How Did a 50-page Business Plan Help Mikayla Nogueira Win a High School Competition at 16?

In high school, Mikayla Nogueira entered a business competition through a program she calls DECA. At 16 she wrote a 50-page business plan on how she could succeed as an influencer, with no idea that influencing would become her life. She presented it to judges about 10 years before the conversation with Jay Shetty. She says influencing existed then but was not a huge thing, and the judges did not believe the plan. She won. She says she was convincing that she could make a business out of the idea.

After the competition, people at school treated the goal as serious. She told teachers and friends she wanted to be a beauty influencer, and she says she already knew that 10 years earlier. Absolutely everyone, she says, told her it was not going to happen.