Business Innovators Radio - Olga Ayo – CEO Of Citizen Concierge – Mark Stephen Pooler

Episode Date: January 14, 2025

Olga Ayo is the visionary founder and CEO of Citizen Concierge, a global firm specializing in wealth management and immigration services across three cities on three different continents. With a mission to streamline global mobility and financial prosperity for clients worldwide, Olga has positioned Citizen Concierge as a leader in international consulting.Under Olga’s leadership, Citizen Concierge has garnered significant media attention, featuring in prominent outlets such as Ultima Hora Col in Colombia, Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg, Outlook India, Livemint, and more. These accolades highlight the company’s innovative approach to navigating the complexities of global finance and immigration.A dynamic speaker and thought leader, Olga has taken the stage as a TEDx speaker, sharing insights on global entrepreneurship and the future of international business. Interviews with NBC Daily and features in Forbes India and the Top 100 Entrepreneurs Magazine further underscore Olga’s influence in the industry.Beyond leading a successful company, Olga actively contributes to global dialogues by speaking at multiple international panels. These engagements reflect a commitment to shaping policies and practices that facilitate seamless cross-border wealth management and immigration.IG link: https://www.instagram.com/olinecka/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olga-ayo-b3089b89/Website: https://citizenconcierge.orgSource: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/olga-ayo-ceo-of-citizen-concierge-mark-stephen-pooler

Welcome to Business Innovators Radio, featuring industry influencers and trendsetters, sharing proven strategies to help you build a better life right now. Welcome to Brilliant Business TV, conversations with leading experts in business. I am your host, Mark Stephen Pula. We have a wonderful guest on the show today, Olga Ayo, all about wealth management and immigration services. So I'm really, really looking forward to a conversation with Olga. We are streaming live on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube. We're also on the E360 TV network. We're also on business innovators radio network. And we're also on USA Global Radio and Television Network.

And we're also on MSPNewsglobal.com. Let's bring in our incredible guest, Olga, A.O. Hello, how are you? Olga, welcome to Brilliant Business TV. I'm really well. How are you? Thank you so much for asking. I'm doing amazing.

I'm really, really looking forward to a conversation with you today, Olga. And it's a really interesting topic as well, so I'm going to get straight into it. Can you share the inspiration behind starting citizen, concierge, and the mission that drives your business? Absolutely. So citizen concierge has been built on my personal story. I was not an immigration attorney always. I was just an immigrant. I was attorney before I was doing international arbitration and the business law. And I came to United States for studies for, you know, Axel in my field. And the like happened. The things are changing. And I had a baby. So obviously. I stayed and I was trapped in this immigration process that taught me that nothing is that simple as it seems. I got into the struggles and my personal life didn't go well. So I was stuck in the middle of the immigration process while I couldn't proceed further. I approached several immigration attorneys in the United States, six or seven, them.

And all of them just gave me the results that I've got to go from a U.S. and I have to do it over my home country, which was an option with a newborn and the little baby that I had back done. And I decided to take the case into my hands to study my case. And fortunately, I got approved. And I was too fortunate to meet several people around me that struggle with several impressions and the same process that I had difficulty to get the process the case.

And we brought those cases into the success stories. And that was the passion and the idea behind creating the citizen-concierge. that the immigration should be done differently. It shouldn't be a hustle. It shouldn't be distressed for the people. It should be a pleasant way where a professional needs to handle everything and to let the immigrant to struggle.

I think that's really, really important, Olga, because I know here in the UK, I've had some friends that have moved to the USA and getting the visas and all of those things. It can be a really daunting process. and very, very awkward at times as well. So I think it's really important the work that you are doing. Absolutely, at this, especially that there are some rigid standards that you can meet with

the immigration attorneys. And me being one of them going through the process and feeling not really treated well or properly and receiving the service according to the fees you are paying to them was not acolyant. And that's what I came and wanted to change. I wanted to be very transparent. I wanted to be very upfront and very informative with the clients telling them what they are going through at each stage with the time frame and especially with the fees. Because fees are the big chunk of the whole immigration process. And not being informed and just pulling up the fees while you're in the process is absolutely frustrating.

Yes, and it can be quite shocking as well. What are some of the key challenges individuals face when relocating or navigating USA immigration process and how does citizen concierge simplify the journey for them? Absolutely. So again, I was coming up from my personal experience. Despite of fact, I was pretty fluent in English coming to the US environment, still created some sort of the language barrier, understanding special the culture of back. Every speaking English country has a very different culture background. And I took literally probably 10 years to figure out the economical, social, cultural language and all the aspects

that the environment can expose you to as an entrepreneur that you have to overcome. And I dedicated my journey to actually create five golden rules, probably, maybe six, that's going to simplify and shorten the time. So definitely I don't want any of my client to come to US and struggle for 10 years figuring out of the system because it's very different for whatever I've been ever experiencing around the world and being exposed to. So for me, the goal is to actually almost like a hold of the hand of my client

and walking him through all the way from the prep stage in their home country to the immigration process and also walking them through after they relocating the United States. I'm talking about cultural, about networking. Networking is a huge part about the marketing, knowing who we are targeting either if it's a product or the service that we are trying to sell as an entrepreneur in the States, knowing how the market's going to react and what are the keys

and the little nuances we need to use to be successful. I just think it's so, so important making those processes as easy as possible and having someone that you can trust that guide you through the whole journey and even having the fees all up front so you're not shocked along the way. I think is very, very important and I think that's a really great thing to be doing to make people at ease on that process of a stressful time that they're already going through. your services seem to be tailored for professionals, entrepreneurs, families. Can you walk us through some of the most popular services citizen concierge offers?

So usually when we are talking about the employment-based visas, most of the applicants are knowing the visas that requires a sponsorship, which is a big struggle for the United States because every applicant, just the stage of fighting the sponsor, that is willing to wait probably almost two to three years while you're allowed to work in the United States and bring you over and going to the process is very hard for the employers. I'm telling you why.

The market is huge, and every employer broader seeks an employee who is allowed and eligible to be employed legally into United States without their involvement, without their input, and waiting for that certain employee coming to the United States, which right now just a firm certificate is about more than a year. That's a crazy long time for every employer to wait such a long time. So I focus on entrepreneurs and show them the path while they can apply on their own.

That means they are self-applicationers, self-applicant. They don't need any sponsor. And now we have to discuss a different type of eligibility, It's either the EV2 advanced degree, EV1, the extraordinary ability. We can do the dual strategy of starting with the non-immigrant visas while they're in the rush to get the United States, which can be done literally in three months' period and be able to legal work and getting the visa for three years while they're waiting for three years, process them immigrant visas for the permanent residency. I usually do this for the clients that it depends on their individual needs.

Very much they have to tell me what is their situation, what they're looking for, how they want to proceed. If they want to just a relocate business or if they want to immigrate, there are so many variations that we can reconsider to be as a factor of the strategy that we're applying to the certain clients. I focus on the entrepreneurs because I had to create the business on my own in the environment. I didn't know. I was a single mother. I am a single mother in the foreign country. going through the immigration process and building the business from scratch and not knowing thousands of things around. It's not just like how to create the business, the LLC or how to set

up the bank account, how to get the AI number. It's a micro problems that you're facing. It's a cultural raising funds, networking, how to sell, where to find a client. So all these tiny things, I try to focus on entrepreneurs because I've been through those. And obviously the families, we are helping the families to reunite, to be together and help them to browse us in the shortest possible time. I just think it's really, really good work that you're doing. With global mobility and immigration laws being so complex, how does citizen concierge and ensure clients receive personalized, accurate, and timely support? So it's always personalized. I have so many clients calling me, or the referrals calling me, like, hey, Olga, I have a client.

They want to get a green card. What's the process? How long it takes? And it's very hard to tell over the phone to each individual. I have to talk to them. I have to know what's the background, what they have behind the story, what they're looking for. If it's right away, they want to move, if they have a time, if it's a long plan, if it's a short plan strategy. So it's a very, very personalized.

There's nothing one-fifference. all, not at all. It's very a case to case. So I have to really talk to the person. And based what I hear, based on the story, based on the background, education, work experience, how many years they worked in whatever profession they are at, that really depends on what kind of immigration strategy we are creating. So it's 100% personalized. There's literally no one of it all. And I really admire. And also I'm shocked by the people who are telling me, like, we want to go through the immigration process in our own. I say yes, anywhere else, but not for it in the United States. It's extremely complex and it's extremely difficult for anybody to do it on their own. It took me several years

to study and figure it out for myself. My case took me four years, but we are here and I've been through it. I have a very strict policy and I enforce my whole team to have a timely manner response. We have a 24-hour policy response to the phone calls, email, text messages. And I mentioned this because I was freaking out when I had something very origin with my immigration attorney, and they didn't respond for a week. And I was like, if I ever going to run this business in my life, I will never allow any of my client to feel the same way. It's a very, very true policy, and I'm very, very mad to anybody who is not fulfilling to policy. So I'm very, I'm very keen on everybody to respond in time of Mary and being on top of the case because that's going

to give the confidence to the client that we can apply. And we always try to explain the process into the tiniest details. That means I'm going to tell them we start here. This is going to take this long. This is the paperwork you need to get. This is what we're going to provide you. This is the strategy. These are the stages we're going to go through all the way from the first call you are having with me, all the way to the point until your holding a green card or the visa, whatever is the end goal for my client. So we are there explaining in the detail so everybody is aware and understanding of how the process is and what's going on.

And I'm also very happy that I have a referral of one of the client very recent. She was the client. She has a very complicated case to denials, previous denials, and she had a third filing. She received the request for additional evidence. and she reached out to several attorneys. She told me she got refusal from six of them that they told them they cannot help her. She came to us. We processed her case probably in three weeks and we got approval within a week.

It was crazy and I'm very, very proud of this one. But we are here to create a magic and find the gaps that any other attorneys are capable to do so. I love that. And as someone helping individuals and businesses achieve their immigration goals, what advice would you give those looking to move to or expand their business in the United States? I keep encouraging entrepreneurs around the world to expand. I know it's very scary and I know it's very difficult and it seems very complex. But a globalization is a real thing that is happening. around the world and being stuck in a one place is just so much hold you off from a growth. And it's very unnecessary because your own fear is just holding you back from the bigger things

from a bigger achievement, for entire bigger goals that you are able to achieve globally. And it's a shame. So what I'm trying to is educate, is to help navigate and also give a real-life example of the people that being so scared to do it and struggling so much. And there are such a success stories right now, not in just the United States where we did the Dubai, immigration or also either United States, Dubai, or anywhere else around the world.

I have tools and I created tools and strategies that are simplifying that on hold of process. It's still going to be difficult. It's still going to be a lengthy comparing to any other countries and immigration to do other countries, but still comparing to what we've seen in recent years, of immigration getting tougher, tougher.

I think we created tools that are relatively fast and are working perfectly in this whole system. So I'm still trying to encourage everybody for expansion, for globalization, for entering new markets. It's very exciting. It's very much fun. And I think it creates a huge opportunity for the growth and for your personal growth

of seeing something else and experiencing different type and level of the markets that you can sell and be us. I would encourage everyone if you're looking to go through this process, definitely get in touch with Olga. You can connect on her website at citizenconcierge.org. That's citizenconcierge.org. Olga, who should reach out to you? Who is the ideal person you would love to connect with you? I don't like to say the ideal person. I really encourage anybody who's interested in the, in the consultation to reach out. I'll always work around the rigid rules and the stereotypes of who should apply to because I created a team that is able to improve your profile, even if the profile

is not perfect for the application right now. So entrepreneurs, business people, people from a STEM environment, anybody who's really looking to go to United States or to Dubai to expand their business or to expand their career. and get more involved into the different professions, they should really reach out to us. We are absolutely here to evaluate the case and advise them about the next steps. That's citizenconcierge.org,

citizenconcierge.org. Stay on the line after the call, and I'll have a quick chat with you as well, Olga. Olga, thank you so much for being my guest on Brilliant's Business TV. I thoroughly enjoyed having a conversation with you today. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate this and it was a great friend. Thank you so much.

Thank you everyone. Thank you everyone for joining us on Brilliant Business TV, conversations with leading experts in business. Thanks for listening to Business Innovators Radio. To hear all episodes featuring leading industry influencers and trendsetters, visit us online at Business Innovators Radio. dot com today