, I opened a flower shop November of 2020 after 30 years as an HR manager. www.YourBeautifulFlowers.com because I wanted to share more joy with others.

 

I'm here to learn from everyone else and share as much as I can in the process. 

My favorite book is the one in my hands, same with flowers. 😉

[CareyJo]

Aimee,

Beautiful bouquet!  I do flowers 'on the side' so to speak... it's one of my favorite things to do when planning an event.  I actually did all of the flowers for my daughter's wedding a couple of years ago.  I've bought so many flowers at my fave local shop that they've literally tried to hire me three times!  I refuse to work for someone else though, it would take all the fun out of it.

Carey

[Pesso]

Thanks for joining and sharing, Aimee! 

That sounds like a big transition, and I love the goal of sharing joy. How has it all been going so far?

That is a beautiful bouquet, and wonderful goals all around. I love that present moment mindset! What's the book in your hands now?

Looking forward to having you in our discussions-

[YBF]

Thanks for asking Pesso.  It's going a little slower than I'd hoped but it is going so I'm happy! 

The book in my hand is a novel, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry.

"come on, sweetheart

let's adore one another

before there is no more

of you and me.

-- RUMI

[Pesso]

Slow and steady, hopefully! I'm glad you're happy with it -- that's the most important thing.

Ah, wonderful, thanks for sharing both of those!

[KaosXtecH]

Joke of the day (because I am almost a therapist)

Therapist: What I think your wife is saying is you don't buy her flowers.

Husband: That's crazy I didn't even know she sold flowers.

[norskpdx]

Hi everyone, my name is Karen and I have two businesses.  The main one is norskpdx, which is a Norwegian-language teaching, translation, and genealogy service.  I grew up trilingual (German being the other one) in Vancouver, WA, USA, where I live again as an adult with my husband and our cats.  I teach children and adults via Zoom.  My website for norskpdx is https://norskpdx.square.site/

My other business is a digital art and hands-on craft shop called Trace Elements Art.  I sell small spiral notebooks and teach people how to make them and decorate them using designs they stamp and die-cut themselves.  That part of my shop is on hold right now due to health reasons (I'm asthmatic so I don't want to risk COVID-19) but I'll start that again next year.  The part of Trace Elements Art that I'm focusing on right now is making kits of digital scrapbooking resources.  They also can be printed out to use in traditional scrapbooking and other crafts.  I offer two kinds of licenses:  personal/S4H/S4O and commercial use (CU4PU.)  Right now, I don't have a CU4CU license listed in my shop, but if you're interested in that you can contact me to see which kits could be licensed under that.  My website for Trace Elements Art is https://trace-elements-art.square.site/

I also have written and illustrated two children's books:  Three Feral Kittens and Meet Tabby the Therapy Cat.  Both are self-published and are available through Amazon.

[Pesso]

Thanks so much for joining and sharing @norskpdx !

Those both sound like incredible businesses and it's wonderful that you've been able to balance them, on top of your writing & illustration! 

Looking forward to having your in our discussions-