When Beca was young, her father wanted her to be an artist, just like his grandmother, whom he adored. And although Beca loved art, she also loved to dance. At sixteen years old, she started a dance school and spent the next 14 years teaching dance.

Later, at the age of twenty-eight with three kids in tow, Beca went off to UCLA to earn her masters degree in choreography. After she graduated, instead of returning to the dance world Beca decided to learn more about business. She worked at a variety of jobs, chosen primarily on the basis of what they could teach her about herself and how the world works, but sometimes she just took a job to make enough money to support herself and her children.

Eventually, Beca ended up working for 20 years within large financial firms as a Certified Financial Planner. Although she enjoyed the work, Beca became more and more driven by her desire to write and, in the process, shift lives.

So she did. Whether it's fiction or non-fiction, Beca writes with the intention of shifting people's perceptions of what's possible. She has authored several books; she has published perception-shifting Ezines every two weeks for almost 20 years; and she offers two free email series dedicated to perception shifting: The Daily Nudge and The Truth 4 Today. The Truth for Today combines words with art, honoring her grandmother's legacy and fulfilling her father's dream of her becoming an artist.

Beca hopes the stories she writes will help people to shift the stories they choose to live. Beca is also a coach who helps people shift the circumstances of their lives. In further support of her mission, she hosts a podcast called Shift The Story.

As a child, Beca tried to tell everyone about the power of shifting their perceptions. She learned that telling people things doesn't work. But sometimes showing them alternatives does. That is what Beca hopes to achieve, whether through her writing, her coaching, or by simply living.

Today, Beca is a mother, grandmother, and step-mother. When she isn't working, she is reading or working in the garden in Northeast Ohio with her husband, Delbert Piper Sr.

Mel Kobayashi is the Canadian author of style blog Bag and a Beret. Her brazen and comedic approach to her closet, and life, has attracted a dedicated online following inspired by her exploits and earned her a place on the world's top-style-bloggers-over-40 lists, as well as coverage in major fashion magazines and websites.

Mel has a BA in communications from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. She also did time in art school. But her real education didn't kick in until she became an age-raged, middle-aged tween filming on-the-fly videos in dodgy alleys and trying not to squeak during auditions. More than anything, following her heart, coupled with risk-taking and grand surrenders to personal chaos, have fueled her mid-life social media success.

As a blogger, several years ago Mel launched fashion spoof e-zine VOGOFF, mainly for women over 40 who were tired of style rules and lack of representation in mainstream media. She also started the Traveling Yellow Skirt Freak Show project, which chronicles her skirt's adventures with women around the world in a celebration of diversity of life and style. So many women have worn and adorned the skirt that it now resembles a quilt.

Recently Mel has begun motivational speaking with an emphasis on unlearning rules as an attainable path to a more joyful, creative, and colorful life. She also has plans to take VOGOFF to the next level, not only for fellow stylists who push the envelope, but also for armchair fashionistas too.

"Be a rock star!" is her rallying cry - even if it's just in your rec room.

Mel currently resides in Vancouver.

Tony Loyd is the founder of Culture Shift Companies and the Chief Learning Officer at Culture Shift Learning Academy. He is also executive producer of Social Entrepreneur, a radio program and podcast that shares stories from change makers who are having a positive impact on the world.

For over 25 years, Tony has provided leadership to Fortune 500 companies and global brands such as John Deere, Medtronic, and Buffalo Wild Wings. He has extensive experience conducting strategic planning, creating talent management strategy and conducting leadership development workshops.

Tony created the learning strategy and led the start-up and operation of two world-class corporate universities. He has directed the development of up to 120,000 personnel in 60 countries. His breakthrough ideas enabled companies to increase worldwide training participation while reducing costs dramatically.

Prior to his work at John Deere, Tony was a Human Performance Improvement consultant, working with customers as varied as the US Department of Energy, AT&T, Alcoa and the State of Colorado.

Raj Daniels is an experienced business consultant.  He has been involved in business ventures across several verticals as either a consultant, owner, investor, or advisor. He has a personal passion for strategy and vision building that has allowed him to lead successful strategic initiatives for both profit and non-profit organizations.

Raj’s current role is CEO & VP of Enthusiasm of OpenTime, a company he founded whose mission is to create a more meaningful human experience by helping people spend more time with other people in person.  Raj is also an evangelist and community builder for the Dallas startup ecosystem.

Raj is a firm believer in contributing back to society.  He has given back by conducting personal growth seminars for teens, mentoring MBA students and participating in entrepreneur camps.  He has also served on the board of for profit and non-profit organizations.

Raj received a BA in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Business and International Studies from the University of North Texas.  He has an MBA in Global Leadership.  He is a husband and the father of three girls.

A story Raj loves

A group of scientists placed five monkeys in a cage, and in the middle, a ladder with bananas on top. Every time a monkey went up the ladder, the scientists soaked the rest of the monkeys with cold water. After a while, every time a monkey would start up the ladder, the others would pull it down and beat it up.

After a time, no monkey would dare try climbing the ladder, no matter how great the temptation. The scientists then decided to replace one of the monkeys. The first thing this new monkey did was start to climb the ladder. Immediately, the others pulled him down and beat him up. After several beatings, the new monkey learned never to go up the ladder, even though there was no evident reason not to, aside from the beatings.

The second monkey was substituted and the same occurred. The first monkey participated in the beating of the second monkey. A third monkey was changed and the same was repeated. The fourth monkey was changed, resulting in the same, before the fifth was finally replaced as well.

What was left was a group of five monkeys that – without ever having received a cold shower – continued to beat up any monkey who attempted to climb the ladder. If it was possible to ask the monkeys why they beat up on all those who attempted to climb the ladder, their most likely answer would be “I don’t know. It’s just how things are done around here.”

Joleene Moody is a former central New York television reporter and anchor turned freelance writer, ghostwriter, and playwright. When she’s not writing books or blog posts for other busy entrepreneurs, Joleene is working on her own original television and screenplay ideas. Her goal is to become a successful scriptwriter.

During the past 15 years, Joleene has penned three of her own books, hundreds of human interest stories and news articles, and various ghost books for entrepreneurs, self-help coaches, and those looking for a powerful memoir. Her own personal writing includes a screenplay, stage play, and two television pilot ideas. Because of her knowledge and experience in television writing, she has been contracted by clients to write scripts for video, too.

From her tiny little town in central New York, this 45-year-old mother and wife is defying the odds and showing the world that age, location, and late-life career changes mean nothing. Passion and perusing the hunger inside of us means everything.

Joleene is a published author, a nationally published journalist, and a produced playwright.

Dr. Anne Gatty is a career learning specialist. Dr. Gatty can talk academics very well and spout the names of famous learning theorists with ease. She can recite learning taxonomies. She can explain the nuances of how humans learn. She has written hundreds of lesson plans. She has taught in classrooms ranging from kindergarten through the university master’s level.

And yet, she decided to leave all this behind her.

While academia has its place in the world of education, Dr. Gatty found that it didn’t provide her with opportunities to help people achieve the real-life results they desired. Even her last position offer at a Pittsburgh university - as a professor in the master’s level leadership program with an applied component - struck her as artificial.

Dr. Gatty's teaching experience started with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. There she developed lessons that were taught in and among the buildings of a restored, historic eighteenth century town. She taught history completely without textbooks and found the results rewarding. For fourteen years Dr. Gatty developed museum education programs for historic sites. During that time she became convinced that experiential learning was the way to achieve the most lasting, transformational results.

After her tenure in the museum field, Dr. Gatty returned to the classroom with a freshly minted Ph.D. in Instruction and Learning. Her intention was to train future teachers and business leaders. But once back in the classroom, she realized that if she wanted to train people to be successful in real life jobs, she needed to be doing so in real life situations.

That's when she left academia. She's been working with business leaders, in their company environments, ever since.

Since re-entering the business world, Dr. Gatty has built and successfully sold companies with her husband and business partner, Dr. Gene Gatty. She knows what it takes to build a successful business.

Today, Dr. Gatty provides leadership coaching for managers to communicate effectively with staff; she delivers motivational employee training programs with Beretta, her Great Dane therapy dog; she creates work systems and strategic business plans; and she coaches women on work/life balance issues.

By blending both theoretical and practical expertise, Dr. Gatty created The Business Sphere of Excellence®, a strategic business planning tool that helps businesses run efficiently and profitably. The Sphere of Excellence® embraces organizational values, corporate culture and strategic implementation.

Soren Skovdahl Hansen is a native of Denmark. He is the father of two fantastic daughters, who are his greatest source of joy and happiness.

Before becoming a father in 2005, Soren worked in sales and marketing. He helped grow a wastewater recycling business when investing in the environment was still considered an unnecessary cost.

Soren liked working in the entrepreneurial atmosphere so well that he decided to get a Masters degree. He believed that, with a degree, he would be able to become an entrepreneur and be in charge of his own life. During the five years he spent in Boston, L.A. and College Station TX, Soren connected with many new international friends and cultures. But he still wasn't ready to be an entrepreneur, so he decided to take the classic route to management consulting.

The first few years were full of intense learning and fantastic new colleagues and projects. But eventually, the 70-hour work weeks and the constant traveling started to wear him down and he decided to take his future into his own hands.

Addressing his mindset

Soren’s first step was to overcome his limiting beliefs. He had always thought that any new venture he started had be something unique. When he got an idea and found that it had been done before, he became discouraged. He didn’t give up. He always went on to find another idea, but this pattern played out for 5-6 years.

Eventually Soren realized that the problem wasn’t that his ideas had already been tried. If someone had realized an idea before him that was more of a validation than a disqualification.

What was holding him back was his doubt in his own abilities.

First time entrepreneur

In 2010, Soren and a trusted friend brainstormed and came up with two business ideas to research and investigate. They discovered that one of them was viable and a month later, Soren and his partner had a contract to launch a online marketplace, allowing women to buy and sell their luxury brand fashions.

Second time entrepreneur

After finding success with the online business, Soren and his partner decided to create another business. They chose to sell beauty products for women as a subscription service. They soon discovered that the business wasn’t viable. They hadn’t taken into account how much money they would have to sink into inventory. They decided not to continue and closed the business down.

Tribe of Entrepreneurs

Soren's newest venture is a podcast called Tribe of Entrepreneurs. Soren wants to provide his listeners with inspiration and insights into how other entrepreneurs have overcome their challenges in starting a business, the details of how they finally managed to start and grow their businesses and the many different ways they generate income.

Tribe of Entrepreneurs will give its listeners detailed answers to how they can finally get their own businesses off the ground and overcome their fears and doubts about whether what they have to offer is good enough. Because it is good enough.

Known worldwide as The Millionaire Marketing Mentor®, Adam Urbanski is a marketing strategist to coaches, consultants and other service professionals. He is a small business change agent, marketing wiz, trainer, facilitator, speaker, and above all else, a passionate entrepreneur.

In 1989, Adam emigrated to the US from Poland with only $194 in his pocket and a very limited ability to speak English. Since then Adam has owned and co-owned several successful ventures.

Some of his businesses generated millions of dollars in sales. His first “claim to fame” was in a fast food/restaurant/coffee business. He also co-owned, owned and eventually sold a small chain of bagel/coffee shops in southern California.

Today, Adam runs a multi-million dollar business that includes consulting, coaching, training, and information publishing. He is a devoted student of money making strategies, he reads two to four new marketing books a month, and he attends several high-end marketing training programs every year.

Today, through his self-study courses and coaching programs, Adam works with Independent Service Professionals and Entrepreneurs from all over the world. He helps them turn their specific knowledge and expertise into profitable revenue centers. He frequently gives talks on marketing topics to professional groups and several times a year he teaches an in-depth marketing boot-camp.

Adam is a zealous believer in free enterprise, entrepreneurship and that only you determine the limits of your success! But when he says “success”, he doesn’t just mean money. While Adam believes that financial rewards from your business are essential, he also knows they’re not enough! Health, family and friends, spirituality, contribution to others – the combination of all of them together creates a balanced, fulfilled life.

And living such life makes you an irresistibly attractive “success magnet”.

Tom Schwab is a Navy veteran and a digital marketing engineer with a refreshingly different approach to helping solopreneurs, entrepreneurs and small business owners harness the power of the internet.

Back in 2009, the Michigan economy was in a deep recession. Initially, Tom’s business survived and thrived but it was clearly not in a healthy, long term way. Pay Per Click was providing over 90% of traffic and sales. To double his growth, Tom had only to double his adwords spend.

Yet it wasn’t that simple. Margins always fell while the Cost of Customer Acquisition always increased. Tom realized it was an unhealthy addiction, but feared that if he stopped, so would the business.

Then Tom found a way to stop chasing transactions and start building trusting relationships. His was one of the first eCommerce companies to embrace the strategy of inbound marketing. He focused on attracting visitors with great content shared on social media; engaging leads to build trust and add value; and delighting customers with personalized, automated nurturing.

In under three years, Tom’s business went from regional player to national leader.

Today, Tom serves by sharing what he’s learned through writing, speaking, coaching, consulting and leading mastermind groups. As the author of PODCAST GUEST PROFITS: Grow your business with a targeted interview strategy and founder of Interview Valet, the concierge level booking service, Tom helps business owners leverage the exposure and the platform that podcasts provide to connect with their ideal customers.

Podcast interviews begin the conversation so natural and necessary to marketing while increasing exponentially the number of prospects a small business owner can reach. Tom connects owners with the right podcasts for their audiences and then shares the steps it takes to turn listeners into raving fans. He believes that marketing is a core competency of every business and that, with proper guidance, every business owner is uniquely qualified to attract, engage and delight her own best customers.

What do you get when you transform a Buddhist monk into a heavy metal guitarist? You get someone who might have the presence of today's guest, Donna Barker. Not that she’s been either, but that’s exactly how she feels these days.

Donna is a 25-year career ghost-writer who, on turning 50, decided to step out of her ethereal form and give a voice to her own voice — which is much louder than she ever could have imagined!

She’s the founder of Write, Woman, Write, a web-based community that supports women “of a certain age” to rev up their confidence, courage and commitment and write the book that they’ve had in their hearts for too long.

Donna is also the co-creator of the online event, the Creative Women Summit: Passion to Profit.

In 2016, Donna published her first book, Mother Teresa’s Advice for Jilted Lovers, an award-winning, mash-up genre novel. She asserts that the timing of publishing her book was inevitable, predetermined by the fact that she was born in 1966. She couldn’t allow herself to say goodbye to her forties without achieving the one goal she’d set for that decade: which was to become a published author. Under her own name.

Reaching this milestone age, and the creative courage it provoked, made Donna realize that each and every one of her big creative projects had started on the precipice of a big life event.

Which is what she’s here to talk about today: How to use your life’s milestones to rev up your creative courage.