In this episode, Dolores Hirschmann, internationally recognized strategist, speaker, and founder of Masters in Clarity, shares her inspiring journey of scaling businesses and turning bold ideas into extraordinary success. From her early days as a TEDx organizer to helping service professionals and entrepreneurs position themselves as thought leaders, Dolores reveals the power of clarity, trust-building, and creating sustainable growth. She discusses how she scaled one of her companies to multiple 8 figures after selling it to Pete Vargas and Grant Cardone, and provides actionable insights on overcoming challenges, embracing intuition, and building a legacy-driven business. Whether you’re an entrepreneur looking to scale or a coach seeking clarity, this episode is packed with transformative lessons you don’t want to miss.
Ina Coveney
Welcome to the podcast. Today, we're talking with Dolores Hirschmann, who is an entrepreneur, author, speaker, and former TEDx organizer for one of the biggest TEDx events in the Northeast. I am so excited to introduce you to Dolores Hirschmann!
Dolores Hirschmann
Ina, I am so excited for this conversation. I can't wait!
Ina Coveney
And before we start, can you please tell everybody what is it that you do right now and who you help right now?
Dolores Hirschmann
So, I help small businesses grow, scale, and exit profitably. We do that by helping them create go-to-market strategies. Not just the strategy, but we actually bring in a whole SWAT team of people to do the work for them—or with them. So, full agency. Full agency, fractional CMO, and fractional team.
Ina Coveney
That is amazing. One thing that I was looking into—first of all, we both have lovely accents. I am from Venezuela. Where are you from?
Dolores Hirschmann
I am from Argentina, and my friends call me Lola.
Ina Coveney
They actually do?
Dolores Hirschmann
Yes! When I land at home in Argentina, I'm Lola.
Ina Coveney
You're Lola? I want to start calling you Lola! I want to be on the inside.
Dolores Hirschmann
You'll see, some of my friends call me Donna.
Ina Coveney
I'm going to tell you something. When I was looking into your story, I was floored. Like, I was astonished at the fact that you started with digital marketing in 1996. I'm sorry—1996 is when my family got their first email address! I didn’t even know there was digital marketing back then. Can you please take me back? What did that look like?
Dolores Hirschmann
First of all, I’m impressed because you've done your deep research. Very few hosts actually catch that.
So yes, in 1996, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I was born and raised, I graduated from university. At the time, my school required a graduating thesis. I'll make this as short as possible, but it’s kind of a fun story.
I decided on a thesis topic, and to fulfill my research, I went to New York. It was winter in the U.S., and I was an intern at Christie's, The Auction House. I was living with my uncle in New York, and I was sort of a cousin-nanny because he had little kids. In my room, I had all these floppy disks with access to AOL, CompuServe, and other things, and that’s when I discovered the internet.
It was January 1996, and I was like, "Oh my God, this is it."
I went back home, went to my advisor, and said, "I'm going to do my thesis on this thing called the internet." And around the concept of marketing, because that was my major. And he was like, "I don’t even know what you’re talking about."
But I was determined. So, I did all this research, and at the time, there were only 30 people connected to the internet in the entire country of Argentina. It was a very collaborative community. I ended up doing my case study on digital supermarkets, specifically one in California.
When I presented my thesis, I had two judges—my business professor, who was in his 40s, and an economics professor, who was in his 60s or 70s. In Argentina, they score from 1 to 10. A 10 is a great grade; a 1 is a fail. I walked out with a 9 and a 5. The business professor gave me a 9—he was blown away. The economics professor had no clue what I was talking about and didn’t understand any of it.
But at the core of my work, the title of my thesis was "Marketing and Internet: Relationship Marketing." My argument was that the internet would allow for businesses to build relationships the way they used to in small communities—like how a butcher in the 1800s would know his customers personally. Except now, AI and data allow businesses to replicate that experience at scale.
Ina Coveney
You basically predicted that social media was going to be a thing 10 or 15 years before it actually took off.
Dolores Hirschmann
Yeah, because I could see it. It was the first paper written in Spanish on the topic in the world. For years, I was getting requests to send the whole paper. If I had known what I know now, I would have published it and become a speaker. Instead, I went and had babies.
Ina Coveney
And let’s talk a little bit about that. Because I always seek to understand what makes someone a superhuman. You’ve had an incredible career—starting multiple businesses, doing so many creative endeavors. It’s like you have an idea, and you just go do it. And I want to transfer some of that energy to our audience so they can do that too.
But not only did you do all of that, you weren’t just sitting at home coming up with ideas—you had four kids under the age of five! And you moved to the U.S. with your husband. I understand that moving to the U.S. for the first time with your then-husband was not the easiest decision to make. Can you tell us about that?
Dolores Hirschmann
Absolutely. And there are things you don’t know because they aren’t public information. There were two pivotal moments in my young adult life.
At the age of 19 or 20, I was diagnosed with a pancreatic tumor. The doctors in Argentina told me I would die. It wasn’t cancer, but they didn’t know what it was. I ended up going to Miami for surgery, and it turned out to be non-cancerous, but the surgery itself was very dangerous. It took me a while to recover.
Then I had my thesis, I graduated, and the day after I defended my thesis, I went to Malaysia and lived in the jungle for three months.
Ina Coveney
Wait, what? Why Malaysia?
Dolores Hirschmann
I don’t know! My father asked the same question. I had this romantic idea, like a mix of Out of Africa and The Foreign Legion. I imagined myself wearing beautiful dresses in the jungle, but it was nothing like that. I cried for two weeks straight. But I stayed for three months doing community work with a British organization.
When I came back, I met an American tourist—my future husband. Three months after we met, we got engaged. Seven months from the day we met, we were married.
Ina Coveney Wow! That is fast. And moving to the U.S.—what was that like for you?
Dolores Hirschmann It was hard. I moved from Buenos Aires, a vibrant, high-energy city, to a small town in Massachusetts. I had no friends. I would go to lunch with my husband’s grandmother, which was lovely, but I was 25! The first two years were tough.
But I believe that saying yes is my superpower. It’s my creative and adventurous side. And for anyone listening who is hesitating to take the leap on their big idea, I want to say: trust your gut, take the step, and surround yourself with people who believe in you.
Ina Coveney
I love that. Dolores, thank you so much for sharing your incredible journey. Where can people find you?
Dolores Hirschmann
You can find me at mastersinclarity.com. Download my free book Clarity First or send me a DM—I always respond!
Ina Coveney
Thank you so much for being here, Dolores. And to everyone listening—don’t forget to subscribe! See you in the next episode.
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