Gilberto Herrera (The King of Increase) went from the City of Panama, Panama to living the American dream in one of the major cities in the United States – Brooklyn, New York. He was moved out of Panama, into New York and then his family moved him into Birmingham, AL. to save his life because he was involved in gang violence and was on a path of destruction and stopped going to school. Moving into Birmingham allowed him to slow down and since he was away from the streets of Brooklyn, he was able to focus on school and graduate. However, he could not legally work or pursue college, therefore he had to get creative and find ways to generate income.
“Once I became legal, I made a point to align myself with all people and resources that would allow me to be exposed to the inner city youth and people from my communities to show them what they can have financially in business to success.” The King says.
The King of Increase is able to do this through a financial service firm that he runs. The firm is focused in three major areas like the coach of how money works, financial plan and finances in general, because most people do not understand how to administrate themself and we ensure that families are properly prepared for all emergencies while building wealth and strategically setting themselves up for retirement.
His motivation to start his own business was his grandfather, he was a well established entrepreneur and his principles always stuck with him and because starting his own business was the only way to empower his team and clients without the restriction of a corporation.
“I never wanted to be in another position than to serve the public just to drive the revenue of somebody else, whether through my financial firm or through my consulting, I always focus on what my team, clients and prospects want.” The king explains.
Working towards success, the biggest challenge when starting a business is really taking the time to make it a business, because most people do not own a business, they basically create a job for themselves. Building a business requires you to put systems in place that will allow you to step away from the day to day operations and focus on steering the mission and the vision of the company. Since most of the people are not financially literate, the way they run their finances is the way they approach the finances of their business which results in the inability to invest and scale properly.
My inspiration to get into this industry was to help my family, I saw them work hard to make ends meet and every dollar through the door immediately left back out. Statistics show that there is a substantial amount of people who do not have enough saved or are not properly saving for retirement, because they are drowning in overall debt which causes a lot of anxiety and issues within the family structure. There are not enough of us out here advocating to help others truly build wealth.
“Mindset is very important when starting a business, because most businesses fail within the first year. We are going to experience ups and downs but those are the events that make you stronger and help you grow. Setbacks are an opportunity to build our business muscle and help to build our vision for the future and build the life you want through your business.” The King says.
As someone who has been able to find success, The King of Increase always recommends to other young entrepreneurs looking to start their own business to focus on sustainability and urges you to connect with a small business development center in your area, because you need to know your market well and know exactly who you are trying to serve.
“Build your business as if you were trying to sell it one day, the person who will buy it will want the business to function without them being involved in the day-to-day operations.”
Fear is inevitable, I believe that fear is something that we must overcome to achieve success. You overcome it by arming yourself with whatever education, and tools necessary to achieve success. Whenever you embark in the unknown, fear tends to set it, but if you prepare and take massive action, fear will remove itself from the equation.
Success is the progresive realization of an idea that you find worthy of bringing to life. My mission is to ensure that companies and individuals can attain the level of time and financial freedom they deserve and if I am working toward that daily, I know that I am successful.
“No man can be successful without knowing where he wants to go, deciding that he will do what it takes to get there, and act on that decision daily.”
“The biggest obstacle that I have overcome in my career is becoming who I am today, due to the fact that I was conditioned to live a life filled with gang activity and other reckless behavior, because of my environment. I had to get out of my own way and realized that the world revolved around me, and if I wanted to have an impact, I needed to learn to be relatable to everyone. In the beginning I lost deals and major opportunities simply because I could not see the bigger picture; my network and client base is vast and I have many relationships around the world. To change the world, you must first change, thus the biggest challenge that I overcame was getting out of my own way.” The King explains.
What differentiates myself from the competitors is the fact that we have partnerships with all companies that provide financial services. Once we analyze your financial picture and determine where you are and where you want to be, we can check everyone’s information and provide you with only the products that benefit you most to maximize their return. I have 20 years of sales, branding and marketing experience and I pass that down to each one of our representatives.
Financial freedom is the ability to give and do freely without restrain, it is the ability to own your time because your money is working for you harder than you work. In other words financial freedom is the ability to make life decisions without the stress of worrying about how those decisions will impact your finances, having to depend on others or be employed.
This year my focus is on expanding my team which I want to double in size, that means that more lives will be changed and more families will be empowered. I am actively recruiting CEO calibers individuals to train in the financial service field and they will have the freedom to build their own firm or be a licensed agent if they choose it. Aside from that I am in discussions with a firm to do voice overs for other brands, knowing that over the years I have a voice for the media. I finally decided to work on that, because I have a team assisting me with the entire process.
To find out more about The King of Increase and his plans, make sure to follow him on Instagram here and check out his website www.gilbertoherrera.com.