Creative Entrepreneurship™

Phase 1  Be sincere or human (11:02)
Phase 2 Prospecting or targeting (14:08) (Sales Navigator on LinkedIn)

• No paid advertisement (16:25) 
• Local market (18:32) 
• Is LinkedIn an online resume? (19:10) 

Phase 3 Endorse people (22:08)

Phase 4 Send something different from what's in their inbox( 29:30)

• What do you say? (33:07)
  •  Very Direct (33:22)
  •  Lead Magnet or an Opt-In (34:17)

Words of Wisdom
Breaking the Rules
Mindset is important, get started and don't quit

Key Takeaways Introduction: (00:48) About Laura (1:39) Three things you need to get started with Pinterest ( 2:00) -There is a difference between social media and search engine -Design -Phrases and Keywords How to get organic searches on Pinterest (3:10) Quality over Quantity (4:20) How does Pinterest help Photographers? (6:43) Visibility or Monetization? (8:30) Getting Organic Searches on Pinterest (10:40) Using the right key phrases (12:50) How does Laura help her customers? (14:30) Some of the challenges many people face when using Pinterest (16:38) Places to get templates for Pinterest (18:27) How can real estate agents benefit from Pinterest (19:20) Successful Habits (21:35) Words of Wisdom (23:45) Contact Information If you're looking to work with Laura, please book a call here: * For Business Coaching & Support: https://laurarike.com/bizpin

 * For Pinterest: https://laurarike.com/pinterestchat

 Or, please feel free to jump into one of our awesome programs that suit your needs! * Pinterest Bootcamp – http://pinrockstar.com

 * Mastermind Inner Circle: https://laurarike.com/inner-circle-oto

 If you're looking to feature Laura Rike in a speaking or media opportunity, you can find her Speaker Kit here: https://laurarike.com/collaborate/

 Laura Rike p: 763-276-7524 w: LauraRike.com e: [email protected] https://laurarike.com/tce/

 https://thecreativeentrepreneur.net

Event planning can be a daunting task and knowing how to pull off a successful event can be even more difficult. What does someone need to start their own event to showcase their product or service and how do you start an event planning service? 

Essential questions are who are you going to target? What is going to be your startup cost? Who is going to run the operations and financials for the event? Lastly, you will need to know the marketing and resources available to get your event promoted. 

For many people, event planning is often left to the professionals. It takes a lot of work and can be overwhelming at times. An inexperienced planner will have all kinds of questions about the type of event, what kind of people are we targeting, and what are we going to talk about. Speakers, educators, promoters, sponsors, oh my! This can be exhausting just listing them; however, it isn’t an impossible task for you. With the right planning and research, you can pull this off yourself and showcase your successful product or service. 

Target The Right Market

Why is targeting so important? The target is important because it allows you to hone in on what might be the most prolific. You wouldn’t invite techies to an event with no tech equipment. Decide whether or not it's going to be a corporate or social event. Knowing the type of event will keep people who might be interested in your product or service engaged and interested. 

Know Your Startup Cost

Knowing your startup cost is important because it gives you some insight into how successful your event was and prepares you for some unexpected situations. Some things to consider are the venue rent, the equipment you will need, inventory of your product, licenses or taxes, communication, advertising and promotion, attorneys, and insurance. 

Operations

Research is the best way to mitigate risk. It is important to do your homework. Consider the time you have to plan and know that the bigger the event, the more time you will need to plan. 

About Sherrie
As a strategic event planner with 15-years of experience, I help clients realize their potential for success and create live events to grow their brand while bringing profit to their business that continues long after the event. In this time of great need, I realized I had an obligation to help as many businesses use this time wisely to strategize and plan an experience their industry will seek out first and attend.

The starting point of my event planning career began with Bill Glazer and Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle™, as Bill’s Executive Assistant, where I quickly took on the additional role of Event Manager and Planner. With the blessing of working side by side with Bill and listening to the top Marketing Experts on stage for over 7 years, I learned a lot of marketing tips, strategies, business planning and so much more. Through determination and hard work, I learned quickly what it took to run smooth, successful and profitable events to get where I am today as the owner SLS Event Planning and Consulting where I have helped over 50+ clients since 2012 create prosperous and effective live events that help grow their own businesses while building their brand.

Sherrie Sokolowski

SLS Event Planning and Consulting

1144 Meachem Drive

Clarksville, TN 37042

Phone and Text: 410-294-5404

Skype: sherrie.sokolowski-slsevents

Fax: 717-641-0333

www.slseventplanning.com

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POST WRITTEN BY

Brad Flowers

Founding partner at Bullhorn, overseeing all the good work.

Let’s face it: Even if your company has a bad name, the easiest thing to do is nothing. Simply do not rename the company.

In fact, there is a track record of companies with bad names doing very well. Consider Microsoft. They have had success despite a name that could be interpreted to mean small and weak. (Well, "soft" doesn’t exactly mean weak, but it certainly doesn’t say international corporate giant either.)

If you are going through the trouble to start a company or launch a product, you probably aren’t the sort to just pick something out of a hat. And while a bad name can be overcome, a good name is an asset. There are plenty of high-profile and costly renames to suggest their value. Esso to Exxon. Datsun to Nissan and back (in some places). Andersen to Accenture. Philip Morris to Altria. All done for different reasons and to varying degrees of success.

Here are five and a half considerations when questioning whether to rename your company.

Are you limiting business opportunities?

In some industries, it makes sense to name the company after yourself. You are in a high-trust business and your clients trust you, so you make the closest connection you can. That rationale has its limits. As a wealth management company, you can grow by adding new clients or you can grow by hiring managers who have their own books of business.

Boardman Financial wanted to grow by attracting great partners. In order to do that, the company needed a more aspirational name that reflected the whole team and not just one person. The core of the team's culture is sitting with people and helping them navigate the ups and downs of their life. We used this navigation image to arrive at the name Ballast, meaning the counterbalance that provides stability in a long voyage.

Are you limiting recruitment?

For third-party logistics, recruitment is the name of the game. If you can’t get a steady stream of 21-year-old go-getters, you won’t be competitive. And this crew is competitive. Our client was called Quality Logistics, which was understandably confused with Total Quality Logistics and Quality Logistics Solutions – all different companies.

Most clients have the primary goal of getting more business, but in this case, the only thing they cared about was attracting talent. Their name confusion lumped them in with companies that had reputations of churning through employees; we strategically distanced them from the industry, renaming the company as Longship. The name has roots in Norse mythology and navigation. The end result speaks to teamwork, journeys, and pulling in the same direction. Longship is a driven group of people working toward a clear goal.

Are you limiting your vision?

The landscaping industry isn’t the place you normally find great naming. The companies are usually named after the founder, named very literally, or feature a bad pun. Our client was called Great Lawns, which was a great name for a company owned by a couple of teenagers with a pick-up and a couple of mowers.

But as the owners got older, their vision expanded beyond residential maintenance. They were working for some of the largest companies in their region. They were designing and installing large projects that didn’t have anything to do with lawn care; they were creating spaces where people found peace. The company became a Plot, as many people’s favorite stories include a special outdoor place.

Is your name misleading?

DMD Data Systems was founded 25 years ago. The founder had a business idea (IT solutions for mid- to large-size companies) but hadn’t thought through any names. So the founder did what many people would do and used his initials – which ended up confusing potential customers. Despite featuring "DMD" in its name, the company didn't do anything in the dental industry. It doesn't have a single doctor or medicine in dentistry on staff.

The company engaged us to help them transition from something that doesn’t accurately represent their company to a name the positions them for the future of their company. The new name of the company is Volta Technologies, which looks back to the inventor of the battery, Alessandro Volta.

Are you going through a change in leadership/core offering?

When most people think about pain management, they might think about pill mills and desperation. A client named Pain Management Medicine approached us hoping to address this problem. They became doctors to help people and ended up managing addictions. A new generation was taking over the practice and had a vision for a new treatment offering that gets to the root of the problem and helps the patient return to a healthy life. They created a multidisciplinary destination clinic that we named Wellward – a place of hope.

Do you just not like it?

This is the "half" in five and a half because it isn’t really a consideration. Do you just hate the name? Do you just dread saying it, typing it out? Get rid of it. It is your company and you should love the name. It will only get harder and more complicated the longer you put it off. Rip off the Band-Aid.

Whether you are starting a new company, renaming a successful one, or launching a product, you have a lot to consider. Think about these questions. Get your goals straight and then go forth with confidence. That is the main trick in a name. Can it be said confidently? Remember, the name is not the company. The name is just the signifier of the company. It represents the cool stuff you are already doing.

Brad Flowers

Founding partner at Bullhorn, overseeing all the good work.

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8 Simple Steps to Catapult Your Business on Instagram (feat. Nicka Wolny)

The power of Instagram in promoting your business is huge. Many people will find you on Instagram because a majority of people use their mobile phones. Instagram grew up on mobile phones, so the ubiquity of mobile phones gives you the opportunity to share your content with potential customers. Why would someone use a platform like Instagram for business? Isn’t it for adolescent selfie-taking kids showing off their locations? Instagram has grown into much more than just selfies and photo sharing. The average business owner on Instagram stands to join thousands of businesses who are promoting products and services. More than 40 percent of all U.S. companies with more than 100 employees are utilizing Instagram. According to Hootsuite engagement on Instagram is 10 times higher than Facebook and 54 times higher than Pinterest and 84 times higher than Twitter. 

Steps to Building Your Business on Instagram

1.       Know Your Audience

2.       Great Content

3.       Focus on You

4.       Have a Consistent Theme

5.       Post Regularly

6.       Use Live Streaming

7.       Optimize with Hashtags

8.       Promote Your IG Profile

Know Your Audience

Knowing your audience is paramount in establishing a niche and pinpointing your market’s needs. If you are a carpet cleaning business you will want to ask yourself, what type of carpet cleaning will you focus on? Will you be doing commercial, residential? If you are doing commercial are you going to be doing buildings, theaters, small businesses? If you are doing residential, will you be doing small houses, large houses, houses with pets, mobile homes, local or statewide? The more specific you can get the better your chances for success and the easier it will be to build or scale your business.

Great Content

Know the content you want to produce and try to make it look and sound as good as possible. The better the content the more likely people will find you credible and worth looking at. Your decision to use colors, filters, images, or videos is up to you. If you create something, make sure that it coincides with your audience. Take your time when producing content. Sometimes the more thought out content tends to be the best. Be reasonable with how much time you want to put into your content and if you find that there is some benefit to taking more time than others that do what makes the most sense. Consider your resources and utilize them to the best of your abilities. 

Focus on You

Many businesses will look at others and try to copy them. They are worried that they don’t have enough followers, and how is it that they have so many and we don’t. What are they doing that we are not doing and how can we do what they are doing? Focus on you and your business. Keep producing great content that works for your business and does not worry so much about what others are doing. If you remain consistent with your content you will start to see changes in your following and maybe even featured on others. 

Have A Consistent Theme

Once you have your profile set up and you are working on your content you want to make sure that your content is consistent. Your theme could be anything from headshots to consulting but keep the theme the same. Do not start talking about headshots and detract with how the government doesn’t do enough. Keeping the theme consistent corroborates your expertise in your niche market. 

Post Regularly

Now that you have your audience, great content focused on your business, and a great theme, you want to maintain regular posts. This will keep your profile fresh and lets people who are following you know that you are not only consistent with your posts but with your business as well. There can be situations where followers will leave if there isn’t consistent content.

Use Live Streaming

Using live streaming usually puts you at the top of the list and allows for people who are not following you to view your feed. This is similar to Facebook Live and YouTube Live. Instagram Live allows you to interact with your audience to help with branding and finding potential clients. With just over 700 million users, this is an opportunity to engage with followers and meet people from around the world. 

Optimize Your Post with Hashtags

What are hashtags? Hashtags are what Instagram uses to hone in on your industry. So if you are a photographer, you can use #photography to find new clients or showcase your work. You can get even more specific by using the hashtag #headshotphotography or #headshotphoto. These niche hashtags allow the business to niche their hashtags for the right audience. Location hashtags are important as well. Let us say you are in a city or town where you want to showcase your work. Using a hashtag that represents your town or city may provide opportunities to find new clients or be discovered. This also falls in line with events, or holidays. Use https://all-hashtag.com/ to find some great hashtags to use in promoting your business.

Promote Your Instagram Profile

Promoting your Instagram profile is important because it gives you additional visibility. Whether you are paying for it or just adding them to your business cards, giving people the opportunity to stay in content with you is a powerful tool when selling or promoting your products or service. There approximately 15 million business profiles on Instagram and advertising on Instagram is an option for companies that can afford it. This often helps your business grow in exposure and generate traffic to your website. Just to give you some perspective, approximately 60 percent of people discover new products and 75 percent take action after being inspired by a post.

Nick Wolny
M  713-703-9765  E [email protected] W  www.nickwolny.com
Past TV appearances: www.nickwolny.com/media
Entrepreneur.com articles: https://www.entrepreneur.com/author/nick-wolny

How did CBD become a billion-dollar industry? 

Because it is sexy! Many people in the industry will tell you that this is new to the mainstream and is leading in the therapeutic and health market. From oils to edibles, and topicals to tinctures, CBD is quickly ascending to an estimated 24 billion dollars by 2024. 

What is CBD?

If you were like me, I thought that CBD was only sold in states where THC was legal. THC or tetrahydrocannabinol is what gives people the intoxicating effect when consumed. CBD, on the other hand, does not produce an intoxicating effect, instead, it is often used to treat many ailments from arthritis to PTSD. 

The type of products available for CBD and how they are used

• Sublingual Tinctures
• CBD Edibles
• Vape Concentrates
• CBD Topicals

Sublingual tinctures come in a bottle that usually has a small dropper. It is measured out and is ingested orally by placing the measured amount under the tongue and allowing it to absorb. The CBD Edibles are generally recognized in candies such as gummy bears and gummy worms. These candies are familiar to many people and the CBD industry manufactures these gummies in many forms, sizes, and shapes. Because of the taste and convenience of gummies, they are quickly becoming popular. Vape concentrates are used with vaporizer equipment consistent with e-cigarettes or electronic devices to vaporize and inhale the CBD oil. CBD topicals are consistent with most topical gels, creams or even sprays to use in specific areas for arthritis, pain, skin, or any localized area of the body. 

How to start a CBD Business

Starting a CBD company is much like starting any other company, however, there are more regulatory hoops to jump through. There are continual changes in regulation that often create bottlenecks in the process, but once started, it is certain that the growth is worth it in the end. 

Key Takeaways

1. Know the part of the industry you want to tap into
2. Ask yourself why you want to do this
3. What is your motivation?

Some of the challenges you might face when starting your CBD business

• Banking
• Insurance
• Payment Processing
• Access to capital

There may be some difficulty in accessing a reliable banking service if you are starting a CBD business because of the vicissitudes for regulation. There is an element of risk and fear with banks who have already experienced closures from previous customers. Insurance can be expensive. Because of the industry, prices remain high and the legalization of this market is continually changing. Payment processing can be significantly higher, and some merchants have sworn off CBD stores and merchants altogether. Finding an acceptable merchant processing continually changes. Access to capital from banks and investors can be difficult as many of the CBD companies are perceived as risky and many CBD companies typically bootstrap and find alternative investment opportunities once there has been some revenue. 

CBD is one of the fastest-growing industries in the nation. CBD, although regulated, can be prolific with some creativity and forethought. 

Rick Martinez

[email protected]

http://www.greenseedcannabisco.com/home1

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

https://www.facebook.com/rick.martinez.5680899

https://www.instagram.com/planetboy/

Key Take-aways

• We realize stuff at age 21yr
• Understand that sales goes deeper than what's on the surface
• Potential is greater than what most think
• Speak to your passion
• Just start selling the experience you need is just doing it

Know who you want to target
Get specific
Connect with your customer by showing your have flaws
Show the behind the scenes

Mindset is everything when it comes to business.

Key takeaways

• Find your future self
• Change your Environment
• 100 Percent is easier than 98 percent 

We are not the same people we were 5 years ago
Personal confidence comes from making progress toward goals and is far bigger than your present capabilities.

Get his book at:
https://benjaminhardy.com/
[email protected]

Key Takeaways

• Choose a Niche and leverage the idea of what the listener might be interested in
• Choose a name that is conducive to the theme of your podcast
• Recording your podcast using a good mic, computer, and software
• Editing your episodes could be costly
• Use social media to promote your podcast
• Find Sponsors

There are many questions you might have when starting a podcast like what equipment should I use, what software is best, should I use music and what kind of site do I use to add my podcasts? 

Bonus Information

5 Things To Do Before Breakfast To Drive Your Success As A Leader

By Heneka Watkis Porter

According to author Tony Robbins, “People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Success is the accomplishment of a predetermined goal or mission. It is personal to you, whatever you determine it to be.

All leaders want to be successful, but how do we get there? It turns out, routines play a big part. The sequences of habitual actions have many benefits including saving time, building momentum and the development of strong willpower, without which we can forget about having any form of victory.

The way in which we start our day determines its trajectory. Here are five things I do to start the day that has helped me be successful as an entrepreneur (and no, checking my phone isn’t one of them). Use these tips to develop a routine, and you will be sure to gather that momentum Tony Robbins speaks of.

1. Drink water—a lot of it. 

The adult body is made up of approximately 55-60 percent water. The chemical reactions in the body’s cells that turn food into energy depend on it. Not only is it required for metabolism, but also for digestion. All that to say, you need water to function effectively. Drinking water in the morning allows for the body to rehydrate after losing lots of fluids overnight. A rehydrated body is better poised to facilitate successful actions.

2. Write.

There are many benefits to writing. When you write, your memory improves, you are less anxious and you think more clearly (in other words, we can significantly cut our therapy bill by practicing this). By clearing our minds, we can set the tone for the day ahead and remind ourselves of the goals we aim to achieve.

3. Develop a practice to hear from within.

This can be done by either praying, meditating or simply being still. In the busyness of our days, we can miss hearing that voice that directs us down the path we must go. Part of winning for an entrepreneur and leader means being able to make sound business decisions. Successful entrepreneurs use tools to help them listen and get guidance from their internal compass.

4. Work on your priorities.

What is important to you right now? Think about how you are going to approach what’s significant to you when your mind is still fresh from having a good night’s sleep. A fully recharged mind is in the best mindset for making decisions that are aligned to what you value most.

5. Express gratitude.

There is a very simple yet powerful song called Toast by Jamaican artist Koffee that has been taking the world by storm. In it, Koffee emphasizes, “Gratitude is a must.” While the song’s rhythm is great, the words contribute a lot to its popularity. On a few occasions, I have had podcast guests share on this necessary, but often overlooked, concept of expressing gratitude.

For example, Lisa Ryan believes in this principle so much she has coined her own term on which she bases her strategies, “grategy.” Simply saying aloud what you are grateful for before getting out of bed does wonders for you. Further, having a gratitude journal and writing in it before you have had your first meal, can be a critical part of your success journey.

What do you do each morning that contributes to your success? Share it with us on Twitter at @Leadercast (Porter, 2019).

References

Porter, H. W. (2019, 11 24). 5 Things To Do Before Breakfast To Drive Your Success As A Leader. Retrieved from The Entrepreneurial You: https://henekawatkisporter.com/5-things-to-do-before-breakfast-to-drive-your-success-as-a-leader/

Heneka Watkis-Porter
Podcaster/Author/Entrepreneur at  The Entrepreneurial You

  PO Box 7484 Greater Portmore
P 876-849-2571  
M 876-849-2571   E [email protected] W henekawatkisporter.com
Skype Heneka Watkis-Porter