805conversations

Lesley Santos Dierks, CEO of Spokes in San Luis Obispo recently sat down with 805conversations' host Mark Sylvester to talk about her passion for helping those in the non-profit sector. She focuses on helping both internal staff and the ecosystem that surrounds the non-profit, including the members of the Board.

"Your perspective is the thing that can't be taken from you."

Topics included;

• How to use Corporate Philanthropy as a recruiting tool

• What is CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility

• How to avoid the Peanut Butter approach - spreading yourself too thin

• What defines as non-profit - hint: it's about your Mission

• Why there are over 1,500 non-profits in San Luis Obispo

• The classes that are available to learn all aspects of running and working with a non-profit

• How to think about succession planning - a great way to build leadership

• How to get clarity on the expectations and responsibilities of being a board member of a non-profit

• Why you should consider being a board member next time you are asked.

• This was an enlightening conversation and unique in that Spokes provides such an important service to the community.

Getting a deeper understanding of the role of non-profits in the region also helps us as members of the 805 region's business community get a better feel on how we can help, collectively and individually.

"For every dragon there's a white knight."

Bill Gartner is the Professor of Entrepreneurship at California Lutheran University's School of Business. He sat down with 805conversations' host Mark Sylvester to talk about his passion and fascination with business. This talk covered a lot of ground as Bill is an extremely prolific writer, having penned 60+ articles, 5 books and 35 chapters in books related to his passion for entrepreneurship.

"Entrepreneurs are working at the margin of our future."

Topics included;

• Is entrepreneurship in our DNA or can it be learned (a frequent topic on the show)

• The happiest and most interesting people - entrepreneurs

• The 'Need for Achievement' - from a Harvard study

• What does success look like

• Entrepreneurs never work alone (another frequent topic)

• Dynamic Tension as written by Machiavelli - new order vs old order

• "Traditions are solutions to yesterday's problems"

• Only 15% of the INC 500 Fastest Growing Companies are Tech

• Two kinds of jobs: Rule Taker's (being told what to do) and Rule Makers

• The Five Strangers Exercise - meet 5 new people a week and find a wy to be valuable to them

• Tips for employees: Find a way to provide value to one person, your boss.

Buzzword bingo: TAT Thematic apperception

Bruce is the Director of Organizational Leadership Development at California Lutheran University's School of Business. He sat down with Mark to talk about his background and his fascination with leadership. The conversation ran from his owning a motorcycle shop in Bakersfield and lessons learned to his 2-+ years in the Navy with a great example of what leadership looks like in the engine room of a large ship.

Leadership is a social phenomenon - it takes two to lead.

"Getting the right person, in the right place and the right time."

Topics included;

• What it means to be self-aware as a leader

• What makes a good vs a bad leader, specific examples

• Transformational Leadership

• The difference between cohesion and adhesion

• His one tip for success - "fire the guy"

• Two tips to the first day on the job as a new leader

• Sports psychology and his role in helping athletes with their peak performance

• What he means when he says, "Go backwards."

• How to ask yourself the question, "Where was my focus?"

• Buzzword bingo: Upward Leadership, Leading Upward.

We'll be having Bruce back soon to talk about his new book, Career Search in the 21st Century (working title).

Dan Engel is a serial entrepreneur. He's currently the CEO of his 6th startup, Mobile1st, not counting the local companies where he was one of the first employees. His talk with host Mark Sylvester takes us all the way back to interning in high school on Wall Street and now, having returned to Santa Barbara after a hiatus, what he's up to now.

Treating people like gold is a way of life for Dan. He gives many examples of how relationships and exhibiting genuine interest in people has been a critical success factor in his professional life.

Great quote: "What makes a business successful: People."

Topics included;

• How he got started as an intern in high school and the secret to making an internship make a difference in your life

• The story of how he beat out 5,000 other applicants to land a coveted internship at Fidelity

• Why you might want to spend time reading biographies of famous people

• Putting yourself in a position to be lucky

• How Fastspring enjoyed an amazing 1.3% churn - that's a 98.7% renewal rate

• Why Mobile1st is poised to take over a segment of the industry

• His thoughts on attracting great talent to your venture

• The role of the Board of Directors

• What Engel Ventures is all about

He said that the Board is friendly with you until you need them not to be.

Frequent listeners will notice that a theme of 'Luck' has been appearing a lot in recent episodes. Dan speaks specifically to this, hence the title of the show.

Alex Minicucci is the CEO at SpendSmart and founder of SMS Masterminds. His business in SLO takes him to NYC where he talked with host Mark Sylvester about growing up in San Luis and a memorable story about how he started his first business.

The subtitle for this episode is: "No idea what the future holds" which speaks to how Alex looks at life and how each day presents a new opportunity, his favorite word.

He says his superpower is that he was on the Cal Poly Debate Team in college

Great quote: "Before you fire me, I have this business idea I want to run by you..."

Topics included;

• Attracting more venture funding to the region

• Why San Luis Obispo is an entrepreneurial mecca

• His thoughts on the ecosystem that's being created in SLO

the importance of mobile to commerce

• How he's grown his business to 5 million customers and 4,000 merchants

• How he got started in business from living in his car for a few months right out of school

Buzzword Bingo: Propensity Modeling

Traver Boehm has done just about everything you can physically and is ready for an ultimate challenge. He's off for a year-long adventure - as if he only has one year left to live. He speaks with host Mark Sylvester about the path that's led him to make the decision to go on a unique trek and discover his true purpose.

"Your brain is like a chainsaw, all it wants to do is cut down trees"

Topics included;

• Getting started working with Gavin deBecker

• Getting his Masters in Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture

• How entrepreneurs treat fitness

• What it means to have a Masters in Meditation

• The Year To Live - project background - based on book by Stephen Levine

• Looking forward to his dark retreat

Traver will be blogging about his trip starting in 2016, you can follow him at http://TraverBoehm.com.

Jerry Knotts is the person you want on your side when you are pitching your big idea to the world. He spoke with host Mark Sylvester about his early background and wanting to fly since he was a young man and how engineering fit into his life plan. The stories are captivating.

"My luck and passion matched."

He and Mark cover a lot of ground and gets into some areas that were unexpected;

• His early career in the Air Force

• Penn State and it's ROTC program

• Working on secret projects in Germany in 1964

• What it's like being a navigator on a live fire mission and the story behind the quote above.

• Working with sub-contractors and inventing the future

• Retiring in 1984, but certainly not retired

• His work with California Lutheran University over the years

• The founding and growth of the California Coast Venture Forum

• CBIS - Clean Business Investment Summit

• How to pitch!

• Taking the local success in the venture/startup community global

Jerry is the President/CEO of the California Coast Venture Forum and President of J.E. Knotts & Associates. He has more than 30 years successful experience in small, medium and large sized defense and aerospace low and hi-technology companies. He served as Vice-President/General Manager, Defense Electronics Div, California Microwave and Vice-President, American Nucleonics Corporation. He serves as a member of the Board of Counselors, California Lutheran University School of Business; a member of the SoCalBio Investor Conference Company/Company Screening Board; and a mentor for the LARTA Institute.

Trip Hawkins is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Electronic Arts, 3DO, Digital Chocolate. He was employee #68 at Apple and speaks with host Mark Sylvester about how he followed his passion for games and technology into an extremely interesting career.

If you are interested in geek history, you will want to make time to listen to this episode.

I have to help the nerds take over the world

Topics included;

• The value of a quality education - he studied originally at Harvard

• How luck was a contributing factor to his success in life

• Listen to 8 stories that show how he connected the dots from one life event to the next

• Stories you've not heard about the early days at Apple Computer

• How the route to discovery is rarely a straight line

• The DNA of an entrepreneur: Ideas, Drive, Passion, and Effort

• The story of his first game made in high school to his founding of Electronic Arts

• The idea that formed his world view that Engineers are Artists

• The secret of the EA business model

• His view of the incoming generation of Digital Natives and how he thinks they're a big part of the solution

• How we need to think of new business creation as one that serves compassion instead of materialism

• His new game called IF - which focuses on Emotional Intelligence

• Why he believes that nerds have finally become the cool kids

Trip is based in Santa Barbara and is looking forward to being more integrated into the local tech ecosystem. There's a great story on him in Noozhawk earlier this year.

Melissa Moreno is a force of nature. She’s the founder of The Scheinfeld Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Santa Barbara City College and is currently the Dean of Educational Programs – Business. That’s just a bit of what she does. She speaks with host Mark Sylvester about how she’s deeply involved in helping students find their way in business, starting with getting an idea out of their heads and into the market.

She says her superpowers are luck and passion.

"You can’t be an entrepreneur for yourself. It’s got to be for the customers."

Topics included;

• Development of the Entrepreneur programs at SBCC

• What’s an Enterprise Launch? And her book on the subject which is now a textbook.

• Success stories and why it’s ok to say NO.

• The embedded traits of a successful entrepreneur;

• Persistence, refusing to accept No, not fitting in, can’t keep a job (yes…)

• The teachable skills that all entrepreneurs need;

• Role of financial analysis in success

• Value of teamwork

• Why you want to research before starting

• Her concern about the local venture community. Do we have the right kind of investors locally?

• The Garage Community

• The cult of personality – introverts and extroverts – reminds Mark of Susan Cains’ TED Talk

Melissa is also the current head of the MIT Enterprise Forum Central Coast. SBCC and MIT Enterprise Forum Central Coast are partners with 805connect.

Katie Belanger is the founder of Cinnies and co-founder of HoneyButter Food Co. She speaks with host Mark Sylvester about how she followed her passion all the way from the chilly midwest to Ventura and eventually Santa Barbara. Katie studied food and beverage management and found herself working at Whole Foods in Ventura when she discovered a clever business idea.

"Waffles are the new crepe."

Topics included;

• WEV - The Women's Economic Venture program and how it shaped Katie's business skills

• Winning the top prize on reality cooking show, On the Menu - her winning entry is now on the Planet Hollywood menu

• Watch Katie learn that she won the competition

• Giving back with purpose and intention - how she gives proceeds from her efforts to increasing awareness in substance abuse and mental illness

• How she deals with rejection

• What we don't know about waffles and why that's a great business idea for her to pursue

• The role of persistence in the makeup of the entrepreneur

• Her idea for what her next venture might look like

You can find these delicious morsels at several locations in Santa Barbara. Goto http://VeganCinnies.com

Taste adventurously and indulge with purpose.