Posts tagged start up entrepreneur

Orlando Big Summit 2011 Recap

Nov 11th

I had a blast today at the Orlando BIG Summit at Full Sail University. The day was packed with excitement and had innovation & inspiration in the air. The day started off with a motivating speech from Full Sail president Garry Jones. During his presentation he shared the story of how Full Sail was founded…very entrepreneurial. Jones encountered many of the challenges that many entrepreneurs face including cash flow issues, uncertainty and lack of ROI on advertising spends. One big take away I took from his presentation was his tip for success:

Relentlessly evolve…change with what changes around you and put people first.

Following Garry Jones Kevin Harrington a world-renowned direct response marketer, infomercial genius and investor on the Shark Tank spoke. After speaking several other judges (Investors) were brought onto the stage and a mock “shark tank” was held where several entrepreneurs pitched their business venture in the hopes of raising capital. Really cool! This was a flash back to when I pitched in the UCF Business plan competition- the Joust, which I won two years in a row, and later judged twice.

Incidentally, Tom from Bongobox, a company that “Makes Moving Less Sucky” won. Following this Orlando’s Mayor Buddy Dyer spoke and discussed Orlando’s entrepreneurial economy and plans. Dyer mentioned that Orlando is #1 in the nation for job creation in companies with less than 100 people. Awesome stat!

The co-founder & CTO of Grooveshark Josh Greenberg also spoke discussing the challenges that his team had when growing their business and how they overcame them.

Later in the day after lunch, which was catered by Arthurs- who catered my wedding the awards for the Big Awards were given.

Props to my good friends at GroundFlights who won the Orlando Inc 2011 Business Innovation and Growth award at the Big Summit today. Check out their awesome commercial when you get a chance. Very well done!

Finally Gary Vaynerchuck gave the keynote and as expected… Crushed it! He spoke about his life story…immigrating into the US from the Soviet Union, franchising a lemonade stand business at 5 and picking up his money on his big wheel…lol , selling baseball cards making $2k+ a weekend and then taking his family business, a wine company, from $3M to $70M by leveraging the power of social media. True American dream story…pure hustle and passion!

Another big thing Gary talked about was building relationships as opposed to push marketing and the importance of building relationships with individual customers, listening to them and doing random acts of kindness. I know first hand that this is very challenging and time consuming, but can pay dividends if you’re willing to make the investment.

Gary discussed traditional media versus engaging through social media and the fact that consumers have more power than ever before because they have instant access to the wisdom of their social circle of influence. This causes the good brands and products to rise to the top and the bad to get exposed. If you’re not listening to what’s being said about your brand or industry you are really setting yourself up for failure. The truth is participating and alone is not enough…you actually have to be better. In a capitalist society the market will indicate what is the best and the fact that everyone is so connected with enable the good (and the bad) to travel very quickly.

If you haven’t checked out Gary Vaynerchuck definitely follow him on twitter: @garyvee and check out his Facebook page: www.facebook.com/gary . He also video blogs often at Wine Library.

Big Summit, Gary Vaynerchuck, ground flights, Innovation, kevin harrington, Shark tank, start up entrepreneur, start-ups

Entrepreneur Wives

May 25th

Posted by David Brim in entrepreneurship

77 comments

Guest post from my fiance @lindsay273

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I recently discovered a guilty pleasure of mine is the show “Basketball Wives”. I started thinking that there is something to be said for Entrepreneur’s wives, future wives and girlfriends. Entrepreneurs are very unique and special individuals. They are self starters, they are motivated, intelligent and they do not let anything get in their way. The women that stand beside them must be supportive, inspirational, intelligent and understanding. I feel there is something truly to be said about a man who can start something from nothing, watch it grow and then provide their own livelihood. It is so easy to go out and get a job working for someone else to collect a paycheck, the hard road is to pave that road yourself and make your own footprints.

I am 25 years old and I have been with my Fiance’ David for over 5 years. We recently got engaged and are getting married next April! I love David with all my heart and there is nothing I wouldn’t do for him but being by his side through his ups and downs has been a challenge. One day David decided to move to Orlando to attend and graduate from UCF and also to place himself in a better city for entrepreneurship. This was a major decision for his life and it turned out to be such a positive move for him. He won two business plan competitions, made incredible connections, gained a lot of respect and got footing for himself in an unknown city. For me, this move was devastating. I had to stay behind in Pittsburgh to finish college while my man moved to Florida. At the time I couldn’t understand how he could just leave me. But as I stated above, a true entrepreneur doesn’t let anything or anyone get in the way of their dreams. We did the whole long distance thing and then it came time for me to make a decision. Do I stay in PA with my family, friends, my life etc.. or do I move to Florida to be with my man? Of course I moved to be with Dave. This was extremely hard for me because I never pictured myself living in a different state than my family and friends but I knew Dave wasn’t coming back to Pittsburgh anytime soon and I believed in our relationship. I did what had to be done, packed up and moved. I am thankful that Dave didn’t give up on me because it took me a full year to stop getting extremely home sick and I was a handful.

As time evolved and I became adjusted to the move I really got to see first hand the beauty of an entrepreneurs work. I cant even count the number of ideas, projects and visions that Dave has shared with me. You always hear about women who are looking for a meal ticket in this world or more commonly known as “gold diggers”. If you are with your man and can support them when they are selling cds in the hood or working at a department store and then continue to support them when they are calling you from their private plane while you are on the yacht, that is love. Being with an entrepreneur can be just as stressful and more worth than an NBA wife, rapper wife or whatever. Our men work long hours, they travel a lot, they may not have much time to help you with certain things (wedding planning) and Im not even going to acknowledge infidelity issues that you always hear about involving men with money because that has nothing to do with your occupation, that has to do with your relationship and respect. If a women is not supportive of their entrepreneur man, the relationship is never going to work. We also have to be extremely understanding and most importantly just always there for them. Their careers are always going to be up and down, hopefully more ups than downs of course but no matter what we are to always be there. In this life you could be worth 3.2 million one day and the next -3.8 million.

I think that it is so important for our men to know that no matter what, we are here for you. Whether you’re poor or rich, its me and you always. I don’t come from a family of entrepreneurs. My father is an extremely intelligent engineer, my mother is in real estate and I work as a Physical therapist assistant. This is a whole new life with totally new challenges but if you have the man that you want to spend your life with in the driver seat, let him take you for the ride. “Nobody said it would be easy, they said it would be worth it”.

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Well done Linds!

If you liked this check out her last post on being an entrepreneur’s valentine
Show her some love!

Lindsay Ament, start up entrepreneur, succesful entrepreneurs

10 Things a Start-up Entrepreneur’s Valentine Should Know

Feb 14th

Posted by David Brim in entrepreneurship

15 comments

This is a guest post written by my girlfriend Lindsay Ament (@Lindsay273).

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Since it is Valentines Day I spent some time reflecting on my wonderful relationship of three and a half years with my boyfriend David. However, being the girlfriend of an entrepreneur is challenging but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. So for those of you in the same boat as me, hang in there it will be well worth it! Here are some tips that I found helpful:

You must be able to block out the alerts coming from the cell phone. It will drive you nuts with all of the e-mails, phone calls/text messages and Twitter updates.
Only expect a tiny little corner of the bookshelf. Most likely the book shelf will be completely stacked with books like “Future Millionaires”, “Rich Dad Poor Dad” and “Founders at Work”.
Let him know that dinner is ready about 10-15 mins before it actually is. Therefore, he can finish his e-mail, conversation on Twitter or phone call in a timely manner before his food gets cold. I can’t tell you how many meals I’ve had to microwave.
Always be supportive. Being the girlfriend or wife of an entrepreneur requires you to be their support through the many ups and downs of the roller coaster ride.
You may have to move across the country because he needs to go to the state/city that will be best for his venture.
Be prepared for him to NETWORK everywhere you go!
Be prepared for him to be in front of or at least near his computer 75% of the day
TV shows like BIG IDEA will be filling up your DVR
Get used to going to bed alone. Especially if you work early and want to get at least 8 hrs of sleep. Most likely he will finally shut off the computer and crawl into bed around 2 or 3 am.
Most importantly, understand that you are with an extremely motivated, self disciplined and inspired person, be proud of them. It takes special people to be entrepreneurs.