Open up a healthy dialogue about your business throughout its development with a diverse group of people to get a well-rounded road map in place.
Andrea Loubier has been recognized as one of the thought leaders and top female entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia. As CEO of Mailbird, Andrea takes inspiration from many other leading female tech entrepreneurs in changing the mind set and way we conduct personal and business communication through email today.
With Andrea as the muscle behind pushing Mailbird into the forefront of tech companies in the world, Mailbird has been nominated by PC World as one of the best productivity tools for the business person, IT World named Mailbird the best email client for Windows, and Microsoft even nominated this tech startup as Startup of the Day. Andrea is a contributor for Forbes and The Asian Entrepreneur. She’s been featured and interviewed on Bloomberg TV and BBC.
Andrea’s backbone comes from her experience in building strategic relationships, conceptual selling skills, multiple project and people management, cross team communication and coordination, leadership, project bidding and billing, and client correspondence with top international corporate enterprises that include Proctor and Gamble, KAO Brands and Ubisoft, among many other highly reputable brands. As the CEO of Mailbird, dedicated to building a great company and finding opportunities in business and for her team in developing a healthy relationship with email.
Where did the idea for Mailbird come from?
The idea came during an entrepreneurship one-month retreat in Bali through discussion of pain points and the shared daily struggles between co-founders with email and work.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
I wake up at 5:30 a.m. and exercise (surf, run, group fitness class or yoga). I skip breakfast, as I follow an intermittent fasting routine each day, but I never skip my coffee in the morning. I start with my highest priority task for the day, then segment one hour to checking my email (max one hour!), continue with the secondary priority task and continue with two 15-minute breaks during the day to step away from my computer, a lunch with a friend or close ones, and then back to the tasks, and then another 15 minutes for emails again. I then re-prioritize my tasks for the following day and do regular check-ins with the team to ensure we keep momentum, communication is clear, and we are aligned and progressing.
How do you bring ideas to life?
This happens through a process of research, discussion, presentation and gathering feedback. Once the initial development of an idea is concrete, execution is handled via task management apps. The important part is to ensure the end goal and desired result is reiterated and communicated to ensure the purpose of bringing any given well-thought-out idea to life is validated with purpose and results.
What’s one trend that excites you?
Artificial Intelligence
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
Planning
What advice would you give your younger self?
Execute more and build meaningful relationships that serve your personal and professional life best.
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.
Sometimes you should go with your gut.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Open up a healthy dialogue about your business throughout its development with a diverse group of people to get a well-rounded road map in place.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?
Honest discussions always promote growth, as they get to the bottom of any challenge and focus on the solutions.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
Not taking the time to do thorough research on entering a foreign market did not end with a positive outcome. To overcome this, I did more thorough research and was sire to provide the market with what it truly needed.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
A great idea is a marketing rewards program that empowers the right people to support your business in the right networks, whilst getting rewarded for it. This would dictate your “hiring pool” so that your ambassadors are your “employees” and are paid by a rewards program based on revenue results. Low margins to operate the business and revenue growth that you can scale makes this idea a very lucrative one, operated on the web and via mobile.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
A ticket to a remote island in Indonesia to disconnect from tech – I have found that it is incredibly important for mental well being tom every now and again, fully disconnect from technology, especially if you work in technology. This gives you the opportunity to refresh and find creativity and inspiration, which can help you develop your business when you take those moments to step away.
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?
Well, that is easy… .Mailbird 😉 It helps me stay productive because it’s my primary communication tool for both personal and business. Mailbird helps me stay focused, and facilitates ease of information management so I can spend my time on the things that matter most. I manage multiple email accounts from different email providers in one place and app integrations that help with planning, productivity and execution.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
The Alliance – this book discusses the way in which building great teams should be conducted, and it’s about honest conversations about how employers can help employees gain the most value out of their experience working for you. This also aligns the company with the employee in extracting the greatest value based on the team member’s strengths and development path. It’s a win-win for both management and workers in today’s job force.
What is your favorite quote?
“Balance is a feeling derived from being whole and complete; it’s a sense of harmony. It is essential to maintaining quality in life and work.” – Joshua Osenga
Key Learnings:
- Take the time to plan and discuss gives you the opportunity to bring ideas to life.
- Productivity, development and growth come with maintaining a strong balance in doing things you love and optimizing your productivity at work.
- Don’t be afraid of dialogue, as it’s the way forward when you pursue a new idea or business opportunity.
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Carlyn runs the day-to-day publishing operation here at ideamensch and interacts with our awesome customers and entrepreneurs. She is likely editing this with a cat on her lap.