The Mentors

While most of us don't have everything figured out, there are others that seem to navigate life with the help of an invisible compass. This week we met with one such person, Kevin Yoo, the founder of WearWorks, which is creating the future of navigation using haptic feedback - ie, leveraging feel and touch, not sight. In college he already became an award winning industrial designer which quickly lead to opportunities to work on projects with large corporations like GE. It was during that time that he started to realize what his purpose was and what truly motivated him to act. 

In part one of our interview with Kevin we learn about his origin story and what prepared him to build a product designed for the blind and vision impaired, ultimately landing his team into NYTimes,The Discovery Channel, TechCrunch, and a TED Talk earlier this year. We discuss how he recruited an all star team and why he realized early on that his goal in life would be to bring people together to build things that matter. 

In part two Kevin talks about how he iterated on the original concept to turn it into a business, how his team was able to secure half a million dollars in funding, and the various applications of the technology they're building today that makes his new product revolutionary. If you're interested in supporting WearWorks consider contributing to their Kickstarter and get early access to their first product, Wayband. 

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What's the easiest way to notice lucrative opportunities? By keeping your eyes open in the industry that you're already an expert in. 

This week Vadim comes back from his trip to Italy and talks about a truck driver and chef turned entrepreneur that he met while at a friend's wedding in Tuscany. In this episode you will learn: 

1) How to find a niche in the industry you're working in

2) Why there is a massive competitive advantage to starting a business where you're a domain expert

3) What you can start doing today to understand where the opportunities are

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This is a new segment where we answer questions that we get from founders in private - the things that they're too afraid to ask just anyone. 

In this week's episode we tackle three questions that have come up in our recent conversations with founders. We discuss: 

1) How do I know if I'm building the right thing?

2) What can I do if my cofounder is not pulling their weight?

3) When is it okay to pay myself?

To answer these questions, we pull from our own experience and tell you the exact advice we've given to entrepreneurs in the accelerator programs we work with so you can apply it to your own business.

We discuss what you can do to know if you're on the right track with your business, how to have difficult conversations with your co-founder about the work that's being done and being honest with yourself about the work you're doing, and the right way to think about compensation in the early days.

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This week, we had a chance to hear from the founder of the popular app Foursquare, Dennis Crowley, when he came to speak to a group of entrepreneurs at NYU.

In this edition of the 5 Minute Pick Me Up, you’ll get the inside story of how Dennis came up with the original idea of a location-based check-in app back in 1999 when smart phones didn’t even exist, how he ended up selling that concept that he called Dodgeball to Google in 2005, and how he was able to start the concept all over again under the name of Foursquare in 2009 to grow it to tens of millions of users.

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James was 26 years old when he was promoted to managing director at a 900 person public relations agency. He spent the 4 years after college learning everything he could about the business, adding value wherever he could eventually becoming invaluable to clients that wanted to spend more money with his agency because of the work that he was doing.

In the third episode of our Scaling Mentorship series where we hold live interviews with corporate leaders, we get an inside look into how a leader is made in a business that is heavily relationship based. When James decided he needed a new challenge, he moved to Australia to help turn around a small PR company that was operating at a loss. Within 7 years he grew it from 15 people to over 100 with operations all across Asia Pacific. His experience traveling the world was instrumental in helping him create new business units across new geographies and cultures where the clients and their needs had to be relearned.

In our interview we also learn how the PR business has changed and what companies should be looking for when partnering with agencies today. James Wright speaks to the future of PR, where he sees massive opportunities, and what people should do if they want to break into the industry.

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Sure, David Letterman had his own hugely popular TV show that ran for 33 years. Yes, being one of the most recognizable personalities on the planet helped him quickly land a Netflix show shortly thereafter. But, David had his own issues, struggles, and obstacles. Even though he had one of the most popular shows on TV there were other entertainers out there that he was jealous of.

In this week's 5 Minute Pick Me Up we think back to when we got the opportunity to sit in David Letterman's old screening room earlier this year, and the feeling of excitement that we felt even getting to walk through the same halls as David, Stephen Colbert, and so many others. But, while acknowledging another person's achievements or even being envious of them is natural, it's not productive to dwell on it. In our episode we talk about how we all should focus on our own super powers, and why it's important to remember that you'll always have someone else to compare yourself to. Regardless of how successful you become there will always be someone else on a different level. Try to be grateful for your own accomplishments, and simply stay focused on yourself.

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Back in September we had an idea. Could we give a compelling talk to an auditorium full of thirteen year olds? Our motivation ran a bit deeper. Our nephew was about to head to high school, and this might be the last chance for us to give a talk to him and his classmates before sports, girls, and schoolwork completely took over his life. 

In this episode we discuss how the whole thing came together, from our brother's introduction to the school principal, to pitching him on the idea and trying to secure a budget for the speaking engagement. We also talk through exactly how we came up with the idea for the talk, and what we did in the final weeks to create one of the most engaging hour long talks we've done in a while. 

If you're interested in learning about how to convince someone to give you a platform to speak, what goes into putting on an event like this, how to plan and structure a long talk, and what it takes to create additional value for yourself (like video assets, potential press, and other speaking opportunities) tune into this episode and share with a friend that mind find it valuable. Throughout this episode we let you listen in on some of the calls we had to make this happen, and include excerpts from the actual talk we delivered last week.

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On April 26th, 1986 and the days that followed the Chernobyl Disaster, very few people actually learned about what had happened. This week we got a first person account from our mom, who was then taking care of infant 5 month old twins (us) when the media finally announced what had happened. 

We discuss the aftermath of the disaster from the perspective of normal citizens living in an oppressed regime that held control over large parts of Eastern Europe and Asia at the time. 

We also draw parallels to the relative omnipresent freedom that we have here in the United States, and why we should all take advantage of our ability to question the status quo and create change where it's necessary.

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By the time Callie and Kelly were selected to pitch at Shark Tank, Slumberkins had surpassed one million dollars in revenue, all with no outside investment. What started off as a weekend side hustle for these two new moms turned into a retail and content business with 10 employees and a potential TV deal that's in the making. 

Listeners of The Mentors can get 20% off of their first order of Slumberkins by using the code 'mentors' at checkout. Visit https://slumberkins.com/.

In this episode the founders break down exactly how they got their start, from sewing stuffed animals by hand every night and selling them at craft fairs to creating an online presence with a loyal following. Callie Christensen and Kelly Oriard describe exactly how they leveraged social media (namely Instagram) to grow their sales from day one, and how they divide responsibilities as Co-CEOs. They tell us what they would say to popular influencers to get them to promote their products and how they convinced a giant manufacturer to give them a chance. 

Before starting their business, Callie and Kelly had been friends for 20 years, and while their experience as teachers and therapists gave them the idea for their business, they had to slowly figure out how to become entrepreneurs and create a sustainable businesses. Their story is a testament to the fact that you don't have to have years of experience or deep business knowledge before you start building something. You do, however, have to start.

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In this edition of the 5 Minute Pick Me Up, we wanted to share a story of our family military history, and talk about why some of the biggest entrepreneurial success stories of the last century came from people who served in the armed forces.

We start off the episode with a Soviet military hymn and end with a few reasons why holidays like Memorial Day should inspire all of us to be our best selves.

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