Meet Pima Mbwana of Pima Mbwana

Today we’d like to introduce you to Pima Mbwana.

Pima, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My Journey started in the year of 2013. During that year I helped build my brother Dr. Hiza Mbwana’s physical therapy business Kimbia Physio LLC. I took time off from school at Ithaca College where I was studying Integrated Marketing Communications at The Roy H. Park School of Communications to help build my brothers business.

During this time I applied concepts learned in the classroom to a live project and it was working. That’s my first taste of being a Strategic Marketing Consultant for Start-Up Founders.

After a year of working with Dr. Hiza Mbwana and Kimbia Physio LLC, I went back to school at The Roy H. Park School of Communications to finish out my degree in Integrated Marketing Communications. I knew I wanted to be a “Digital Nomad” executing on marketing initiatives for organizations while being able to travel the country and hopefully the world.

After finishing my degree in 2014, I went to Denver Colorado to find a job specifically in the Cannabis Industry. During that time I found it difficult to secure a job there. I came back home to Ithaca New York with $20 dollars to my name I was living in my parent’s basement at the age of 25 years old. I knew something had to change and I wrote a Facebook post that read; “I know marketing and communications if any of my friends or colleagues have a project I can help with please let me know.”

This is when Joshua Esnard Inventor and Patent owner of the first ever multi-curved hair-grooming tool The Cut Buddy LLC contacted me to help with his project. I have known Joshua since I was a 10-year-old boy and I jumped right on to help him figure out the business and strategic marketing plan. During that summer of 2015, I focused all my attention on this project and the industry The Cut Buddy LLC is servicing.

We began our journey with Pitch Competitions because we didn’t have much money and we needed to prove that this concept is investor-worthy. After the pitch competitions, the judges wanted us to go sell the product. The Cut Buddy LLC Team started selling at the beginning of 2016. The team decided to use Influencer Marketing to help with sales.

This was a two-fold measure. One reason was to gauge the end user’s reaction to this product and the second reason was to see if he/she would want to help sell the product as a brand ambassador. Suffice it to say that the Influencers loved The Cut Buddy product and agreed to start selling The Cut Buddy on their social media channels.

It’s because of this Influencer Marketing Partnership that March 5th of 2016 one of our Influencer’s videos of using The Cut Buddy went viral garnering 10 million views in 10 hours selling nearly 4 thousand The Cut Buddy products. After that date, we have had many accolades including being featured in Forbes, GQ, Huffington Post, NPR, Univision and recently our team had the opportunity to be on Shark Tank receiving funding from The Shark Daymond John.

In August of 2017, I moved to Phoenix Arizona to find my next startup. I had the great pleasure of meeting Emmanuel Onate Founder / Owner of Campus Cleaners and we both clicked and start talking more. What inspired me to work with Mr. Onate was more of his work ethic than his creative concept of a business Campus Cleaners.

What inspires me to work with founders is their work ethic and the, “Why” of what he or she is looking to accomplish. As I write this sitting in a coffee shop I reflect on my dreams of being a” Digital Nomad” and think to myself how every day I’m living that dream while helping others accomplish their dream.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
This road to being a “Digital Nomad” has not been a smooth or easy one however it is a rewarding journey. Some struggles I have faced along the way is not having a steady job that brings in money to help pay for bills. Another struggle is finding apartments that allow a month-to-month lease or 6th-month lease. Since I have a nomadic living pattern switching up car registration, car insurance, driver’s license and health insurance documents becomes an annoyance.

What keeps me doing this and climbing this mountain is the ability to meet interesting and inspiring people like Mr. Emmanuel Onate of Campus Cleaners LLC, Mr. Joshua Esnard of The Cut Buddy LLC and Dr. Hiza Mbwana of Kimbia Physio LLC. Having these people believe in me as much as I believe in them and their dreams is what get’s me out of bed every day.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Pima Mbwana – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
What I do as a company is I create the business plan and strategic marketing plan for a founder/owner’s business. I listen to the founder’s story of why he or she wants to create the business in the first place and craft a story around that personal narrative. Also, I think about the people that would resonate with that story/problem being solved and find the best way to communicate that to that respected demographic.

For creating the foundation of that entrepreneur’s business and sales plan I take a percentage out of that business. In being a partner in their business a level of accountability is set and creates a healthy working relationship of working for each other. Their success is my success and vice versa.

What I’m most proud of, as a company of 1, is educating founders on how to look at their business through an Integrated Marketing Communication lens and that founder referring me to other founders that want to start their own operation.

This is what separates me from the rest as a Strategic Marketing Consultant.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
My plan for the future is to continue to find interesting and innovative people to work with and learn from. I want to continue to travel putting myself in different cultural scenarios that I can grow from. I also have plans for creating sustainable housing developments and would love to connect with people that are interested in sustainability and housing projects domestically and internationally.

Contact Info:

• Other: LinkedIn.com/in/pimambwana/
  

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