Bet The Jockey

Jon Nastor helps professionals scale and automate their businesses with digital marketing. He is the creator and host of Hack the Entrepreneur, which has received 4.8 million downloads, since its launch in 2014. He is also the co-creator of The Showrunner, where he has helped over 500 people start and grow successful podcasts.

When Jon was younger he felt like he was broken with the couple of jobs he held when he was younger. He equates the following traits, sleeping in, not able to take orders well and not being able to stay focused on one thing for a long time to being unemployable. Jon discovered he has ADHD in 2017, so that, he says, explains a lot about his past and why he likes to start things and have someone else take over.

Jon wrote a book, upon his friends suggestion, From inception to hiring executive editor to publishing, the whole process took about 8 weeks. He knew he had to put confines on himself to get things done. He knows he has another book in him, but nothing is on the horizon. He was originally pushed into it from his podcast audience. Jon doesn’t consider himself an author, and says the next book will be much like the first; the title will be the driving force. His book, ‘How to Stop Procrastinating, Build a Business, and Do Work That Matters’, was based on 50 conversations from his podcast, Hack the Entrepreneur

The first thing he did, entrepreneurially, was played drums in punk rock band in HS. He rented halls and his band and his friends bands would open for bands like MXPX and Rancid. He had to convince bands to show up because they were travel through the town anyway from Vancouver to Toronto.

“Why would you want to wait for somebody else to do something, like, if you want something to exist in this world, just do it; just make it. If you want it to exist, then there are others that want it to exist, too.”

He grew up around construction, and started his own residential construction company in Vancouver, Canada, and also owned some firework stores. After his daughter was born and was gone 12-14 hours a day, he though,  “There has to be another way to do this”, and then he figured out the internet thing, Ten years ago he sold the company and decided that he never wanted to work offline again.

His first company was involved in affiliate marketing, then he got into lead-generation software, lead generation software, then AdLabs was his first big break. He and his business partner created Velocity Page, a wordpress plugin

Jon says he’s the sales and marketing guy, and he hired others to complete the work as a team. AdLabs never sold it, but had a bid 6 months after they shuttered the business. They were offered low 6 figures to buy it, but never pursued it.

Jon’s next venture was Hack The Entrepreneur podcast, a consulting company for offline people to scale their skills to swap hour for hour/dollar for dollar. He teaches them how they can sell online and create sales funnels. “I was forced onto it. I never considered himself a consultant, just like I never considered myself an author or an entrepreneur before that.” Now he enjoys doing it.

When asked what did he learn from his mistakes, he replied, “Mistakes aren’t mistakes unless you don’t learn from them. It’s just an education. Every mistake makes me a better person and entrepreneur.”

He would not be where he is today if it wasn’t for his MasterMind friends. “It’s like being married to two dudes.” They all know that the overall good is worth it. This group was where the inception of Hack The Entrepreneur came from. At the time the software business was easy, it was going really well, but he was bored with everything. He wasn’t getting better; it was fun,

Mikita Mikado is the CEO of PandaDoc, makers of all-in-one software that helps organizations to accelerate the way they transact with electronic quotes, proposals, contracts, signatures and workflows around them. He works on, speaks, and writes about running software companies focused on small businesses.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikitamikado/

After spending 14 years in education, I took a chance on myself and made the entrepreneurial leap in 2015. My work now as a leader, speaker, and writer allows time to follow my passions, as well as give back to our community. In 2018 I became a contributing author for Forbes and founded 'small leaders' - a podcast available on Apple Podcast. Through all this work, three pillars guide our vision and leadership: help. gratitude. mindset.

My favorite wins are outside of the office with family and friends: walking the sands of Hilton Head, enjoying a Lark Old Fashioned on a Wisconsin Friday night, or a better-versioning moment at the finish line of the Chicago Marathon.

Connect with me today:

LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/2pAsfsa

Facebook: https://bit.ly/2BYn6ld

Instagram: @lawton_bri

Podcast Website: www.smallleaders.com

Alejandro Laplana is an activist investor, technology solutions specialist & serial entrepreneur. As CEO of Shokworks Inc., Alejandro Laplana built up a team of over 50 engineers and digital marketers that build mobile/web and big data solutions for mass market brands like the Colombian National Soccer team, Barcelona SC, OPTA and ESB Energy. Prior, Laplana served as founder and director of Horizon Latin America LTD, subsidiary of Nasdaq listed, One Horizon Group (OHGI). Laplana built a team of over 30 employees in five countries and promotes the company to various government entities, mobile operators and transnational enterprises. During this time, Laplana directly aided one of Venezuela’s largest mobile operators in returning roaming services back to Venezuela (after it had been widely suspended across the country) through innovative VoIP channels for postpaid and, more importantly, prepaid subscriber communities that have been historically underserved across emerging markets.

Previously, Laplana founded and served as managing principal of Nesting Partners LLC, a patent incubator and software company builder. Having created the company’s investment thesis and business model, Laplana played a key role as an investor, partner, and promoter in Nesting Partners various portfolio companies. To date, Nesting Partners has transacted in over 40 patent portfolios and founded over 9 companies, producing 2 successful exits for a 7.5X return.

Laplana has, on an individual capacity, directly invested in and/or led over $20 million in seed stage funding for over 15 start-ups. Laplana, his teams and partners (in orchestration) have additionally developed, designed and successfully commercialized over 150 products and technologies for internal portfolio companies, partners and clients.

Laplana currently advises the Venezuelan Congress on IP strategy and serves as a member of the technical steering committee that is tasked with reforming the country’s IP legislation. He and his companies have been invited to speak at forums hosted by: Amazon, the Venezuelan and Colombian Congress, the Metropole global forum, the IP Deal Makers forum, the Urban Land Institute, Harvard Business School and the Clinton Global Foundation.

Links:

· https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandro-laplana-zabarain-b8697b12/ (Link to my linkedin profile).

· https://www.crunchbase.com/person/alejandro-laplana (Link to Crunchbase investor profile that corroborates and lists some of my angel investments).

· https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=261360079&privcapId=261271885&previousCapId=244926115&previousTitle=anyGuest.com (Link to my executive Bloomberg profile).

· https://twitter.com/asambleave/status/727510563216056321?lang=en (Link to tweet by the Venezuelan Congress about a panel a Keynoted there in front of 20 congressmen).

· http://www.financialpolicycouncil.org/videos/ & http://www.financialpolicycouncil.org/speaker-bios/blockchain-digital-currency-whats-ahead-us/ (Links to my most recent panel at a large industry event where my company was also co-sponsor).

· Link to one of my companies and some of the more fun stuff we are doing: http://www.horizon-globex.com/company-info/management-team/ & https://www.horizon-globex.com/seasoned-tech-company-horizon-

David Sokolow is the co-founder and CEO of WeFind, a company building simple tools to make influencer marketing easier. Prior to WeFind, he worked in growth product marketing at Grubhub and strategy consulting at Deloitte Consulting.

WeFind: www.trywefind.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidsokolow/

About Jeff

Over my career, I have had the roles of Entrepreneur, Inventor, Investor, Coach, Advisor and most recently, Startup Producer. Yeah, you're probably asking yourself, Startup Producer? What the hell does that mean?

It's not a formal title but I figured it's what I love to do and is mostly aligned with what a movie producer does. I put the pieces together for a project, line up the resources, the capital, the right partners, management team etc.

From ideation, concept design, business model creation, idea validation, fundraising, R&D and all of the tasks needed to get an idea up to a successful exit. This is what keeps me going!

My definition of success is:

Being able to be in a position to provide value and not having to get out of my comfort zone unless I want to.

I focus more on the investment and production sides nowadays rather than being a full-time Entrepreneur but I still love diving in when called upon to get my hands dirty.

I know my strengths and I definitely know my weaknesses. I have learned over the years that focusing on making my weaknesses better is not the most effective use of my time but focusing on making myself better at the things that I am already great at is where I spend my time now.

I don't believe in the I can't mentality

There is no status quo

You always have a choice

Make a decision and stick with it no matter the outcome

Nothing is binary

Stop making excuses

Failure is just feedback

If you can solve a problem by writing a check then it's not a REAL problem

Innovation is always an option!

AngelList:

https://angel.co/jeff-mcdermott-1

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffmcdermott175

Chris Widener is widely recognized as one of the top speakers in the world today. He has spoken all over the world in places like Germany, Spain, Russia, China, Egypt, Singapore, Australia and of course, all over the United States and Canada. Chris speaks to groups as small as 100 and as large as 25,000 people. His clients are a “who’s who” of American businesses and organizations, including notables like General Electric, Cisco Systems, Microsoft and the Harvard Business School. Chris’ dynamic, practical and engaging speeches will have your audience laughing one minute and learning timeless truths of success the next. Chris was hand selected by two of the legends of the speaking world to work with them and he now carries on their legacy. Jim Rohn, one of the most successful speakers of the last 50 years, and also known for being Tony Robbins first mentor, made Chris his last protege and worked with Chris the last seven years of his life. Chris and Jim co-authored the Jim Rohn One Year Success Plan as well as Jim’s last book, The Twelve Pillars, which has become an international best-seller. Jim called Chris “The Leader of the next generation of personal development and leadership experts.” Zig Ziglar, considered to be the greatest motivational speaker of the 20th Century, personally chose Chris to co-host his television show, True Performance. Chris’ two books, The Angel Inside, and The Art of Influence are the only two fiction books Zig Ziglar endorsed in his entire life. Along with co-hosting True Performance, Chris also hosted his own show, Made for Success, where he interviewed some of the top business achievers and thought leaders of our time. Chris considers it a privilege to be able to speak to people and help them lead successful lives,and to become extraordinary leaders and masterful salespeople.

Chris began a small publishing company called the American Community Business Network in the 1990′s. He then changed the name to Made for Success and grew the company into a large business selling tens of thousands of personal development programs through large retailers like Costco, Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart, Target and Barnes and Noble. He sold that business to his partner in 2009 to focus on his speaking, writing and coaching exclusively.

Chris is the author of twelve books and over 450 articles on success, leadership, sales and motivation. His best-selling books include The Angel Inside (which has also been optioned as a movie), The Art of Influence, The Leadership Rules, Live the Life You Have Always Dreamed Of, Twelve Pillars, and the sequel to Twelve Pillars, Above All Else. Chris has also produced over 80 cd’s and dvd’s on a wide range of topics.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/dorieclark/2013/06/10/how-to-become-a-successful-professional-speaker/

www.ChrisWidener.com

www.RealManPodcast.com

Son of the Caribbean - Citizen of the World

Kirk-Anthony Hamilton is an architectural designer turned entrepreneur and investor from Kingston, Jamaica. He is the founder of the Infiniti Partnership, The Destination Experience and Tech Beach Retreat. His primary mission is to elevate the Caribbean's image as a business and investment destination by creating connections with the global business ecosystem, catalyzing wealth creation opportunities for the region. He has built a strong reputation for his ability to craft deep partnerships and build communities connecting wealth, influence and opportunity.

Kirk-Anthony creates communities and social discovery experiences gathering a global network of business leaders and influencers to promote innovation, investment, prosperity and philanthropy in the Caribbean. The community's collectively control resources exceeds US$140 billion. The Destination Experience has been recognized by President Obama as “an innovative platform for the promotion of entrepreneurship and a unique business catalyst.”

In 2015 he was 1 of 75 Emerging Global Entrepreneurs from around the world honored by President Obama at the White House. In 2016 he was 1 of 50 members of the Global Shapers Community selected to participate in the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Kirk-Antony’s investment savvy was honed and developed through his participation as co-founder in a private investment firm offering Caribbean high net-worth individuals ownership in existing profitable US digital media companies. He was also a member of the pioneering design team behind the Star Island Bahamas, the world’s first 100% off the grid sustainable resort island. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and The Travel Channel.

Kirk-Anthony graduated with a Master of Architecture Degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design and is the former Curator of the World Economic Forum's Global Shapers' Kingston Hub.

@kirkanthony_jm (Twitter and Instagram)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirkanthony/

Richard C. Wilson is a father of 3 who lives on the island of Key Biscayne just 10 minutes from the city of Miami and more well known Fisher; Star Islands. He is CEO of the Family Office Club which has the #1 most visited website, bestselling book, and most attended events in the ultra-wealthy investor industry of family offices. Richard represents over two dozen $100M+ families under contract helping them form and operate their family offices and his team has run over 100 live conferences, investor summits, and investor relations training workshops.

I run the Family Office Club, the #1 largest community in the industry with well over 1,500 registered single and multi-family offices which manage in excess of $1 Trillion in Assets Under Management. At our 10 exclusive events per year, you hear from billionaire family members, top 50 multi-family offices, and secretive single family offices. To learn more about membership and our events please see http://FamilyOffices.com or to learn more about setting up your family office please see http://SingleFamilyOffices.com

 

http://FamilyOffices.com

http://CapitalRaising.com

Fred Whittlesey is the founder and Principal Consultant of Compensation Venture Group, SPC, a consulting firm specializing in compensation strategy, director and executive compensation, equity-based compensation, and incentive design with a primary focus on entrepreneurial growth companies. CVG is a Washington Social Purpose Corporation and Certified Green Business. Fred also provides expert witness services for compensation-related litigation. He is a Faculty member at Seattle Pacific University teaching graduate-level courses in total rewards systems as well as serving as a Faculty Adviser for student special projects, and is a writer for the investor education website Investor Junkie. He also is an advisor to the equity solutions firm Mastly (Upstock).

Fred previously was the founder and Principal Consultant of Compensation and Performance Management, Inc. (CPM) in Newport Beach, CA. His compensation consulting experience includes positions with Towers Perrin, Mercer, KPMG, Radford, Buck Consultants, and Hay Group. His corporate experience includes roles as the Director of Global Compensation for Amazon.com and Broadcom Corporation, Chief Compensation Officer for PayScale.com, and Fellow at Salary.com.

He has authored dozens of articles in major compensation periodicals and peer-reviewed journals and has presented his ideas at compensation conferences around the world. Fred’s thought leadership in the field of compensation is evidenced by his delivery of more than 300 conference presentations, seminars, certification courses, webinars and audiocasts. He has authored blogs for PayScale.com, HR.com, CompensationStandards.com, and Seeking Alpha. Fred was a top-rated faculty member and certification course developer for ten years for WorldatWork's "Accounting and Finance for HR Professionals" as well as the basic and advanced executive compensation courses, delivering instruction both in the classroom and online. He is a Lecturer at UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business for the Corporate Governance MBA course, and also has been a lecturer at The Anderson School at UCLA and Seattle University. Fred has been interviewed and quoted more than 100 times by more than 35 different media sources including Bloomberg, Associated Press, Business Week, Fortune, New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register, Seattle Times, San Jose Mercury News, and San Francisco Chronicle. He has been retained to provide research for investigative journalism for The Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe.

Fred is a Founding Member of NASPP, past President of the Orange County chapter, and a past member of the NASPP Advisory Board. He is past Chair of the Advisory Board for the Certified Equity Professional (CEP) Institute, and co-founder and past Board member of Global Equity Organization (GEO). He is a founding investor of Fledge LLC, the conscious company incubator/accelerator program, and mentor to more than 80 Fledge startups in 27 countries from five continents.

Fred received his MBA with distinction from The Anderson School at UCLA and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude from San Diego State University with a BA in industrial/ organizational psychology. He holds the Certified Equity Professional (CEP), Certified Executive Compensation Professional (CECP) and Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) designations.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/fred-whittlesey-5436061/