So Scottsdale January 2019

Pulse
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just that. After moving to the U.S. from Russia at the age of 19
with $450 of borrowed money in her pocket, Cullinan quickly
learned the value of hard work and perseverance. While working
three jobs with no financial aid or scholarship to pay for college
and basic living expenses, she maintained her position on the
dean’s list every semester and graduated with several degrees,
including a master’s in European studies.
With entrepreneurship in her blood thanks to a mother who
built a wine-making business, it was only a matter of time before
Cullinan started her first company. A mom herself, Cullinan
launched Rising Tycoons when she saw that high school and college
students were struggling with the basic life skills that would
enhance their business trajectory.
“They were being trained to pass tests, but not provided the
tools to spring them forward in their careers,” she says.
Rising Tycoons was started as a youth-driven company
for teens that taught them skills through entrepreneurship and
leadership training. In 3 1/2 years, she helped more than 10,000
teens and 1,500 educators through the program, but she knew
she could do even more.
Around the same time, Cullinan noticed the glaring gender
gap in the business and leadership worlds and turned her focus
to helping women step into the spotlight.
“While I wanted to fix the gender gap in business, I knew
nothing about working with women,” Cullinan says.
After creating and implementing the hashtag #iStartFirst
into her female-geared speeches, the hashtag’s popularity grew
like wildfire. Soon, the inaugural #iStartFirst Summit took place,
followed by online bootcamps limited to 20 ladies at a time and
in high demand today.
“I realized that if we, as women, are willing to go through
bootcamps for diets and exercise, we can most certainly go
through one for business and mindset,” Cullinan says. “And to
do it in a collaborative and safe environment, in competition with
yourself only and no judgment, I could create something that
would make the business map easy.”
Finding Her Calling
When Cullinan was invited to co-author her first book, Passionistas:
Tips, Tales and Tweetables for Women Pursuing Their Dreams, it
solidified that working with women is what she was meant to do.
“I met the most incredible group of talented, brave, passionate
and brilliant ladies, and I realized that I had to inspire more of
them,” she says, noting that a large part of her philosophy is to
teach women to stop preparing for the perfect moment and start
doing instead.
Cullinan has always had the natural ability to help and inspire
people, and that’s how the #iStartFirst Summit evolved. The summit
is a one-day transformational event of workshops, tools and
strategies to empower women into action. Watching women succeed
and build their dreams is what fuels Cullinan, who explains,
“It’s truly never about the spotlight; it’s always about the impact.”
As a woman in business, Cullinan believes there is still so
much to unlearn from our past, our parents’ pasts, and society’s
rules. She feels honored to facilitate this authentic, raw and vulnerable
female movement and considers it to be a learning process,
as each gender leads and runs businesses very differently.
“Women are nurturing by nature. They are givers and often
need to learn to put themselves first,” Cullinan says. “When I see
another woman come into her powerful self, shining her light –
and I’m a part of her journey – that fills me with joy.”
Call it a superpower if you will, but Cullinan is categorically
good at believing in women’s best versions of themselves before
they can see it in the mirror.
With two best-selling books and two TEDx talks under her
belt, the young girl from Russia with a few hundred bucks in her
pocket turned business mogul is on the road to global domination.
“2019 is the year of expansion for #iStartFirst. I’m looking
to bring bootcamps to other states and to launch the summit in
one more city outside of Phoenix. This brand is truly a legacy for
me; it’s not about me, but about the incredible tribe of women
who are ready to set their journeys on fire,” Cullinan says. “On a
personal note, I want to be able to have the freedom to travel and
meet other inspiring women globally so I can show my daughter
that she, too, can always play by her own rules.”
28 So Scottsdale! January ‘19