ROXSTAR GLOBAL CONSULTING – INTERVIEW WITH ROXY ROBINSON
Get ready insight!
September 2022 Finalist Women of the Future Award 2022 United Kingdom
Roxy Robinson is a female entrepreneur from South Africa, with residence in the United Kingdom is setting the benchmark for all women who wish to become an entrepreneur. Roxy has been featured in TV shows, on the radio and major publications. She has spoken at many local and international events. Roxy began her career at the early age of seventeen and over the years has built a global empire in over 120 cities. Roxy has also been nominated as SME Business Awards Finalist numerous times. Her latest accolade is being a finalist in the UK Women of the Future Awards, Entrepreneur section (awards will occur in October 2022) Roxy has built strong partnerships, making her a global female icon, she is truly a force to be reckoned with. She is the epitome of a self-made powerful woman and has reached this point through consistent challenging work, often working through the night, making necessary sacrifices and dedication towards her dreams, which inspires many other women seeking establishment in the business world.
She has recently spent by invitation time in Ireland, following is some highlights of her amazing trip …
I loved seeing the special gems that Ireland has to offer from the horse riding at Mount Juliet Estate to the history behind the K Club . being hosted by Rory Guiness for a private tour around the storehouse in Dublin . To helicopter rides to the horse racing and golf at Cashell Palace . Ireland is full of priceless experiences and the best people .
Roxy took her South African based company global and pitched it as an industry leader. She travels extensively, stays in the more elite hotels, and mingles amongst the VIP individuals of the world. Roxy has enforced a unique level of service of the highest standards to cater for her clients. Roxstar Concierge is her “baby” and this direct leader along with her dedicated staff remove the unexpected and produce the expected at world class standards, her work ethic and mindfulness is what puts her and her company at the very top. This is the reason her clients are retained and loyal, following referrals are streaming in.
We got to know this mogul, and this is what she had to say.
What inspires you?
“I am inspired by people; I am fascinated by how people make their success and how they make decisions based on that. I love utterly understanding the emotion behind the decision and exceeding people's expectations and making that work for them. I am also about everyone winning, suppliers, clients, and us. Giving value to people is my goal. I genuinely care for people and take pride in my work and integrity.”
After all this success, what do you struggle with now?
“I am incredibly grateful for the success that I have now, but I still have a long way to go in terms of my own goals and desires that I want to achieve. What I struggle with the most now is finding a balance between my work life and my personal life. The fact that I travel an enormous amount, last year I was on a plane every third day over our peak seasons, so that is exceedingly difficult, trying to manage that, having to plan outfits, being in different time zones and to still maintain good relationships with friends, family, clients, and suppliers. I also struggle with being on my A game all the time because I am constantly working at events, doing multiple things at the same time, it gets difficult to maintain energy levels and keep them up all the time.”
Do you think women feel intimidated in business?
“Well, I cannot speak for all women, but I can speak for myself. Women feel intimidated in business. I had to learn from an early stage in my career that I had to be a lot stronger, harder, more assertive. That does not mean arrogant and sometimes it is a fine line. I am quite soft spoken, so I had to train myself to speak differently. There is a level of intimidation to a degree, but I do not see it like that, I just try and be the best version of myself and deliver the best that I can. There are definitely moments where I need to walk into a boardroom and it is usually a boardroom full of men, it brings me back to when one of my mentors told me that, to be a lady boss in this world, you have to have balls so I always just think of that and try and figuratively grow a pair. It gives me the advantage that no-one else knows what I am thinking, and I can stand strong amongst all.”
How do you achieve work-life balance?
“I do not. It is one of my biggest struggles and i sacrifice a lot in my life to be where I am, but it was a sacrifice and decision that I decided to take. I could have gone the route of getting married young and having a family of my own. I, however decided on a different path for myself but was clear in what I wanted to achieve, and I always wanted to be a success in my own right and be independent. Obviously the number one goal is to find my soulmate in time, get married and have a beautiful family but I wanted to be able to do that while having a successful business and not having to work 9 to 5 so that by the time I became a mother, I could devote a lot of time and energy to my children and my family and still have my companies running and being successful. I wanted to put in all the arduous work in the beginning so that the foundation was strong so that the business could just run automatically without me having to be so direct. For now, at this stage, I do struggle with a work life balance and I also struggle to find time to sleep and I know these are all big problems that I need to focus on so that I can be the best version of myself for the business for the future so that is definitely a priority for 2020. It is time to focus on me, more time at the gym, more time meditating and sleeping and then scheduling time to see the people that I love the most and being open to going on a lot more dates. As with everything in life, a person has choices, it is for us to choose wisely!”
What is your recipe for success?
“We pride ourselves on providing service of the very highest standards. We have been in business for the past twelve years, gaining accolades of awards and offering the service to our clients exceeding their requirements. It is so important to anticipate the needs of your clients, asking all the relevant questions and then to meet them beyond their expectations. Oftentimes it is the trivial things that count more. A personalised shopping list with extra treats and delights, a chef catering to the specific needs of the client. A last-minute reservation at the finest restaurants, a special bouquet of flowers, we endeavour to please and enhance the experience beyond what is required. I try to delve deeper to utterly understand my clients and connect with them on a deeper level and in turn build relationships based on trust, loyalty, and true and genuine compassion. With my desire to help and push the boundaries of creativity and service to exceed expectations and meet the changing needs of a global affluent audience. Always leave people feeling better than you found them and always try to be a light wherever you go, that is a key to success. People can only meet you as far as you have been in your life and I have been through some truly heart-breaking and soul crunching pain and disappointment and betrayal but I truly believe it shapes the person you become and it has given me a level of empathy that allows me to resonate with clients in a special way.”
Take us through a day in the life of Roxy Robinson?
What is amazing is that it is never the same, so every day is different. Most of the time, I wake up in different cities, in different hotel rooms because I travel so much. I usually wake up quite early, my mornings are very sacred to me, I use that time to pray and reflect and plan my intentions for the day. I am focused on that, so I always start my mornings off right. Then I start checking my mails, social media, then start connecting with all my different personal assistants in South Africa. I consult with the rest of the team who are all over the world, just make sure everyone is on the same page and that our task is all in order for the day. Most of the time, if I am not physically with clients or running events, then my days are filled with meetings. I try and do lunch meetings so I can eat as well, nutrition is important to a healthy body. Most evenings I host clients, attend networking events, or attend some sort of work-related event. If I am free, I try to spend time with friends and family, but my reality is that I am working most of the time. I do try and squeeze in a boxing class here and there. When I am in London, I train with my brother who has a phenomenal business. He is the best personal trainer in London! @Coach_jenz.
Who are your role models?
“First my father, the hardest working, honest, wise and favoured man he always said that whatever you do in life from slicing tomatoes to make a salad to delivering a multi-million dollar corporate event, do everything to your very best, that way you always push yourself to your potential and you can never have regret or blame yourself for situations when you did your absolute best. I have so many mentors I have met over the years, and I continue to be truly fortunate in having enormously ambitious and enthusiastic and successful friends and family around me, whose work and commitment always motivate me to set an extremely high bar for myself. I hope that, through listening to them and learning from them, I too can inspire others.”
Any concierge related cringe worthy stories?
“Excellent question, I most certainly do. I have one client whose toilet paper I get branded. I send it to the hotel before he checks in. He is a fun and interesting client to deal with. Another client wanted me to arrange a buyout at this beautiful hotel in Dubai called the Al Maha. The Al Maha is in the middle of the desert, it is so gorgeous, so this client wanted to go for the weekend just himself and his wife. The twist plot is that he wanted ten camels to be in front of his villa the entire weekend and he wanted me to make sure that all the camels were gay. I know, you heard me, he wanted gay camels only. So that was fun, in the end, I doubt I would like to entertain further business from him though! Another story, I have a client who is a very affluent, a much older gentleman and he has been a client of mine for years. We have a great relationship, he got divorced and then he started dating this young girl. He asked me to consult with her for something she wanted done and at this time I was in Croatia, so I was quite busy with work. I do not usually consult with clients' girlfriends but for him, I said yes. I told him that I was in Croatia for business, and he sent her on a yacht to where I was. She arrived the next day. As I got onto the yacht, she came to the meeting with a whole bunch of mood boards. She had planned absolutely every detail around a wedding for her...dog. From the wedding cakes, two in fact, one for the owners of the dogs and one for the dogs. It was the most bizarre 45 minutes of my life. So, while I was in this meeting, I was questioning myself and where I am in my life. That was quite a crazy meeting, 45 minutes of my life, I will never get back. I contacted my client and invoiced him for 45 minutes of my time and said that I will never organize a dog's wedding even though he offered me an enormous amount of money, I still turned it down. In the past, money not being an objection, we have had to repaint hotel rooms, it is wild what we have had to deal with. Strong negotiation skills are most definitely required. I will be starting a podcast soon sharing a lot more insider stories.”
What is the greatest challenge you have overcome?
“I have had staff who have joined me over the years, having showed such interest in the business, I invested much in them and in the end, it turned out to all be fake and all were interested in stealing was all my trade secrets, client, and supplier database. Their whole agenda was to establish all those things and then move on to do their own thing and every time they all fail after a few months once they realise the hard work it takes to be a business owner as well as their clear lack of ethics would deem anyone unfit to run a successful company . So that was a struggle for me because I invested so much time and effort in them and I cared for them in my personal capacity and to have that kind of betrayal and that trust being broken was very heart-breaking. It made me re-evaluate a lot of things and I had to learn how to trust people again and not question everyone's loyalty and integrity and believe that people are honest and have true intentions.”
Roxy has over the years risen to higher levels in her career and we can only anticipate what this rising superstar has in store for us next.
You can contact Roxy Robinson on these different platforms:
Email: roxy@roxstarconcierge.co.za
Instagram: @roxstargroup
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/roxyrobinson/
Roxstar Luxury Group https://www.roxstarluxurygroup.com/
Roxstar Group https://www.roxstarglobalconsulting.com
Tabula Rasa Retreats https://www.tabularasaretreats.com/