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.

Allow me to explain…

First off let me say that I not only quit my job, but a job at a really great work environment with awesome people and fun/unique company culture….Where else do you ring in new hires with tequila shots, have cubicle decorating contests and plow your face into cake on your birthday & anniversary of employment? Of course I’m talking about IZEA, a top social media marketing company that operates SocialSpark, PayPerPost and more.

So the question I know many people are thinking…Why the H*ll did you quit? or What is he thinking?

Well I have always been a person that doesn’t shy away from challenges. I have also always trusted my gut, which was one of the main reasons why I moved to Orlando in the first place. I knew no-one in Florida, but something told me this was the right choice. That decision turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made and over the last 2 years I’ve accomplished a great deal.

Besides trusting my gut I also moved to Orlando to be in a fertile environment to grow my own ventures. My goal has always been to create jobs for others, not be bound by an hourly job and to grow extremely wealthy in the process. Then be able to give back and help other young entrepreneurs achieve their dreams.

With these goals constantly in mind I came to the conclusion that IZEA has done all it can to assist me in reaching them at this stage in my life.

I’ve really enjoyed my time at IZEA, feel that I have learned a great deal and built relationships with a lot of great people, however now is the time for me to go hard after my goals. As time passes many people sink into a mode of comfortably and they stop striving and are content with their current situation. Though this is completely alright for some people at this point in my life this is not okay for me. At this time I have no children to pay for and no major expenses. There’s no better time for me than right now. If you desire to reach your goals no matter what they may be you have to go for it. When there’s more risk, there is a greater chance for more of a reward. In addition to that my dad taught me a long time ago that you improve and grow the most during periods of uncertainty and turmoil. If you’re not working through problems or challenges your performing not growing. I recently saw a great quote on Drew Mclellans blog: “Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.”

That quote really sums up how I feel and why I did what I did. I have so much of a desire to achieve my goals that fear seems very trivial in comparison. Some may call me foolish, some may call me outright stupid, but the way I see it it needed to be done. I have full confidence in my abilities and in god and know I will make it work.

Stay tuned…

More to come

This month there were also a lot of great posts written about us on various education and technology blogs Here’s some of my favorites:

• GroupTable on Mashable
• GroupTable on iLearn Technology
• GroupTable on FreeTechnology for Teachers

We really have a perfect product for the time.  College enrollment is rising, especially with the economy the way it is.  On top of that, students are staying school longer for their mba and doctorate degrees. Group projects are often required in classes and it’s proven that study groups improve grades, however students are busy and/or lazy and getting all group members together and focused at the same time is challenging. Many students face this problem and neither social networking sites or course management software systems solve this need, however GroupTable does.  Below is a message sent to us via twitter.

Besides our strong user traction and growth, we have a number of companies that want to partner with us that can really add value, an enhanced design ready to be integrated, several campus representatives at different locations across the country and a solid revenue model.  We are in the process of raising capital, which will allow us to really ramp up.  If anyone knows of any investors passionate about education and technology please connect us.  The sooner we obtain resources, the sooner GroupTable’s staff will be able to give this venture our full attention, build our team and grow GroupTable to it’s full potential…What do you bring to the table?

Contacts? Capital? Comments?